leucopogon

What a crap thread. As Dandeeman said, "whoever Mark Neeld wants" this is his team now. What the supporters want is immaterial.

The last thing any of us want to see is Dick in the hands of the trainers.

We're in trouble if he starts pulling out bananas from the pocket

I´ll add to the international flavour of this thread. Woke up in Bucaramanga, Colombia to tune into ABC online and find the dees crusing to victory in the last quarter. Been reading all the articles and and threads on here since. Hope we can maintain this kind of effort for the rest of the year.

I can't understand how Harvey and Wells can manage to run free as often as they do. What the hell is wrong with our taggers (apologies to Bail who got injured)?

I certainly wouldn't have

worst thing that could've happened was that blitzing first term. Went to the Demons' heads and they lifted the foot off the pedal expecting the result was just gonna happen. 5 goal margin is nothing in footy these days (unless its us who are 5 goals down). Shocking performance, cruel luck with injuries. Brad Green, Aaron Davey, Brent Moloney and Lynden Dunn hang your heads in shame.

Apparently they sit on their ar$es ignoring guns like Dustin Martin and Jack Darling while they pick the most well spoken, best-mannered, cross country runners going around.

I was at the game last night and witnessed a whitewash of epic proportions. I don't get to many games being a West Australian. The last game I saw was a preseason loss against the Dockers in early 2010. We were second to the ball, ill disciplined, sucked into contests leaving opponents free to run and receive, out-tackled, out-smarted, out-scored. Last night I saw exactly the same thing. Conclusion = No Improvement in over 12 months of footy. To my great surprise the team put in some gutsy performances in the home & away of 2010. Hopes were lifted that the turnaround had begun but I was never convinced. I've supported Melbourne long enough to know a false dawn when I see one. I'm at a loss to explain why we seem to have gone backwards. Is it because we lost most of our experienced players? Were Bruce and Junior that important to us? I wouldn't have thought so, and surely the younger guys would improve upon what they showed last year to pick up the slack caused by the loss of our veterans. This obviously hasn't happened. But why? Is it because we lost Sean Wellman as our defensive coach? Doubtful. The only logical conclusion I can come to is that the players have lost faith in their coach. They are not executing any semblance of a winning strategy as far as I can tell. The modern-game is passing us by while we try and implement yesterday's winning formula with kids that don't have the size, skills or heart to make it work. Sure it worked last year to some extent but this forward press/zone/flood footy has gone up what seems like about 10 levels this season, and everyone seems to be on-board except us. That's down to poor preparation, poor execution, poor coaching. The buck has to stop with the coach and his assistants. I've never been a Bailey fan, he just doesn't give me any confidence his laconical she'll be right personality is more suited to Auskick than head coaching at the highest level. I'm now absolutely itching for him to be sacked with immediate effect. Don't think it's going to happen somehow, which in my view is a great shame. Instead it looks like this imposter is set to ingrain another 3/4 of a season of bad habits and foul strategies into our youthful, impressionable list. So who is likely to coach us next season and beyond? Malthouse? Doubt it. I think he'll go to the Blues. Their window will open up next season and he is perfectly placed to guide them to at least one flag in the next 3 years and could bow out of the coaching game on a real high. I doubt at his age he'd be interested in taking over our fragile list and dedicating at least 4 years to getting the list into its prime to have a crack at a flag. We need a younger coach. Roos is probably the best credentialed availabe option I would guess. If he brought that South Melbourne Bloods die for your team mate spirit that his Swans of 05 & 06 had I'd be over the moon. That's just what we lack. I've seen too much spineless, insipid football from our team. I've had enough. I'd be in favour of moving heaven and earth to put him in right now. Why wait? Let's stop fooling ourselves and believing that it's all gonna magically fall into place for us when our premiership window (seems more like a premiership mirage) opens in 2013, regardless of who's coaching us. If we stick with Bailey it will never happen, I think just about everyone will agree. It's time to stop the rot. Last night Melbourne were smashed in every position on the ground, there wasn't one man who beat his opponent I thought. It was truly embarrassing to witness. We are a laughing stock, never mind Port. Bailey and his assistants were culpable. There were no counter moves, no Plan B. We just rolled over and let them have there way with us. This is simply not good enough four years into the rebuild. The players seem to have lost the faith. Judging from recent rumblings in the media, the board seems to have lost the faith. The supporters on here have lost faith. Surely NOW is the time to act. Bailey (and his assistants) OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a fair concern by the OP and I don't understand the short-sighted nature of those who are shooting him down and saying lets stick with Stef and Russian for now. What purpose will that serve our premiership chances in 4 or five years time? We need to forget about finals this year and get games into what will be our core group for the flag tilt in 2014-2016. I don't know anything about our developing rucks cause I'm in Perth and never get to training or casey games. Do any of them look like they'll become premiership ruckmen? I have a feeling the precedent for premiership ruckmen might have been set with how Collingwood traded for Jolly as a ready-made. Hopefully we can do the same if Russian fades out too badly in a few years time. As much as it pains me to say it, Russian would have to be the perfect ready made ruck for a team coming into their window next year or the year after as it looks like he'll miss out with us. We could probably get something fairly decent for him (either trade or draft picks) at the end of his current contract.

