What a dead set f****** disgrace of a performance.

[robbie67]

Fancy letting that lot run all over us. They have as many injured players as we do, but we HAD to play 3 f****** ruckman when there was no need, and they run us off our feet.

It's the same useless list cloggers that are still, and will always be shit that dont give us anything. NLM, Slattery, Myers were f****** shit, and will always be shit. What a f****** waste of another pick Myers is, I reckon we should trade him for David Jones, they have a much better mens section.

Hille, and McVeigh gave us nothing until it was too late, and then Hille decided to try and lift.

Crameri, Hooker and Hardingham were awful, but that's forgivable.

A certain long term poster has posted pics of Ryder, and Zaka at the beginning of the last two season, showing how much they have built themselves up etc etc. Well guess what? It means sweet f*** all if you play like Jane.

Hibberd, Heppell, Melksham, Lonergan, and Howlett can all hold their heads up high, and Stanton looks like he got that blow job he needed, but everyone else was a f****** disgrace.

[stryper]

Soft soft soft...
Noticed Knighta was in the stands watching.
Must have been laughing....
What the Hell just happened???
Hirdy fire them up or shoot the lot of them...
Disgraceful....

[s'dreams]

Bit tough on Colyer and Browne there robbie ... didn't disgrace themselves

The three rucks were not working ... in fact they were individually spanked and not up to scratch...

Jetta Monfries and Zacha did not work enough to keep their place tonight

Fletch has had three shockers in a row ...

Stanton did well in the first half - but was shut down and no-one stepped up ''

Hooker and Slattery were too easily dragged out of position tonight

yikes ...

[robbie67]

Well Colyer and Browne are excused as well. Colyer is going to have to add something extra to his game though, you cant be that small, unless you have a special skill or talent that you bring to the table.

[pevfan]

Gees Robbie You're are being very kind to them there.....As I had feared even after all the BS about the fantastic off field team we assembled before the season started...YOU CAN'T MAKE A SILK PURSE OUT OF A SOWS EAR. Welcome to the land of reality Hirdy and I have a nasty feeling that before this season is through we are going to owe Matty Knights a giant apology.

[Ronny Rotten]

Melbourne obviously watched ninthmonds game plan against us , play man on man & have pace on the backline as our forwards are useless & slow at ground level if they can't mark the ball , which is happening quite a lot lately. Ditch the 3 ruckman plan as we are top heavy on the forward line. How many marks were taken by the 3 talls on the forward line in the last 2 games ? Not many i bet .

FFS someone lay an effective tackle & show some mongrel.

Easily our worst performance this year , memories of the Knights era , again the usual suspects were prominent. Boy am i pissed off ATM

[paddyl90]

Well all the good work is undone again... why is every year the same thing. Firstly, tonight doesn't surprise me we've seen this before. They just didn't care... so why should I bother cheering them on at the game tonight. Same false hope they provide in the last quarter that they are going to run over the top of it. Spare me the crap...it means nothing. Lonergan has been outstanding in the midfield in the absence of Hocking & Watson and Howlett has been fantastic too. I still believe Hurley is a bigger out than Watson. Our forward line is the reason for our last 2 losses... the 3 ruckman is over. Give it up already...

Well done to Stanton, Lonergan, Howlett, Zaharakis, Hibberd, Heppell, Colyer & Browne. Time to get rid of the list cloggers and just play some more kids... We can say what do you expect from a young team... big pre-season been up for so long...are we surprised? I'm not I kinda expected it but wish I wasn't right. First year of the new regime hopefully they begin to weed out the hacks and begin crafting a team that will be dominant in future years. Still long way to go and we'll get players back but if year's past are anything to go by the wheels are falling off. Lets hope this story ends differently.

[Jazz_84]

I just can't see the cloggers being shown the door, if NLM doesn't get dropped now then I give up

Heppell is running out the season better then others for crying out loud!

[jimmyc1985]

McVeigh is a complete list clogger and should be put in the same bracket as Welsh - depth player for when we have a bunch of injuries, nothing more. Fair dinkum, blind freddy could see he was completely shot 2-3 years ago. Just a nothing player these days.

[Royza]

You can blame individuals for playing like shit (Ryder is still top of my shitlist), but collectively we were garbage.
The past few games we've just descended into lazy, stupid footy. No point getting excited over 15 more inside 50s if you can't kick to advantage, hit a lead (when it happens), or the forwards aren't good enough to win the ball. Our press, zone, or whatever we've been doing lately is also half-arsed.
To top it off we lost the contested ball (-15) to the lowest ranked side (and we were #1).
It's not as if we didn't expect them to be fired up. We can make excuses for players out, but the side they fielded wasn't their best, and Sylvia was off before 1/2 time.
That 3rd qtr was a debacle. Felt sick watching it unfold.

