deegirl

Hunt - really want him to be, but don't think he's up to it

It's time for Lewis & Vince. And the end is coming fast for Jones.

Very hard to split Oliver and Brayshaw but Oliver is just ahead for me, haven't loved a player this much since I first saw a young no52 from Shepparton.

My ten cents. I don't give a stuff about the camp but I do care the leadership team went to the AFLPA rather than the coaches to raise their concerns. It made the playing group look like they couldn't hack pressure. And when not being able to hack the pressure becomes a common theme on field, you look at saying no to the camp and question whether they've done all they could to prepare themselves.

See @Demon3 I disagree with that. Why does anyone have to get over Lyon being involved in the monumental disaster that was the hiring of Neeld? Not disputing I'd be more zen if I let it go but the reality is Lyon was all care and no responsibility for the Neeld hire and he deserves ongoing criticism. I don't like that he was able to waltz in, hire a spud, then walk away. That and I've never forgiven him for chasing Pikey out of the club ?

I'm still filthy about that effort so rather than try for a coherent post here's my rants 1. Momentum. We can't control it. We're either playing like millionaires or we drop our bundle (as per the 2nd quarter). This isn't a recent development, it's been an issue for seasons. To me that comes down to on-field leadership. We don't have anyone on-field who can refocus the group. 2. Skills (specifically goal kicking). We are a disgrace. Wasting the footy and leaving the door open for teams to stay in the fight. How do we call Hogan a forward yet he can't kick further than 40? Even TMac has got the yips! Call me old fashioned but these jerks are getting paid to kick goals, it shouldn't be that hard. 3. Not good enoughs. JKH, ANB, VDB, Hunt - not up to it. You could argue Pedo falls into this category but we've always known he's a good ordinary footballer who can be counted on to play his part. Six weeks ago I had Harmes in this bucket and his improvement has been remarkable. Here's hoping the others show half that much upside. 4. Show ponies. Trac & Hogan. Trac does not do enough. And Hogan should stick to sulking and surfing. 5. Leadership. We have no on-field leaders. There's no General rallying the players. 6. Not enough mongrel. Yes, there's the Vineys, Brayshaws and Olivers who are born with it, but the rest, it can be intermittent. They have to be savages 120 mins a week, 23 weeks a year. Final word - I hate watching these cunches. Supporting Melbourne isn't fun. They let you down every time.

How this guy has held his spot is beyond me. A player who rates himself a lot better than he is. And please don't tell me about the running capability. It means stuff all if he can't dispose of it. He's the perfect metaphor for our list. Looks good when there's no pressure & goes missing when the heat is on.

He might be directed to play in front but he rarely does it. Tonight was one for Bad Jesse - played from behind, poor pressure & went to ground too easily.

Agree 100% - Hogan rarely takes front position & it is extremely frustrating. At the the other end of the ground, we looked much better with Frost in the side. I mentioned this in another thread but Frost's solid return made me angrier about the arrogance of selecting Petty when he clearly wasn't ready.

Everything about them is annoying me so here's just two of my concerns Gawn's goalkicking. Yes Max, you're a laidback champion and all round funny guy but the casual attitude in front of goal has cost us one game and will continue to cost us. How about some "hey google, find me a goal kicking coach". Frost playing his part in defence. A week on and I remain furious by the arrogance displayed by the selection committee by selecting Petty ahead of Frost against St Kilda. They thought they could get away with playing a kid and it cost us. It also shows it's not just the players who mark down games as easy wins.

Agree - we saw signs of it last season, and now the instances of them being caught out for being too slow are happening with more frequency.

Same here. I cannot handle another Goodwin press conference where he trots out the line "we didn't play the brand of footy we want to be known for". Reality is the last two games were an opportunity to show we're serious and sadly we couldn't hack it. These pricks will let us down every time.

Jetta - Not Nev's best Lever - Horrible first game Hibberd - Came into it Hunt - Got better McDonald - Solid Jones - effectiveness of disposal? Gawn - Good game Oliver - Love Vince - Came into it Salem - Looked good early Neal-Bullen - Didn't do enough Lewis - Undisciplined Petracca - showed a lot Pedersen - Not his best Harmes - Not convinced Fritsch - Not there yet Garlett - Quiet Hogan - Worked hard Wagner - No Hannan - Didn't do enough Maynard - Not yet Melksham - Didn't do enough We need to think seriously about whether we can play Jones, Lewis & Vince in the same side.

