Deecisive

I thought the free was for holding the ball after his fall and the freo player falling over him.

you make some good points Jrn - though I have to admit that I do not blade roos, watching the game I did not see our players chasing, tackling well enough, kicking well enough and essentially all the sort of things a football team is supposed to do. As for the loose man, I suspect our loose man was Cross who headed up our stats, the fact that he turns it over a bit or holds onto the ball until everyones covered, a bit like Jetta, Dunn, M Jones, Garland, Hogan, Grimes, Dawes (when he gets it) and others do. seasons almost over the players know it and are playing like it. I don't think I have seen N Jones play so many bad games in a row, ever.... Today has to have been his absolute worst.

we obviously need a better midfield coach as our defensive pressure on their midfield was a lot of the time woeful, while ours midfield players were scrappy at best. Cross has me in two minds, he notched up a lot of possessions, but he does some dumb arse stuff with the ball that costs us goals, momentum and confidence. Too many players just don't want to take the quick safe 20 meter pass and hold onto the ball looking for better options and in the end are rushed to kick it along the boundary. I don't really understand how we can bomb the ball into our own 50 meter zone and not have a forward or someone there to contest against opposition players who tend to take easy uncontested marks. Shepherding is obviously a lost art at Melbourne as is the word chase. All day long freo players were running by themselves time and time again with Melbourne players no where near them. as for chipping backwards, god we are so predictable, chip from side to side until an opposition player can intercept in the corridor and waltz into goal.

witches hats would put more pressure on freo than some Melbourne players.

tacklers should also attempt to grab the ball carriers arm to stop him from handballing as well. handballing in circles is what they do in practice, so change your practice one handball then quick kick down field to one of our players advantage. chase the ball carriers at all times either to support if we have it or tackle/put pressure on them if they have it. never turn your back on play, stay alert and look for any opportunity to move the ball on toward our goals.

I would think that Roos will be looking for Riley to make a significant impact early in the game

such a pessimist... I have no doubt we will be right up there with them on the score board... right up to the time that someone bounce the ball and starts the game.

his a kid who has demonstrated that he does have talent just needs to body and the confidence to do it at AFL level. I think it is a good move.

should have rested howe this week and make sure he is up for the giants game, maybe the team can chip in and give him some cheap possessions so it makes his stats look a lot better!

I love spencer up forward he will be a headache for anyone to tackle with his height and he has proven he can kick a goal or two.

I wonder if we have since reduced that offer given the last few games he has played. He would gave expected Melbourne to help him bid his salary up, guess he will be sadly mistaken. obviously has delusions of grandeur.

I really have to wonder if this side believes they are far better than what they are. We have won games against some of the better sides in the competition but run out onto the field and loose the ones we should be winning against undermanned VFL sides. really have not seen any where near the desperation the dogs, blues, saints and bombers showed.

Roos is a decent enough coach, we need a defensive side to our game, which is what he has tried to provide, unfortunately today was a prime example of players not executing or not executing well. We turned the ball over time and time again, gave them cheap frees in front of goal, etc... when the players are not putting in then it does not matter who is coaching them. he is putting what he considers is his best side on the park each week, if they cannot mark, kick, chase or tackle during a game then we will loose again and again and again.....

