bing181

And you still got it wrong.

All credit to the coaches. After 3 heavy matches and a humiliating loss last week, to get the team up for this, believing in themselves, and staying the course under a couple of serious Dogs' challenges ... massive. Also, a special mention goes out to the MFC players who are regularly pilloried on this site by all and sundry ... well done. Fitzpatrick, Spencer, Toumpas ... nice work gents.

Going to be interesting, but I'd feel a bit more confident if Viney, Tyson and Jetta were out there.

He is what he is. Live with it. In an ideal world he wouldn't be in the team, but he is, not his fault.

Can't see us winning, just too many players with questionable disposal, the turnovers gift the opposition possession and ultimately, goals. It's like giving the opposition a 3-4 goal start. On the other hand, we're showing a bit of life and effort, which is great to see. A bit of love for Vandenberg, Toumpas and Spencer.

Going by reports, he has put in some decent games at Casey.

Tapering isn't just resting or having an easy week, it's much more specific than that, even moreso now that there's so much data available. I don't believe there's any actual tapering going on in the AFL, and can find no evidence of it being used as part of a training strategy in similar season-long team sports, except for the examples I mentioned. Of course, balancing heavier/lighter loads etc. is very much part of the AFL (or any professional sport for that matter), and there's no doubt that at certain points, players are pushed harder and then "freshened up".

I don't know that we can read too much into it, would need a whole season of results/data to see if it was part of a longer-term structure in training loads. But in the AFL, it's too risky. In event sports, it doesn't matter when you don't perform so well in secondary tournaments, because you're working towards a world championship or whatever. But in footy, if you end up throwing a few matches because you're overloading, that ends up having a negative, even catastrophic consequence in terms of placings in the final 8 (if you even get in ...).

Tapering isn't applicable in sports like football, where you need to perform on a weekly basis over a 6 month (or longer period). It's not just AFL, same for football everywhere. There are/have been tapers focusing on major tournaments, but they're built around competitions like a World Cup, where players can be loaded and then unloaded over a period of a month or more beforehand. Also, it's not necessarily true that producing high level performances after your peak event is a result of messing up a taper, as it's possible (sometimes even necessary) to hold peak condition over a number of weeks. There's an element of "overshoot" as a result of tapering. As you pointed out, tapering functions differently for different sports (type and amount of loading, and then type and length of tapering), so what's applicable for swimming isn't applicable for, say, cycling, or long-distance running - or football. re the Dees, in spite of your post or what we've been seeing, I don't know that too many of the Melbourne players are tired as a result of training issues. Certainly, it's been a difficult 3 weeks against older, more solid, and more experienced opponents, which has no doubt taken its toll, both physically and mentally. Perhaps its having a more visible impact on the younger players, but I don't know that it's more than that. For example, a few people commented on Brayshaw, but turns out he was off-colour during the week. It's no accident that players start to look tired when they're losing, or that you don't notice the soreness as much after a win. You mention over-training. That's very different to loading/unloading as part of a structured build using a build/taper. Over-training is a specific condition that's straighforward to detect through monitoring of performance, output and loads. Given the amount of data that's collected on the players, I'm sure that Misson and co. know exactly what's going on with each and every one of them - as would fitness departments in any sports at elite level (or even a sub-elite level) across the world. It's not for nothing that in all those training reports we hear that player X is only running laps because they're due for a reduced load. Nothing specific to do with your post, but with the salaries and funds available to fitness and sports science departments in the AFL, hard to see that they wouldn't attract the very best. Neil Craig had a nice little earner with Cycling Australia - but bet he had a better one when he moved across to Adelaide. Of course being a cog in a wheel in the fitness department at a footy club isn't for everyone either.

Mitchie not even on the extended bench. After already being dropped a couple of rounds ago, you'd have to wonder if we'll see him in the firsts again. A bit surprised to see Newton there after a) he was dropped and b) he didn't play at Casey last week. Having said that though, would think the bench will be something along the lines of Toumpas, Newton, Riley and Bail. Injuries are really stretching us.

In your opinion.

As one of the few (only?) card-carrying Belgians to post on Demonland, it's a big day to see one of my countrymen holding the future of our sport in his hands. Never thought I'd live to see the day ... nor did Essendon probably.

