DirtyDees DDC

In the last 4 games he hasn't been perfect but vastly improved. I get the impression he really wants to make an impact on the game and it looks like there is leadership material there.

Has anyone considered that the type of improved form that's been dished out by the likes of Watts is perhaps linked to why Tom Scully is staying?

As for the 'experts'....I watched the Footy show last night - briefly. Brown and Goddard both picked Melbourne 'cos they liked the work of Jamar and Moloney. This was straight after Brownless said he pick North 'cos Jamar was injured. Go figure.

Bate was dropped because he was crap. He got 6 possessions in a game where we won by 96 points and Bate was on the ground for most of the game because Grimes was injured. He committed a terrible blunder just before half time when he was too slow to kick the ball (costing us a goal), and he still falls over too often at a contest.

He struggles to take a mark overhead, his hands aren't clean and he only kicked one goal - a flukey snap off the ground. The only thing he improved was his tackling.

Back to Maric.

He was picked because he is a gun kick, yet i was impressed with his handpasses yesterday. He's got good hands and a useful football brain (that short handpass to Sylvia in the 3rd or one to Green for the last goal). A pity he didn't claim a goal himself but he still finished with 11 score assists and may have a role as a midfield/forward.

He's frustrating.

He looked like taking the game apart at the start of the second quarter. 3 good marks including a contested mark in the goal square, and a great lead to a terrific pass from Maric. He was giving Rutten the runaround and operating at 90% disposal efficiency which is just phenomenal. Even the little touches, the tackles, the knock-ons - all good.

And then he stops. Hardly touches the ball in the second half!!! Perhaps it's only a fatigue thing and he'll get better as he gets fitter.

At least his contributions occurred when the game was in the balance.

We are planning a merger because the MFC has by far the fewest assets of any club in Victoria.

I believe we have about $4m in tangible assets. The next lowest figure is approx $14m.

Some of the worst stats I have seen in a long while.

Inside 50s at 1/4 time - WC - 22 (is that a record?) Melbourne 5

Tackles in the forward line at half time - West Coast 13, Melbourne 0. None. Zip.

Absolutely no defensive pressure in the forward 50.

As a result, nearly all of WCs score to half time was due to turnovers.

Despite the first half, i thought we would at least fight it out in the second half. Nup. Result - 8 WC goals to 3.

Daniel Kerr said recently the biggest difference in the game (after being injured for 2 years) was the increased tackling.

We really miss our two best tacklers from last year - Junior and Jordie.

Thursday night is a lousy option, I'm off to the Jethro Tull concert (I wonder if they will interrupt to give us the scores in the middle of Aqualung ??)

So no footy for you. To quote Ian Anderson.."Really don't mind if I sit this one out" ?

We have 46 on our current list. 24 will play on Thursday night. 3 are injured. That leaves 19 listed Melbourne players who could line up for Casey on Saturday. Plus Fev.

At least 3-4 will play in the Casey Reserves - maybe Fitzpatrick, Davis, McNamara and Johnson. That leaves 15 in a seriously strong squad that puts good pressure on the senior team to perform. Poor Frankston.

Caro stuffed up the chronology when she wrote Scully quit the junket, then "ominously" put off contract talks as if one caused the other. Scully put off his talks in August - the junket was in October. If I was as creative and mischievous as Caro I would call that "imagined causality" - where a trickster attempts to imply one event causes another.

Good pick up.

She still has a bee in her bonnet about the 2009 season. She mentions the 'losing games' issue twice in the one article and she brought it up again recently on 'Footy Classifieds'. She never mentions Richmond's performance in THAT game, or how she felt when Petterd and Grimes ran thru the centre to kick those two goals in time-on that put us in front.

An interesting scenario. If Melbourne had beaten Richmond that day, and assume all other results remained the same, then Melbourne would have finished on 20 points and lost the priority pick. Richmond would have finished bottom on 18 points and picked up Scully as the number one pick. Maybe that's why Caroline is so peeved.

A possible back pocket or 'run-with' player? Sounds like competition for spots currently held by Bartram and Bail. Nothing wrong with that.

He could be worth watching next saturday when the match against Frankston is televised.

Let's not forget Williams and Laidley. Unlike Roos and Thompson, these two appear very keen to restart their AFL coaching career somewhere.

