praha

Seeing GWS rough up Geelong makes me even more frustrated about yesterday. We can match it with top teams. This is the most Demonland comment ever.

Let's get real here for a second. Under Ros, we've had some of the worst loses of the past decade. But we have also had some of the best wins of the past decade. Something is brewing and it is a matter of the team turning the corner. Frustrated as hell with him atm but I think him seeing out the year is in the team's best interests. Gee, we've been here before. I give him 4 weeks.

This is basically a tl;dr version of the post-match thread, and could have been posted in there.

Leadership <=> empowerment Does Jones *empower* those around him? Maybe. But these capitulations are as much on his shoulders as the coaching department. Love him to death but maybe he is part of the problem. Not expecting him to split an atom with his bare hands but leadership is always lacking in games like that. This team's capacity to switch on and off is astonishing. Never seen anything like it. I do think the gap between our best and worst has shrunk but it's still massive. After ten years, I think Jones really needs to step up and lead the way in games like this. He hasn't received anywhere near enough criticism. It was just a standard Jones game. Nothing exceptional. Really, it's games like yesterday why he doesn't get the respect and ranking by the football public that so many here think he deserves. He doesn't help push this team over the hump enough like great captains do.

There is ZERO space to lead into!

Different situation. I think Bombers supporters aren't surprised by yesterday's effort. On Bomber Blitz you see posts like, "I love this club", and, "Is anyone surprised? This club is amazing!" I don't think this club has really done anything proud or even resembling respectful aside from a few surprising wins, like the Geelong game last year, which was an anomaly. It is a miracle we have almost 40,000 members and get more people to our games than the likes of North and the Saints, who have both had high years recently. There is no fanbase in the league owed more than Melbourne supporters. Essendon supporters have it easy even with all the [censored] that's gone on.

A free scarf?

Get off Hogan. The guy is a one-out player but we clog our forward line and to top it off kick high and long with no purpose. He can towel up the league's best defenders but our structure is the problem. What do you want him to do? Smile and applaud his teammate's inability to hit a target or honor leads? Yeah, Hogan doesn't lead, but he hangs back and wants the contest. He destroys any opponent one on one. USE HIM! He WANTS the contact. We've been screaming out for a bloke like him for decades and people have the nerve to criticise him when his talents aren't utilised. If no one is within 20 meters of him and his opponent, kick the bloody ball to him! His teammates ignore him 9/10 times because he doesn't lead into space. He just isn't that kind of player. I thought everyone knew this?

I'm not excusing the players. But I don't think McDonald lacks competitiveness. He is a competitive beast. Daniher needed a big body on him and not including Dunn was an error. Roos admitted as much without explicitly mentioning Dunn. Brayshaw was a bad inclusion and he acknowledged that. Yeah, the players should have had the foresight to adjust and cover that spread, and their skills today were horrid. But again...they only lost by 2 goals even being as bad as they were. In that case specifically I think it falls on the coach's shoulders. One or two subtle changes and some more attacking flair and they win, even with such atrocious skills. The players had the chance to win it but faltered, namely in the middle and around stoppages when the game was there to be won. My point is, it's a combination of bad coaching and bad play, but the bad play still almost resulted in a win. From the opening bounce you could tell Woosha had Roos figured out.

And people hounding Hogan, the guy is a one-on-one beast but is absolutely smothered by his dumb teammates flooding their own forward line. He is frustrated and understandably so. CLEAR THE [censored] OUT!

Granted, but we only lost by 2 goals. It was exactly the same situation last week with the Giants getting too much run and space in transition. The stats today are abysmal but is that related to speed? Watch the replay. We move like a flock of birds around the ball. Like you said, easy to coach against: Essendon players branched off, created space and spread and were away. That's a coaching error. Roos wanted a bogged down contest. Woosha wanted the opposite and got it. Daniher had 15 marks, 9 inside 50 because they had clear kicks going forward from 4 or 5 clear preceding passes. It was a coaching issue today. We have too much fire power to be playing in a way that tries to stem the oppositions score. It's a defeatist approach against weaker opposition. Logical against strong opposition, but defeatist otherwise. When you're heavy favourites and playing a team on the ropes, you attack. We didn't...and lost by only 2 goals. Do you think that had we tried to outplay Essendon at their own game that they'd have smashed us? Roos was found out today. Not our lack of speed.

Don't forget Terlich.

Speed is good but defense wins games. Fast teams are often poor defensively and lack grunt. On tough days you need that grunt. Leg speed is overrated. Giants ran us off our feet but we defended well and pushed them to the pockets, hence their inaccuracy. It's the Muhammad Ali technique: let them sink the boot in then ATTACK when they're vulnerable. Did it well last week but lacked structure and discipline today. We need to tighen up. We win today's match 9/10 times but coaching errors, complacency and laziness killed us, not lack of speed.

I truly believe we are in that group of teams that will make up 5th-12th. Atm, we are closer to 12th but we are still within reach. We're in games for longer even when we're awful. Don't underestimate last week's win. 10 wins is a pass, finals a plus. Any less and Roos' tenure has been a failure.

