News

From The Mercury
Reported by Brett Stubbs

THE Devils' coaches have taken full responsibility for the team's plight -- including its club-record nine straight losses and its last-place standing.

Assistant coach Andrew Mellor said neither he nor head coach Daryn Cresswell would pass the buck.

"Myself and Daryn are not going to hide behind poor form," Mellor said, standing in at yesterday's press conference for Cresswell, who was on the North-West Coast.

"The buck stops with the coaches and we have to keep working just as hard as the players until we come up with the right mix. There is no doubt about it."

But Mellor said the staff members felt no pressure to hold their jobs.

"We have got the full support of the board here at Tassie and everyone knows while we can't accept losing that amount of games on the trot, there have been some circumstances that haven't always favoured us," he said.

"We are just thinking about the rest of this season and winning as many games as we can. We feel the pressure to win just as the players do."

Even if the Devils do not win another game, he expected the same coaches to be in charge next season.

"I can't recall a club where a coach has come in and played one season with such a young list and called it quits," Mellor said.

"Everyone knows football goes in three or four-year cycles.

"We've got such a young list. If we were to keep this list together, all of a sudden we are seeing more 40, 60, 70, 80, 100-game players. It would turn around very quickly, I have got no doubt.

"Everyone who has been in the game knows that."

The Devils will try to halt their losing streak hitting double figures tomorrow when they host the Bendigo Bombers at Bellerive -- the only team they have defeated this season.

"We beat them at Windy Hill and that was no mean feat," he said.

"They had a lot of fresh players that have since gone on to play senior footy for Essendon. We are definitely going to use that. That can only give us confidence and we are now at home."

But such has been the turnover since that opening-round win, only 15 of the 26 players named for tomorrow played in that victory.

Again the Devils will be without co-captain Brett Geappen (sternum) and leading goalkicker Adam Derbyshire (hamstring), while the selectors have resisted playing any Mariners, allowing them to be fully fit for the continuation of the national carnival.

They regain half-forward Brodie Moles from suspension, while Kangaroos ruckman-forward David Hale has also been named on an extended bench.

Bendigo has named 16 Essendon-listed players in its 25-man squad, including Tasmanian recruits Sam Lonergan, Tom Hislop and Andrew Lee.