Jaded No More

Garland was the least of our problems. He was ok defensively and he tried to provide some run. Someone needs to physical remove Gillies from this team forever. Worst defender I've seen at Melbourne, and I've sat through a lot of Alistair Nicholson. Totally and utterly hopeless. And lost his cool as well to give away dumb frees. Just epically terrible.

Doing nothing is worse than doing something. I'm a cautious person and I'm never one for rash decisions, but tonight was worse for me than 186. On our home ground, against Essendon with all due respect. We can't afford to continue on this road. We just can't. If we don't keep trying to fix this club, then all that's left to do is sit and wait for it to die and I refuse to see that happen. If we go down, let's at least go down fighting.

We also can't afford to carry on like this. I'd rather be in debt and be winning than be debt free and win free.

We are stuck in this losing culture, a cycle of poverty if you will. The more we lose the worse the confidence is within the team, so the worse they play and the worse we get. And so on and so forth. Players, quality players, dropping sitters, fumbling, making stupid errors, looking up at an empty forward line, it's all in their head. Mark Neeld can train them to run around unopposed and do well, but he can't instil any sort of confidence in them to do it under pressure. He himself admitted as much last week. I actually feel sorry for Frawley and Jones and Clark and Grimes and Howe. Hell I feel for Watts when he hears people cheering his substitution. Imagine what that must do for his confidence. But that's Neeld's job. He needs to get them ready for games and instead after every break we come out and concede an immediate goal. I mean WTF is that? He has to take responsibility for this terrible game plan, but most of all, he has to be accountable for the players' mindset, because that is the biggest problem right now.

Gillies. Seriously, what sick joke is that? He needs to go away. Quickly. Embarrassment. I was hoping Ben Holland would come on.

Well he can join the rest of us.

The only thing worse than this mess is supporters telling other supporters to stop being angry at this mess.

Our players are not this bad. Our list is not this bad. There is being poor, unskilled, unfit and then there is not knowing what to do and not wanting to do it. Something is very very wrong, with everyone, but the reality is we can't ditch the whole list but we can move on the coaching panel and hope it helps.

Dean Bailey had no Clark. Dean Bailey was a terrible coach. Dean Bailey was coaching to lose. WE WERE BETTER UNDER [censored] DEAN BAILEY. Make this stop. Please somebody make this never ending torturous ride to hell just stop.

Well I'm out. I am speechless, and devoid of ideas and this feels like the lowest of the lows, the bottom of the bottomless pit. It feels like this is the end.

Clearly a sucker for punishment I am. So many better things to do tonight, yet here we are, heading to the footy. This better be a vast improvement. I don't expect a win but FFS, some competitive spirit would be lovely.

My message to Jack Watts... if you are reading this, don't.

Probably because Frawley > Alistair Nicholson > Ben Holland > Cameron Pedersen ? Lets get real, Frawley was crap last week, but he is still in our top 5 best players (top 2 in his time). We can't drop him if we actually want to get close to not losing.

I'm disappointed not to see Jetta or Strauss but Nicholson is retained. Honestly there are no big tough calls, which could work for those trying to redeem themselves but is also letting some off too easy. If we serve the same slop this week, I would want to see big names dropped, not just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Thank god we get some quality back with Trenners and McDonald.

Here is a radical idea, our midfield is pure and utter rubbish. Jack Watts can kick a footy. Jack Watts does not like man on man defensive pressure. Jack Watts should play on a wing. FFS just do something different. How much worse can we get?

Sack the coach, don't sack the coach, replace the CEO, replace the list, fire darts into the players' behinds, it doesn't matter. If things don't change drastically and quickly, this club will not survive. We are not financially or culturally sustainable, and we will evaporate into thin air if we continue to carry on like the spineless, loser, hopeless organisation that we've become. And neither Neeld, nor many of our players seem to give two sh*ts about the fact that 30,000 odd people who love this club desperately, are going to lose an important part of their life.

