American writer, Charles Bukowski, once wrote, "What matters most is how well you walk through the fire." On Saturday afternoon Melbourne's players stood before the blazing embers and watched, transfixed, as their coach's livelihood was reduced to ash.

It was compelling viewing. 37 goals simply doesn't (or shouldn't) happen in this day and age. I hope Dean Bailey followed Bukowski's lead on Saturday night and filled a tumbler with Scotch.

Bailey was sacked barely 24 hours after the 186-point defeat.  Melbourne's directors, lead by the club's ailing President, Jim Stynes, had no option. It is impossible to recover from a defeat of such magnitude. In a season filled with spin, the Melbourne powerbrokers had no filament left in the cupboard.

Dean Bailey strikes me as a decent person. So does Neil Craig. Craig is the kind of man I hope to someday inherit as a father-in-law. He conducted a magnificent final press conference last Monday. He spoke with compassion for his players and a genuine affinity for the club's board. Adelaide presented a united front. Even in a crisis there was an overriding sense of calm. The same can't be said for the Demons.

Melbourne plays Carlton on Saturday afternoon. After the Blues' allegations of ‘bruise-free footy' earlier in the season, the Demons have every incentive to come out firing. Sound familiar? Melbourne has backed itself into a corner once too often. Its losses to Carlton, Collingwood, Geelong and the Bulldogs have been inexcusable. Even an upset win against the Blues on Saturday won't suffice. It will only add to the stigma that the Demons' players pick and choose when they want to put in.

When Terry Wallace was coaching Footscray he prided his regime on one so-called ‘crunch game' every season. Prior to the game his players would all sign a football as a pledge to play an uncompromising brand of football. During Wallace's reign the Dogs never lost a ‘crunch game'. Yet it was a fallacy. If the playing group was properly drilled Wallace wouldn't need to resort to such histrionic measures. Every AFL game is a crunch game.  Supporters weep, rant, brawl, call radio stations in despair and some, tragically, go further than that.

The notion of ‘bleeding for the cause' can be a little abstract where football is concerned, but I have always liked it. At the beginning of Ross Lyon's tenure at St Kilda he was regularly accused of not bleeding for the club. Lyon found it a difficult accusation to refute. Yet no one who watched his press conference after the 2009 Grand Final could ever doubt his love of his players or his club.

Despite Dean Bailey's measured approach with the media and his dry sense of humour, he clearly bled for the Demons. I suspect that he will be haemorrhaging for a long time to come. One of the highlights of the season was watching his response to his side's upset win against Essendon in round 11. When the final siren sounded, Bailey repeatedly punched the rain-soaked façade of the interchange bench. It was a brief yet revealing window into Bailey's stern resolve.

However, there is no point in a coach bleeding for the cause if his players don't. Bailey described his players' efforts on Saturday as follows: "It was a game played almost outside of them and in front of them, they were almost watching what an elite team can do." It was an accurate description. Even Jack Trengove - a beacon of morality for the besieged club all season - put in one truly deplorable effort when he refused to chase after an opponent in the centre of the ground.

Every side needs a player with true grit; a player who feels sick in the stomach at the prospect of defeat; a player who isn't afraid to walk through the fire; a player who, in the hour of greatest need, vows, ‘This will not stand!' In the 1989 Grand Final Robert DiPierdomenico played with a punctured lung. He literally and figuratively bled for ‘Yabby' Jeans. Who on Melbourne's list bled for Dean Bailey last Saturday?

As heartless as it sounds, coaches know the score when they sign up for the main job. That's why certain people - such as former Brisbane and Essendon assistant Gary O'Donnell - openly profess to lacking the stomach for the lead role. It is arguable that Mark Thompson came within one game of being sacked in 2007. Yet in that game his players defeated Richmond by 157 points. They showed the football world who they wanted at the helm.

Yesterday Bailey remarked, "I can't think of any player who would not play for me."  On Saturday afternoon his players let their actions (or lack thereof) do the talking.