COACH Dean Bailey has backed up recent comments made by Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon that the media has turned scrutiny on AFL coaches into a “blood sport”.
Bailey was asked if he believed the media was baying for coaches and he was emphatic in his response.
“I think you [the media] are, aren’t you?” he said during a media conference at AAMI Park on Tuesday.
“The situation that the coaches find themselves in is you come into this job eyes wide open, and you’re under scrutiny every single week.
“As far as I’m aware, there’s radio space you’ve got to fill, there’s column inches you’ve got to fill and we’re all employed in the one industry.
“At times, coaches and players, but particularly coaches, get put under the scrutiny, but it’s just the nature of the business to be honest.”
On Sunday in the Herald Sun, Smorgon said the Bulldogs were not in crisis.
"We're not going to get distracted by peripheral issues and side issues. Some of the headlines and some of the media that should know better ... our club is not in crisis. The media have an obsession, a blood sport, about attacking a senior coach,” he said.
“Melbourne, Dean Bailey, the Bulldogs, Rodney Eade, who knows who's going to be next? Three weeks ago it was Ross Lyon; all of a sudden St Kilda win two games and he's off the agenda.”
On the Demons, Bailey was asked if the club was an easy target at the moment, given its considerable injuries in recent times and three consecutive losses. He said the loss of personnel and a drop in form had contributed to the scrutiny.
“I think we’re in a tough situation at the moment with where we’re at, with our player depth being tested and a poor game last week on Friday night,” he said.
“So the scrutiny comes on all of us and every part of the game gets scrutinised.
“People will keep finding an angle to keep writing or talk about and comments made. Every week we get scrutinised and this is no different.
“We need to play better on Friday night, because Friday night is a big stage for us. We need to improve our output and we need to improve our contested possession, but we also need to improve our effort, which is what Melbourne people want to see.”
Bailey also hit back at suggestions that Melbourne played defensively from the outset against Carlton last round.
“I found that an interesting discussion, because we had Jack Watts behind the ball for a short period of time and we had our ruckman running forward, which is an attacking move,” he said.
“So that was the reason for it and Carlton is a very good centre bounce team, so we didn’t want to have centre bounce goals scored against us.
“We played the free at times, but we also killed the free as well, and there were times when both teams had a drop off at stoppage.
“We didn’t have the free for the whole period of the game and we tried to play attacking footy to win and score, so that’s what happened in the game.”