If you knew your workplace was going bankrupt and you had an opportunity to go somewhere else, would you? Yes footy is not a normal job, but to these players, it is their job, their livelihood, and they all want to be successful. Some are crap players and should be so lucky to play for a crap team where they can get a game, but some, like Frawley, would walk into any side and win games. Maybe premierships. Human nature suggests that when you have no hope where you are, you look to get out, go somewhere better. Do you blame Rivers for leaving? I don't. Would I blame Frawley for leaving? Not if he went to a successful club in search of a premiership (leaving for money is a different story). Bottom line is, good players who have regressed under Neeld will want to leave. It makes sense, and it's frightening.

Imagine spending 10 minutes not feeling utterly embarrassed at being a Melbourne supporter. Big rich clubs, even when they are having a down patch, can feel safe in the knowledge that they have supporters, money and power to help pull them up the ladder. We are dirt poor, have a small supporter base on the verge of a well-deserved nervous breakdown, and are constantly treated like crap by the AFL. We need every bit of help we can get, and yet we continue to stuff up draft picks, coaching selections and game plans. We can't even help ourselves, so how on earth do we expect to ever become the sort of powerhouse we are all so damn jealous of? All we seem to hear from our club is "stick with us", "we need to become an elite club", "the performance/ coach/ draft was unacceptable, but we are working on it". And all I want to hear from our club is our song, at the end of a match, against a decent team, more than once in 2 years.

My free time and my money is very important. I work bloody hard for both. And I choose to spend it on this club, year after miserable year. You wanna call me a fair weather supporter, and I want to punch you in the face. Deal? I've gone to games sick, on crutches, during exams, I've missed birthdays, family events and many other things to make time to go and watch us play. I spend hundreds each year on a membership without fail, even when I barely have the money. So if I wanna boo a team that plays like absolute shite with complete and utter disregard for the fans or the jumper, than I friggin well will and who the hell are you to tell me otherwise. I deserve better for my time and money. We all do. And the players and coaches should know that what they have dished up for 6 years now is unacceptable.

He also turned up an hour early for recovery this morning. Like I said in another thread, I want to apologize to him because he deserves better. It's not his fault his dad played for us and now he's stuck in this shite too. What a pathetic state of play.

Can someone explain Neeld's game plan? I think I'm fairly knowledgable, and I watch a lot of footy, and I have no idea what it is Neeld is trying to do with our team. With Bailey it was all attack no defence. With Neeld it's no attack, no defence, no nothing. The one time he made a real move on the field, by putting Garland at FF, we won. We actually won a game. And yet he hasn't taken a risk, or made a single move or change to his unexplainable game plan since. Players always have to be accountable for what happens on the field, but after two full pre-seasons, so does the coach. He can't sit at a post match conference and cry me a river and tell me he never saw this coming. If he hasn't seen this coming, it says that he also has no idea how to fix it. Now that's a worry!

Not sure if anyone else saw how filthy he was with himself after he came off for the first time. He was being rotated having just fumbled the ball. He came off and he swore at himself. He was livid at making a mistake, in what was probably his first possession at AFL level. Show me a single senior player in our team who cares this much and I'll be happy. Maybe we wouldn't be so effing terrible if we had more players who demanded perfection from themselves. So lets cut him some slack FFS. He will be fine.

Good to see some people are focusing on the real problems being faced by this club right now. Up there with the trumpeter drama this is. Poor kid had one game, and his team lose by 79 points. I think I'll give him two more before I scrap him. Also LOL at the Hogan comment. He is already better than the spuds that are Sellar, Pederson and Gilles and has the potential to be much better than Dawes and even Clark himself.

Dear Jack Viney, I am very sorry.

There was a lot to make you feel sick today, but Clark going down was seriously the moment I wanted to just give it all up, walk out and never come back. Great to see him come back on, but he could hardly walk and I'm sick of so few trying so hard and killing themselves in the process. Bring Dawes in, underdone or otherwise, we have to help this poor man before he does irreparable damage, because god knows he's trying.