Undeeterred

We're done. This game and for at least the next 3-4 years.

Why does everybody equate basketball with a lack of intensity? If you all are going to use 'basketball' as shorthand for being soft, get a grip. Good basketballers play tougher than Jack Watts does, it has nothing to do with the sport itself.

Mods, ban me or whatever, but not before I call this poster a complete and utter [censored].

All I'm saying is that there is no point winning a few easy games against teams away from home, when you have absolutely zero chance of beating anybody who puts the remotest bit of pressure on you. In the longer term, we are far better working out how to play decent defensive football, rather than beating teams in soft games and getting murdered against teams like Hawthorn. When a decent team with firepower puts pressure on us, we have absolutely nothing to fire back with. I'm thinking in particular of a couple of Haw games where we were down by 10-15 goals at half time, and for large patches couldn't get the ball beyond the back flank. I honestly reckon that sucked worse than what is going on now. I don't want that to be the trade off for winning a few games a year against interstate teams not at their best.

You clearly never saw us repeatedly belted by Hawthorn and Collingwood, and I mean belted. It was all one way traffic against teams like Adelaide and Freo at the G. As soon as it got a bit hard we were absolutely flogged. As much as I detest Mitch Robinson, he got it exactly right with his bruise free footy comment.

What a very compassionate response! Well done, champ.

So two blokes out on the [censored] have a bit of a shove. Yeah, that would be the first time mates have ever done that before. Gosh, people, relax! Yes, we are playing crap football but, surprisingly, it's not because they are having a drink after the game.

Mate, you are absolutely kidding yourself.

Yes, yes it is. Take a chill pill.

I think that reaction was due to the constant barrage he has copped from them. He's allowed to be sick of those parasites without it having any bearing on his interactions with his players.

There's no need to be so aggressive about everything, Stuie. Good to see you've done some digging, and my point stands. They took very crap teams, and made them slightly less crap. Now, obviously the Blues made the 8 that year, so I take your point partly, but essentially it takes time. Sacking people every few minutes doesn't achieve anything except keep the merry go round going. The other point you've clearly supported for me is that none of them were sacked after 3 games.

Irrelevant. The point is they each had rabid fans and journalists after them and basically learned, developed a list and made their teams a hell of a lot better.

Frawley will walk the second he is free to...

Go back and look at Clarkson's, Hardwick's and Ratten's results in their first couple of years. Sacking the coach now would be utterly ridiculous. Where would that get us??

Jamar has never been able to run with mobile ruckmen like Jolly and Cox and they routinely rip us a new one. At least Spencer and Gawn can run with them.

I was only listening on the radio, so didn't get the live view. I'm wavering between being happy that we were competitive but not able to go with the big WCE bodies down forward and the rampaging midfield, and asking why the hell we didn't stick with competitive one on one footy. That third quarter, when we let Priddis run free, might be when Neeld finally lost me. That's coaching 101, surely, to lock down one on one on the players who are tearing you up. It isn't fair to blame the defenders. They just aren't big enough and good enough to stem the flow. No defence can withstand the ball coming in that quickly, frequently and easily. It sounded like we went to sh!t when they put a man behind the ball and we didn't man up. Why would we do that, when manning up and having 7 forwards worked so well for a half. It beggars belief that we'd put Clark behind the ball, rather than giving ourselves one on one match ups going forward. Sounded like a few blokes had a go, and we've found a few in Evans, Terlich and Matt Jones. Also sounds like Jamar is the same useless lump as always, and that Tom McDonald will be a star. Give it time folks, although I really think I am ready to admit for the first time that Neeld just has to be a better game day tactician.

Too many cooks, methinks.

Disagree. The media will get off his back when we stop running him under a bus and giving them something to write about.

Nothing to do with BP, it is our idiot selection policy to blame this time...

Hate to honk the horn from the driver's seat of the reality bus, but we are going to get absolutely belted.

I've also noticed that Col is almost universally in any photo the club posts of sick kids in hospitals etc. Think it is a bit rough to label him as someone who doesn't care about people. Go nuts about his compete lack of care on the field, but he doesn't seem to be a bad bloke off it.

Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out.

You mean the bloke who prosecuted the tanking investigation? No thanks.

I had a lazy day at work the other day and didn't get anyything done. I feel really bad about it. Does that mean I should stay home this weekend and stare at the walls?

Won't post the link, but AD was quoted in The Age today offering support to the MFC. He's only a phone call away, apparently. What blatant, outrageous hypocrisy. The AFL tormented us mercilessly for most of last season and the entire offseason, fined us for something that we didn't do, and clearly caused more lasting damage to the club than is immediately obvious. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the current problems could be attributed to Chris Connolly falling on his sword just before the season commenced.