[Bomber_Fan]

If people think it's the three ruckmen that are losing us games, they are deadset dreaming. Remember that Melbourne lost Sylvia pretty early in the game so I believe this has negated any perceived 'three ruckman effect'. We're just an ordinary and inconsistent football team ie SHIT, we always seem to hit our peak early every year. I'm sick of hearing the 'we're fitter than ever' line at the start of every year. We get our hopes up but as the season progresses, teams always get better while we drop off and lose games. Same 'happily ever after' as every other year. Not sure whether we can squeeze a couple other wins this year. Seriously I think even Gold Coast could give us a run for our money right now. How about some of these overpaid spoilt footballers start earning their keep and not play bruise free footy.

[Madden]

We still don't have a system going forward. I've been saying it for years. We were winning games earlier in the year due to the sheer numbers of I50s (as a result of the hard work of Watson, Hocking etc), which was hiding the fact that we had no plan or system going forward. Now we aren't getting as much ball in the centre and our lack of a system has consequently been exposed again.

There's no simple answer. It needs a lot of work. How many times a game do you see Collingwood or Geelong just bomb it blindly into their F50? I reckon I could count them on one hand. Today that was our one and only play. It is the the thing that needs fixing more urgently than anything.

Also, we officially need to dump the three ruckmen strategy. It makes us look a lot slower. The problem with playing 44, 30 and 19 is they are all pure ruckmen - not forwards who pinch hit, etc. Its hard enough to carry 2. We can't carry 3.

[F111]

Many here thought we'd win it, and win it easy. We should've. We didn't.

My guess is the players may've had the same thoughts, and when that happens, the games half lost.

Add to that the shite Melbourne got from the media for "bruise free footy"they just might have added some resolve.

Our complacency, their resolve is like a two goal turn around after a turnover or a bad miss. The bye doesn't seem to help teams either does it?

I bet Carlton take the credit on the Dees behalf and I'm sure they have a few gloating at our loss.

[hop]

Many here thought we'd win it, and win it easy. We should've. We didn't.

My guess is the players may've had the same thoughts, and when that happens, the games half lost.

Add to that the shite Melbourne got from the media for "bruise free footy"they just might have added some resolve.

Our complacency, their resolve is like a two goal turn around after a turnover or a bad miss. The bye doesn't seem to help teams either does it?

I bet Carlton take the credit on the Dees behalf and I'm sure they have a few gloating at our loss.

Not buying it!

If our blokes did not know that they would come out stronger and more disciplined this week then I don't know what planet our players inhabit during the week.

Up to half time (as with the previous game against Richmond) we had control of most aspects of the game and with a bit of nous and structure in our forward 50 - would have been goals up. They were lazy and dumb in the 3rd quarter and when the opposition is hot.........

[robrulz5]

It felt a lot like the Brisbane game from round 21 last year. There was no effort, no one wanted to do the hard stuff. Melbourne didn't even get a chance to show that they weren't soft tonight as our team was so insipid.There is not one positive to come out of tonight. Looks like the side has run out of legs already so it could be a long 2nd half of the season.

[MH_Bomber]

That was very reminiscent of last year. No zest no vim, talk about bruise free footy. We played about 10 mins of hard at it footy. The absence of grunt players like Jobe, Hurley and Hocking has had a huge effect on the confidence level. We seemed completely out of sorts - not timing marks, bad decision making and looking sluggish.

The Bye has had a deliterious effect on most teams so we need to factor that into our prognostications.

Get rid of the 3 rucks - it aint working. What was wrong with Crameri, Monfries and Zaharakis tonight ? They looked like they were on valium!!

I simply refuse to believe that the same guys who had such a great start to the season can slide to this extent. I am hopeful we can turn that woeful performance around but the next few weeks dont look too edifying - Freo, North, Hawthorn on the road and then a Geelong who will be out to prove something to Bomber.

Its extremely disappointing to lose to both Richmond and Melbourne in such a lacklustre manner.

[BenDoolan]

From my vantage point I was staggered at how seriously SLOW we looked, and how we continually gave up front position in contests around the ground. This together with being easily pushed off the line of the ball and no intensity to run and tackle made for a scheizenhausen effort by ALL.

I could go into individual performaces (poor ones) but it is far easier to say well done to Lonergan, Heppell and Melksham.

I think the coaching department better start looking at their conservatism with regard to player injuries and re-consider their "lets give them the standard injury time off, multiply it by 4 and add an extra week".

Plus if you're going to make one player work hard on his discipline (and form) and drop him the moment he has a brain fart, then I'd expect the same sort of treatment to serial inconsistent performers from last night.

[robbie67]

From my vantage point I was staggered at how seriously SLOW we looked, and how we continually gave up front position in contests around the ground.

We miss Dempsey and Winderlich a lot more than people thought we would.

[j-mac31]

Might as well pick the gnome if we're going to put in no effort, at least he'll kick a goal with every shot he takes.

[Jazz_84]

From my vantage point I was staggered at how seriously SLOW we looked, and how we continually gave up front position in contests around the ground.

We miss Dempsey and Winderlich a lot more than people thought we would.

yeah i think last night we missed them more then ever, but again who would they have kicked it too?