Throw in 7 other current coaches coming out of contract at seasons end, and we are heading to perhaps the most interesting post season period in years.

Bailey is in a tricky situation at the moment. We have the second youngest list. It's still a development year for the likes of Watts, Blease, Scully, Cook, Jurrah and a few others. But this is Bailey's 4th year and I don't accept that this is another 'development' year for the coach. Last season we proved on occasions we could be very competitive against top teams like Collingwood and Footscray, and we also belted the Swans; we could see improvement in the team.

We need to see similar results this year so that Bailey can say 'I can make this team a top 4 side in 2013 and beyond'. I suspect that his chances of being re-signed will depend largely on the team's performance this year, regardless of who is available after round 22.

Yes, but don't do it too much...

He's a AA ruckman, he is B grade FP.

He was also a B grade ruckman a few years ago, and he once kicked 5 playing forward against Carlton.

His ability/usefulness as a forward may depend on Martin's performance in the Ruck.

Well, you're assuming he doesn't have a decent accountant

You need qualifications in financial services to give investment advice.

An accounting degree is insufficient.

So you want him to get smashed and break something, is that it?

He runs to the right spots and he takes contested marks. He'll get down on his knees in contests and feed the ball out. What else do you want?

I've never encountered this phenomenon before of supporters being obsessed with watching a young player prove he is any good in the way of getting hurt or negligently throwing themselves at a contest. It's absurd and it shows how silly supporters can be, because they look at Hurley and go "ohhhh hard player, smashes bodies" and therefore if Watts doesn't play this style of game he is useless and a drafting mistake.

good points. What he does, he usually does well. He contests in a pack and gets the ball out to a free player, even if it's just a tap out to Davey.

He's getting game time. In 2-3 years he and Cook will be our two key position players, with Jurrah on the flank.

Let's judge his career in 10 years time, not on 1/4 as a sub against a sub-standard team.

Scully will go to GWS, along with others, and Scully will be rich. I'd do the same thing, and so would you if it meant a 500,000 dollar raise.

Based on what? Do you know Tom, or his family, or someone at GWS or MFC who can verify he signed a contract? Or are you just saying 'I know Tom will go 'cos i feel it in my bones'?

So Scully is certain to go heh? So was Swan. And he was probably offered much more to go the GWS than was offered by Collingwood. Why didn't Swan go? because it's not just about the money.

And is that $500,000 gross or net? The marginal tax rate for each dollar above $180,000 is 45%, plus Medicare Levy of 1 1/2%, plus another 1% Medicare surcharge, plus the flood levy of 1%. $500,000 x 48 1/2% = $242,500. The net gain may only be $257,500. That's a big deal if you are only getting $50 - $80,000, but the extra money loses impact if you're on $500,000 or so.

I don't know where this rumour that Strauss can kick comes from. I've seen him at casey a number of times, and he very rarely either hits a target, nor does he man up. And when he does, he nearly always gets beaten one on one.

A grossly over-rated footballer in my view.

I heard he got picked over Zaharakis because of his kicking skills. We wanted a medium sized half back flanker who could hit targets. He seems like a good kick; he just can't get the footy at the moment.

Bailey was interviewed on radio before the start of the game last Sunday.

He said (words to the effect) that they don't want to overburden the players with tactics ..it will only confuse them. mmmm.

Some scribes have noted that we try to commence our attacks with accurate kicks from the half back line - maybe that's why we keep picking Strauss in the 25, even though he hasn't been among the best for Casey. Someone up the at the club must like him.

I thought there were good signs in the 3rd quarter. I was worried when Brisbane kicked 2 quick goals and it started to pour down, but the team toughed it out and kicked the last 4 goals for that quarter.

Good to see Martin get involved in the game, and Gysberts has something. He has been criticised by some for his kicking but he hit his targets today.

We still our lose structure at times. I worry when we kick it long to the forward line where our tallest and only player is Wonaaemirri.

Thank god for Jurrah.

I honestly think that there is "Hawks beating us easily fatigue" going on.

We always play them early in the year and we always get belted. This one was galling because we were infront for quite a bit of the game but the facts are these; there are a better team, they have a better midfield, they have stronger players, they have stars, or A graders, or whatver-you-call-ems, in the their team.

