Maldonboy38

Come on guys, you can't just drop players who frustrate you or who you don't like much, nor players who have played 1 or even 2 bad games.

Sellar. No he didn't have a good game but on a wet night he gave a constant physical target in our forward 50 and he ensured St. Kilda didn't dominate the stoppages when Jamar was resting. If we do not have anyone better he stays, but he is likely to make way for Clark.

Dunn's centring the ball that led to a Saints goal will really annoy Neeld, and he might get dropped for what looks like a clear breach of a team rule. But Dunn has done a great job on Murphy last week and Fisher last night and is playing his role well.

Watts, Trengove and Tappy will benefit little from being dropped. They need to play continuous games with each other over a number of seasons.

IN: Frawley, Clark,

OUT: J MacDonald, Sellar

Also, we might need Blease's pace for players like the Cats Christensen, Stokes, and even Wojinski played well in the reserves. Blease does not deserve a place out of form but we need more pace than just Bail and Morton. Unsure who to drop for him though.

In that analogy, isn't the gun our kicking and our foot the scoreboard?

Good reply - you are spot on. However the analogy works out, our unpressured turnovers are gut-wrenching.

The Good

Contested ball

Stoppages

Intensity

Jordie, Magner and Jones in tight

Jones' and Bartram's goals

Tom McDonald matched, and often beat, Reiwoldt

Morton

The Bad

Trengove's pace

Watts lack of physicality

Missed easy goals

Dunn centring the ball that led to Saints goal. Neeld would be furious.

St. Kilda subbing that new bloke off. Marking and Kicking was superb. Worst sub ever and the excuse of "he had a twinge" was spin.

The Ugly

The missed holding-the-man free kick to Morton.

The worst goal video review that we will ever see.

Unpressured turnovers (again)

The Dees had a red hot go tongiht and I reckon Neeld would be delighted that we matched the Saints in all the indicators that measure effort and intensity.

But Oh for some class!!! We keep shooting ourselves in the same foot each week, and that injured foot is our kicking between half back and half forward. Too many times both experienced and inexperienced players turned it over under no pressure, kicked or handballed straight to an opposition player, at times when we had momentum and could have put nails in the coffin.

We need Frawley (not so much for class though), we need fit and firing Sylvia and Jurrah, we need Mitch clark as our target, and the potential class of Gysberts and Strauss. We have to start finishing off passages of play where we dominate but end up stuffing up through skill errors.

6. Jones

5. Magner

4. Morton

3. McKenzie

2. T. McDonald

1. Bartram

P.S. Grimes got a lot of it but his kicking still makes my knees collapse.

I had a knot in my gut all night. We won the footy, had more possessions, covered Goddard and Riewodt, and ran out of the backline with gut running but we made some unpressured turnovers or mistakes that tore the heart out of the game and must have taken a toll eventually:

Moloney's open goal miss

Howe's set shot miss

Jordie's running free kick straight to the Saints = goal

Trengove playing on so stupidly

Rivers and Bate booming kicks into our forward line to three-on-one

But I loved the effort, the discipline, and the sense of mongrel.

With everything else that our playing group are currently displaying, someone decides to have a crack at the one player who is showing intent, obeying the coaches orders, providing leadership and doing the work of two men. Jones is killing himself for our jumper week in and week out with little or no help from our other midfielders. Maybe if Moloney, Trengove, Magner, Bail etc... could provide Jones with a bit of cover, or be positioned well for him to feed it out, or actually try moving around a stoppage, what is perceived as his poor decision making would actually work.

Jones is not an issue. Move on.

I will definitely be going. Surely, regardless of how rusty he is, Casey will be a one week stop over for LJ and then back in the Red and Blue.

We can't play Couch while Jones, Moloney and Magner are in the side. Our deficiency against the Doggies was not in and under at stoppages, it was stopping the Doggies spread or effectively spreading ourselves. We can't have another grunt player. We need some pace and break-out speed to set up and spread away from the stoppage.

Also, we have to get some foot skill into our backline.

Totally disagree with those posters demanding Tom McDonald be dropped. Yes, he was fumbly at cricital times and he made some poor last line of defence decisions. But I clearly remember a certain J Frawley being exactly the same, and another C Garland.

Outs:

Dunn.

Sellar. He busts his gut to get to so many contests but wins almost none of them. Also no good as a second ruck option.

J MacDonald.