No doubt. But in particular during the Roos years, we have handed victory to teams on a silver platter. 10 games in 2014 we led in the last quarter and lost. Last year against the Saints (twice), Carlton, Essendon, Adelaide. Tried really hard to give Brisbane a sniff but they were too bad themselves. There is just something about this style that opens it up too much for the opposition. I get that Roos is trying to build defensive prowess here, but we can't possibility continue down this path without playing attractive football. Roos' style has since day one been at odds with Jackson's views for the club going forward. With Roos, it's an "all in" type deal. I think many teams are calling his bluff and we the fans are the ones reeling. I am just absolutely astonished that we lost that. If the roles were reversed, we'd still have lost by 100 points. It's a club mentality and culture thing, no doubt. He's being paid 1 million to change the culture: what's changed? David King was right. Overall, broadly, there really isn't much improvement. The same core issues persist. Roos ultimately has failed in his task here. Only a final appearance now would fix this. You can't really judge this merely on wins. Losing these sorts of matches is the big problem here. We were "competitive", sure, but we were awful overall. There was a lack of urgency to win that was rather astonishing. They still haven't turned a corner. Another rebuild. 10 years since finals. 1 million a year to a coach who doesn't have answers. Is there an answer?

When they hit the front in the last quarter, I turned to my mum and said, "They're going to break our hearts again today." You could sense every goal, every kick, every mark, every free kick from that moment on. That final 10 minutes was as defeatist as I've seen from this club. They had already lost in their minds. It's quite depressing when you think about it.

He has admitted that he was out-coached. Selection is part and parcel of coaching. He brought the wrong squad in, and there was no plan B. It was still winnable despite being smashed. Out-coached.

He was terribly outcoached today. We lost by 2 goals after being absolutely annihilated. A few moves, a change in direction and some space, and we'd have run away with it even after being so poor. Again, we were shocking yet only lost by 2 goals. We were out-coached today. The players lacked class and attack and all that jazz, but there were some key areas that ultimately drove Essendon to the win. Rarely do you have a forward take 15 marks, 9 inside 50, and lose. Their spread and cuts through the middle were not through a lack of Melbourne players not chasing: they were ALWAYS chasing. They were just badly out of position. The same thing happened last week though..but Roos didn't bring it up. So this week's it's an issue. Notice how much things changed in the last quarter last week? He seems prepared to take credit for a win when he changes things up, but when he's stubborn and he coaches to stem the opposition's score rather than to attack the scoreboard, it's the player's fault. I think Roos has been exposed these first two weeks. And badly.

It doesn't help that our forward line, for whatever reason, is absolutely blogged to the brim. Why did we suddenly find space in the last quarter last week? Why are Jones, Gawn, Vince, Ken, Garlett, Brayshaw, Oliver, Tyson ALL in the forward line we have the ball across half-back? Hogan is spectacular one-on-one, unbeatable. We've seen that. But 9/10 in the first two weeks, the ball has gone to him in a pack. It's a high, long, hospital kick and a "please mark it!" mentality. He's no Joe Daniher. He's a Jakovich. He needs to be one out. I can't understand for the life of me why we have allowed both the Giants and now the Bombers to so easily defend us in a way that makes our forward line so inept. We have the best young forward in the league, and we're playing this bogged down, slow, incoherent style of stoppage-play that makes it very tough for a guy like Hogan to get involved. Roos needs to suck it up here and give this team more flexibility. There is no plan B. Either we're "in it", or we get smashed. We were smashed today. Look at the stats. That's a 100-point loss against the Hawks or Eagles.

Sometimes I think Roos is purposefully being stubborn, like as if to teach them a lesson. Like, they have to learn how to win and defend his way. We would have killed them had we actually played with just a little inkling of attacking flair. We were shown up defensively today. It is a major indictment on Roos.

Every single run out of defensive 50 was had them kick the ball in to one side, push the entire playing group up, switch, and then run along the MCC wing. They did it ALL. DAY. That's a coaching issue. It wasn't addressed. On top of that, they zoned better, and they had better spread. Today, we would have absolutely smashed them had we been direct, more open and less-defensive minded. They walked around our zone with ease and the players were simply clueless as to how to counter it. Essendon had better positioning all day, and I do think it was a coaching issue. Woosha absolutely destroyed Roos today. He made a laughing stock of Roos entire structure and plan.

King hates Roos. It's not a Melbourne thing. He absolutely loathes Roos' coaching style. When was the last time we won by more than 6-7 goals? I think against GWS in 2012. We beat them by 80-odd and then by 30+ in the second outing. 2013, 2014, 2015...We have dominated and smashed a team in four years. Out biggest win under Roos has been 39 points. Every other win has been <33 points.

Jones one of our best and consistent. Leaders in Vince, Viney, N Jones, Garland, Lumumba were absolutely smashed by inexperienced kids. We got clearances but played lazy, unaccountable football. They were embarrassingly flat and played like the 2014 Demons. David King said that if Melbourne didn't win, they hadn't improved. Today was a massive gauge of where this club is at. They failed the test. Badly.

This is where Roos got smashed. A million inside mids and absolutely zero spread. They went long every time and he was a target 9/10. Ultimately kicked the winning goal after a bad day in front of goal.

Roos was shockingly out-coached today. It's rather astonishing. I laughed every time Daniher marked over 2-3 Melbourne players. He said during the week, "Well, Essendon have a rather short forward line." Woosha absolutely cleaned him up. Why wasn't Dunn playing? Why did Lumumba get a game? Roos either sorely underestimates this team and has them bog it down, or he overestimates them and thinks they have the capacity to score quickly against a flood. Two weeks in a row, the opposition has toweld Melbourne up on the transition and getting into space. They play with zero confidence and instead allow the opposition to control the ball across the middle of the ground. Melbourne just out-Melbourne'd itself. And Paul Roos is front and center there. He lost that game for them today. It should have been a case of run and gun today. Instead, he coached the team directly into the Bombers' hands. Taking nothing away from Essendon. They stood up and were deserving winners.