from the squad listed

Bell Carroll Holland

Brown Rivers Petterd

Sylvia Bruce Moloney

Pickett Miller Yze

Davey Neitz Dunn

White Johnstone Godfrey

PJ, Jones, Buckley, Bate/CJ

Would prefer Newton to Neitz this week (would hate for him to hurt himself again)

CJ to play if Bate doesnt come up

Holland to take Tredders, Carroll to take White, Rivers to play 3rd man up

Godfrey to tag shaun burgoyne, junior on pearce, let bruce play on peter burgoyne, and hurt him the other way

PJ and White just need to crash and bash Lade, stop him from getting the pinpoint hitouts to the burgoynes at clearnaces

i hope wardy gets a spot if he pulls up ok. I still think he provides a lot to this team assisting with a lot of the running from defence.

yeah he runs the ball out of defense, kicks an absolute wonderful kick straight to an opposition player who in turn kicks it over wards head to his player who runs in for an easy goal

missed that last week

brown did do a bang up job of it though

Jamar FINALLY gone

Thank Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PJ and White just need to crash and bash Lade, stop him from getting the pinpoint hitouts to the burgoynes at clearnaces

"White to crash and bash Lade"

195cm followers tend not to be the crash n bash types. White hasn't crashed n bashed in over 200 games. Can't see him starting now.

"White to crash and bash Lade"

195cm followers tend not to be the crash n bash types. White hasn't crashed n bashed in over 200 games. Can't see him starting now.

Agreed.

Wish Brown wasn't in the team. RE: Ward comments, I'd probably prefer him to Brown these days.

Jamar probably needed to be dropped, but having PJ as our second ruck is a pretty scary prospect.

yeah he runs the ball out of defense, kicks an absolute wonderful kick straight to an opposition player who in turn kicks it over wards head to his player who runs in for an easy goal

missed that last week

brown did do a bang up job of it though

I absolutely disagree. Ward isnt our best running defender but melb dont have many running defenders that are quality. I think Ward is bagged too much. I do think he does hold the defence in running from the back line. Ok his disposal isnt great. But jeez i dont think much of melbournes disposal at all this season. Ward in my opinion is ok at what he does but thats me and i think he gets a stiff running on this site

id rather cj in for ward, atleast he will get better with more game time, ward wont, but fair enough occo we all see players differently.

CJ is a winger and should be played there all game give him time to recapture preseason form... constantly on and off bench in and out of team..... Does Danners have a clue how to develop young players???

Ward is better than Brown as he runs harder and can at least kick it 50-60 m unlike Brown... sure he is turnover prone but id rather kick it 55 m to a turnover than 30 metres to a 50/50 contest like Brown does....

I hope PJ gets the same amount of ground time as Jamar has had over the first few weeks. All the PJ knockers will change their opinion if this guy can get good game time on the ball and aloud to run. He has got good skills, from what I saw last week in Sydney his ruck work has improve, he had more hit outs that Jamar in the very limited time he rucked and had our best hit out to advantge percentage.

Jones and Bate would be in some doubt, it wouldn't hurt Bate to have a week off anyway he is young form hasn't been that good and he will be still carrying that ankle injury, give him the whole wekend off to freshen up. Holland or Warnock, depends on Hollands Groin injury. I hope to see Buckley debut but not at the expense of CJ. CJ is being played like a MR Fix it for such a inexperienced player he gets thrown around the ground by ND ever game. I would love for him to become this player because at the moment we rely on Bruce to do this, where IMO Bruce is to important to our midfield rotation to play deep defensive and tagging roles.

We will win this week, if your a betting person have some on the big odds we are paying.

I still get the feeling Neitz may not play.

This concerns me, as you seem to be in the know with the MFC.

If Neitz doesn't play, its Geelong and Fremantle all over again - in other words another miserable Sunday arvo at the G'.

However the fact that Garland or Jamar are not emergencies would suggest that the big man will play, as we have no other realistic tall men to play full foward - apart from PJ.

Perhaps Ben Holland will be used as insurance should Neita pull out

Just on the Brown/CJ selection - many are quick to criticise Brown for that error (and it was horrific) but CJ was at best very ordinary last week and also made a bad error when he took too long and was pinged for holding the ball deep in defence.