Ins:

Grimes

Sylvia

Fitzpatrick or Martin. This spot is for a big body to replace Sellar.

I would also consider dropping Bartram and bringing in Troy Davis but four changes might be too many. Anyway, it seems like Neeld like Bartram.

Dunn might have done OK on Murphy but that was only for one half. His forward play was shocking. His leading, timing and skills were groan-worthy and on number of occasions the whole stand where I was sitting groaned together when he stuffed up another moment in time. His greatest skill is his set-shot-for-goal kicking, but he can't find the ball. Then when he kicks on the run it is terrible to watch. Belowe standard for mine.

Bartram who did a terrible job on Dalhaus in the first half (and somehow escapes criticism here again!).

You are spot on Geddy Lee and I missed him in my bad section. In his first couple of seasons he was a standout player to clamp down on a small forward or midfielder. This year he has been ordinary and last night his work was sub-standard. I reckon he would know it and be really annoyed at himself. I can't recall if his opponent was Dalhaus or Djekkurra (can't remember the spelling) but he was often in the worng position, or lacked intensity, or read the drop of the ball poorly. If we had a decent backman to replace him he might get dropped biut I can't see anyone replaceing him - Troy Davis is playing well at Casey and might be a consideration.

The Good

Our contested ball was good. Jones will be exhausted tonight.

The forward line looked functional for the first time this year (at times)

Some confidence for Davey, Morton, Bail

Our back six do an amazing job when the ball keeps on getting banged back in there, but their disposal makes me hide my eyes.

The Bad

Our set shots for goal in the first half.

Watts dropping one-grab marks at important moments in the game

Our run and spread from a stoppage but it did show some life in the 3rd quarter. Why don't our players MOVE around a stoppage???

The Ugly

Our skill errors when there is no pressure at all.

Mitch Clark landing on his neck

Our ability to stop the opposition running away from a stoppage if they win possession

Our tackling technique and efficiency.

Some shocking umpire errors.

A point of interest for me is the continual discussion regarding players, much of which is appropriate, but the bit that is missing for me is what about the coaching panel? When do we start thinking about whether we have the right coaches? While we bemoan the development of many of our young players we have coaches such as Royal who has never been a success and Rawlings who doesn't come with a great record of success in any regard. craig has some respect but was given a team of natural talent and really didn't set himself up as a 'great coach'.

the jury is out on Neeld but I feel that he needs to produce something in the very near future that indicates he can provide something on match day that makes supporters and game experts think he can strategise, motivate his players and coach because at the moment he is coming across very much like all the other 'teachers' I have ever known - uninspiring, always right, stubborn and unwilling to listen to others that may have an informed opinion

Great post, Warrior. We have seen no evidence of game-day strategy yet, or making a move that changes the game. We do search for answers among our players but it won't be too soon before the blowtorch is turned on our coaching ability (or lack of it).

I did not want to see Cale Morton in our jumper again but let's give credit where it is due. His clangers were really horrible and cost us at times, but his run and effort tonight was first class. He was in our best 5 clearly. If we counted personal clangers I reckon some others would be well ahead of him.

Yep, really dumb tonight. If he gets the ball his decision making and skills are OK, but he runs around alot doing nothing. Shocker tonight.

I thought he was OK at times tonight - at least he moved around the stoppages instead of standing still. But I didn't realise he didn't lay a tackle, and that is a really poor stat.

6. Rivers.

5. Bate

4. Jones

3. Morton

2. Bail

1. Watts (some really bad among some really good)

Yep - Watts is better

Darling is OK but still won't rave about him.

Cameron Bruce cannot play modern press footy. He was excellent at his best but is horrible under mordern pressure

I still reckon Hawks and Blues for the grand final.

There seems to be a fair bit of agreement that our bottom 6 - 8 players are below AFL standard, and many of them have had a number of years and opportunities to prove themselves. Morton ,Dunn, Bate, Joel Mac, Bennell, Petterd etc... Also, other players we thought would get a good go have shown little to the new coach - Blease, Kel Lawrence, Green and Davey etc... We all have our opinions about the ones we like and the ones we don't but inreality the whole bunch have proven to be mediocre at best. Davey and Green excepted.

Two points to make:

Neeld has to play the players he has, and has to shuffle the above players in and out of the team according to match-ups or injury. I sense a minor "cleaning out" at seasons end when many if not most of these players will be delisted or given the chance to seek a game at another club. For 2012 we simply have to put up with them.