To assume that they are incapable of responding to a bake from Clarkson and beating, or belting, our bunch of talented toddlers and NQR seniors is insulting to the people that run the Hawks and the list that they have assembled.

They are certainly a good team; Burgoyne is a big pick-up, and Josh Gibson fills a role in their backline. We only have 3 guys on our list who have played at other clubs and maybe this will change when we fine-tune our team in 2013 and beyond.

But it takes two teams to perform a 72 point turnaround in a half a football. Our major problems are the centre clearances and the kickouts and that shows up in all the stats. If Bailey can produce a better set of figures in the remaining matches, then he may prove to be the best guy to lead us into the top 4. But i'm worried that we do the same things, we make the same mistakes and we get the same unacceptable results. Jimmy has rarely gone public with criticism of our performance and he did the right thing by speaking up during the week.

We smashed them off the park for the first time I have seen in a long time that second qtr. That IS development and that IS progress.

There's the problem. i don't think we did smash them in the second. We were behind in all those stats at half time ...like clearances and stoppages. We took our chances well, but we also dodged a bullet because of their poor kicking.

Interesting to compare our performance with Richmonds' last night. After quarter time they were even with inside 50's, clearances were even, and contested footy was even. We got smashed in all areas. The Tigers got beaten by a bigger margin than us, but at least they appear to have learnt from their bad start.

I'm going to the game today and I'll barrack for the dees to do well. I WILL have to sit on my own after my inexcusable performance in the stands last week. I promise to sit quietly and not drink.

Just a question...you say he has 3 jobs...

How do you know last week he didn't develop players?

How do you know he didn't manage the team?

Is that is again your perception based on your observations and your percieved benchmarks versus outcomes.

I don't know why you refer to other clubs at all...we are Melbourne and we are not the same...we are better than them..

Stick phat DDC...

We are better than them? They win premierships.

Grimes, Jetta and Jones went backwards last week. Tell me..where is the development in Jones? So he's working on different roles ...good, but show us some results...show us that his ball handling improves or his kicks can hit targets.

We lost by approx 117 points against that team in round 1 2008, and we are not getting any closer. They made a 72 point turnaround in just over a half of football last Sunday. Imagine the result if they kicked straight.

There are reasons why we lost and I am certain the club had a good look at the footage this week, but please ...there are no excuses for that performance.

I have to confess i have a bee in my bonnet about the Hawks. I've hated them since '63 since they beat us in the preliminary final. I was also there on THAT DAY in 1987 when Jimmy ran across the mark.

I work with a bunch of awful supporters for that awful team that look at the fixture and go ' oh...we've got a bye in round 2, we're playing Melbourne'. Please Dees just be more competitive in round 18.

And yet you're happy to pretty much call for his head April.

No......I'm saying that whatever happens this year, we should not make a commitment for 2012 before the end of the season.

I am VERY critical of his performance last Sunday. We were down in so many areas, (fitness, tactics, leadership and skills) and a lot of that is the responsibility of the coach. He's got 3 jobs - win games; develop players and manage the team, and he didn't do any of them on the weekend.

And it's not just our performance last week; thats' the 4th frigging time since 2008 that we have been thrashed by the Hawks. That would not be acceptable at Collingwood or Geelong. It should not be acceptable by us. It certainly wasn't acceptable to Jimmy.

Will we re-sign Bailey at the end of the year if the Dees finish 10th or lower?

I don't think so; not with 7 other coaches coming out of contract. And not with Mark Williams and Dean Laidley waiting to have another crack.

Bailey was found out last Sunday. We were tactically inept and he has failed to develop leadership on the ground. You can make the excuse that they had 14 players with more than 100 games experience verses 5 in the MFC, but we had 3 of our most experienced players in Jamar, Sylvia and Moloney at those centre bounces in the 3rd Q, and we did not have a clue.

Fans are screaming for Scully to re-sign with the Dees ASAP. Is anyone screaming to re-sign Bailey at the moment? Even if we finish 8th this year (still possible considering our relatively easy draw) i hope we take time to choose the coach for 2012. I don't want to see him re-signed (or fired) before the end of the season.

Looks like Campbell brown will be missing fron the Sun's line-up next week. He's been reported for throwing his elbow back and collecting Callum Ward in the head. i suggest 2-3 weeks.