Deecisive

Grimes did his job he butched a few and was caught with the ball a few times, but they so did a lot of other players. He has done enough to keep his spot, needs to work on his awareness, but also needs players to give him the ball when his free not in the middle of traffic. I would like to see mitchy given another game, though I think we need another tall/ruck in this week against norf, Fitzy would be my first choice.

grimes like some of our players is still work in progress, he has some good skills but also has some deficiencies that can hopefully be resolved in the coming years.

A great win, yes Collingwood were not the best but still was a good win. We showed some real skill at times. I think Grimes problem is that he does not get rid of the ball quick enough, does not take the first option which results in him getting run down and tackled and giving rubbish handballs, etc... Still he needs a little more time to settle to see if he improves until Salem or some other pushes for his spot. Dawes was reasonably good, hard at the ball which is what we need, we need to opposition worrying about getting whacked or tackled hard. He is still relatively young and can improve as can the side in general, I see no real need to dump him, there are a lot of others who would be going before he does. Brayshaw is an absolute champ, his running dash and disposal into our attacking 50 was sensational again. Hopefully the win today will fuel the self belief needed for this team to rise.

i would like to see brayshaw playing on the half back line he has the class to get the ball and more importantly has the run and has proven he can be damaging delivering the ball forward and the man is a tackling beast.

To get any respectable coach to come near us we had to pay big $$'s simple as that. What sort of miracles is everyone expecting when players cannot kick the ball 30 meters to their own team, or hand pass more than 2 feet, even when they do they handpass it to their team mates feet or above their head. really the skills and endeavour of the players is where the problem is. Who do you think you are going to get and for how much if Roos goes, malthouse $1m. I am happy with Roos he has attempted to teach them the basics, he has stopped many of the huge losses and he has brought us close to so many wins that the players just seemed to let slip. If we had won some of those close ones we would have been rapt, unfortunately we still carry a lot of unskilful and mediocre players who cannot reach the heights required for AFL football. Roos has reasonably good plans, just does not have the players who can execute it consistently. The best teams run all hard for each contest, our players jog along side trying to protect space rather than attack the man with the ball. players have not learnt to tackle by grabbing their opponents arm instead of just putting their arm around them. Too many players now just lift their arm and get a quick high tackle, or they just break our players weak tackles and waltz into goal.

We have too many players who stop once they take a mark or get a free, you will often see players leading up to them 20-40 meters away but do not take a chance or take the first option, they are too busy looking for a safe option and in doing so loose their chance to move the ball on quickly so we kick it along the boundary line which often either results in an opposition mark or an out of bounds. When we moved it quickly in the last few weeks we looked a lot better, unfortunately we play safe too often, then do stupid things like kicking it backwards or across to the middle where it either get intercepted or delivered straight to the opposition. there is no urgency from some of our players to move the ball which often results in our forwards being swamped with defenders.

You mean the 18 players on the ground do not have to accept responsibility for the St Kilda game loss, it was after all Roo's fault for not running out there and telling them? Oxley taking 14 marks, who kicked it to him? what our players could not see him, could not count. if he was spare then we would have had a spare and we could have potentially gone around him, could have tried passing to advantage, but we didn't we bombed it directly too him more often than not. We have also benefited from having a loose man either on the ball or in defence as well, that by itself does not loose you games, poor tackling, kicking, brain fades and missing simple goals does, all of which were done by the players on the field.

I really don't see how everyone can jump on roos how many games this year have we been in it with a possibility to win only to be let down by the players on the field. This is a vast improvement from where we were a few years ago where we were getting flogged by 60-100 points regularly. Yesterday we had two forwards no more than 30meters out who missed easy shots that may have changed our players outlook, but they stuffed it. We had other players who scrubbed kicks into the path of the saints who made us pay. We were lucky we were not beaten by more because of the poor skills of the players turning the ball over, over and over again. The tackle count showed who was interested and who was not. I think the Melbourne players went out there thinking they had this one, after all we should have won it last time. In the end they did not chase, did not tackle did not kick straight, did not turn up. I blame the 22 players on the ground not the coach.

