Melbourne's ball movement went to water under Mark Neeld

FIELD MARSHALL: LET'S not kid ourselves, Melbourne was no oil-painting under former coach Dean Bailey.

LET'S not kid ourselves, Melbourne was no oil-painting under former coach Dean Bailey.

But even right up until Bailey's last painful days, they had a major strength - ball movement.

The Demons could move the footy from defence to attack with the best of them. From all areas of the ground they ranked in the top half of the competition.

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Either Jared Rivers and James Frawley would rebound from the back half or Brent Moloney and Mark Jamar would combine like clockwork in the middle.

Regardless of the source of the scoring chain, Liam Jurrah (40 goals), Brad Green (37) and Colin Sylvia (25) finished off the work.

That was 2011.

Melbourne's decline in all facets of the game under Bailey's replacement Mark Neeld in the two years since has been extraordinary.

And there's no bigger example of beauty turning to beast than the Demons' ball movement.

When it comes to taking the ball from defensive 50m to a score, Melbourne has slumped from fourth to 17th. From defensive midfield to a score it's 7th to 14th, from a centre clearance 8th to 15th and from an attacking midfield position it's a staggering 3rd to 17th.

Dean Bailey

Under Bailey the Dees used short kicking and handball to sweep the ball through the corridor. They used the boundary the fifth-least.

Neeld transformed them into a long-kicking, boundary-line based outfit and the results have been catastrophic.

The Demons have gone from conceding 17.3 disposals a game in 2011 to 51.5 in 2012 and a whopping 102.5 this year.

And yet in the four games they won last year, they won the possession count in each one. Funny that.

Melbourne's rate of scoring at the time of writing better resembles a soccer match than an AFL one. The Dees average less than 11 goals a game, ranked last in the competition. They went at 89.5 points per game in 2011.

If that's not frightening enough, opposition sides bang through an average 132.3 points when they play Melbourne.

Five wins, 28 losses and two rebuilds in 18 months Neeld leaves AAMI Park with a conga line of ugly figures in tow.