Remember, Gysberts, Sylvia, Jurrah and Gawn and Strauss and clearly required players who Neeld has his eye on, but cannnot get them to availability just yet. I reckon by about round 11 we will see the preferred 25 players playing in their preferred roles and then we will get a good look at what Neeld can produce.

What I don't understand is why not give more of a go to Davis, Fitzy, Tynan, Sheehan and those kind of plaers.

Totally agree!

You f'ing people make me sick..... You all tell your f'ing sob stories and talk about "poor culture" and continue to write negative crap, honestly most of you have no idea of what culture is. If you don't like what's going on f off and find another club with your kids.

If Jim Stynes had the attitude of some of you people he would have never got to spend those extra couple of years with his family or would have bothered to save the greatest club in history MY MFC! He would have simply slipped away quickly because it was all to hard! He has not only provided us with a fighting chance but also laid the first stone of a new culture! FIGHT TO THE END!

You so called supporters need to suck it up and fight for your club, tell your kids all that is good about your MFC!

Go Dees!

You don't have kids, do you.

No-one is giving up, and especially no-one in this thread so sit back, take a valium and calm yourself down. Go to your "happy place" and give us all a break.

To build an ever-increasing supporter base, MFC need to play attracive footy with a sprinkling of super stars to make the children of supporters want to buy jumpers, badges, scarves, beanies etc... Also, they want to attract new adults and kids to support the team.

The football being played at the moment is so poor, we are losing this supporter base. It is actually DEtractive, not ATtractive.

And many of us grieve as we struggle to hold on to the supporters we have, let alone attract new ones.

If it wasn't for Jones we may be below even GWS on the ladder. His efforts this year in every game have been heroic. He continues to chuck himself at the ball and into packs and to date, a rare few ever go with him. He makes mistakes, but he will be a 250 game player for the Dees. And don't worry about Tiges supporters - any comments they have on recruitment must be taken as absolute rubbish. We may have made some errors, but the Tiges made an art out of it.

Am I embarrassed? NO

Am I ashamed? NO

Am I disappointed? YES

Am I angry? YES

Today I went out a put some MORE demons stickers on my car.

Tomorrow I will get my grandson some new demons paraphenalia.

Just HTFU princesses and just go and do something to make you feel GOOD about the demons

The MFC are 'family' and you NEVER give up on family

Jimmy didn't so why should you or yours?

5c worth

I am not sure what you think this thread is about. All of us long-suffering Dees supporters are not giving up or giving in or burning our membership cards.

We are GRIEVING that our kids and grandkids find it hard to stick with the Dees.

We are sad that at Auskick there are often no Melbourne jumpers.

We are sad that we have no superstars to make kids want to put numbers on their back, or buy badges etc...

And I am doing something to make me feel good about following the Demons - typing a response to you because you have totally failed to understand the basis of this thread. Perhaps I should only use single syllable words?

Some serious consideations for our club regarding a strong supporter base:

Have a look at your local NAB Auskick and you will see 1 young Melbourne supporter in a crowd of 100 kids

Die-hard, long suffering supporters of my generation are struggling to keep our kids supporting Melbourne

We have no superstars except Liam Jurrah who is injured.

Although Webjet has come on board, we have no back-of-jumper sponsor

When my boys talk footy with their frinds they talk Judd, Ablett, Betts, Daisy Thomas - no Melbourne player within Cooee

WE can't win and are really poor at the moment.

If something doesn't change on field soon...

We need something to click, somethig to work, something to celebrate, something to get excite about. And we need it soon.

He is one of the players I want to do well, but today, apart from a few outstanding kicks he was poor . His hands are made of trampolines - the ball just bounces off them. Also his turning circle is like the Titanic. And as far as handballing to stationary team mates - this is one skill he has perfected.

Right........

It's all about the coach, nothing else.

Funny, we had a different coach recently.

In fact, we've had 2 other coaches recently.

And they got similar results.

But it's the coach... All the coach...........

You misunderstand me.

When I say "it is not about..." I mean that Mark Neeld is responsible for inspiring and leading us out of all these things. If we lack skill or endeavour, no player or group of players change this of their own accord - they are coached out of it and I expect Neeld to do the same. I am not blaming him for all that is transpiring but I unashamedly lay at his feet the task of change. It is an expected part of his role.