Jaded No More

So not being able to hit a target in the first quarter is the cause of fatigue? Handballing to a teammate surrounded by 5 opponents is the cause of fatigue? Fitness is extremely important, but it does not make up for a basic lack of skills and poor decision making. I'm not suggesting that having many key players miss a chunk of pre-season is not going to affect our ability to run out games, but it certainly isn't the reason we are losing by well over 10 goals. To lose by that margin you need to play 4 poor quarter of football. Poor fitness usually causes late game fadeouts, or poor displays towards the end of each quarter. We're bad all the time, which is kind of a problem.

Our players are performing the way they are because they are CRAP. Read my lips... CRAP. The few who aren't, are about 13 years old, running around carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders (Morton?!). To expect them to win games on their own is unrealistic. Matthews, Malthouse, Jesus Christ himself couldn't make us play better given our lack of skills, confidence and brains. If you're implying that Bailey is a soft coach you are out of your mind. He's coached 2 games. Our senior players have played more than 150 games. So who are you going to blame for our complete lack of ability and hardness? People will find any excuse to avoid focusing on the real issue at hand, the players. They are the reason we are losing.

FFS, these are professional athletes. Even if they are unhappy that they have a new coach who might not give them the same leniancy, there is still not a chance that they'll play like crap in protest. Dean Bailey is not the problem. If the players can't adapt to change, they know where the door is.

Simmonds is not a star. A good player, but not a star. We got a good deal for him, but sadly used the trade to gain Ellis. Farmer wanted to go home. We did everything we could to keep him. Same goes for Thompson, who is the only real star we've let go lately. Armstrong was never a star. As for Woey, his career went down quicker than the Titanic after we traded him. Bell is still developing nicely. So lets stop with this myth that we've traded away stars. If anything, we haven't traded enough mediocre players and it is now costing us big time. We just don't know when to cut our loses.

A lack of fitness does not excuse an inability to kick, handball or tackle. Maybe you can't run as hard or chase down as many opponents, but if you can't kick it has nothing to do with how many miles you ran in January. On the other hand, given our love affair with running the boundary and over using the ball, it seems reasonable that we'd struggle without a decent fitness base.

The actual ruck contest is important, but what makes a ruckmen vital to the team is an ability to fill a gap up forward or slot into the midfield. Good ruckmen, like Dean Cox influence the play outside of the centre circle. Since Jeff White does not do that anymore, and PJ is at least involving himself in contests, he should be our number one ruck. You can win 100 taps a match, but if they are not effective taps, and if you spend the rest of the match covering for the goal post, than you are useless. That's why Jamar won't make it. I rather a ruckman who breaks even in the centre, but contributes to the game, than a ruckman who wins 100% of the taps but does nothing outside of that. Centre breaks make up a small percentage of play within a match, if that's the ruckman's only contribution than I rather have an extra midfielder on the bench.

Cheers. In your opinion is Rivers ready to return next week, and where can we play CJ to ensure that he actually does something at senior level (e.g.- forward 50)??

Demonland is a place where everyone and anyone came come to discuss Melbourne, even if they are not Melbourne supporters. We have some excellent contributers to this forum who barrack for other teams, and their opinions are more than welcomed around here. While it would be nice if everyone who posts here was a member of the MFC, it is unfair for the site to show prejudice towards those who are unable or unwilling to purchase a membership, but are still keen to discuss the MFC. If you want to show everyone that you're a member, you can include your membership number as part of your signature. Short of that, Demonland can do little more than simply urge everyone to support the club to the best of their financial/physical ability.

A rundown of Frawley's game? Wouldn't mind him getting a game ahead of Weetra or Bode.

Bate (or Dunn) has to play CHF or thereabout. He can take a mark and he can kick 60m if needed. Now that Bartram is back, and Rivers is not far behind (hopefully), could it be time to move Petterd to the half forward line? Sylvia is meant to give us a contest in that area, but heaven forbid we give him such a huge task 5 years into his career Also, 3 dinosaurs (Neitz, Robbo, Newton/PJ) in 1 forward line = disaster!

Had the second highest number of critical, unforced errors yesterdays. 5 years of nothing and counting...

