bing181

Blease has yet to play a game! I know it's hard in the current climate of slash and burn in regards to all things MFC, but let's just give him a season or two before we ask him to stand against the wall along with everyone else. No problem with BP from me, or with not picking Darling. Drafting is informed crystal-ball-gazing, there'll always be wins and losses, and it's a much easier job than it looks with the benefit of hindsight.

..... in about about 10 minutes of footy. Was then mediocre against the Hawks (admittedly, along with more than a few others), and has had games described as "Flakey" and "OK" at Casey. Not really guaranteed, walk-up, first 22 performances. I was even surprised to hear that they'd taken him to Perth to be honest.

Re Bailey, there are not just the two arguments that you've given - he's soft/get rid of him, or developing list/give him time. The other one that has been put more than once here, is that at this comparatively early stage to the season, we just don't have enough information to be making that kind of a call.

Contradiction?

Anyone know who's in the team/travelling .... Newton, Petterd, Maric etc.? Or I guess more to the point, not travelling?

Well, that didn't take long. I was just reading down this thread, wondering how long someone would manage to see a problem for Melbourne in all this. We have, as you put it, issues, as it is, whether we beat Port or not. When we stop having "issues", we'll be premiers ... multiple times over. Well done Dees, nice 90 point win over GC.

21 disposals, 6 marks. What a waste of time - luckily we're not cutting down any trees for this drivel.

I've never said we're heading in the right direction, and just because I don't want to stick the boots into Bailey, doesn't mean I accept mediocrity. I just don't see that with a bunch of kids running round, learning the ropes etc., and that without established stars and game-changers amongst our senior players, that we can at this stage be expecting miracles. You clearly prefer to see things in black and white - well, actually, you clearly prefer to see things in black, not much white there at all - but that seems to me a limited, one-dimensional view of a more multi-layered situation. We have 3 or 4 of last year's top 10 players out or coming back from injury, we've lost our captain and a couple of other experienced players (a commodity in short supply at Melbourne), not to mention our best tackler and our respected backs coach - that would be a massive blow to any team. Yet here (and elsewhere) there seems little acknowledgement of that. How many years did it take Dane Swan to become the player he is?

Would be interesting if you could elaborate on this. Which learned scribes and which clubs?

Nah. Hard to see how some of the impatient, shoot-from-the-hip propositions we increasingly see around here would even have the boat slightly listing, yet alone rocking.

???? Maybe when they all get 50 - 100 games under their belts. A long way to go yet to being a "great" list. Going backwards? We could well be in the short term. Take Junior, Bruce, McKenzie and Scully out of last year's side, not to mention Morton and Frawley who are just getting up to speed after missing games/injuries .... that's a huge slab of talent and experience to cover, much of it through the mids. Once again, I am just at a loss as to what people are/were expecting. There's a LOT of looking back on 2010 with rose-coloured glasses. We won a few good games ... but people are just kidding themselves, we weren't that good overall. Given that we lost the last 2 winnable games, to have won the first 2 winnable games this year, especially given the above, is already an improvement.

Sweeping generalisation, and entirely subjective. For me, his media conferences are smart, and the more I see of him, the more I like him. As for not being inspiring ... all the reports I've read of people who've spoken to him are to the contrary of that. But heh, you (and others) have it in for him because a bunch of kids aren't playing like Collingwood every week. (Though by the way, Collingwood got belted for a quarter by a bottom-4 team last week ... sack Malthouse??). The bye couldn't have come at a worst time. Another week of this mindless conjecture and, as someone put it earlier, masturbation (though it's closer to self-flagellation and masochism). Which is only going to get worse once we lose against WC (side on the up, playing at home, and with more than a couple of useful players).

Yes, we still are, and still will be for quite a while yet, at least in patches. We're also capable of delivering some impressive footy. But on both counts, not consistently.

Which part of last year would that be? The thrashing by Hawthorn? The loss to the wooden spooners (WC) ... at home. The two losses to North? The losses of the last 3 games in a row when he had a chance at the 8? Short memories.

Go for it ... well done!

You were expecting us to? Maybe in 2013 we'll start to "arrive", but until then, there are going to be lots of ups. And downs.

