DemonDoug

Try Neitz at CHF and Newton FF, mainly we have to find a tighter backline, I believe our backline has been our major weakness for several years, remember lumbering Al Nicholson !, I knew we could never get anywhere with him there. Our backline are not strong enough, fast enough, big enough or skillful enough, enough said ! How long since we have had a strong backline that gave us drive, how long since we have taken the ball from kickout to a goal as the better teams seem to do regularly. The forward line is not the problem, the backline and the delivery to forwards are our greatest problems

Dunn like Marin Pike ? , I have not seen him thump anyone yet !

I'd go for Kevin Sheedy, but I have no idea why he would be interested in coaching the MFC. He is a proven winner, but he is stale at Essendon, a change would give him new enthusiasm and incentive. Don't think it will happen though. Stick to ND, we won't find anyone better

C'mon guys, are you serious, don't live in cloud cuckoo land, at what point do you write the season off. They would need to win 12/15 games just to have a CHANCE to scrape into the finals (might need 13/15). Given that we will probably start that run off with a loss to the Eagles on the rebound, thats 12 or 13/14 But if it gives you solace to think that way, good luck to you. We just have to enjoy the wins that come our way and dream of what might be in 2008, as we have done for so many years

Why risk aggravating a players injury by bringing them back too early, the season is gone. Even with our full strength team we would cop a flogging from a rebounding West Coast. I suspect the team will suffer a bit of a letdown this week. They have worked so hard the last 2 weeks for zip. You would not blame them if intensity dropped this week. Don't drop Dunn, he had a great game last week. Miller is disappointing ++, he works hard to get the ball but then undoes his work with stupid decision making. Warnock and Holland and Ward have to go. PJ is one really bright spot, I thought he had a great game

I agree, some of the older players, although solid triers, are just going to get us anywhere. You have to turn players over and hope you might find one or two real match winners. Its so hard to judge ND's performance. If you judge him by the standards of West Coast, Adelaide, Brisbane etc, he should go, but when you look at his results compared with the last 42 years at Melbourne, it does not look too bad. The knockers of today may not remember that between 1965 and 1987 we did not make the finals even once. So finals in 4 of the last 5 seasons does not seem too bad (mind you, none of those were top 4 finishes).

I suspect our moment of opportunity has passed. I don't think we were all that close anyway. At full strength and playing confidently we could just about be top six but not flag material. Our backline is like a sieve. Fact is Neitz will be long retired before we reach another GF, nowadays you just have to enjoy the wins as they come along and be philosophical. The competition is so heavily stacked in favour of interstate clubs that it is hard to see a Vic team winning a flag in the next few years, let alone Melbourne. But the current side - NO WAY, NOT EVEN CLOSE, but that does not mean I don't admire them, and I loved Neita's goal in the last quarter and Sylivas mark. You have to remember those exciting and wonderful things, not the lapses and errors, OTHERWISE YOU WOULD GO STARK RAVING MAD !!!

I agree, ND deserves another year. They have not fallen away despite the bad start to the year, that is a credit to him and he does bleed for them, you only had to watch him in the coaches box to see that, plus the injuries have taken a big toll. But I don't believe we were top four material. Our backline is not nearly strong enough. There will have to be some ruthless cutting back and smart recruiting for us to be more than a top six side next year.

Effort 9/10 Kicking 5/10 General skills 6/10 Great gutsy effort again Dee's but once again let down by poor skills. Fact is we should be 2 / 5, we should have won both the last 2 games by several goals, but let down at crucial times by poor skills and decision making. That said it is fantastic to see them having a real go, that is all you can ask of them, they just are not quite good enough to compete with the better sides, but they will win a number of games this year (will be in single figures though). There would have been no point making the finals anyway, we would have gone no-where. May as well experiment now with players and game plans and just see the year out as also-rans.

Is Cam Bruce going to be out injured ?, what else can go wrong. I think Miller deserves his place, everyone was calling for Godfrey & Bate to be dropped a couple of week ago but look what happended. Pickett out and Green back. I thought Warnock was worth another go. I would have thought it worth having Newton on the bench at least but maybe wait another 2-3 weeks when even our mathematical chance of making the finals might be gone !

I suspect the team will turn this year around soon, the effort shown on Sunday was far better and when we get our players back in and our skills improve (hopefully), we will be more than competitive. I was impressed with ND last night. I think he genuinely does not know whether he will be coaching MFC again next year. What will be tough is, if we say win more than we lose from here on, maybe 10 /16 and finish about 10 - 12, do we give him another go ? MFC have tried many different coaches over the years, a new coach is no guarantee of success.