For development purposes I prefer to see CJ over Brown, but sometimes with older players people are very quick to point out their mistakes whereas young players get let off the hook far too easily. They shouldn't be held to the same standard and as an experienced player more is expected of Brown than CJ. But just don't overlook the fact that CJ has been very disappointing so far in his 3 games this year.

Confidence is no doubt playing a role.

CJ is a winger and should be played there all game give him time to recapture preseason form... constantly on and off bench in and out of team..... Does Danners have a clue how to develop young players???

Reminds me of the treatment of Arma... he was always the first to be dropped and I felt was never given time to develop his game and gain confidence.

This concerns me, as you seem to be in the know with the MFC.

If Neitz doesn't play, its Geelong and Fremantle all over again - in other words another miserable Sunday arvo at the G'.

However the fact that Garland or Jamar are not emergencies would suggest that the big man will play, as we have no other realistic tall men to play full foward - apart from PJ.

Perhaps Ben Holland will be used as insurance should Neita pull out

BBP - seriously, just my feeling. I don't think anyone excpet Daniher and Neitz know if he will play, and maybe not even them yet. I just got the sense he won't play, but nothing more. I hope I'm wrong!

Just on the Brown/CJ selection - many are quick to criticise Brown for that error (and it was horrific) but CJ was at best very ordinary last week and also made a bad error when he took too long and was pinged for holding the ball deep in defence.

[...]

Confidence is no doubt playing a role.

CJ getting a decent run of consecutive games in the seniors would help.

I don't really care about the Brown mistake - it was glaringly obvious because it resulted in a goal, but these things happen. I didn't want him in the team for the Sydney match, so I'm not jumping on him because of the turnover.

CJ has more upside. We know what Brown is at AFL level, and he's in decline.

All the PJ knockers will change their opinion if this guy can get good game time on the ball and aloud to run.

Agreed,

All PJ needs is one good game and people will be on the bandwagon.

Agreed,

All PJ needs is one good game and people will be on the bandwagon.

I agree but really the team just needs one good game and people will be on the bandwagon

FINALLY!! Jamar is dropped with Paul Johnson getting the nod as the backup ruckman. Ive been wanting this for ages!! Good on PJ hopefully he can take on the challange of sementing his spot as our 2nd ruckman better than Jamar did. Jamar had a million chances and just never got any better!

GO PJ!! goodluck

I totally agree, Jamar has been given so many chances and hasn't been able to take advantage of them. He isn't going to get any better and hasn't been able to step up. Happy to see PJ get his shot, he is better around the ground than Jamar and is still developing as a ruckman. He has been a forward for most of his career before he came to us and is still developing, its time to give PJ his chance and I hope he takes the opportunity and can make the most of it

All the best PJ

I absolutely disagree. Ward isnt our best running defender but melb dont have many running defenders that are quality. I think Ward is bagged too much. I do think he does hold the defence in running from the back line. Ok his disposal isnt great. But jeez i dont think much of melbournes disposal at all this season. Ward in my opinion is ok at what he does but thats me and i think he gets a stiff running on this site

'occo', I thought the same thing last season with his dash etc, but I've watched & studied him closely since & have hopped off the wardy wagon well & truly...

Just on the Brown/CJ selection - many are quick to criticise Brown for that error (and it was horrific) but CJ was at best very ordinary last week and also made a bad error when he took too long and was pinged for holding the ball deep in defence.

For development purposes I prefer to see CJ over Brown, but sometimes with older players people are very quick to point out their mistakes whereas young players get let off the hook far too easily. They shouldn't be held to the same standard and as an experienced player more is expected of Brown than CJ. But just don't overlook the fact that CJ has been very disappointing so far in his 3 games this year.

Confidence is no doubt playing a role.

I get what you're saying, but Brown's mistake was typical and a good indication of where he is at.

CJ hasn't been setting the world of fire, but he hasn't been getting much of an opportunity to do so either.

For starters, he isn't being played in his rightful position. Secondly, if we banished every player who got caught with the ball on the weekend, we'd be looking at an empty team. I've seen some of the best players in the competition get caught with the ball, I have never seen any of them choose to kick across the opposition's goals, and then proceed to miss the target.

Reminds me of the treatment of Arma... he was always the first to be dropped and I felt was never given time to develop his game and gain confidence.

that is soooo right, cj and arma are the same, on for 5 min if they dont kick 5 or get a ton of possessions back tot he banch for 45 min then on for another in a completely different possition

cj need to be told, look have 3 weeks on a HBF/HFF show us what you can do