This hurts. GWS are a good side, losing to them when they're on song is one thing...letting crucial games go to North (x2), Fremantle & Hawthorn is another thing entirely.

Beyond furious with that effort. Walked out with 3 mins left to play & don't care who calls me a bad supporter. [censored] useless.

That was pathetic. There's any number of things wrong with today's effort but the fact that we'd dragged ourselves in front only to let it go - that kills me. All they had to do was not be [censored] for 120 seconds and they weren't capable of that.

Bang on. That he has no right foot is the thing that could hold him back from elite.

Not sure about the Stretch review. He is developing with every game that he plays. He makes the right decisions with the footy and he has the skills to execute.

From a female perspective this is just another example of everyday casual sexism. Sure, Eddie and Co didn't really want to drown Caroline, but they certainly wanted to embarrass and make a fool of her. And why - cause she's had the audacity not to play by their school boy rules. They wouldn't degrade another bloke in public like they did Caro - the bro code doesn't allow for that. The same bro code that has allowed was someone like Wayne Carey - who glassed his girlfriend - to be accepted back into the media. Eddie McGuire is comfortable ignoring Wayne's track record but can't handle a journalist suggesting it might be time for him to give away his club presidency. Any one saying this is the PC police overreacting is totally missing the point - have a look at the current 'Stop it before it starts' campaign. It's about changing attitudes. Or maybe think about the fact today would've been Luke Batty's 14th birthday.

The only thing that will make this funnier is if EFC appoint Neeld as the interim coach

I rarely post but had to share my rage at today's effort. I walked out at half time. And I get that makes me a bad supporter but I've simply had enough of these games where from the first bounce they show nothing. Yesterday Essendon at least had a crack for Q1 before falling away. Our blokes seemed to be unconscious. And this isn't the first time, this is a pattern. We only have to look as far back as last week against North - we lost the game via a horrible first quarter. This has all been said before by other posters so it's not new news - but I had to vent. All these Essendon & Carlton supporters who are whinging about their seasons, they know nothing. MFC 2007-2015 is the baseline for supporter killing football.

I am beyond angry with this footy club. There has been zero accountability for the last seven years administration, and an unwillingness to be honest about what went wrong. The 186 loss to Geelong was the moment and as a footy club we've never recovered from it. I put that firmly at the feet of the then admin of the club and we've since seen ZERO accountability for the way things were managed. It's an awful, not pleasant truth, but through out Jim Stynes illness the admin allowed a leadership vacuum to happen, which gave people like Schwab and Connolly free reign. We're still feeling the after effects. This may make me extremely unpopular on is forum but for the club to move on there needs to be transparency about what happened in the lead up to 186 - those events wrecked the mindset of the playing list. This ruined list was then handed to crazy Mark Neeld. The rest is history.

This underlines the fact there is a huge difference between being an assistant at a successful club and being a senior coach at a rubbish one.

Yesterday was horrible, they've gotten so bad it's difficult to prioritise which problems need to be addressed first. This is old fashioned, but the coach isn't on the ground with the players - they're the ones who are in the contests, helping their teammates, spreading, putting pressure on - as a collective there is very little intensity about our game. No matter how confusing or restrictive the coaches instructions these blokes should want to smash every contest they're in and they don't. Example - Frawley used to be an animal for it. You could see he hated being beaten & threw everything he had at beating his man. Now he looks either disinterested or half hearted. He's had some injuries but that shouldn't have ruined his intensity. As a supporter watching this stuff I constantly wonder are they not embarrassed - and not even by the loses, but the fact that as an individual they didn't give it 100%. After an effort like yesterday you could count on one hand the few that could look their teammates in the eye.

He has no mongrel and no desire for the contest, end of story. At at better club with better players around him it would be less obvious but unfortunately for Jack there's no hiding in the rabble that is our current side.