PaulRB

Agree, the fact we have to play Mitch back there to help out shows how far our back six are struggling.

Sylvia was better, but some of his field kicks to players streaming forward in the 2nd half were atrocious.

West Coast were able to keep their forward line structure and feed it for the whole game. We had to shuffle every quarter with Mitch floating back toward the end of each quarter in the first half to stop the WC run on. You remove your big target and mids look up and think ???, hesitate and get caught... Third quarter they stepped it up, and we played like we'd done enough in the first half. WC has quality midfield depth (Kerr, Pridis, Selwood, etc...) we are still building it with a way to go. Don't think Viney, Toumpas, etc... will be able to produce a 4 quarter quality performance for a while given the rigours of AFL level midfield work. There were ALOT more positives in this weeks performance than last week.

First half was enjoyable, Davies snap, Howes snap,... If I'd left at Half time I'd almost be in a good mood.

yay

We lack midfield depth and with Jamar being patchy and useless when not punching/tapping (i.e. when kicking or handballing) we have periods of being absolutely thrashed out of the middle. This then leads to Clark having to go back to stem the flow, we lose all forward line structure... If we can get Gawn in the ruck and Dawes to come we would be able to clear more ball and keep a Clark and Dawes forward structure together for longer periods... this will improve us rapidly.

I think we are in a phase where Neeld has to keep cycling players with crap form out and the VFL best in until the performance improves. I though all the INs (Bail, Evans, Tappy, Jetta and Padersen) were OK and should hold their spots. With at least another 3 putting their hands up to be dropped.

An achievement would be for the team to win a quarter of footy. Yet to happen this year. From there they would build some confidence that winning another quarter is possible... Like our INs, as they'll thrive if it's wet. Bail, Tapscott, Jetta and Evans, all mature, solid and with some leg. Not beyond us, but we'll need some major performance improvements.

Caro has a go at Cam...! Yawn

Agree, Craig would be good to speak to. There are alot of conflicting lines about Melbourne being thrown around, such as: list is too weak Coach is no good Admin are no good etc... However the relationship between these perceived flaws are overlooked. For example, Can a coach be successful if the list is too weak? Would changing the Admin impact on the quality of the list or output of the Coach? Etc... Seems everyone with an axe to grind re some aspect of the club is using these two crappy performances to justify their opinions... Tedious short term media driven dribble in my book.

This may be a dumb question but does the MCC actually run any successful sporting teams currently?

The Henny Penny's running around saying sack the ... get the AFL in, smell of death... etc, are yet to offer a coherent set of solutions to turn this around. we have set out on a path articulated by the FD and signed onto by the board. Current data (25 goal loss) is telling us that we still have a way to go before this plan bears fruit, or we have the wrong plan. I prefer to believe and have faith in the FD and board to lead us out of the wilderness i.e. option 1. However, if as many here would argue we are looking at Option 2 then we need a new plan as ditching the current plan won't solve anything unless we can come up with a better plan...

I had the latest strain of Flu (type B according to blood test) in the US a couple of months back, night sweats, lost appetite and 5 kg. I too hope this is the reason... PS. Pride left the room a while back RR

Have to bring Gawn in given he was in the best at casey. Jamar was woeful, giving us zip in the middle.

Hilarious, beards are a privilege for winners!! The Cats should be looking like ZZ Top by now.

With no direct exposure to how the MFC were measuring the Pre-season, other than their comments and reports... winning games was not the KPI they were working on. In retrospect it probably should have been. My point is most who watched the pre-season commented on the increased performance, energy and levels of fitness and professionalism... and the shock being felt by the club about these two losses is that this improvement has not flowed into the season on game day.

What a load of media driven shisen this "club in crisis" crud is. Two weeks ago we were enjoying our best pre-season in years with BP and increased levels reached across the board. Two weeks later after two woeful losses, "we are in crisis"? WTF We were never going to beat the Dons and gelling half a dozen new players into a team that only won four games last season will take time. And guess what, it is taking time! I'm glad there are wiser heads running our club than those that buy into and fan the "club in crisis" line.

Agree. And while all the bitching going on by Melbourne fans is understandable, you only have to watch the post game interviews with Grimes and Neeld to realise they (the players and coaches) are hurting more then we are or could be. So we saddle up again.

One for Jack Watts

His point is still valid, too much egotistical off-topic dross to wade through to get at the on-topic insightful pearls...

Mean the MFC marketing people realise that building Jesse up now, and through his year at Casey will be great groundwork for the marketing event that will be his first game, Round 1 2014.

Alway nice to hear good new or encouragement from Pres, but at the moment Media would twist it into "Melbourne President rallys supporters for fight with AFL" or some similar hyperbolic crap...

I think it's wise for the club to play a dead bat to the AFL and deny oxygen to the Media who'd love us to feed the circus.

Does that mean the Herald Sun will start relentlessly bagging us instead of The Age?

I like the new leadership group,as it has a couple of player from each of the three groups (back, forwards and mids) and the new players selected are experienced (Dawes, Byrnes, McKenzie). While the leadership group have a role around the club, at training, etc... it is their role on the ground in the heat of a game that most interests me. These players have put up their hands and been selected to the leadership group on the basis that week in week out, when the [censored] hits the fan in a game, they will be the ones taking responsibility to turn it around. Grimes, Clark and Jones did well in this area in 2012, I'd expect more members of this group to excel at this in 2013. Go Dees.