rpfc

I am still amazed how inert the team can be at times - Jones and Vince are looked at to do everything I would wager - when they don't, we struggle... But the structures, again, they are very unMelbourne like, strictly adhered to, never broken out of and suffocating to the opposition. Get some boldness and we are golden.

Not sure, how short is our memory, or how revised is our recent history, I guess.

The idea of doing a pre-season is to build up your endurance to be able to run out games and not fatigue during the year, the more pre-seasons you have, the more prepared your body. The young ones don't have that base that the older players do. So, I expect some of the kids to slow down and be more inconsistent in the last 7 weeks. Doesn't mean I would rest them, but that is what I expect to see.

The defensive shape of the team was just amazing. The Lions were not allowed to go through the middle and had to adopt these huge switches to Lewis Taylor who is willing but not the most creative with the footy. Players went back in their shell after HT but, again, so disciplined. Oh, and this needs to be legislatively addressed, the game needs a push in the right direction. The defensive structures and stoppage explosion is a blight at the minute.

Never would have guessed... Who would play his position? Or would you alter how the forward line functions (or doesn't function, if I can trample on a line there)?

He has rarely said anything since he came to the club, was his silence that loud in the 6 months previous to now?

Did I say he should play, or was better, or to expect anything from him? I explained why Dominating the Ruck + Good Midfielders = Clearances, whether those mids are on our team or the other team.

I hope Dawes can kick straight this week, I am not impressed by his form either but I want to win and his role is important to the team. And, that is essentially why his name is laser printed onto the whiteboard at the minute.

Clearances are won by midfielders, not ruckmen. The problem is that good midfielders simply read the taps of Gawn and Jamar when they dominate the ruck. And most of those good midfielders have not been wearing red and blue lately.

Yes, Roos has always been so wistful and vague when talking to 'journalists' - I am sure he is different with the players - they don't come out of the rooms confused and frustrated...

With the cows still nowhere in sight - I have never said it was our only problem, only the one that has the most effect on our fortunes game to game. the correlation between UPs and winning are, I believe, undeniable, and the fact that we are still 2nd worst in the league is dampening our improvement. UPs are players getting the ball in space and spread - and we don't have enough of that - and, lo and behold, the area where players are expected to do that spreading into space is the midfield. I know you are fond of the attitude issue that we must rid ourselves of but I am sorry to disappoint you - I don't reject that as an issue - I just feel that the lack of talent in our midfield is our main problem. Oddly enough that touches on skill level, leadership, and depth et al.

I sincerely hate this type of language, h_h...

What will the contracted Dawes wear? Surely, no-one else will trade for him?

Well, I am glad it is such a fait accompli. Any idea yet of the number he will wear?

That Geelong win was the best footy we have played since Bailey, and to do it at a place we have historically been abysmal at adds to that win. The poor performance that came three weeks later doesn't diminish that effort. The week before Geelong beat Port Adelaide away. The are not what they were (if they were we would not have won), but they were not same also ran easy beat like some are trying to sell. Our ability to run and spread is still sub-standard but we are now in the top half for contested footy, and while our ability to get the ball forward and score is still in the shadows of the rest of the league - it has improved from 2014. If we had beaten Essendon by 3 points and we were 5 and 9 we wouldn't be having this discussion I don't think, but we didn't kick those goals, we didn't win that game, and the argument is bent too far back after the highs of the post-Geelong "hey we can win 8 of our last 9 games! That dog has a fluffy tail!" nonsense.

Watch out for 25% improvement on last season this week then...

We are the 2nd worst in the league for UPs (195 with GC at 184) - the one rider to that is that when teams play us they don't get much more than us; our opponents average 207 which is 13 below median for the league. Inside 50s are up 3 a game but still last and 7 below median in the league.

WCE Clearances: -3 Inside 50s: -8 UPs: -38 CPs: -4 Margin: -54 QW: 1 Ess (averages to date in brackets) Clearances: 5 (-2.6) Inside 50s: 13 (-11.4) UPs: -47 (-11.2) CPs: 11 (+2.4) Margin: -9 (-22.2) QW: 2 (23) 2014 Melbourne Clearances: -4.8 Inside 50s: -11.6 UPs: -6.5 CPs: -1.5 Margin: -28.1 QW: 30 With the interest being in how we have not improved - here are the raw numbers from the differentials from last year. UPs have gone down as you can see, however, WCE, Haw, Syd, and Freo accounts for 139.5% of those numbers (in layman's terms - we would be in positive territory if you removed those four games). That is not to say Roos doesn't need to improve that area - he does, we still seem anaemic and unwilling to run and be bold.

Last years team could never have beaten Geelong (it didn't) let alone in Mordor. We have had a harder draw to this point than last year and disappointing performances to Essendon and Port Adelaide should be seen in light of what happens in the last 8 weeks of the season. If wins are all we care about and illustrate our improvement from last year - one more win will 'prove' 25% improvement. 2 will mean 50%. 4 will mean 100% improvement. Jeez, what a success hey? PS. the stats show that we have improved our clearance rate differential by ~50%, made little ground on Inside 50s, lost ground on Uncontested Possessions (although this is entirely due to the top 4 teams beating us up), pulled down our average margin by ~20%, and have won more contested possessions than our opponents for the first time since Daniher was in charge. So, yeah, nah, the stats are a mixed bag where improvement can be seen.

Yeah, we are no better than that, we played the same ordinary football down at Mordor and beat Geelong. Same ordinary football made Richmond look 'insipid.' Hard to score when the goalposts move so frequently...

They have 8 games to improve on last year - the Fatalistic wrist slashing on here is over the top. We lost to Essendon at the G by 9 points - as awful as that sentence sounds - it was never a fait accompli and should really only be a surprise to the sorry few who actually thought we could finish the season by winning 8 of our last 9 games... The Midfield is the beating heart of modern footy and ours is still Jones, Vince, Viney, *NEW - Brayshaw*, *NEW - Vanders*, and ??? Who are the next 5 ???. Invariably (almost universally) when we lose games it is because of the players we DON'T have in that midfield. When we solve that issue, I will be surprised to lose a game of footy.

Let's see what the next 8 weeks brings before claiming that the 'truth' of our stagnancy is confirmed.

Gotta blame somebody.

If Nathan Jones is cut of a different cloth and immune from the Melbourne disease that we have to rid ourselves of, why can't Garland be cut of that cloth? He was always consistent amid the nonsense and bounced back this year with some better footy than 2014. I agree that our list has been trained to be timid and inert since Bailey left but it is bordering on ridiculous, stmj, when you say that everyone must go regardless of form or talent.* *except Nathan Jones Garland isn't some mercenary, he doesn't play like a bloke damaged by past failure, he has looked a model professional, he shadowed the recruiters for a year when he did his bone in his foot, he built a career and held a leadership position, and as discussed previously, seems to have a solid relationship with the bloke we have put in charge of breaking us from our malaise.

I assume Howe will be shipped out from what I have seen so far. Riley gives you attack on the footy and hard tackling pressure as a baseline, I am partial to players like that at this club.