You're right! Here, a little snap to take our minds off all that is wrong with the world .

You mean Richmond and North who have yet to win a game, that Richmond and North?

And that's YOUR version of discussion ... denigration and ridicule?

Game Plan Game Plan Game Plan ... it's all we ever hear about around here ... doing my head in to be honest. One day, in his after-match remarks, Bailey will say "The boys played the way we want them to play". Then, and only then, will be able to see what this mythical game plan is. There are two sides to every plan - the plan itself and the execution. People should be careful that they aren't commenting on the former, when it's the latter that could be breaking down. Amongst all this talk, I'm often reminded of an interview I saw a few years back after a Tour De France stage. Miguel Indurain and his team had dominated once again. The interviewer asked one of his team-mates what the instructions had been in regard to the tactics for the stage. The gyst of his reply was "There are no instructions. We're all professionals, we know what has to be done". Perhaps when we have a team that's built around 25 year old 100+ gamers, all will be revealed. (FWIW, Bailey has already commented on Paul Roos's comments, in particular in regard to forward pressure.)

That's your problem, not his. Another "Bailey doesn't do what I think he should do, therefore he's an idiot" post.

... and no-one in the FD can. If only the Dees were run by a committee of Demonlanders, we'd win the flag not just this year but every year. Humbled to be amongt so many experts.

FWIW: Craig Lees: VFL stats from the weekend! Nicholson 33 Fieldsend 28, Blease 28, Jetta 28, Evans 27, Petterd, Bate, MacDonald 26. Sam is getting there, think we'll see a bit of him later in the year. Also impressive from Nicholson and Evans - well done Barry! FWIW, I've seen more than one article linking Morton with GWS (out of contract end of this year). Agreed, he's still flying under the radar, but seems to be rated by people who actually know something about footy and recruiting.

Can't work out how to do that double quote thing, but to respond to these two points: - who here is saying they're satisfied? I'm certainly not. Equally though, I'm not going the other way, and trashing the players/team/game plan/disposal/coach/team selection/choice of after-game refreshments etc. etc. I posted earlier, just making the point that perhaps a more reasoned and balanced response would be appropriate, that's all. You get the impression that even when we win a premiership, there'll still be posters on here bitching about how someone should be dropped and the coach has no idea and that our third quarter was disgraceful etc. etc. Sheesh. - we're not finalists, so not sure why you (and others) keep bringing it up as some kind of touchstone. Maybe next year. Finally, to those saying "we've gone backwards". Maybe you're right. Progress isn't necessarily linear. Losing Junior plus Jordie and Scully (for the moment) haven't helped around the clearances/centre. But for me, it's a sport, and like all sports, is played a lot between the ears. Last year, we were still Crap Melbourne, and played like underdogs. This year, there's a far greater expectation on us - you only have to look at some of Monday's papers where the line in a few of the articles is "we still don't know if Melbourne are finalists or not" (though see above for my take on that!) Coming to terms with these expectations will take time, especially for young players, many of whom don't even have a full season under their belt. We have much to learn. The road is long with many a winding turn etc. etc.

I often think, when I come to this board, "it can't be worse than last time i visited". But I'm wrong. No matter what we do, no matter how much we win by, no matter how many positives we take out of a match, there will always be someone with pointless hyperbole like this. We beat them by more than the Dogs did ... and they were at home. A couple less posters and we would have come close to beating them by as much as Carlton did. But no, there's still someone here trashing the side completely. Here, try these select quotes: "fans disapointed with that 3rd quarter need to realise its part of the game" "Every AFL club have talented and quality players. It's insane to expect the better team to always be better than who they're playing. Each team will have their spells of dominance in a game." "Its impossible to win every quarter in the season. The lapses are just normal ebbs and flows." No, not reasonable Melbourne fans discussing our game against GC. Reasonable Collingwood fans discussing theirs against Richmond ... where they were well and truly out-played for a whole quarter. No-one trashing the club, no-one calling for heads to roll, no-one calling the FD and coaches idiots ... just a realistic understanding that even if you're the best team in the comp playing one of the worst, it's never going to be all one-way traffic. FFS.