low down

not sure if anyone has posted. liking this: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/melbourne-recruit-dom-tyson-shares-traits-with-simon-black/story-fni5f91a-1226742492004?from=herald+sun_rss

1. take boyd to build the forward line with hogan and Clark. 2. trade Watts to the highest bidder (keep Howe). 3. with pick 3, 19, the Watts pick select young midfielders to go with Viney, Toumpas, Jones, Trengove. do NOT give up Boyd for a quick fix for our midfield. dont worry about having too many talls in the forward line. Hawthorn's forward line regularly features Buddy, Roughy, Hale and Gunston - it seems to work for them.

i'm right behind PJ, and can see the merit in all his points. though while we're talking 'culture', i cant help noticing that we seem also to have a 'culture' - in recent times at least - of bringing in 'strong leaders' who immediately tell us how unprofessional and inept the previous administration was and that what is required is a complete 'rebuild' of whatever department is seen to be 'the problem' (with the ensuing requests for supporters to show patience while this occurs). i have faith that this time the rebuild will work, but then I had faith in previous architects of major change too ...

thanks Old Dee. Sylvia is still serving his suspension - should be back next week.

i think that of all the available coaches, Roos did the most with the least. his teams played pretty ugly footy though from memory. ross lyon sort of stuff. Clarkson had has been lucky enough to coach a dreamteam for most of his tenure yet has managed one flag - its hard to be confident he'd achieve much with our list. its a bit left field but i like Ratten. when his players weren't injured (they were smashed with injuries last year) he was a pretty reasonable coach who the players seemed to play for. like neeld he focused too much on every statistic but the win/loss column, but thats a bit the modern way and i tend to think a 'modern' yet 'experienced' coach might be the best way to go...

Former North Melbourne great Wayne Carey says Denis Pagan can turn Melbourne around Thoughts?

makes for pretty depressing reading... im sort of coming around to the idea that Bailey was a reasonable coach that the players liked, but didnt get the side fit enough. Neeld seems to be the opposite - he has got the side fit but he aint a great coach and the players (some of them anyway) either dont like him or have picked up that his coaching skills dont pass muster...

not sure if this has appeared elsewhere: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-05-21/injuries-take-toll-on-strugglers this list does not take into account 2013 injuries to players who were not there last year (i.e. Dawes, Viney). Number of games missed by top 10 players in club's 2012 best and fairest 23 Gold Coast 22 Western Bulldogs, Melbourne 21 GWS, Port Adelaide 16.5 Collingwood* 16 St Kilda 15 Carlton 14 Adelaide, Essendon 11 Brisbane Lions 9 Fremantle 8 Geelong 8 Richmond* 7 North Melbourne 6 Hawthorn, West Coast 2 Sydney Swans

horrified by the burgeoning length of this latest rebuild, which in my view was of very dubious necessity. however, one positive of the last few weeks is that there seems to be a bit more 'buy-in' from the players. in recent times the following players appear to have demonstrated that they are on-board with Neeld - Dawes, Clark, Garland, Sylvia - and are showing a bit of leadership as a result .

i wish ollie wines the best, but i cant say it wasnt killing me watching him tear it up in the first few rounds. its a mild relief to see he's come back to the pack somewhat. now to get Toumpas on the park... http://www.sportsfan.com.au/dump-/-grab-/-carry-round-7/tabid/91/newsid/106256/default.aspx

me too DemonWA - 100%. have fallen for it everytime and will again. Hope is the only positive commodity in which the MFC has traded in the last 7 years.

was at the President's Lunch yesterday and Jackson was asked about next year - he certainly wasnt ruling it out. i got the sense he was up for it but needed to run it past his boss (i.e. wife)... no firm basis for this conclusion though, just observation.