I really don't think cross is worth the effort any more, he maybe a great leader and clubman but he just turns things over far too often, and that ultimately costs us because our players are usually running the other way. Howe had a shocker, sorry that should be another shocker, does not look interested does not chase hard enough. I think sit him out for the rest of the season, so that he does not lower his value any further. I cannot see paying him $500+ for efforts like that. That's the sad thing we are paying players for their potential not their actual output, otherwise we would be saving a fortune in wages. Hogan, this guy has to learn to have a defensive side to his game, he is a great mark but if he is held out of the contest then he just gives up. Jones was woeful again, quite a few weeks in a row that he has been a real liability in the midfield. while is getting tagged he just seems to be looking for the free kick for holding and scragging. Vince, did not tag effectively and did not contribute anywhere near enough. While mitchy did a few things well, he really needs to learn how to tackle and chase. he just gives up far too easily. Garletts performance was disgraceful, Why the hell would he jump up to tackle a much taller player and give away a round the neck, plus multiple other dumb arse frees. Garland was scragging all day long with 4 umpires who seemed to see , did a few useful things, but also some dumb stuff as usual. Maxy tried, but he needs help in the ruck too, also lessons on hitting to advantage. Surely after playing together so long they should be able to figure out where to tap the damn ball besides at the opposition and at the feet of our players. Lamumba was not sighted, which is strange considering how often the ball was down his half. Brayshaw is a champ, but is still not a patch on where he was before the neck injury. a brilliant kicker. Salem a good first game back, well compared to the rest of the team that is. Viney a trier, needs more help and needs to improve his disposal, cannot fault his endeavour as he is aways trying. Dawes I like his aggression but he gives away too many frees and turns the ball over, well that is on the few occasions he gets it. Harmes welcome to the big league, needs to adapt to the speed of the game, needs to think and move quicker. maybe he will get better with a bit more experience. I don't know how many times I saw a Melbourne player run past the opposition player with the ball chasing their man instead of taking out the man with the ball. our players like to corral the opposition instead of tackling. but then 5 tackles in a quarter sums up our bruise free football. too many of our players had more hand passes than kicks, cheap possessions for some as they waxed back and forth before turning it over Kicking % was worse than an VFL side quality, there is no excuse for such pathetic kicking from 'professional' footballers. we were led to the ball all day long and when they made mistakes and there was no one there to tackle or put pressure on them.

how can these guys take the money they do for performances like this. no point blaming umpires or roos these are they people out on the field not manning up, trotting behind their opponents, not chasing, not tackling and turning the ball over every time they get it. against a nothing side like carlton. disgraceful.

pathetic effort midfield is doing nothing put cross onto crips so we can get something out of Bernie

we are so quick to denigrate our own players how many times have people declared a player a dud and that we should dump him only to find they have the ability to rise up, Gawn would have been gone, as would most if not all of our Jacks, with probably Hogan the only one exception based on the experience and wisdom of this forum. we do not have a team playing as a team consistently when we have we have played well often including many of those people have called duds and wanted traded. Bringing any player into our team is not in itself going to solve our problems we need team play made up of A, B and C graders all doing their jobs.

we are meters behind all their players and not real effort to run. too slow to move the ball on absolutely gutless effort. do we actually have any onballers in the middle doing anything other than standing around like witches hats

opposition talls often have a day out against our existing defence. we need to get another big tall defender until we can draft one the fitzy maybe our best option when available.

Norf killed us running out of our backline, too often they went end to end without a Melbourne players touching or putting on pressure. Norf had men free all over the paddock as our players ran around behind or beside them instead of tackling. I hated to see Boomer Harvey dancing around and faking our players out so easily. All in all not a total disaster I saw a lot of positives today, Dawes was very good as was Hogan. Viney's up and under was impressive as usual, we sadly missed Vince, Nate Jones and especially brayshaws drive. I would have preferred to see brayshaw in the half back line as he breaks the lines and delivers forward well.

pathetic lack of effort from our midfield, well make that the whole side

fitzy in to give us another tall option both as a ruckman and a possible backman, we found it damn hard to match up brown last time, we don't want to make the same mistake again. Fitzy gives us better options.

Lets not forget that china has a lot of companies and millionaires who could provide sponsorship, not only in supporting football in China but also to provide sponsorship to the dees in Melbourne.

Ollie wines injured... could have a long term shoulder problem http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/port-adelaides-ollie-wines-dislocates-shoulder-20150802-gipo8a.html

Dawes still has a lot of potential football in front of him, he seems to be better up the ground rather than hanging in the forward line. maybe that's what he needs to do more of. also I think he is trying too hard to do it all at this stage being one of the senior players, he seemed to do a lot better later in the game when the pressure was reduced a bit, so maybe it is a confidence/stress thing as well. I think it would be a waste to get rid of him until we have someone able to step in, even then we need to keep a backup. I don't think the trade value for him is worth the risk.