Brock is a better footballer in terms of skills (a much better kick). Jones is a far more consistent player. You could argue that he is Melbourne's most consistent player, as he is yet to have a really bad game. Even though many will disagree, I think we're lucky to have them both. As after years of not being able to get near the ball in the middle, we now have two players who love the contest and can really find the ball in close (even if they lack some leg speed and can look one dimensional). I like that Bailey rested them both up forward during the match yesterday, it is a better option than always sending them to the bench especially as they can both add much needed pressure to our forward line.

I agree with your analysis of his game. Looking at the stats in the paper today, he had equal number of clearances, and 20 disposals (same as Jones). What killed his game was the 6 unforced, critical errors he made. Usually his disposal and decision making is spot on, even if he is not that quick on his feet. I thought that at ball-ups, he and Jones worked beautifully, especially in the first half, to get their hands on the ball 9 out of 10 times. Problem is that he struggled in space, he was constantly put under pressure by his teammates with stupid handballs (those damn handballs!!!) and he coughed the ball up at the wrong times. As the game went on, he got more and more frustrated and started giving away stupid free kicks. Overall he had a poor game, but was hardly the biggest offender on the day.

Losing the match would have been a bigger positive than winning it was. However nobody was going to lose to Carlton that day. To send off one of our best servants in Nathan Brown (and Biz) by losing on purpose to the tanking cheats from Carlton, is a pathetic thing to do. I'm sure we weren't trying overly hard to win the match, and all injured parties were rested. However, at the end of the day players were still going for the ball and doing their best to kick straight in front of goal. If their instincts told them otherwise we would be in a shitload of trouble. I don't want players at Melbourne who are not instinctively hungry and desperate to win. For Carlton losing comes naturally. Thank god we haven't reached that stage yet.

*Happy Dance* Take him off the field now, wrap him in warm cotton wool and unleash his awesomeness next week at Geelong (so that we may lose by less than 278 points). Edit: I knew both Moloney and Petterd must have been dropped due to injury, as neither of them deserved to be punished for the disgusting display against the Hawks. Hopefully both are fit for next week. Beamer usually has a good game against his old side.

Cover your eyes and just hum happy songs for 2.5 hours... this too shall pass...

At half time I think we were winning the clearances something like 20 to 7. Still, I'm surprised you couldn't pick up my obvious sarcasm. And I don't make excuses when there are no excuses to be made. He wasn't injured like he has been in previous bad games. He just had a bad game. He can join the rest of his teammates in the naughty corner.

Don't worry, he'll go the same way most of our 'potential stars' have gone... down the toilet. How good was his kick to Green (was it Green on the lead??). It was like he wasn't even playing for Melbourne the way he hit a target. Definite shinning light so far.

Why don't you just stick a knife in our guts and be done with it? <_< Hey, at least for 3 quarters we were smashing them in the clearances and winning the hardball gets.... woo.....

It's simply terrible. Even our best players are not AFL standard at the moment. What the hell is going on?

Ummm... I'm going Jones and Morton.... too early? I can't believe people are blaming the coach. We haven't been a decent side for over a year now. How come the new guy gets all the blame? What about the people who were in charge for 10 years and gave us the list we have today? Leigh Matthews couldn't get a win out of us at the moment.

Much better today when given a set task to perform. A world of difference when compared to last week's game, so credit where it is due Y_M! Maybe he needs a defensive role each week in order to force accountability and get him really involved in the match? If only he was our only problem...

Sack the coach, go on. It is clearly his fault that of the 44 players he inherited, 42 are crap. Give me a break, this is the downfall we had to have. We could have kept covering up the cracks for 2-3 years with Daniher, but then what? We NEVER would have won a flag, and we would have continued to be a mediocre side that achieves nothing more than one finals appearance each season. Short term pain for long term gain.

Pretty spot on today I think. Morton was the only thing that made me smile today. He can KICK.... someone at Melbourne can HIT A TARGET. Praise the friggin football gods!!! By the way, Buckley needs to stop playing like he's got 100 games experience under his belt. It's great to take them on, but don't try and overdo it. He nearly cost us 2 goals (was 1.1 in the end) because twice he turned it over trying to take on the whole Bulldogs outfit. I love that he has pace and belief in himself, but son, you can't run through brick walls.

The trainer massaging his groin got more stats than he did :D