sue

that makes a lot of sense.

I'm amazed that the hairy-chested don't want as much help as we can get. Sure it would be better to win games, but if the AFL wants a more even competition then we need help. Obviously we must not carry on as if that alone will be our saviour. I don't recall GWS saying "No don't give us all those prime picks, we want to build a winning culture based on picks 60 and beyond."

Not disagreeing with that either. The difference is while most clubs would struggle as you say, they might still be vaguely competitive, not basket cases. I'm just hoping the WCE loss was an outlier. We weren't too bad in the other games, better than vaguely competitive and not a basket case. These are the teams we can be competitive against. Can't expect to beat WCE yet. (For those who say GWS would have killed us if they had kicked straight, I say we would have killed St Kilda if we had kicked striaght. Killed is probably a bit much, say instead, won.)

Look no further than this list from todays AFL home page: Eagles lose LeCras, Masten to injury Dockers facing early season injury crisis Bulldog Roughead faces two months out Season all but over for Lion after ACL tear Crow Walker cleared of hamstring damage Macmillan hit for six, Roos hopeful on Ziebell Gilbert faces six weeks out after foot flare As NB and OD say, our problem is lack of depth on top of lack of talent or whatever else is lacking.

Get a grip. Sunday jaw is sore. Still sore Monday morning. Scans arranged, perhaps late in the day for all we know. Announcement made on Tuesday. What more do you expect? X-rays on-line as soon as they are done perhaps.

It was clear - you could actually hear (sort of) the questions he was asked unlike the usual post-match media conferences.

Unfortunately I fear you are correct. Roos now has to scratch around for a solution, eg Frawley and Dunn up forward and pray for a ruckman to appear. As for your question in bold, the answer is yes. That is why I try to limit my reading of Demonland.

I doubt anyone is saying that a number of our problems were not self-induced, though I think you are wrong that many of the others could have easily been mitigated against. But the point is we have had a series of issues over several years, the cumulative effect must make it more and more difficult to get back on our feet. Self-flagellation doesn't help.

How do they do it? Is it simply that they don't wait to see if their teammates will get the ball, they just assume they will and run into space. Risky, but if they do get it then they are away.

Yeah, just like the decided the team which is being laughed about didn't need a PP last year.

I think we have a different definition of the word 'lazy'. You seem to mix skill and laziness as if they are interchangeable. I should have added to my earlier mail that I'm not saying that we have the skills of say Hawthorn whose kicking is scary, just that the problem of poorer skills is compounded by the mind.

I reckon it has to be a mixture of skill and mindset. Ask most VFL level players to show the same skills as are reported as being on display at our training sessions and they will probably not do as well. There must be a basic level of skill in our players but they can't handle the pressure, both physical and mental. And once the confidence goes and players start second guessing everything they do, disaster follows. To say Watts' dropped chest-mark is laziness is silly. How is that lazy? He got there and tried to catch the damn thing which he has done a million times. Either it was a freak accident or much more likely it was all in his mind, wondering how bad he'll look if he drops it, first chance of a goal for a team under the pump, mind in a spin, etc. Mental pressure that destroys concentration. There are many sports where people stuff up by doing exactly what they are telling themselves to avoid doing. Coaches say concentrate on doing it, not what could go wrong, because if you do the latter, it will. Footy is no different with dropped marks, bad short passes etc.

This in the guardian may be of interest: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/apr/03/afl-what-to-look-out-for-this-weekend This quote probably says it all: What’s also ridiculous is the thought that Melbourne’s struggling playing list can achieve very much at all in the absence of a forward target while also adapting to the gameplan and idiosyncrasies of a new coach. There is no escaping the brutal truth that Melbourne has a bottom-three list. Vince Lombardi couldn’t motivate them to any greater heights.

While I doubt that it is affecting him, he may be feeling a bit lonely whereas at Essendon the heap of guys involved would support each other against the world.

Salary cap, private arrangement, what a joke. With China Southern Airlines as a sponsor, Jones should expect his own private plane shorly.

trouble is many on this forum forget to take them.

I just thought you lived a long way from the MCG.

Not really Redleg. Given our position relative to WCE I don't think there would be much point in us trying to deceive them. We'd do better to bring more able bodies into the squad (assuming we still had some).

And would you have a good feeling by a wave of changes instead? I wouldn't be surprised by some last minute changes either, but the club has more confidence than you. If McDonald 'clearly cannot run' I'm surprised that no one noticed at the club. Maybe you know we are trying to trick WCE?

Those who rubbished any chance of Fitz and McDonald playing didn't either. Let's hope they get through.

It is clear there are two schools of thought on this and agreement is unlikely. I maintain that the information you so desperately want is of far less interest to the majority of members and potential members whom PJ is courting rather than us Demonland tragics. You either believe that is wrong or don't consider it relevant. Fair enough.

Those 50/50s for McDonald and Fitz seem to be 100/0 for both according to the final team listed for us. Or are they lying to us again? http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-03-28/dees-make-no-change-for-round-two

Doesn't lessen your frustration, but why expect us to be 'better' than other clubs? I'm just saying your frustration is magnified by the overall position we are in. On Hogan's injury, I think you are being a bit harsh. If they thought he had an injury he wouldn't have played in the Geelong game. So it is not an outrageous lie or even deliberately misleading/disingenuous to say he was injured in the game, even if he inflamed a pre-existing problem. There are probably things any club wants to hide, but I doubt that this is an example.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I was trying to address your point. We have copped is a high rate of injuries and combined with the frustration about the the effect on the 'new start' has led to the perception that we are copping excessive spin compared to other clubs. At any time we feel things when it affects the MFC, and particularly now. We naturally take less notice when it is the other clubs.

Just watched it and as interesting as it was to hear him speak, what did he really say that hadn't previously been said by the hated spin machine at the club?