stranga

What we are seeing tonight wouldnt happen.

The same can be said for Essendons players in that range last year and now look at them

They do this because they have no game plan and no confidence to work the ball out of trouble, that comes form the coach.

we are the laughing stock of the competition yet again and im sick of it. Bailey is another Peter Rohde or Matthew Knights. Hes not upto being a senior coach. He doesnt demand respect and he has no plan B. Half of our team were superstar juniors yet develop into duds?? i dont think so. Its about coaching and development!! No workrate, no intensity no skills! That comes from the top! Brad green is not a leader, circa 2004-2009. Get him to full forward and leave him there. Never has been a midfielder

The club is a joke! Bailey on the bench pretending he's working in things. He has no idea. The clubs in real trouble. No excuses all you over optimists, there is no positives anymore.

Spot on it has to come from upstairs but it may not be so easy. Your point about essendon finishing 14th last year is pretty much my reasoning. Last year they weren't motivated to play the way they are now, whether it be they didn't want to play for knights or knights simply didn't have the ability to instill that mentality into the players. I feel that one of those 2 things is happening at Melbourne at th moment. We havent shown work rate or intensity all year, including the pre season so can you just turn it on? Something needs to spark it. We dont seem to have the onfield leadership to spark it either.

The workrate and pressure from both teams is outstanding. We are miles off this sort of footy.

This. Our skills were generally horrible and we would have been punished by a real team. Backline is terrible, what has happened to the real Grimes? The fact that they nearly outscored us in that third quarter was embarrassing.

Dunn lucky to be named as a starter. Jones and Martin are certainties for bench. The big qn is will Watts survive?

I have to agree. This praising of Watts and justification for selection because he is "leading to the right spots" is ridiculous and slightly embarrassing. The fact is he only touched the ball 6 times and he was playing mostly on the ball. He isnt having an impact on games (one contested mark last week is all i can think of) that any other player, like Petterd, could have if they were playing instead. I understand he gets unfairly critisised sometimes but there are obvious double standards about his performances here at the moment. If he cant have an impact against the Gold Coast kids its time for him to have a run at Casey.

Absolutely bad call (accepting mediocrity call). We played bad footy and were outplayed for more than half the game against a team who will get beaten by bigger margins most weeks. The scoreboard for one game only means so much in the bigger picture of winning a premiership if you arent playing good football and making progress in the areas required to beat the good teams. Would a 10 point win against the Gold Coast next week be satisfactory because we get the 4 points? Absolutely not.

A rubbish win against a rubbish team. I take nothing from that game other than promise from gysberts. Same issues as the past month except Brisbane are very bad.

Correct, form memory the missing players were either forwards or defenders. The mids were absolutely slaughtered at the clearances in particular and there was no tackling pressure, not dissimilar to last weekend.

Given how bad our midfield is, and how easily theirs brushed us aside in the practice game, im extremely concerned. Lets just hope their lack of forward options makes it hard for them to convert.

I have to strongly disagree about Jones. Hes been in the system for 5 years and has made little progress. He is not a key position player who needs longer to develpop as he has the body size. He doesnt possess any attributes to be a versatile player. Its the same limitations that constantly hold him back. His form is terrible, and his role in the leadership team shouldn't prevent him from being dropped. Neville Jetta needs some continuation to gain some confidence, id like to see him stay in for the next couple of weeks at least as he showed some promise in the preseason.

I also agree. Its the worst quarter ive ever seen, by any team. What hurts more is that we were all fed the garbage about the team taking the next step this year and that youth is no longer an excuse. If thats the case then where do we stand now? Both the players and coaches are at fault but I feel that there are such fundamental issues with our game plan and structures set by the coaches that the players have little hope in those situations. On top of that most of them cant help that they were born soft. Its the club who drafted them. We need some toughness in this side desperately. Junior and Jordie I miss you.

You all act like these players are your best mates and you have to defend them at all costs. They arent and they dont read these boards trust me. They dont really care what supporters feel or say.

Bailey's dead pan attitude is really bugging me now. Show some passion man! Show some anger or discontent. No wonder the players cant get motivated to lay more tackles than the Gold Coast did with 12 debutants. Paul Roos was spot on, we are the most concerning club in the competition with our lack of leadership and lack of game plan. Watching some of those disgraceful efforts and turnovers in the back half again really highlighted how low we sunk on Sunday. The players literally gave up and stopped caring.

It wont let me vote for none.

THIS Also, Jones Maric Watts, Garland(inj) OUT Gysberts, Wanna, Macdonald, McDonald IN

Excellent post! Its these fundamentals that the coaching staff are not instilling in our players.

It's bailey who should be getting the spray! Our game plan is non existent. We have Bo resemblance of an Afl team. We can't do the fundamentals. Worst performance since round 1 2008. Geez we've come a long way haven't we

We are a disgrace, pathetic effort. Put your money down on gold coast getting their first win in 2 weeks. Re coaches and recruiters are responsible for this that's who! Rabble

Actually now that you've put it like that I absolutely agree.

Given the recent dominance the Hawks have had over us in all facets i find it hard to even contemplate beating them at this stage. We need to drastically improve our fwd line defensive pressure to prevent the ball getting down to their twin towers as easily as it did to Goodes last week.