Sylvia - 3 weeks. wont help.

why aren't these pieces being written about scully, who is only a year behind Watts and on double the salary? or Matthew Kreuzer for that matter? in the week before Round 1 Robbo said Watts would be an all-Australian backman this year - admittedly it was his 'big call' for the year on SEN but he was by no means laughed at making the suggestion. Luke Hodge - No 1 draft pick in 2001 - got his first and only All Australian selection in 2008. Watts hasnt started well but he's played 2 games in a woeful side. he certainly isnt alone. how old is Watts again? i can deal with Petterd holding down a half back flank in the undefeated tigers (sort of), but if we lose the 22 year old Watts at the end of this year it will be a terrible, terrible error.

do you know when can we expect Jordie back DeeZee? i thought he was a late withdrawal for essendon but doesnt seem to have played for MFC or Casey in Round 3? does anyone know where Dawes is at while we're at it?

i have been trying to get my head around the singular ease with which teams manage to score against us in the second halves of games. 8 goals to 1 v Port. 15 goals to 1 v Essendon. 17 goals to 4 v WCE. dont get me wrong our first halves have been plenty ordinary as well often enough, but the cakewalk of goals in the second halves all 3 games has been staggering - no more so than the 11 third quarter goals kicked by WCE. i'm not having a go at mark neeld and 'hardest team to play against', but i have honestly never seen a side scored against so easily as us in the first three games. there are always those buzz words that come and go in footy circles - two that seem to have disappeared recently are 'flooding' and 'tempo footy'. you have to get your hands on the footy to do the latter, but i wondered what other posters think of the former - flooding - in the face of the onslaughts we seem periodically to cop. i have a baby so maybe havent seen us play enough (that aint the only reason i'm avoiding it), but are we trying to flood? i assume not - so is this something we should be doing in controlled bursts? i know that flooding is not ideal from a game-plan perspective, and is said to hurt the confidence of players. having said that, getting slammed by 15 goals doesnt seem to be doing us too many favours...

gday fellow sufferers - first time long time. not sure why i've elected now to post after several years checking this site - also (finally) renewed my membership last week for some unknown reason. something about this current situation is bizarrely drawing me in. i say the following with little confidence and more blind hope, but i think this will turn around. i know all the arguments - culture, Cam Schwab, game plan, etc - but this time i aint buying that there is something seriously wrong here. i just cant see it. we are relatively injury free, if a little underdone. our facilities are on par. our business is solid enough. there are (some) rumours of dissent, but thats probably pretty understandable given the hammerings of recent weeks. the midfield isnt amazing and needs to improve, but it does have running players who were identified for their skill and character, and rated highly because of it (i speak of trengove, viney, grimes, tapscott and jones in particular - all high picks). we have a solid forwardline and backline. we are not Geelong or Hawthorn, but there is no reason we cant be where brisbane, adelaide, north and (deep breath) essendon are. it pains me to allow the same tired excuse of youth, confidence, and inexperience to wash - we have been hearing it for 7 years of [censored] - but in the current environment i wonder whether its finally true. there are other young teams, and few have played as poorly as what we saw on saturday night. but i am old enough to remember the woeful (and constantly criticised), underperforming and young Geelong and Hawthorn sides of the 2000s. look at some of the losses Geelong copped in 2006, the year before they won the flag by a record margin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Geelong_Football_Club_season). we aint geelong, but could this team of decorated junior footballers, now training their asses off, really continue to be so bad? maybe this week they were, but it cant and wont remain that way. the side i saw on saturday night was awful. objectively, it was one of the least competitive efforts from a club - any club - i think i've seen. but we are not the first side to cop it - last year the side that beat us copped a 96 point hammering from carlton in Round 21 and a 94 point thumping from hawthorn in Round 18 - and we wont be the last. in my humble and hopeful view, we are a mid-range side that is utterly bereft of confidence and belief. and, as always, leadership. the bulldogs lost 12 of their last 13 last year when they lost belief. its the same quality that geelong has so much of, but it doesnt come through culture or any other bollocks - it comes from winning. we play a winless and injury depleted WCE this weekend, at the G. we have a fully fit - if shattered - side, with Tappy coming off 6. we dont have a chance to win this game, but we have a chance to start building some belief. the following week against the Giants is a chance to build it further. things can turn around quickly - we just need a start. feel free to shoot this down, but this time im with the club, not the media who want blood and not supporters who are (fairly) over it.