How do you fix Melbourne?

[Ando727]

Feel absolutely zero sympathy for the coaching and administration staff at Melbourne. Clearly tanked and fully deserve all of this to be happening. On the other hand the current situation is ruining players' careers that should otherwise be on the rise. Members of the club don't deserve this either. A complete overhaul I think really is necessary seeing's as its been almost 10 years of nothing but bad decisions.

So you do want things to improve for Melbourne, or you don't? I'm getting mixed messages.

 

[Leather Poisoning]

It's amazing how the off field stuff translates into online performance.

The team was completely void of killer instinct. They're completely broken.

As coach I would go back to the extremely simple approach of building defensive effort. Tell everyone they'll be judged on how many pressure acts they commit. Tackles, smothers, shepherds. Get them working for each other as much as possible. The opposition, whoever it is this week, is going to get more of the ball, so drilling down on the defensive efforts is the best way to go for now.

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

Go and spend big money on a player who is thinking about retiring, who has been part of a successful clubs leadership group. **** off pissants like Royal and actually get people in there who have leadership qualities and the current playing group can relate to . such as Kirk , Ling , Harley . Without leadership they will continue to **** up , take it from someone who supported a club that was continually heading in the wrong direction . Enter Ben Cousins , Damien Hardwick and Ben Gale . By no means are we unbeatable but the players are reaching something like their potential .

 

[Boxhead_31]

The Dees are about as low as any club can get at the moment and it got me wondering, just how can the club be turned around. They have tried the sack coach after coach after coach method.
For me there is only one way out for them and that is the scorched earth approach, remove everyone that is associated with the club currently. President, CEO, entire football department heck even to the boot studder and start fresh.
Then hire a coach who isn't afraid to make the tough calls on players someone along the lines of Harvey when he was at Freo, cut the dead infected wood from the vine and build it up again with solid citizens who aren't just happy to be known as AFL players and love the lifestyle that that affords them but players and staff who embody what that actually mean.

Surely somewhere in the Melbourne coterie there is someone with passion and the business sense to drive this club back to the right path for if there is not I truly fear for what may lay ahead for the oldest sporting club in the world.

How would you fix the Melbourne Footbal Club?

 

[TheLastEmperor]

Yep, major cleanout is needed. No quick fix recruiting, clear and concise 10 year plan is required. Its going to be a long road ahead.

 

["The Roar Is Back"]

The first thing Melbourne can do is start compiling a list of the dooms dayers currently around the club . Everyone knows they are shit those who are constantly saying or suggesting it should be outed .
Also wouldn't be against someone coming out and potting Schwartz and Lyon for their comments against the club , start showing some sense of ' You are either with us or against us ' mentality .

 

[_Wang_]

You're one of those blokes you'd love to bump into on a train ride back from the game

And you were probably one of those blokes cheering the loss when McMahon slotted the goal

 

[Boxhead_31]

Someone in the Blue and Red please just stand up an lead this rabble of a club.

Get angry or something but show some sign that you care about your club and coach FFS you are meant to be professional footballers it is time to start acting like it.

You have all been sucking the marrow out of this club now is the time to show somewhere in your make up that you have had enough of everyone putting you and your club down So Some Fight Dees.

It's time

 

[winty]

I'd go and get that supporter they kept showing after the game to speak to the players during the week and hope some of his passion for the club rubs off on the players, as it seems that apart from Nathan Jones and Jack Viney, none of the others care about the club.

I'd also go back to basics too, and set simple goals that should be easily achieved, ie. every player has to lay at least one tackle a quarter. I was flabbergasted when I saw Melbourne only had 35 tackles as a side last night, even though Essendon racked up over 450 touches. I'd say half of those tackles were laid in the first 10 minutes of the game too.

I'd also piss Jack Watts off to Casey and only play him in the seniors again when he actually grows a set and does the hard things a guy of his size should be doing. Before last night, he was averaging less than a contested mark a game, and 1.66 tackles a game. To put it into perspective, he averages more clangers a game (2.13) than he does tackles.

Oh, and for those bagging Darcy for his suggestion that shaving their beards might improve their performance, he might have a point. I remember Geelong players having a "beard off" in 2006, and we missed the finals. Here's what Joel Corey looked like back then:

He shaved his beard off the following year, and made the AA team....

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Maybe give them a cost of living allowance. Seems to work for others.

 

[Achilles Heel]

And you were probably one of those blokes cheering the loss when McMahon slotted the goal

Lots to like about that post wang

 

[tigers71]

The problem is the losing mindset! To pick up draft picks sets up the wrong believe system. I am not the one to say lose but breeding failure breeds failure. Also after last season there should been been going to the draft and rebuilding. The only player they should have traded for was Chris Dawes as he played in a successful team. They mucked up big time and this will set the club back 4 or 5 years in rebuilding.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Nothing they can do mid season but close ranks.

They are not capable of playing the game plan Neeld wants them to play. Chuck it in the bin for the moment, they just turn the ball over to easily because the game plan involves kicking to position and theres never anybody in that position to kick to. What they need now is good old fashioned accountability.