I think we're a way's off being awesome if I'm honest. if you think we're 17 games away, you're really.....how can I say this(?)..... optimistic. It took Geelong 6 seasons to win a flag from their superdraft year of 2001 (the year they got Bartel, Kelly, Johnson and Ablett). Our superdraft took place in 2009 (nabbing Scully, Trengove, Gysberts and Tapscott). If you include Watts, Strauss and Blease (as high draft picks) from the year before, they've played bugger all footy between them and for all intents and purposes should be lumped into the 2009 category (that is assuming they all make the grade, I have my doubts about some). So unless this group of players are something really special, I don't think we'll be having a genuine dip at the flag until season 2015. In summary, I make it somewhere in the range of 70 to 90 games until we're awesome. But the pessimist in me says we won't win a flag in our upcoming window (probably lose Scully to GWS - as the AFL makes an example out of us for tanking and I fear Blease and Strauss won't overcome their injuries.

Even though our window may not be open just yet, if we're going to ever be the real deal with this current crop you'd have to expect them to be capable of punching above their weight this season. Getting games and experience into players is of course essential but if they don't show standout qualities (thinking of Brad Green in his first season as an example) from the get go and start climbing up the ladder this year, then I very much doubt we're going to be in with a shot at a flag in the next few years. My gut feeling about this season is we're going to be about the same as last year or may even go backwards and that doesn't fill me with confidence for the future.

This sums up my thoughts almost to the letter. We just need a big body like Miller/PJ/Jamar up forward to take the oppositions best defender and allow Watts and Jurrah a little more freedom to develop their game. Will stand them in pretty good stead for the future. I think only one of our high picks (probably 18) should be on a KPF and I'm leaning towards Black or Temel.

I don't think this is true. If it is though, I think it would be madness. As another poster (forget who) posted on another thread, what's the point of just collecting draft picks at the expense of our few mid-20's players with a bit of AFL experience under their belts? The kids are going to need a few older heads in the 22 to lead them into the fray and help them develop into the future leaders of the club. I see no point whatsoever in this trade. Remember that draft picks below about pick 5 are pretty hit and miss. Anyone remember Nick Smith, wasn't he a top 20 pick, and Lamb? Hang onto Rivers I say, he's the defense captain of MFC going forward I reckon. Westhoff is basically the same build as Jurrah only nowhere near as exciting. He and pick 9 is too much of a gamble for these two Demons.

I think the previous board members and admin staff should donate before the players do.

While you're busy throwing Whitey on the bonfire why don't you add Nathan Carrol to it as well. Nah, in all honesty, I love Whitey and its a crying shame how his career has fizzled out.

I'm really struggling to find any cause for optimism in our up and coming crop of players. Sorry to be a downer but the likes of maric, valenti, aussie, morton and martin just reek to high heaven of mediocrity. We don't have one decent up and coming key position prospect on our list. Not one. Garland is Carrol v2.0, Warnock is Wheatley 2.0, Frawley is Bell 2.0, Morton is Bruce 2.0, Maric is Yze 2.0, martin is Andrew Gaze 2.0, I don't see anything in our under 21 list to get truly excited about.

I agree with your sentiments. I'm still unsure if Bailey's a hack or our list is a shambles (or both).

Looking at the title I thought this was the match thread for Friday night football...... my mistake. We are a rabble!

each to his own, 45 hotgod, that's why they call these things forums.

Some points I took away: Natanui!!! His attack on the ball carrier is breathtaking, like a huntsman spider attacking prey. Ruck tapwork is good, but his pace and agility look amazing, the new Adam Goodes, if he can just get his fundamental skills up to scratch he's gotta be a big shout for number one. I'm looking primarily at the talls and was very impressed with McKernan's size, long kick, marking ability and pace. Almost the complete package there. Watts does look good, but didn't see anything that put him clearly in front of anyone else on that video. Rich is Libba with a Shaun McManus wig! Very nuggety but I very much doubt this kid's going to be picked in the top two. His size is a big concern for mine. Sidebottom looks pretty mobile for a big man as well. Love ruckmen that can cover ground and take contested marks, looks an ideal replacement for Jeff White. Wish they'd show more of the kicking skills of some of these players. Here's my priority list 1. Nick Nat 2. Watts or McKernan (couldn't split them based on that evidence) 4. Sidebottom 5. Rich If we could pick up two out of that list in the draft, I'd be thrilled to bits.

Aussie Aussie Aussie

Take your hand off it for 5 seconds YM. Ablett JR is easily better than Cousins, Kerr, Black, Buckley, Ricciuto, Voss. Comparing him to Brown isn't fair, its apples against oranges, likewise Goodes. I'd say he's about on par with Judd in his prime (ie. 2-3 seasons ago) and maybe just behind Hird. Ablett's been unbelievable this year.

How about an incentive program where people put in if the team can start winning a few games, or winning quarters, or kicking over a certain score threshold each week. Might be a way to gee up the playing group and coaching team into being more competitive.

What a couple of goals? I'll never be truly happy with the Dees until the inconsistency is eradicated once and for all.