Curry & Beer

It's past midday!

I don't know why people keep talking down the match against Essendon. we started very poorly and conceded the first 6. For the rest of the day we were excellent, and we had half a side in to their near-full-strength side. We have now seen that the Bombers are in fact a pretty handy unit, beating the Cats over the first 3 quarters last week. I know the preseason as a whole was still pretty average but let's deal in facts here and state that we had 4 quarters against the Crows, 3 against the Dons, 2 against the Eagles and 1 against the Dockers. Not the complete disaster some like to say it was.

I can't believe people make the statement that the players don't respect the coach etc. We all know that Stynes and Lyon are key figures behind the scenes, they would have had a big say in Bailey's contract extension. Now, these blokes actually played with the skipper James McDonald. Don't you think if the situation is such that Bailey has 'lost' the group, that this message would have been filtered through to these decision makers at the club? When that situation occurs at clubs it spreads like wildfire and you can be certain that the board would be aware of it. I conclude from their decision to extend that no such situation could exist. Furthermore, with the exception of C.Johnson, for whom their were other issues, the only player to have jumped ship is Brock McLean. I personally believe the reason he is gone has absolutely nothing to do with his opinion of the coach and where the side is headed, and that in fact the notion that he has jumped (not pushed) may not even be accurate, that is debatable however. Every other player has signed up for the long haul, including Aaron Davey who could have ended his career at a more likely-looking side, for more money, with his brother, but instead chose us for 4 years. I think this fact also proves that there is no doubt about Bailey amongst the playing group. I have also heard Schwarz publicly state several times that the group is right behind Bailey and that he and others (Connolly) are doing everything right. Top post Jimmi C

wasn't pike a bit of a dropkick and that was why Melbourne got rid of him?

to say it would be handy if Sylvia got up would be the understatement of the century

very well deserved has kept going from strength to strength as the years have gone by will be very fondly remembered when his time is up

incredible isn't it? "oh hey everyone would you like to hear MY particular sarcastic, exaggerated, completely non-constructive take on how bad everything is going? well here it is!"

well said 2 other, more experienced sides lost by 9 goals playing lesser opponents than Hawthorn this week. It happens. I have never understood our own supporters' tendency to exaggerate how shizen we are

Macca, Green, Jamar did OK Bruce, Bate, Davey, Miller, Jones, MacDonald, Warnock, Moloney, Rivers <-- this is the group that let us down

I wish you were right but you are not Average Attributes Melbourne Attribute Hawthorn 187.6cm Height 185.8cm 85.8kg Weight 85.3kg 23yr 10mth Age 23yr 9mth 71.4 Games 68.0 Total Players By Games Melbourne Games Hawthorn 10 Less than 50 10 7 50 to 99 4 2 100 to 149 5 3 150 or more 3 They had a few more in that middle tier but that's it The difference was that their 12 players above 50 games absolutely spanked our 12 players above 50 games

'when he used to give so much' sorry, when was that?!

I have never even considered buying the record a)I am there to watch a game of football, not read a magazine b)The only useful information in it is player numbers, which I know already

This is all negative stuff, which is of course important What is more important right now IMO is creating a forward structure that has a hope in hell of scoring when we actually get it in there Nobody seems to want to discuss it, but we need to go with something vastly alternative to the current setup which has seen to be inept over a long period now. Davey inside 50, Maric or another crummer too, to sit at the feet of 4 of the following: Miller, Bate, Newton, Garland, Rivers, Jamar, Martin

really poor post, don't know where to start

He is not in the media to play the role of Demon defender He may also be thinking that it is a good and necessary thing for the footy department and the players to have a bit of a blowtorch put on them so that they might lift. If Bailey is not the man and he shouldn't be there, than the best thing to do is get it out in the open and replace him ASAP, it does not serve us to ignore the truth. I am not saying this is the case, but if Lyon (or anyone else) feels that way he is perfectly justified in saying it as part of his media role

Sure JoelM didn't have a great game but he looked pretty good in the pre-season and that's why he was in basically everyone's starting 18 that they were posting If you are judging people on last Saturday there is a good 15 blokes you might as well delist now

He meant 'Bailey clearly thinks kicking is important as he has drafted only players with good footskills' but I can see how it can be read the opposite way!

perhaps he means he will have been delisted and somebody with some ability with have his spot on the list

I didn't say the senior players are doing well. I said if even less of them are out there the chances increase that we will end up in a situation where we are unable to stop a full-blown catastrophe. Most consider last saturday a FB Catstrophe but the facts are it wasn't, we were down 10 goals to 1 at half time but it didn't end up 20 goals to 2... it was 7 goals apiece after that. To drop Miller, Bate and Bruce for Watts, Cheney and Maric is really not going to do us any favours

it was only a few years ago we convincingly beat the Pies in three successive QB clashes in front of 70,000+ crowds we were in the top 4 and they the bottom 4, now the wheel has turned, and in a few more years it will have turned again

but as I said, we are not the first or last club to go through this type of thing... look at Richmond (last 3 decades), Carlton (last decade), the Saints and Dogs with their one flag each, the Cats 40-odd year drought, even the Hawks, and even ourselves through the 70s, all these clubs went through long unsuccessful periods and they are still around we'll be back up and so will our crowds and memberships

unfortunately I don't think we will see any of Bate, Miller or Bruce get dropped because they really just cannot do it. When you have such a young list you are just asking for bigger beltings by replacing your seniors with more 'freshies'... I know it seems like they couldn't do any worse but in reality if we went out there with just the kids we could be looking at 120 point drubbings as there would be nobody to hold things together in the slightest when the floodgates open unfortunately this is just a fact of life and it grants these players a certain immunity that they don't deserve

more attention for this please! who agrees with me or has an alternative proposal? everyone recognises the problem, but what would YOU DO about it as coach? it's really doing my head in watching them come out every week with a 'it's broke, but let's not fix it' attitude

so what are you looking for as an answer? you've already concluded there cannot be one so why are you labouring the point? BTW like another poster above my comments were directed more at a lot of the 36-year old kids that are on the site at the moment, than to the actual kid in question

Bart: Remember when Tom had you in that headlock and you screamed, "I'm a hemophiliac!," and when he let you go, you kicked him in the back? Homer: Yeah. Bart: Will you teach me how to do that? Homer: Sure, boy. First, you gotta shriek like a woman and keep sobbing until he turns away in disgust. That's when it's time to kick some back. And then when he's lying down on the ground,... Bart: Yeah. Homer: Kick him in the ribs. Bart: Yeah. Homer: Step on his neck. Bart: Yeah. Homer: And run like hell.