Ned

I reckon Neeld was right to be worried at his press conference about supporter morale. GWS showed more in a couple of quarters than we have this year.

The Dogs will thrash us. In fact, GWS and Gold Coast are going to really put us under pressure (GC almost beat us late last year if I recall rightly).

Just ugly.

No Brian Lake for the dogs next week after he clonked a kid in the jaw. He'll get weeks for sure.

Very interesting game to watch.

I've noticed that a lot of people in various threads are praising our backline. I find this astounding. They were shocking today. Reiwoldt beat Frawley for the first time ever, Miller pantsed us and we leaked goals from the loose ball all day. There were a few moments where I seriously thought the whole unit should have offered to resign in shame. It was only Richmond's shocking set shot kicking that made the figures look a little better for them.

Looking past Richmond's poor set shots, we kept them in the game with some amazing judgement errors in the midfield. It could have been a very different story if only a few of those mistakes hadn't happened. Bail deciding that he should handball to Jones rather than kicking forward himself. Jamar passing behind the man and directly to an open Richmond player. Morton chucking a wobbly and letting D. Grimes have a free takeaway ball for the rebound. Clark playing on from a mark 10m from the goalmouth and getting nailed in the tackle. So many of these little moments could have gone our way with just a little more presence of mind and/or effort and turned the game so we were ahead at half time. IF that had happened, who knows how Q3 would have gone?

I did find a lot to be happy with, oddly enough.

Watts gave a good showing in the first half, although he faded. Took some good contested grabs and got involved.

Morton was good until the above little tantrum which seemed to flip the switch for him and shut down his football ability. Took a very good pressure mark early and got hit from behind for his trouble. If only he could do that all the time instead of the odd occasion.

Clark provided the highlight for the season thus far when he stoop like a colossus, throwing tacklers aside before breaking free, stepping another tackle and giving Sellar the easiest goal he will ever see.

Davey is improving and really seemed to get into the groove as the small defensive forward. I still saw a couple of nothing short kicks, but babysteps I guess.

Jones is a machine. The odd judgement error aside he was once again a pillar of strength in the middle.

Howe was brilliant.

Our midfield held it's own without Magner getting involved so much. For a half.

Good post. The Clark moment was superb. He was clearly ready for battle in the third quarter. I really think once the game began to turn he should've gone to the ruck. He wanted to do some damage and should've been given the opportunity.

I actually regained a little hope for Davey yesterday. Sure he's not as fast as he was, but he showed some flashes of the creative and skillful player he was and he showed some desire. All I took from that is that if he can regain confidence he may well be able to do damage again.

Martin just depresses me. He was terrific last year and then returned to a pumpkin. Bate is hopeless. Bail isn't the player he was. Think those three go. The bloke from Adelaide looked pretty unco and doubt he deserves another game.

Moloney apparently still out. Sylvia too etc. I have no idea who should come in.

We're not going to beat the dogs, those suggesting we will need to wake up. They were flogged by the Saints but they played some pretty good footy against Adelaide the week before. Their best is pretty good.

In fact, we may only beat GWS this year.

Moloney and Sylvia will be 2 huge ins imo

People had a crack at Moloney but i reckon he would have helped today, and Sylvia's worste is alot better than what a saw from a heap of blokes today

Yep, those two ultimate flat-track bullies would have done well against bitchmond. But the problem remains.

Yeah, I took the punt signing my little guy up that by the time he's understanding things Melbourne would be a decent team again. But I don't believe that. Not after being flogged by shitmond. Even when we tanked we beat them because their skills were poor.

I'm not pushing my kid to follow the Dees, no sense making him suffer. I'll stay loyal. But I feel the future is very bleak.

I really like Clark - Matthews full of it - and Watts. Jonesy is great too.

Grimes's clanger in the first quarter told the story - and that is he and Trengrove should be trying to establish themselves as players and not captaining the team while they're at it. Pretty clear Jones was the choice for captain.

I don't think Neeld should get off totally. Why not put Clark in the ruck in third quarter? Jamar was useless. Do something as 8 goals are kicked against us.

I'm a member of the MFC and will remain a supporter. But I regret buying my son a membership and tying him to this lamentable team. I'm not going to be spoiling my weekends watching this dross anymore.

Cale's got plenty of fellow travelers in our team at the moment. If they're going to turn it around it'll come from Cale and the rest really putting in. I'd love to see it.

But it's so much more than bottoming out and gaining two or three guns. It takes more than that to become a premiership threat.

Despite being down and out for a few years, Carlton as an organization, from those than run it to the supporters (who must surely be the most annoying lot out there) never lost their swagger.

