Lil_red_fire_engine

Bate was responsible for a third of our score either directly or indirectly. Although he has the turning circle of the titanic his pressure, multiple leads and bustling today were exactly what you want from your third forward. We now just need to find the first and second forward and we will be right.

Peter, what position did Mcnamara play

Yep

Why do we have to persist with him? He is Cupido mark 2. He is lazy, undisciplined and lacks any football smarts aside from a good set of hands. If he does not understand his career is on tenderhooks then he is the dumbest footballer there is. Dump him to Casey I dont care who for and delist him at years end or trade him for whatever you can get.

6. Davey 5. Bate 4. Bruce 3. Bennell 2. Rivers 1. Morton

I would think 80 minutes is about par for the course for a midfielder with today's rotations. Loving how quickly everyone is jumping off Mclean. Whose next Rivers? He has had two poor games. He did a full preseason but was quoted as saying how it will take him time to pick up the pace of the game after missing most of last year.

Robbo, Healy and McNamara off the injury list and into games at Casey last week. Wheatley you would assume to join them this week. No new ones added at this time (touch wood) starting to trend in the right direction.

I am not advocating Davey playing only forward. More than happy if he can learn to play as an attacking half back. He should watch those that are best at it ie: Mcloud and Burgoyne. They take the ball and run it forward drawing players to them and then deliver it to a more offensive position. They do not stand next to someone stationary to take the ball then run in circles and chip it 15 metres.

Can someone watch the replay and provide the passages of play (time in the qtr would be great) where Davey generated positive run. My account was his disposal was great but our attempts to give him the ball whilst he stood sideways, backwards or next to the player with it and then chip it 15 metres were a hindrance rather than a benefit. Interesting how differently people view one players game.

Good post Dandeeman: I expect most games that we will start well and show good fluency and structure. I also expect as the game wears on the structure, skills and defensive pressyre will deteriorate as immature bodies tire.

Good post. I actually thought Bennell has been very promising both weeks...

Who took our kickins last year? Wheatley Whelan Chris Johnson Garland Bell There's your answer.

You only make changes if what is at Casey is better than what you saw today. For someone who should have had a point to prove Sylvia was once again a disappointment. Jetta reaffirmed for me today he could be the slowest indigenous player since Derek Kickett played for the All Stars. In: Maric, Dunn Out: Jetta, Sylvia

Joeboy, did you get these the wrong way around?

2 votes for three possessions. You must have been clutching at straws.

I find it interesting so many put Davey BOG. Aside from the fact he hit targets I actually thought he caused more harm than good. He stood sideways from the player with the ball and then when it was given to him offered no run but just chipped it to someone else. I would assume he was there to offer run but I did not see it. 6. Jones (starting to see the Scott West influence) 5. Warnock (great backmens effort) 4. Green (most dangerous player in our forward half) 3. Morton (Improved performance. First half skills were sublime, second half skills were iffy -Freak 72% overall does not make him elite this week) 2. Miller (Led hard all day) 1. Davey (purely weight of numbers and lack of other 1 vote options)

Griffen is a beautiful long kick on the run. His first quarter in particular on the weekend proved that. Across the run of a normal game where kicks are varying lengths and degrees of difficulty do I think he hits in excess of 80% of targets most weeks. No. If you kick the ball 20 metres 3 times effectively you are still better placed than 2 50metre kicks where you turn the second one over.

At least you are finally trying to back up your case with substance. Its unfortunate that I cannot find their kicking efficiency only as I would think that Hodge (55% K2H), Gilbee(63% K2H) and Goddard (46% K2H) are distorted by their low kick to handball ratio. Gibbs and Mcloud are beautiful kicks and their low effectiveness may be because they had such high numbers (24 and 25 kicks respectively) or they had a bad night. Either way it supports my case that 81% effectiveness is above these players you call elite. The other elite you have mentioned are either very canny shots at goal (Brown, ohnson) or have a penetrating boot on them (Fletcher, Griffen). As good as it looks at times I would not rate them as elite based on my definition (ability to hit targets 80% or more) and it does not suprise me that the statistics support this argument. Ling, Cloke and Swan are good kicks and Stanton proves that anyone can have a good day. Happy to look at this again next week and see what the stats show.

You comparison is laughable. Spencer had 3 kicks and a total of 8 disposals. Did you not take note that kick to handball ratio was important? I assumed I did not need to mention that volume of disposals would also impact. But I guess since Spencer had less than half the disposals of the two players you mentioned and a kick to handball ratio 20% less than Green or Mclean doesn't discount your argument. Maybe your Auskick coach could explain it to you on the weekend....

So we are back to your obsession with what makes an elite kick. You didn't get it two weeks ago so whats changed now? Let me keep it simple. Get ball. Kick ball. Hit target. Do that 8 times out of 10 or better and then you are in the top 15% of players. Those kicks are usually across a variety of distances, angles and levels of pressure yet over a game that usually levels out. If you have other areas of the game you dont understand happy to help you out.

Although Davey was tagged yesterday he actually played most of the game forward but drifted too far up ground. Being tagged should not stop you applying forward pressure and he rarely did this after the first 15 minutes. He needs to play deep forward where even if he is under tight tag his 10 touches should have greater impact.

One example out of one game is a pretty long straw to draw Freak. Morton's first half yesterday was poor as he did not get involved in the play. His kicking aside from the one example you choose to use was elite. If we are backing up our statements with one off examples his goal off balance off one step from 45m yesterday as much negates your point but happ to back it up with stats. Morton's disposal efficiency was 80%. There were 16 Melbourne players with worse efficiency ratings. He had the highest kick to handball ratio of any of the players above him. To me that means on paper he was our best kick yesterday. Oh thats right he must be a poor disposer because he missed ONE kick (albeit a shocker) but dont let facts get in the way of supporting your argument.

Agree that this is the case but how is this Bailey's fault when he has been there for one season and 2 drafts?

We dont have an offensive game plan because we dont have a forwardline. We seek to minimise damage because we do not have a forwardline. We hesitate because we do not have a forwardline We lack confidence going forward because you guessed it we do not have a forwardline. Is there a trend here? Is it Baileys fault that he inherited a club with a key forward on the brink of retirement and a undersized key position who did an achilles? If Watts or Jurrah (both drafted by DB to fill these needs mid-long term) are not the short term answer (which they are not) then see if you can find this magical key forward that Bailey has hidden somewhere on our list ready and raring to go for round 2.

Well said Sylvinator. You can only work with what you have and the forwards cupboard is pretty bare.