praha

So while it's been a pretty bad year, let's try and look at the more enjoyable moments as Dees fans (because I don't expect similar coverage from the MFC website anytime soon...). Hopefully we can keep this positive! 5. McDonald's Tackle On Zaharakis Essendon vs Melbourne - Round 10 With roughly 13 minutes left in a tight contest, Tom McDonald makes a silly handball into space, directly into the path of multiple Essendon players. After a few swift handpasses, the Bombers get it into the hands of a streaking Zaharakis, before McDonald lays a superb tackle and is rewarded with a deserving free kick. Made that little bit more special by the silence of Bombers fans around me, who had only seconds earlier laughed at the seemingly brain-fart of a handball from McDonald. 4. Demons 1, Scully 0 Melbourne vs GWS - Round 13 In what was Scully's first game back at the MCG, Melbourne trounced a pathetic GWS in front of a hostile crowd. This game was as fun as it got all year: the Dees were never in doubt (except for some troubling early signs), although Clark's admirable hanger attempts would eventually end his season. 3. Clark's First Half As Melbourne's prime recruit in the 2011 off-season, he more than earned his paypacket with a great return of 29 goals from 12 games. The sad thing: Even though he missed the final 10 matches, he still sits atop the club's goalkicking statistic. 2. Howe's Hanger Sydney vs Melbourne - Round 8 In what would be one of Melbourne's most dismal performances for the year, Howe's hanger mid-way through the 3rd was applauded even by Sydney fans, a bittersweet response considering the scoreboard at the time. 1. That Win Essendon vs Melbourne - Round 10 In what would actually turn out to be one of the best contests of the year (well, at least in the top 20), outsiders Melbourne would come from behind in the last to beat the 8-1 Dons on a cold and wet MCG. For those in attendance it was bliss, and without a doubt the best moment for the year. What are your top 5 moments from 2012?

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill Reputation grows with every single failure, good or bad. This club is now setting the foundations, perhaps too late, but time will tell. It needs to be a strong club in 3-4 years. The league is becoming far too mainstream and scrutinised for clubs to languish in the bottom for decades at a time. If you do that now, you won't survive. It's as simple as that. Dees fans live at the MCG.

Is it surprising? "Accountability" is a term thrown around quite a bit. It didn't exist in the Bailey years.

Robbie Flower. Since then we've just had "good" players.

Why not wait until at least the B&F count has happened?

I see Neeld as being just another scapegoat for a poor culture. Like Bailey was. I have faith, but it's hard to imagine with this club.

Everyone deserves to let their hair down. They still work hard and mostly to capacity.

So he wins our B&F and has one bad year and now he's out? I think he's struggled in the same way most of his teammates have. Suggestions that he is "out of favour" are ridiculous, considering no one player has had their place in the team assured this year. Yes, even Jones a few times could have been dropped, had our midfield in general not been so inept. Aside from him being dropped for poor form, what reasoning do people have to suggest he is "out of form"? The guy can still play. Remember, Stevie J was "out of favour" at Geelong in 2006...

8-10 wins.

We may have sneaked into finals contention, but we'd have lost Scully, might not have had Clark (would Bailey have been able to woo him?).

I'd say anything that isn't finals footy is "pain", and this club isn't playing finals until 2015 at the earliest. So we might have only two more years of absolute garbage, but as far as "pain" goes, the wound has a while to heal yet. Buckle up, folks. This ain't a finals side.

This thread is sad. Time to move on, folks.

When you have a [censored] midfield that allows the ball to get bombarded into the backline so much, your backline is going to make mistakes. Hardly Frawley's fault. He was smashed today and many times this season but so was the rest of the team. IMO I think the backline held up well throughout the year considering how much pressure it's constantly been under. The ease at which opposition gets it out of our forward line, through the middle and into the backline is going to put any backline in pressure.

I read your whole post but felt it necessary to only quote this. Dean Bailey epitomised unaccountable football. Daniher had his favourites but he still held even his mates accountable for not performing. Bailey essentially let players get away with murder because they were young and inexperience. 2012 was indicative of a group with no real direction. When you come in and tell a puppy how to act like a dog, you're never going to get a mature hound right from the get-go. That's the reality. This year was awful. It was essentially our insight into just how bad this group was managed and trained: once someone came in from a working system, the players lost the plot and suddenly didn't have the capacity -- physically and mentally -- to play top-level AFL footy. If ever we needed an insight as to how far away this club was, it was to see it get plummeted by a top-4 side, two weeks out of finals.

Cloke has 50 goals for the year though...

You wouldn't be "commenting on", you'd just be repeating the rumours... There's nothing wrong with that. Why wouldn't that be appropriate?

WUT! Talk about premature. This club is a rabble I tells ya!

Same. Stopped listening after round 2, when it was clear that he was dropping the realistic, hardline approach he offered in round 1 for a more optimistic outlook, which is understandably more for the playing group than it is for the fans and media. He's just keeping it positive. No problem with that but I have no interest in what he has to say atm. I can make my own judgements about the game and what's wrong and what's right, and when the team starts winning consistently I'll know that he's addressing the bleedingly obvious.

Well, they won 2 flags in the 90s and still have plenty of pride and a strong culture as a club. Whenever things get tough, people make noise and demand change. Difference at Melbourne is that everyone points the finger and expects big changes without actual contribution or acknowledgement of problems.

Yes, dump another experienced player that bleeds red and blue in favour of young "talent" that's played a handful of great games. Such a direction has worked wonders for the club since 2011...

Might go round for another year, but probably gone.

IMO the club has drafted fine...it was ditching players like McDonald, Yze, White so early on that ultimately hurt the team going forward. An extra year for those players and the younger players would have had valuable guidance. There's also the overrating of the team by Melbourne fans and media alike. Everyone expected Melbourne to follow the Hawthorn model, even though it managed to draft superstars in the 2001 and 2004 drafts: Melbourne never had the likes of a Franklin, Hodge, or even Crawford in the team. Dees have a great group of young players. Every team has made mistakes, but Melbourne's are magnified because it's had so many top draft picks. This team will eventually be better than Richmond, North. I have no doubt about that.

Agree. It was all Saints for the first 10 minutes, for a 10-minute burst in the third, but beyond that I'd go as far to say we dominated them in great patches... unfortunately, as a far more experienced team, their "domination" of the Dees was far more damaging, and the team dug itself too big a hole. But there was a lot of great things to come out of that match. It was actually enjoyable to watch.

It would be completely unacceptable and an indictment on the fans if the club didn't sign him. There are simply no excuses. Get it down. Losing both Scully and Blease would simply be unacceptable. It would be the same at any club.

I'll ask again... Who?