The Smiling Assassination: Johnson takes Melbourne’s “disastrous” start to task

Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson has taken Melbourne to task after their 62-120 loss to Gold Coast at the MCG on Saturday.

The Demons were completely outclassed on the inside and outside by Damien Hardwick’s outfit as they now sit 0-3 through three games with losses to the Giants, Kangaroos and Suns.

Sitting 17th with a percentage of just 62.7, Johnson labelled the start to their campaign as disastrous, and he thinks that the first thing the club’s coaches must address is how they move the ball.

“This is a disastrous start to the season and the players and coaches have to sort this out very quickly,” Johnson said on SEN Sportsday.

“From a ball movement perspective, I think they have to sort it out very quickly because what I witnessed on the weekend chipping it around the halfback line … that is too easy to defend at the moment.

“Gold Coast with their run were able to slide their defence quite easily and adjust to that. They were happy with Melbourne just kicking the way they did. Eventually, they had to go long down the line and they (Gold Coast) set up beautifully and off they go.”

While they have some issues to clear up from a tactical perspective, Johnson thinks there could be even more problems from a spirit point of view.

He called out the club's senior players for letting the side down in terms of attitude and he urged the Dees to quickly do some soul-searching to pick themselves up out of this slump.

“But there's the two pillars,” Johnson said.

“We spoke about this weeks ago with the spirit, the energy, and all those things that you bring, and where that sits in your gameplan versus the tactical side of football.

“I thought I'd think about the tactics first because that has to play out… but their senior players are letting them down at the moment, and that's right across the board from fullback right through to full forward.

“Even on match day watching that live, you just sort of sit there and everyone starts blaming each other out on the field.

“Once you're in that position as a team, there's a lot of soul searching that needs to come about.”

Unfortunately for the Dees, things don’t get much easier in Round 4 as they head down the highway to face Geelong.

If they can’t at least put up a fight at GMHBA Stadium, Johnson has grave concerns for their season.

“This is it in some ways this season for the Dees,” Johnson said.

“They’re travelling down the highway and going to a venue that’s difficult to win at.

“If they don’t get the W, what are we watching? If they compete and just go down, you can kind of accept that. But if not (it could be ugly).”

The Dees will hope to avoid going 0-4 when they face the Cats at 7:40 pm (AEDT) at GMHBA Stadium on Friday.