titan_uranus

The report of this game is going to be read with vivid interest.

Every year I hope that these kind of floggings are behind us. The ones where our senior players go missing, our effort/intensity/work-rate flop to embarrassing levels, and we concede huge scores in short time periods. Every year, my hopes are dashed.

It's not losing that is the problem here. It's being belted (by a side that shouldn't be much higher than us on the ladder to boot) in a way we shouldn't be being belted any more. It's senior players going missing, again. It's effort lacking, again. We don't even have to talk about our poor skills or silly mistakes because that's not the issue, it's the effort, which by now surely has to be non-negotiable. Conceding 14 goals in a row against Hawthorn is bad enough. But this is GWS.

The entire side's been unseen in the second half. At least Tyson, Hogan and Watts did something for a half. Who is Jetta playing on? Has he taken someone out of the game? Not sure how else he registers in your best.

Has to rival some of the recent floggings we've had for our worst performance in recent memory. Sounds hyperbolic, but we have almost no injuries to speak of, we were coming off one of the highest highs we've had in 10 years, GWS struggled to beat St Kilda last week, and we kicked 7 of the first 8 goals of the game.

Between Newton's two goals, it was 14.

A goal! Wow! Newton - he's the only person to have kicked a goal for us since Garlett's freak snap 10 minutes into the second quarter. Very easy to see Dawes' performance as poor but there's nothing to work with at all. I mean, we've had around only 16 inside 50s in 2.5 quarters.

Is this the worst half of football we've played? Whether under Roos, Neeld or Bailey? The score this half is 13.2.80 to 0.4.4. Yep I'd say that Hogan has done well with what we've given him, fair. Salem's stats look OK but haven't heard his name a lot (on the radio at least).

Despite everything this club has done to me in the last 8 years, I can't believe how far we've fallen away in the space of one game. 13 consecutive goals now.

We had 14 inside 50s in the first quarter. We've had 14 inside 50s since the first quarter (they've had 38).

McDonald and Viney have played well - anyone else? Last week we couldn't find a poor player, this week we've hardly got anyone who's stood up. A reminder of how much work needs doing with this list.

This is just the old Melbourne resurfacing. The new Melbourne played the first 5.5 quarters of the year, but the last 1.5 it's been a relapse into last year's team. We're slow, we're weak, we're being belted at the contest and on the spread, and we have absolutely no answer to anything the opponent throws at us. Last week this was all the other way around, even in the first 40 minutes of this game it was too. The fact we can fall away so badly in the space of just one quarter is indicative of how much work we still have to do to climb back.

That has to go down as one of our worst quarters ever. 9.2 to 0.3. 27 points up to 26 points down. The figures are all 2014-esque. 47 inside 50s to 26, 39 clearances to 28, 57 tackles to 48, 261 disposals to 237.

And the worst part? We almost all agreed this was our best 22 going into this game.

Listening to this on the radio, it essentially sounds like a training drill. No Melbourne players names get called, it's just GWS player after GWS player, there is absolutely nothing coming from anyone for us.

Centre square clearances are 12-4. They're raving about Mumford on SEN, but is it all Jamar's fault? Can't tell on the radio. What is going on, this is insane, they've just kicked another goal! This is embarrassingly bad, it's now 11.6 to 1.3 since Garlett's goal.

We're now 23 minutes into the third quarter and we've had 25 inside 50s. The run is now 9.6 to 1.3. How quickly things can lapse.

Clearances in the third quarter are 13-3.

Our 33 point lead, which we had until one minute was left in the second quarter, is gone. So too, you'd have to think, is the game.

Garland, Garlett, Jones, Howe and Watts are all struggling to get involved this week; they were some of our best and most crucial players last week.

When Garlett kicked his goal it was 6.3 to 0.2. Since then it's 6.6 to 1.0. Completely lost the momentum, it seems to be coming from contested possessions (almost even now at 76-81) and clearances (smashing us 29-23 now). It's completely flipped, we're stagnant and have no defensive pressure through the middle, whilst they are linking up off half-back and moving quick and fast with skill. Totally the opposite of what we were doing to them in the first quarter and a half.

Clearances are now 27-23 their favour, inside 50s are now 31-20 their favour (this was 11-13 at quarter time). Another goal to GWS - we are absolutely finished.

Not sure what the exact reason is for this, but we are getting belted in the middle, hardly getting our hands on it. Disposals are even now at 187 a piece.

This is 2014-esque now. Since Garlett's goal 10 minutes into the second quarter, it's 3.4 to 1.0, and we've hardly gone inside 50 either. This is all them right now.

According to the AFL website Brayshaw's been subbed on for vandenBerg - anyone know why?