Deecisive

if true then we should see how the club really stands on discipline in the next couple of days.

Gysbert, Morton, Petterd and Martin were not finding regular spots in our side, so how good were they, how many years do they need before you say it isnt working. Two years, why not 3. somewhere you need to draw the line, he gave them a year to fall into line or fit in they didnt. Pettard and martin seem to be the only two getting a regular game so far. As for the guys we drafted, not an auspicious start, but they just got here and need to fit in to our game plan, which at the moment confuses everyone. Brynes is a crumbing forward having to go into the backline to get the ball. 11 other players had more touches then he did (12 had less), but many of these players that had more possessions were on the ball or in the backline. Garland, Frawley and Sellers all had less, Byrnes also had 2 clearances in that the same number as Trengrove. Our new players are trying, they need more time to get used to how we play as opposed to how we should play. We have more than enough established players who have not pulled their weight, maybe its time to cut these new guys some slack, they are still melbourne players and we want them and anyone else in our list doing the best they can so that we can get the best team we can onto the field.

Funny that a couple of years ago Malthouse and others were talking about how bright our future was with the talent that we had. Most of those players are still there, but the talent is not showing through. did everyone get it wrong?

you have to ask how much good Neeld can do if he continues, as well as how much damage could he do. If players are getting [censored] at him and the club then he could do some serious damage to their confidence and desire to continue in the red and blue, as once he has lost them there is probably no coming back. While people talk about other coaches having horrific runs and coming back, have they started out with as much talent as we thought we had? have the hit the lows we have mind you we dont know if we have hit bottom yet, the next few weeks will tell with GWS and GCS lined up. We loose here then you have ask what is the benefit of continuing to go with Neelds game plan, approach or Neeld himself. For a coach who espoused defensive pressure, how could we be so off target.

no we dont, but we are talking about Frawley he has been disinterested for well over a year, and shown little appetite for the contest. Look at his stats today, they are a disgrace, put added pressure on Garland and McDonald and others because he does not do his job, does not chase, does not spoil does not tackle. and turns the ball over. Check his stats for today, or any other game this year or last.

I hate the spare man in defense, it just means the opposition is able to link up with a free man all over the ground and we just keep chasing tail. Always out numbered when we go into attack, a stupid idea, man up, i.e. one of our team on one of the opposition team... and stay will them.

Play them in our forward line and hope they leak some our way for a change

sorry Ox what are you smoking - only need a couple more mids, good backline, good forward line. If that was the case then we would not be loosing by the vast quantities that we are.

Agree, davey is also a pathetic ruckman.

Maybe putting him down the half back line is a good place to start, after all the ball will be down there more often. In years gone by when melbourne did have a reasonable team (probably well before most here were born) a lot of their run was generated from the half back line. in more recent years Davey used to do this for us, but we dont seem to have anyone able to really kick off a counter attack. Maybe Sylvia could.

I am yet to be convinced we have a functioning mid field, we have players we rotate through there, but functioning, i think not. How many of our players have EVER racked up 30+ possessions working in the midfield, actually anywhere on the field. We like our players but hold them up against other teams midfielders and we are pretty poor. as a team our contested possessions were good, but given in the second half we rarely contested it does make it look a lot better than what it actually was. The eagles waltzed out of the centre with no one even getting close to them to contest, did it without breaking into a sweat. Tapscott put in and did ok, but not enough and his disposal efficiency was pretty poor, part of that though was the pressure the eagles put him under. Brynes - he is going to far up field to get his kicks, when he should be hanging around the goals to kick goals, a bit slow and tries to take the opposition on far too often, I suspect because there is no one down field to give it too. Jetta - nothing memorable Garland tried but significantly out gunned and lacked support and pressure which resulted in a lot of turnovers. I would prefer to see him forward instead of Sellars Sellars - did a couple of nice things, but really not enough Pederson - needs more time with Casey, Sylvia - thought for a while he had turned a corner, first half was pretty damn good, second half... Frawley - a waste of space, runs around behind his man all day long, 1 mark, no tackles, 4 clangers and 58% disposal efficiency speaks for itself. he is not interested Toumpas - needs more time to develop, was sold into trouble a couple of times, one where Grimes practically handed him the ball so he could get tackled was typical of the delivery to him. Terlich -lead the tackle count in the backline with 4. So many backline players did not get more than 1 tackle in, that is poor considering the ball was there so often. Clark - a trier, sad to see such poor delivery or no delivery to him, frequently out numbered and illegally impaired but continued to fight on. He needs to be made captial in my opinion. Grimes - a reasonable game trengrove a good first half a bit of a fade in the second half, was a trier. N Jones always a trier Jamar first half was not quite as bad he did give us first touch on the ball, but lacked support, he cannot do it all day by himself. he needs Gawn or spencer to help, and you would rest one of the ruckman in the goal square to keep one of the opposition talls out of the action, may give Clark a bit of relief.

Coach decides who plays and who doesnt, he decides who mans up on who, what game plan they have including things like letting the eagles have a spare man in defense who kills us while our spare man in defense does not much. and no one is attacking the coach after 1 Horrendous quarter of footy. we have had all of last year, practice games, nab cup and now 3rd game into this season to decide this.

yes it will be over soon

loosing by 100points in half a football is an even worse result than against Essendon

on the way to 100point drubbing. not standing up, not manning up. Why are we allowing them eagles players to run around unmanned is beyond me.

woeful capitulation

poor manning up again eagles running all over the place

17% inefficiency in the backline hurts.

He has done some good things but he has also turned it over a few times that has resulted in goals.

so many eagles players running around alone is killing us. we are winning the contested possessions but loosing the game because our players do not stick to their men and dont know how to tackle.

I just hope the melbourne players remember the last time we played, we got slaughtered with the high tackle count. Our players are likely to be running out there with a bit of agro, i hope they channel it constructively so that we just dont give them easy free kicks. The eagles are already the masters of milking high tackles, one day the AFL is going to have to accept responsibility for health issues arising from players constantly ducking to get tackled high because the AFL rewards such behavior.

Our players are following instructions and zoning, when the zone if broken then they are all looking around to see where there opposition player is. All through the Essendon game I saw Melbourne players near the player with the ball, but the melbourne player was focused on trying to pick his man instead of going at the guy with the ball. The man with the ball is the one that counts. We need to tackle and to do that we need to be near our opposition players. zoning is in part responsible for the problems we have, though not sure if its total laziness or the fact that everyone is trying to just look after their own man that makes us look so bad. either way the game plan is stuffed. Man up and stay manned up through out the game. then we have one on one contests, bounce of the ball, body position that will help decide each contest instead of allowing hundreds of uncontested possessions.

I wonder if the MFC has considered videoing Casey games for supporters who are pretty keen to see how Hogan and crew go each week. I think it would generate a bit of interest in both Casey and MFC if they did so.

Watts has to play for Casey, it makes absolutely no sense to drop him for poor performance and then not give him a chance to recover his form, that would mean you really could not play him against GWS. The only reason you would do that is to punish him and the team and the supporters. Toumpas is probably a good choice for sub, he comes in later in the game when others are bit tired and provides some fresh run, it takes some of the pressure off him. If the players are up for it, and the westcoast is coming in coasting then I think we have an outside chance.

Going after priority picks has helped get us in this pickle in the first place, then wasting those picks on players that need development in a club unable to develop players capability was our second problem. Getting one more good kid is not going to get us off our knees, we need ALL of our players to lift. I would prefer not to go through having all the other clubs challenge our success because it came as a result of charity, I want them to respect our club for our on field performances.