They have a winning mentality deep in their psyche that club. It's something we lack and I think secretly many of us envy in them.

Yep, exactly right. We bottomed out and are back at the bottom. There's more to them than tanking.

Brereton says Clark has all the skills to be a good key forward. He knows a thing or two.

Yeah good on him, I hope so too. I was going to write something about it being delusional but just can't. I can't fault enthusiasm.

Does anyone on this site have any idea what the traumas of the last few weeks must have done to the players confidence & ability to perform at their best.

A lot of you seem to think that the players are robots with no feelings.

Do you think that you could lose a mentor, have one of your best friends up on serious charges, have another of your friends accused of being a destabilising influence on your workplace & have the company you work for shown to have financial difficulties & still come out and perform your job to the best of your ability.

I know i couldn't & haven't in the past under stressful circumstances (and I'm sixty not a young kid)

Maybe you are all right & we are a c**p side & all the players are useless but I think we need to give them an opportunity to rebuild their confidence & mindset before we judge them too harshly.

Let me ask you this, how would Geelong respond to that? We all know. They would fight and scrap and never give in and show that no matter what happens off the field, they will fly the flag on it. Melbourne simply couldn't be further from that.

Mark Neeld should show the playing list a film called "Zulu" with Michael Caine. Victory can be attained.

Zulu was released before we won our last premiership!

It shows that a highly drilled, well structured and disciplined force with better weapons can defeat a massively superior opponent. Melbourne is badly drilled, poorly structured, undisciplined and has no weapons. I'm not sure how it would fit.

Sponsors should be climbing all over each other to get onto us. Not a day goes by without a Melbourne headline.

He has terrific speed. There was a moment in yesterday's game where he started to wind up off half back and I though ``wow, let it rip'' and he then let go this looping handball that went above our player's head who had to then leap to try to grab it (and of course couldn't). Our player, incidentally, was surrounded by about five West Coast players. It was an utterly ridiculous choice by Bennell.

That passage, I think, sums him up. A potato at Melbourne. Maybe at a better club -- the Swans or West Coast -- they'd teach him to play and he'd have an impact. Not for us though.

We are cursed, no doubt about it.

I've read a lot of reactions to this press conference. Dean Bailey Mark II is how I would describe the performance. But Dean was tanking and had something to hide.

Neeld is really battling. He seems out of his depth in handling the press.

Not much that can be done with it I suppose, we've been belted at home by a rubbish interstate team (Carlton flogged them by almost 100 points, to give us an idea of Brisbane's strength) and pantsed by the Eagles. About the only hope I can hold onto is how bad Richmond were in Hardwick's first half of his first season.

Perhaps it is going to take time.

But I feel genuine anger towards our club. All the nonsense talk in the pre-season. Hardest team to play etc. It's just guff. There was no effort to manage expectations a little.

One other point, while the club is being cleaned out can someone move on that muppet Brian Royal? He only got a gig because no one else wanted to work for us. We've got 25 coaches, we don't need to pay someone to make an already bad midfield worse.

I don't think it matters too much who's brought in, bar Morton, the key is to send a message to those dropped. Green, Bennel etc need to know they're going to the magoos and need to decide whether they want to stay there or change their attitude and commit like AFL footballers. We're going to be belted either way so the biggest gain is the message sent and onus put back on thedropped players.

Out: Green, Bennell

In: Morton, Moloney

Not Morton, please. I don't want to see him play again.

I don't understand how players that showed such potential in 2010 now look like shadows of their former selves. It all seems to stem from the forced retirement of junior. Everything has gone wrong from there. Is that the point? He was the only leader at the club who could rally the troops?

We are going to get smashed by Richmond next week.

This is amazing. We could lose by 150 points.

I'm not sure what the story with Melbourne is. But we are in deep trouble. This is VFL footy, we're literally not in the same league.

Every time I see Jack Darling I feel ill. Who was the chap we picked before him? Is he even out there?

You mean like Grant Thomas and his blog ?

Let's get something straight, Grant Thomas isn't a journalist. Outside of Gerard Healy and one or two other bright ones, the ubiquitous ex-footballer we see on TV and in print doesn't know the first thing about journalism. Most are morons. It's true, journalists sometimes get things wrong by not being able to speak to every key person involved in a story, but every one worth their salt makes the effort. If you hear a piece of information second hand, like Thomas did, the first thing you do is put the allegation to the person involved. It's journalism 101.

This is why the trade is going to the dogs, because [censored] like Grant Thomas are accorded such status. The guy is a bomb-thrower and anyone with half a brain can see that.