NATURAL SELECTION by Whispering Jack

I was reflecting recently about the impending arrival of the new AFL season and I came to the conclusion that it is fitting that the capital city of the Northern Territory, whose government is a relationship partner of the Melbourne Football Club, was named after English naturalist Charlie Darwin.

Darwin, whose theory of evolution was expounded in On the Origin of Species described the process of natural selection as being a matter of the "survival of the fittest" and, as fate would have it, this is becoming the catchphrase that best sums up the early part of the new AFL season which is in its infancy after only four matches.

fact

WJ great post but in the interests of accuracy wasn't it Herbert Spencer who coined the term "Survival of the Fittest" not Darwin. Sorry to be a pedant!

Not a great side but probably the best we could field given the circumstances.

I guess Pederson will have to do a bit of ruck work and draw attention away from Howe and Fitz, would prefer to see Byrnes as sub but that's the way it is. Blease has to work hard and show he can get a bit of the ball before he should be selected.

Not many in that shouldn't be and those not selected will have to prove they should be.

I am looking forward to the start of the season and I think, given the outs, this is about the best side we could expect. I like the fact that the club is taking a very conservative approach with injury and giving players time to fully recover. As for labeling players 'duds', I am more than willing to see how the individuals respond to the new coaching setup and the new attitudes within the club before crossing anyone off the list. To my mind, it is a clean sheet with the coaches and we should adopt exactly the same attitude.

Looking for a win here.

Yeah, I surprised Roos didn't consult the Demonland experts before giving Byrnes and Pedersen a game.

Sorry ht didn't realise Byrnes had good form in the preseason!

My mistake!

Would swap Blease with Byrnes but otherwise good enough to get the job done. Comfortably.

For all the whinging about how poor the MFC side ( and is not great), St Nick aside, that has to be the weakest StK side in 10 years. No names and nobodies.

Disappointed if MFC don't come home with the points.

Obviously disappointing if we don't get the points but from where we're coming from I'm not comfortable with labeling the opposition no names and nobodies.

This is not going to be an easy game.

Even though the saints have a lot of players out we would have been belted by a vfl last season.

I know we are now under Roos but we r going to have to fight tooth and nail to win this.

We can not go into this game overconfident.

Interesting no Jordie, even as an emergency

time to apply my NQR assessment:

Bail, Fitzpatrick, Byrnes, Pederson, Spencer, the whole bench are questionmarks.. terlich, dunn, trengove not far off

can't say I'm thrilled

why do we go in to round 1 missing about 7 players every year

will not be at all shocked at a loss unfortuantely

No real surprises, good to see the Toump included after the hammering he's had on here of late. M Jones or JKH as sub?

toumpas needs to harden up if he fails in this first game spend the year at Casey Not good enough for mine yet

Interesting no Jordie, even as an emergency

would have Jordie way before the greek!

would have Jordie way before the greek!

Not sure what this means?

Do you mean Georgiou?

He is a tall defender, and Jordie is a midfielder.

"The greek" also implies dangerously racist tones.

Sorry ht didn't realise Byrnes had good form in the preseason!

My mistake!

You're forgiven ;-)

You're forgiven ;-)

I will be able to sleep better now!

You're forgiven ;-)

On a serious not u can't tell me u would rather Byrnes in instead of JKH?

We need an electrifying speedy player at the feet of our make shift forward line and Byrnes ain't it.

From what I have seen this preseason Byrnes continues to miss targets and goals.

I now he is a premiership player but......

Interesting no Jordie, even as an emergency

An earlier poster in this thread said Jordie has a foot injury.

would have Jordie way before the greek!

Are you referring to Georgiou, Toumpass, Dimitriou or Koudafides?

Not sure what this means?

Do you mean Georgiou?

He is a tall defender, and Jordie is a midfielder.

"The greek" also implies dangerously racist tones.

Not sure about dangerously racist, but maybe just lazy and a poor speller?

On a serious not u can't tell me u would rather Byrnes in instead of JKH?

We need an electrifying speedy player at the feet of our make shift forward line and Byrnes ain't it.

From what I have seen this preseason Byrnes continues to miss targets and goals.

I now he is a premiership player but......

No, of course I want to see JKH going around... he's an absolute excitement machine. But I also understand that he will be slightly underdone not having played much at this level and intensity, and I understand that Roos will want the experience and level headedness of Byrnes in there for at least the first half of the game. If they can make a good break on the Saints in the first half, I think you will see Byrnes make way for JKH and Roos will let him run riot. Of course, we are assuming that JKH will be the sub, which may not necessarily be the case.

Roos is a premiership coach, so I will defer to his decision to play Byrnes.

No, of course I want to see JKH going around... he's an absolute excitement machine. But I also understand that he will be slightly underdone not having played much at this level and intensity, and I understand that Roos will want the experience and level headedness of Byrnes in there for at least the first half of the game. If they can make a good break on the Saints in the first half, I think you will see Byrnes make way for JKH and Roos will let him run riot. Of course, we are assuming that JKH will be the sub, which may not necessarily be the case.

Roos is a premiership coach, so I will defer to his decision to play Byrnes.

I'm not disagreeing with Roos and never will but trying to understand the selection of Byrnes. That's all.

C'mon Jabberwock, now is not the time for such negativity. Agree there are a couple of blokes that may not be up to AFL standard but the nucleus of a competitive unit is there for all to see. To think of the out and out duds we had running around in 2012 & 2013 this side is the first of 23 steps in the right direction.

Look there is still a lot to look forward to, excited to see our new midfield in action. Those injuries have exposed a number of players who would struggle to get a game at 15 or 16 other clubs.

Whilst we look a lot sharper in our top dozen, we are still just as weak in our bottom 6, and this is likely to be the case for a number of weeks.

I'm just a little disappointed that I can't look at the side and consider it a solid unit, one that could worry a good side. I'll get over it.

Don't understand the complaining/disappointment. We don't have a choice. We have clearly picked the best 22 that we have available at the moment (you could argue for Blease but he has a while to go to build his tank).

Our team isn't great. It's bottom-4 standard. But St Kilda's is just as bad, if not worse. It hasn't been often in the last 8 years that we've looked better on paper, but we do this weekend.

Bail I thought was a certainty on pre-season form. I'm surprised that people are talking about him as if he were a surprise. I don't love him by any stretch, but is clear best 22 at present for mine.

Bail has a few qualities that we know Roos loves. He gut runs, both ways. He is courageous and will put his head over the ball (sometimes to his detriment, as we know, but it's a trait nonetheless). He can play a decent defensive-forward role. He's had a decent pre-season, too. Not su

Just had a nice collect on the Cats and I'm going to load it into the Dees for Saturday night.

anyway after all that , us by 8-10 ,,, goals , go gees kick some bum

Look there is still a lot to look forward to, excited to see our new midfield in action. Those injuries have exposed a number of players who would struggle to get a game at 15 or 16 other clubs.

Whilst we look a lot sharper in our top dozen, we are still just as weak in our bottom 6, and this is likely to be the case for a number of weeks.

I'm just a little disappointed that I can't look at the side and consider it a solid unit, one that could worry a good side. I'll get over it.

I'd feel the same if the coaching group of the past two seasons was at the helm again.

We don't have the best players on the park but I'm pretty confident the guys in the box will make a big difference during the game as opposed to previous years.

Everyone gets a clean slate...

Except players I don't like.

I am pumped for this. Even with the disasters of the past couple of years, there's nothing quite like Round 1 of a new season.