Every footy supporter's forum in the land has a thread similar to this one - though many are more hardline, we've been quite restrained.

Ins would probably be from this trio (Casey stats): Jordie McKenzie 1 goal 34 disposals 14 kicks 20 handballs 8 marks 8 tackles 148 Dream Team Points Alex Neal-Bullen 24 disposals 13 kicks 11 handballs 7 marks 2 tackles 90 Dream Team Points Aidan Riley 28 disposals 9 kicks 19 handballs 5 marks 11 tackles 122 Dream Team Points

That's not what he said at all. He discussed reviewing the game with the players. On the other hand, he said nothing about not reviewing the game himself or with the coaches. "MELBOURNE coach Paul Roos has told his players to forget about Saturday's 105-point loss to Hawthorn and he has no plans to show them a replay as part of the team's review. " In any case, even if they don't review it now, I'd bet it will be the first tape that's pulled out when time comes for renewing contracts. Or not.

Telling it like it is. It's not just the players who need to harden up.

Excellent press conference from a mature, experienced, premiership-winning coach, showing that he knows exactly what he's doing and has it completely under control. (ridiculous hyperbole can go both ways ...)

No, of course he wasn't that bad. In fact, I'd say it was his best game for the year. But this is Demonland.

Tom McD interview on the club site worth a watch, both for what he says about our performance today, but especially what he says about Hawthorn. Great to get a clear and honest view from the inside. He'll be in the leadership group next year. The changing of the guard is starting. Amongst all the gloom, a few players weren't entirely disgraced today. Garland and Tommy Mac were good, especially given the pressure they were under, Garlett played his role well, Pedersen pulled out his annual "see, I do know how to play" game, Tyson had probably his best game for the year - though still off the pace from last year - and under the onslaught, Cross, Jones and Vince kept battling. Falls away badly after that though.

Can't imagine Watts would have much currency. There is no silver bullet, no-one's going to come over the hill on a white horse, no single player is going to turn the club around. The only way to improve is to put in the hard yards, from the Board down to the boot studder, accept that there will be setbacks along the way, and build the kind of team and culture that we've seen at clubs like Hawthorn and the Swans. Which will take time.

Article on the AFL site mentions that he was solid - Plapp seems to think he'll be there for a couple of weeks, that it isn't just a one-off.

I don't know that there'll be that many changes - not exactly a lot of players knocking the door down. Or anywhere near the door. Spencer will stay in. From the report on the VFL match: "Mark Jamar struggled throughout and Max Gawn kicked just one goal. Tall utility Jack Fitzpatrick was taken to hospital as a precaution after hurting his neck in the first quarter." Someone has to come in for Salem, but Hogan will be back, hopefully Jetta. Stretch is a bit out of his depth at the moment, understandably. Roos spoke of tiredness amongst the younger players, especially after 3 heavy weeks against the top sides, so perhaps there'll be some rotations on that basis. Vandenberg and Brayshaw didn't look anything like they did a few games back.

Deck-chair swapping. And not very appealing deck chairs at that. JKH and Newton were both poor against Sydney, and Riley hasn't exactly been carving it up, even at VFL level.

Agree - but to add, there's a limit to how many players you can turn over. We made 12 changes at the end of 2013, and another 10 last year. That we still have NQR players on the list, shows how deep the problems lie, problems Roos inherited. It's also easy to talk about delisting players, but who do we get in? There's no point signing up 10 Viv Mitchies or Aiden Rileys, we need genuine A-graders. I actually feel that overall, the drafting etc. since Roos came on board has been very good. But it will take time to bear fruit, and we're in for some pain in the meantime.

I'll go against the grain in saying that actually I feel Jones has improved. He's managing to get disposals in/out where he wouldn't have in the past. His problem is he's our only really decent mid, he often has to do too much, and he's the Melbourne player who'll always be heavily tagged. For me Vince has been OK, Tyson looked a bit better today, but wouldn't disagree on the others. Jamar understandable, he's getting to the end, but Howe especially ... hard to know what's going on there, he just looks out of place and disinterested. The fluffed intercept where he let the ball float through at markable height ... painful to watch.