Dean Bailey on the Dees narrow loss in WA against the 4th team
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DEAN Bailey said he could take little solace from Melbourne's huge comeback against Fremantle because the Demons found themselves in too big a hole to dig out of....
Bailey refused to condemn Lynden Dunn and Jack Watts, who each missed a straightforward set shot in the final minutes that would have put Melbourne in front for the first time.
"(Fremantle) missed some set shots as well. The game doesn't come down to those moments people will look back on, but you know - start well, take your chances early when you travel interstate," Bailey said.
"We didn't start well, so you can't come from six goals down and expect to be in the game like we did."
"We spoke about moving the ball a bit more and just taking a few more risks like we did before the game. The message hadn't changed," Bailey said.
"You can't excuse our effort in the first quarter. The underlying reason that we had to fight our way back from behind was because we were really disappointing in the first quarter."
Ratts on our 40 pt loss to a middling interstate side at home.
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"That's the thing I scratch my head about, and I still smile about it, but I think our group is growing. Yes, we are not where we want to be, but we have shown when we are on our game we can play some good footy.
"None of you (media) had us in the finals. When you look where we have come from and everyone said you won't score, where are you going to score, so no one put us in the eight.
"We sit about fifth for scoring and it's maybe our inability to defend more than scoring (which is the problem) and we need to get the balance right. It's all in our hands, we control our destiny and that will be the challenge in the last six weeks."
Ratten said he saw signs in the second half that indicated there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.
"They got the jump early and it was pretty much all over from there, but I thought from the halfway point we won the battle," he said.
"We had to work extremely hard to score our goals, and they scored soft goals, but we were right in the game.
"The tide is starting to turn. We are low on confidence and we haven't got off to good starts, but from the halfway mark, whether they took their foot off the gas, but we were in the game."
This is a joke. What message is he trying to send? That losing to sides below us, or middling interstate sides at home is okay? That going down without a whimper is fine?
Nice guy, seriously out of his depth. Is the tail wagging the dog again? Is the Melbourne side young and inexperienced? How come their coach doesn't constantly trot that line out? If Ratts reckons the last 6 weeks has been okay then we are going nowhere. We have had two genuinely great wins this year, a number of routine wins against duds playing badly. When the acid was out on us - Bulldogs, HAwks, Freeo, Swans, North we were too young and inexperienced and so no-one's too blame. The main place where inexperience is hurting us is in the box.