Jaded No More

Agreed. Two soft tissue injuries. One of which is no doubt related to weight. The 3 knee injuries are just bad luck. Thankfully none appear to be long-term, season-ending stuff. Davey's ankle has been suspect since he hurt it at pre-season training. Frawley is in his first year and obviously pushed his body too much too quickly. The only question mark I have over Bodhan, is whether he has any influence over the way we're rotating our midfielders. We're doing it far too often IMO, and it's hurting our midfield rhythm.

Can we have your top 5? Neitz, Brock....?

If that's the case, it will be far too late. From round 11 onwards we: - Play at TD 3 times - Have 4 interstate games - Play Freo, Doggies and Sydney... all top 4 contenders. If we're 2-6 at Round 8, we can absolutely kiss our season goodbye. Watch us crumble like we always do, with the negative defeatist mid-set setting in, and Daniher's career as coach well and truly over. If we're 2-6 at Round 8, we may as well go all out to try and score a good draft pick and maybe secure a top ruckman/ defender/ FF. Afterall, the aim of this year was to finish top 4 and have a real go at winning a premiership. Scraping into the 8 again is about as useful as [censored] on a bull. But for the love of all that is red and blue, I desperately hope that you're wrong and that we'll start coming alive next week.

Seems that Bartram's knee injury sustained at training is rather serious. According to Daniher in today's Herald Sun: "We think Clint (Bartram) might have nicked a cartilage. We'll get him scanned and he may need some operation to clean it up" You can read the rest of this depressing article here

You can criticize anyone you like, just make sure you do so tactfully, and with due respect. The reason I locked the David Neitz thread last night, was because everyone was upset, and it showed in their replies. It serves no purpose to have posters abusing one another. I really didn't feel like having to edit every second reply, especially when there were so many other posts that needed editing. If you have issues with the way I moderated, I guess you can take it up with the other moderators. If they deem it appropriate, they will reopen the thread.

Whelan was woeful. One of his worst performances in a long time. Maybe he's still suffering the affects from last week's injury. I guess we let him off the hook for once, because he's always been a sensational, hard-working player. But he was terrible yesterday, Williams made a meal of him, and he got frustrated and gave away silly free kicks. Bell should have been given the role on Williams a lot sooner. Sadly, the coaches box has the reaction time of a senior centre.

Bless your cotton socks Dan! Sometimes I think I'm the only one around here who actually sees Belly for what he truely is, a great player with loads of potential. Rock on Belly! P.S.- midfield for me too, just as long as Wheels finds some form.

Whether you are new to Demonland, or whether you've been posting here for a while, you no doubt realise that after every loss comes a big explosion of anger, disgust and accusation. This is why this site exists, so that frustrated Melbourne supporters can come and express their opinions. However, please make yourselves familiar with our code of conduct (found at the top of the boards), which states clearly that we do not accept meaningless player abuse, and we will not tolerate posters abusing one another. I seem to be the only active moderator right now, and I'm trying my best to let everyone express themselves, but be warned, if you cross the line I will not hesitate to delete your post and issue you with a warning. As a general rule, it might be best to think and breath before you post. Cheers!

I'm locking this thread on grounds of stupidity and also because I cannot be bothered editing every second abusive reply, which will inevitably come after these comments.

Dutchy will come in to cover Ottens or King. Ferguson is not a forward, he doesn't have the smarts to know where to lead and he isn't very strong one-on-one. If that's the options we have, I rather we bring in someone raw like Newton, who may end up doing nothing in the short term, but who at least will give us some insight into our future. If Dunn has recovered from the operation, bring him back too. If he's not 100% match fit, play him out of the square all game where he doesn't have to do a lot of running. PJ should not be given a role as a forward until he learns to mark overhead. It's a pretty basic skill for a guy his height playing football.

I want some of what you've taken tonight! Miller, Bell and Jones are the only real positives in my mind, but it's very hard to remain upbeat after not only losing the game, but also suffering injuries to key players. Hopefully the inclusion of some young players next week will bring about more reasons to be optimistic.

How long is this rebuilding process going to continue? Our club may not survive through another sustained period of crap.

Bell deserves votes. Nullified Dixon, then went on to shut down a red-hot Williams. He also showed good pace and composure with his disposal. Made one stupid mistake, giving away the 50m penalty, but overall was our best defender along with Rivers. Small comfort, having two of our more maligned players play good games.

He did fluff a few kicks, and drop a few sitters, but overall he was good, especially in the last quarter. I agree that we cannot point the finger at guys who have barely played 10 games. Their job is to learn from their mistakes, not take the blame for the mistakes of our senior players and leaders. He and Jones are the least of our worries.

Not bad. If Pickett is fit, he gets the nod ahead of Buckley. Not sure giving Yze one week in the VFL is going to change the way he goes about his game, but given our injury woes, we are not left with much choice.

Ch. 7 news just said Robbo couldn't walk into the rooms, he was in that much pain. He was running up and down the boundry trying to recover, why the hell did they bring him on with 5 minutes to go, when the game was gone anyways? He hurt it again as soon as he came on. Stupidty from everyone involved!

Newsflash, PJ cannot ruck. I find it extremely worrying that Melbourne supporters are pinning all of their hopes on an extremely mediocre player who is yet to do anything at senior level.

Well apperantly Neita could be out for 3 weeks or more, and Robbo couldn't even walk into the rooms, so PJ may come in by default.

Sorry to break the news to you, but PJ is not the answer to our problems, not even close.

Another one to add to the list is attitude. At the start of every quarter I watched our players closely, and a lot of them had their head down, hands on hips and they just looked defeated. Hold your head up, and take some pride in the jumper. It may only be a minor issue, but it's part of a bigger problem in regards to mental fragility and loser mentality.

Every game he doesn't play, just adds to my theory that he is our single most important player. Not just because he is a damn good player, but also for his leadership, his hardness and his attitude.

Completely and utterly disagree in regards to Bell. Was our best defender along with Jared, but an absolute mile. Not sure why he is rated so poorly around this place either. He showed Whelan how it's done today! Carroll was ok, nothing out of the ordinary. He is a solid FB, but he is no star. Miller was also good. How anyone can say he failed, is beyond me. Marked nearly everything that came his way, kicked 2 very good goals and led hard all day. He was the only one still presenting in the last quarter. White was awful out the middle. Jamar had more influence in the ruck than White.

Had a very good game despite the broken nose. Should be proud of his efforts. He totally killed Dixon, and did well on Williams too.

Heard nothing about Moloney. The Doc on MMM said Neita was doing the warm-down and looked fine, and we shouldn't rule him out for next week.

He cannot kick, pure and simple. His disposal for an elite player is shameful. He fluffed more kicks than I care to remember. Started like a house on fire, but as soon as we started losing he disappeared. He apperantly had 29 possessions, but his influence was minimal at best. Bate did make a couple of mistakes by foot, as did Jones, but gees at least they were out there running and trying their guts out, and they had VERY limited support from senior players who are meant to be carrying the side. Poor coaching from Daniher to play TJ up forward when he couldn't get near it and Bate at FF when he is clearly not suited to the role. Also, Whelan on Williams for far too long. Bell pretty much nullified him in the last, apart from giving away a silly free kick which resulted in a goal. Speaking of which, Wheatley... what are you thinking?? White was really poor in the middle, which made us look even worse in the middle. Really I thought our most useful, hardest working midfielder was Godfrey (honorable mentions to Jones and Junior as always), which in itself should tell you how badly we played today. But, it's only round 2... we're not allowed to panic yet, right?