Tyson is a lazy player, does not chase and put pressure on his opponent, but then he is far from alone there. We gave the saints players far too much latitude and put virtually no pressure on them marking. Top sides tackle and tackle hard, our players were brushed aside too easily or ended up giving away stupid free kicks, in the back, high tackles, etc... Too many lazy players, Dawes and quite a few players do not chase hard, they run along side the opposition waving their hands instead of going for the body. Woeful effort.

absolute garbage and gutless display. Hopeless skills when they get the ball. Hogan should not have missed that opening shot. continued the rot.

I think we have enough duds to offload before we get rid of Jimmy, well unless we get a good trade for him.

I would like to see fitzy in the backline and McDonald up forward. Mcdonald has proven that he is a reasonable mark that will take some of the pressure of Dawes and give us another option should nick pose his usual handful up forward.

we won, we played some excellent football in the first quarter and a reasonable footy in the second. After half time the lions pulled their finger out and challenged and our guys met that challenge. It was scrappy because our team and there team allowed few easy possessions, which is what we want. We fought the game out and won, the lions have played pretty well in the last few weeks against top sides and today they have probably their best team in. So all in all a pretty good result. now see if we can back this win up with a couple more in a row.

same pressure that is on every player and coach. the desire to win. Roos is doing what he can, execution is up to the players on the field. whether he let a spare hang around in the backline is not the issue its the score on the board, we had more than enough chances to win this game but failed to execute even basic things. We had too many players who could not kick straight, who did not run, chase, tackle or show any great desire. Roos cares and Roos wants to win, not sure some of our players are so dedicated though.

someone should remind Howe that he is greatly devaluing his asking price for next year from what ever club wants him....

so very disappointed in so many players who did not do their job. Cross hardly tackled, Tyson lacks chase and defensive pressure. Mcdonald needs to learn how to kick, the look of the kid if he could kick he would make a sensational chf. our forwards just seemed to cluster together and spoil each other. I don't know how many times our players marked and stopped instead of taking the next first option, by the time they finished looking around everyone was covered. Too many kids, unfortunately most of us were calling to play them, well they played. Shows that more mature bodies may have been required on a cold wet day when it was more likely to turn into a rugby maul.

Where do you start after a loss like that. Dawes does not give enough, too often he is muscled out of the contest. essendon players lead us to the ball most of the day, we were lucky that they often over ran it or we were able to tackle them quickly enough. Gawn put in a great effort but needs to do more than just dropping the ball down at our players feet that's what Jamar does. tom McDonald has been a terrible kicker forever, what are they doing to fix that. while the spare man in defence killed us, we got enough of the ball presumable because we have extra numbers up the field, our problem was our delivery into the forward line was putrid and our forwards did not apply enough defensive pressure. all in all a heartbreaking loss.

same thing happens every game we have forward who don't know how to read the ball or get into position to spoil. Kicking the ball down there should give players from both sides pretty much equal chance to get into the contest but our players seemed to get lost in traffic, held out of the contests, etc... our forwards really do not know how to read the ball

really you think Roos has told them to bomb it away? the players lack of effort is what lost this game, pathetic effort from many of them. Extremely poor kicking from McDonald which would have probably give us the game had he kicked straighter, same with garlett and many others. players did not put in and they got then noses ground into the dirt and frankly they did not show enough guts to get up and fight.

pathetic, these guys need to take a look in the mirror they are getting beaten by a team of crap players, which shows how pathetic some of our players are.. No point winning the ruck if our mids can do anything with it. I am at a loss at how the ball can go into our forward line so often and the oppositions players read it so much better than our players.

disgusting lack of effort

terrible play so far from the dees definitely need a rocket at quarter time. the game is there to be won

we have been crap for years but we still manage to beat the bombers where ever they are, now we are playing better and they worse and everyones predicting gloom and doom. have some faith.

if its going to be wet then maybe leave howe out, as his marking is going to be impacted by the wet and he seldom does anything other than mark, so may as well play another small or mid size.

lets hope the rest will get him over his foot and help him to recover some speed. I would expect him to have a bigger more physical presence now that he has been restricted in what he can do. Could be a real bonus for us next year.