We do have to be careful about bagging umpires too much. I don't think they cost us this match. The last free from Neitz was there, Neitz should have done better and bumped Wakelin from the side or been more discreet or tried to knock the ball over his head and let Davey run onto it. The out of bounds by MacDonald was clearly an error but realistically we would have been lucky to win it from there, hard to get a quick clearance when the other team have all their players around the ball. Also Davey was paid a mark in the last quarter which clearly was not a mark. Umpires are essential for the game, they must find it confusing the way the rules seem to change from year to year, let alone week to week. When your doing something like umpiring under intense pressure and with little time to make a call, it is very hard to think too long about a decision. Its part of the game that there will be wrong decisions. We are all frustrated about our loss, but lets be realistic, we lost it through bad kicking, both for goal and to forwards. Unless we get that aspect of the game up to standard we will get killed this weekend by the dogs. Lift the skills MFC, you are well paid professionals who should be able to kick accurately.

Port knocked the ball out at least twice, much more clearly deliberately, than McDonalds. That decision cost us our last (very slim) chance of attacking. However have to agree with the other comments, if we had kicked better (i.e up to AFL standard) we would not have been in the position we were, we would have won by a few goals. Lets face it, even if we had won that game, our skills are not up to a level where we could comptete with most AFL clubs. If we ever manage to combine the endeavour we showed yesterday with some decent kicking skills, we will be a force to be reckoned with this year, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting . .

Perhaps he was generalising, hopefully. Can't see the purpose in not giving those other 2 youngsters a go now, what have we got to lose ?

If the rule stays, they HAVE to apply it consistently. Neitz got a subtle push in the back early in the game, no free so we missed what would have been an easy goal. Then they pay it against him at the end and we lose. Where is the consistency there !

Yes, pretty sad todays showing by the tigers. I thought they were a lot better than that. Must be shattering for their supporters and not good for the game in general. Much sympathy to them, at least our side put in close to 100% effort, although skills were still down.

Agree with above posts, some great efforts today, what a shame it was poor kicking once again that cost us this game. We should get a good team on the ground within the next few weeks, maybe give some cheek and finish around 10th on the ladder. But they have to stop turning the ball over when they have the ball in the clear. The good teams nearly always hit a forward in those situations and usually kick the crunch goals.

MB was a shining light today, no doubt, but small consolation after losing a game we should have won, we HAD to win !

I admire you guys eternal optimism ! Fact is we are 0 - 6, any chance of finals is gone and I doubt they will sustain the level of effort they put in today, given that we still lost. Today was a must win, I fully expect we will be 0 - 9 in 3 weeks time.

Precisely, TJ had several chances to pinpoint a forward and instead hit a Port player. Those chances along with some missed shots at goal, meant we lost a game we should have won by 3 -4 goals. I know Neitz has just come back, but he just HAD to kick that last quarter shot at goal. It would have lifted the team and given us extra momentum. I am not downing any players efforts, they all tried their hearts out, but if our skills had been even half as good as our efforts we would have bolted home and still had a chance this year. Now there is nothing to look forward to this year except will we finish 13th, 14th, 15th or 16th, and to be honets that does not grab me.

You are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find positives today. We should have won it. Effort 9/10 Skills 5/10 Kicks to forwards 2/10 Kicking for goal 1/10 Facts are that bad kicking is bad football, end of story.

Doesn't really matter, if he goes out, he goes out, he can have a rest. Season's over for us, so what does it matter ?

No more tears left to cry, this team rips your heart out. You can't say anything negative about their efforts, but oh geeez the skills and decision making at crucial times were still awful. How many chances did we have to put Port away, we were playing well above them for most of the last half, it was only our poor skills that kept them in it. It should not have even been close. Sadly the last free kick was there (by Neitz), but stupid delivery from Bruce. How many kicks into the forward line in the last half did we stuff-up. At least we no longer have to concern ourselves with finals. we have no chance. Plan you ski trips Melbourne supporters.

Interesting article, I guess we have to be patient and not expect too much. Bitterly disappointing after the expectations before this season. Still does not explain why they played such crap football in round 1 BEFORE there were many injuries though.

Byron Pickett was brought in as the icing on the cake to win a flag, unfortunately there no longer is any cake !