FIND out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Herald Sun
Loss a Deesgrace
Loss a Deesgrace
By Mark Stevens
MELBOURNE president Jim Stynes has branded Sunday's second-half capitulation against Hawthorn at the MCG "unacceptable", turning up the heat on the club's on-field leaders. Stynes said yesterday he expected more resistance from senior players as the Hawks seized control and cruised to a 45-point win."It's just a shame there wasn't anyone to step up when there needed to be ... batten down the hatches and work hard and get back into the game," he said."They just didn't seem to have enough leaders prepared to do that hard gut running."They looked like they'd run out of steam, they didn't look fit enough ... they stopped taking risks. Psychologically, they seemed tired. It was unacceptable. We were in a great position at halftime. The boys stopped working for each other."
Melbourne team of the future? Hardly
MELBOURNE president Jim Stynes has branded Sunday's second-half capitulation against Hawthorn at the MCG "unacceptable", turning up the heat on the club's on-field leaders. Stynes said yesterday he expected more resistance from senior players as the Hawks seized control and cruised to a 45-point win."It's just a shame there wasn't anyone to step up when there needed to be ... batten down the hatches and work hard and get back into the game," he said."They just didn't seem to have enough leaders prepared to do that hard gut running."They looked like they'd run out of steam, they didn't look fit enough ... they stopped taking risks. Psychologically, they seemed tired. It was unacceptable. We were in a great position at halftime. The boys stopped working for each other."
Melbourne team of the future? Hardly
By Mike Sheahan
IT'S 11 minutes into the third quarter at the MCG on Sunday and Melbourne is 18 points in front of Hawthorn in a game critical to the credibility of both teams. In Melbourne's case, as a widely-touted emerging threat; for Hawthorn, as the most likely threat to Collingwood. The Hawks then kick an unanswered 63 points before Melbourne troubles the scorers, in the process absolutely destroying the Demons' 2011 self-belief. Had Hawthorn kicked straight the scoreline could have been even more damning. As it was they had 42 scoring shots to 17 and coasted home to a 45-point win. Melbourne looked every bit as inept and shell-shocked during the second half as Gold Coast had been against Carlton the previous night. Gold Coast, it should be noted, had 12 first-gamers in its 22.
The Age
Dees look on the bright side
IT'S 11 minutes into the third quarter at the MCG on Sunday and Melbourne is 18 points in front of Hawthorn in a game critical to the credibility of both teams. In Melbourne's case, as a widely-touted emerging threat; for Hawthorn, as the most likely threat to Collingwood. The Hawks then kick an unanswered 63 points before Melbourne troubles the scorers, in the process absolutely destroying the Demons' 2011 self-belief. Had Hawthorn kicked straight the scoreline could have been even more damning. As it was they had 42 scoring shots to 17 and coasted home to a 45-point win. Melbourne looked every bit as inept and shell-shocked during the second half as Gold Coast had been against Carlton the previous night. Gold Coast, it should be noted, had 12 first-gamers in its 22.
The Age
Dees look on the bright side
By Linda Pearce
BRAD Green's optimism that the bad old days were over may have been exposed as wishful thinking by a mercifully inaccurate Hawthorn on Sunday, but an obliging draw could provide the Demons with both short and long-term relief after two winless opening rounds. Melbourne next faces fellow stragglers the Brisbane Lions (home) and then the Gold Coast (away) before a round-five bye. And the Dees have what now appears to be a fortuitous round-23 return meeting with the Suns, whose first-up thrashing from Carlton has led to hastily revised forecasts of how competitive the debutants' season will turn out to be.
The Australian
Demons seek to end nightmare
By Stephen Rielly
MELBOURNE endured a yesteryear whipping from Hawthorn on Sunday night.
BRAD Green's optimism that the bad old days were over may have been exposed as wishful thinking by a mercifully inaccurate Hawthorn on Sunday, but an obliging draw could provide the Demons with both short and long-term relief after two winless opening rounds. Melbourne next faces fellow stragglers the Brisbane Lions (home) and then the Gold Coast (away) before a round-five bye. And the Dees have what now appears to be a fortuitous round-23 return meeting with the Suns, whose first-up thrashing from Carlton has led to hastily revised forecasts of how competitive the debutants' season will turn out to be.
The Australian
Demons seek to end nightmare
By Stephen Rielly
MELBOURNE endured a yesteryear whipping from Hawthorn on Sunday night.
It now confronts a potentially defining and embarrassingly early moment of truth against Brisbane at the MCG on Sunday, according to captain Brad Green. "The performance yesterday wasn't good enough, and the performance against Brisbane will certainly be one where everyone's going to be watching us to make a stand, and see where we are as a club and how we're going to respond," Green said yesterday. "Where we've been over the last couple of years, it's somewhere we didn't want to go back to. We're looking to improve and get better and certainly that was a little hitch yesterday."