At the end of the season sack Neeld and most of the board and senior managers, especially those who hired Shannon Byrnes and David Rodan (jurys out on Dawes as he hasnt played yet)

 

[Coledinho]

Sacking Neeld is the first step. They need a coach who realises playing with 5 KPPs in defense isnt a smart idea. That playing with James Sellar is not a smart idea. Neeld is literally the worst coach I can remember ever seeing at AFL level. His archaic game style has no place in todays game. He is 10 years too late.

The answer for this season obviously isnt a cleanout. Its Round 2. For this year they need a structure change.Next weeks team should be

FB: J.McDonald Frawley Bail
HB: Grimes T.McDonald Blease
C: Howe Sylvia N.Jones
HF: Davey Clark Garland
FF: Byrnes Pedersen Rodan
R: Spencer Viney Trengrove
I/C: Jetta, Watts, M. Jones SUB: McKenzie

They need to put some pace back into that backline. Blease + Grimes are needed to both run and give some cleaner disposal. They need a true lockdown small defender. Bail is there best option on there list atm. They also need someone who isnt Jack Watts to take kick ins. They need James Frawley to return to his best role as the number 1 FB and never play Tom Gillies again. In the midfield Sylvia needs to play in the guts 24/7. Forget this forward thing. Play him where he is needed. Move Nathan Jones to a wing. He is the only player they have with a big enough tank to play that role for them sadly enough. Move Howe to a wing. His marking would be a good outlet for the defense. Mitch Clark has to play as a lead up CHF. He needs to make more contests. Contests he wont make when he is at FF. Forward line needs to be filled with speedy players. Flood back and then hit them with pace on the counter. Jamar needs to go too and someone with more aggression is needed. Spencer is horrible but atleast he gives a honest effort. Watts needs to be moved from the backline and trialled as a midfielder IMO too

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Melbourne need a coach the players want to play for.

After seeing Neeld's pre-game speech on CH7 last night it's clear he is not this man.

They need a teacher not an arseh*le.

 

[Boxhead_31]

The problem is the losing mindset! To pick up draft picks sets up the wrong believe system. I am not the one to say lose but breeding failure breeds failure. Also after last season there should been been going to the draft and rebuilding. The only player they should have traded for was Chris Dawes as he played in a successful team. They mucked up big time and this will set the club back 4 or 5 years in rebuilding.

So two time Premiership player Shannon Byrnes wasn't part of a successful side?

 

[Slax]

Melbourne do need a cleanout, but it isn't the players that need to be culled it is off the field. Culture is any organisation is something that is built over time, but can be destroyed by management easily. Jim Stynes (yes Stynes) and Schwab have a lot to answer for, they are the men who told the club to lose games for draft picks, don't believe for a second that they weren't involved because they were. This set a precedent at the club that they will accept mediocrity and a losing culture to get some perceived benefits.

Melbourne need to sack Schwab, they need to sack Neeld purely because he can't coach, he talked about being a tough side 18 months ago and they are the softest side I've ever seen.

It is a long road for Melbourne and the only thing in their favour is the AFL will keep them afloat.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

So two time Premiership player Shannon Byrnes wasn't part of a successful side?

Not sure a goalsneak should have been on the shopping list. I can understand why they wanted a power forward. Personally I'd send Clarke into the ruck when DAwes returns.

 

[Boxhead_31]

Not sure a goalsneak should have been on the shopping list. I can understand why they wanted a power forward. Personally I'd send Clarke into the ruck when DAwes returns.

Think Shagga was brought in more for the belief that he could impart some knowledge about how a successful side goes about it

 

[leeloo]

Mark Harvey. May end up with a few suspensions but at least they will play with a bit of mongrel.

Actually when was the last time a Melbourne player was suspended?

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Think Shagga was brought in more for the belief that he could impart some knowledge about how a successful side goes about it

Good sides dont recruit that way

 

[pazza]

There is one thing a coach can never...EVER...control.

That is the players not giving a fat rats clacker about their performance.

No pressure acts, minimal tackles and simple things like just not manning up.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

There is one thing a coach can never...EVER...control.

That is the players not giving a fat rats clacker about their performance.

No pressure acts, minimal tackles and simple things like just not manning up.

Of course the coach can control that. In fact its the numebr one thing he can control.

 

[HappyChappy35]

We did it. It was called the Andrews report. It was shoved into a drawer to gather dust.

I'm becoming more and more of the opinion that the AFL need to step in. There's way too much shit in the administration that will try to save their own skin.

Why? That just smacks to me of an administration unwilling to change things at the club and take responsibility for their own failures.

 

[kelvin_sheedy]

I could barely sleep for a week when Knights recruited Shotgun Williams and then Hayden Skipworth. It was pretty obvious it wasn't going to work and I was filthy at the club.

What Melbourne has done with Rodan, Byrnes, Gillies, Dawes, Pedersen is beyod belief for a club at the bottom. I can understand the Dawes recruitment even though its a fairly high price to pay but getting players that can't get games at other clubs is baffling.

Should have spent more time recruiting the next 21-23 year old VFL types who can play AFL footy and try and mix it with kids coming through.

We've done it with Howlett, Hibberd, Kommer, Hocking, Crameri,Hooker. Lots of examples at other clubs.

The midfield has no ticker apart from Jones. Got to get more mids next year, trade and hope Viney and other kids can come on.

Get Denis Pagan into the club.