Rhino Richards

I agree with you that Miller is limited. But PJ offers neither a phyisical presence in the center or up forward and it is why he is such a lame ruckman. If a player is up forward then he needs to play as one. And because PJ has a nice kicking style that people assume/believe that he is vastly superior kick. PJ's record over his career is nothing to write home about.

That is incorrect. There has been a mixed acceptance of the Irish series by the players and the squad may have drawn players who may have been or had been AA but it was not a directive that they must be picked. If you did the research on this you might be discovering what actually smacks of ignorance And further a coaching stint in an end of season jolly with no consequence is hardly a grounding for AFL coaching. It will 12 years this year since he retired as footballer. He has had plenty of time to have coached if he had wanted to. He hasn't. Neither the experience or pedigree to coach at AFL at the moment. BTW, this is a critic of the notion of Lyon coaching and not the person as you have alleged elsewhere.

I would not be putting their name up in lights after one game in February. Scott has inherited a list with a good mix of senior and junior players with generally a good leadership group. I am not sure where their improvement over the season will come with Simpson retiring, Harvey in his twilight and still having midfield issues. Are they the same supporters that dont turn up to matches? North are just as big if not bigger financial basket case than MFC.

I am not sure we went ultra defensive because we left half the side of the ground open.

LT Forecast Saturday Sunny Min: 20°C Max: 33°C UV: Very High Awful practice match conditions. Hope they have a large bench with plenty of ice vests there.

No its a fact. Nobody likes the sub standard performances and it was just that. We have to improve on this. We played about nine blokes who had 10 games or less experience. You could probably add another six guys that have less than fifty games. Young players are going to take time to mature. How much better would we have been with Jamar, Bate, Bartram, Bruce etc is hard to gauge. But if dont have a key senior list players on the ground then there is a real issue playing so many kids so often in the same team. While there is alot of promise, the playing list is younger than the past three years. Hopefully we dont see too many efforts like this. But its also a reminder that the young talent will take time. And you are right about confidence, the environment and the playing list has to be managed carefully. This season could be as difficult as past years.

I ignore the personal swipe Demon3. It was unnecessary. He has no experience in coaching and his jolly for the Irish series and his selection of player for that event shows he did not understand the player type required for the series. FWIW, Tim Watson has a great knowledge and understanding of the game but.....

Refer the drafting threads. We took best available in the draft and that was focussed on the midfield woes. Who did we miss in particular? Which tall forward was available and worth giving a first round pick?

Dunn is neither a key or kpp player. Dunn does not attack the ball and needs to impose himself. Bate has him well covered up forward.

No. Closest experience he has has to coaching is hosting the Footy Show and runnning an end of season booze up in Ireland some years ago that went pear shaped.

Jurrah is still a key forward where ever you play him. Miller spent most of his game time chasing marks on the lead. While not a strong contest mark, he does make the contest to bring the ball to ground. I am not sure PJ gives us anymore scope there.

Only famous because of a trigger happy umpire. Hardly the stuff to build a traditional rivalry on to span the years is it? Correct. Especially close GFs over a number of years. I think you will find it was the complete opposite. Read the Red Fox book.

Trying to think of one epic final MFC and Hawthorn played. Cant recall any written stuff on 1961 and 1963. When MFC were strong, the Hawks were not. When the Hawks were strong in 70s and 80s MFC were not. Lack of real tradition in their clashes despite the merger fiasco of 1996.

Whether we are 6-0 or 0-6 should be irrelevant as to whether Scully should be doing a tagging role. But at least you would identify his attributes at that level and understand he has a wonderful potential. He is class act with or without the ball from what he does with it down to his character and determination. He was pick #1 for a reason and has starred for two years in the junior league. Why wouldn't you set about developing those skills that set him apart as junior to make him ready to be potentially elite at AFL level Regardless of playing with boys, he with Trengove has been rated as AFL ready. It does not mean you throw him to the wolves but neither do you blunt him as a tagger. As for talent at the top end of the draft pool not translating their form from carnival to AFL level there has been plenty of examples. And Carnivals themselves should not be taken just on their own. I would have thought the top 12 drafted of 2007 (with the exception of Grant) have given a pretty good indication of the currency you can draw from the junior league to AFL. I think the 2008 top 10 year has been fabulous indication. Niknat, Hill, Hurley,Ziebell, Sidebottom have all readily transitioned to the AFL and were all prominent players at the junior level. Baliey/Connolly have recognised you need to get at least 50 games into young players to get them to their potential. If Tom does that in 50 games I'll be rapt. If it happens before then it would not be unreasonable.But no was is claiming otherwise. Brett Deledio, Joel Selwood, Trent Cotchin (injury aside), Rhys Palmer and Daniel Rich have been stars or near stars since they started. Good attacking skillful ball winning players with good engines. And I cant think over that time that they have been put in tagging roles.....Hmmmmm.

I will keep it simple. If you think MFC are going for broke to win the first six games then why would they place a player who is a natural ball winner and user in a tagging role? Its incongruous. FWIW, I think MFC have more sense than to do either. I suggest you focus on your own foibles Dappa than allege some on others. I have never criticised that Scully would be tagging full time. I and other posters challenged the assertion that he be tagging at all. Given what is known about Scully as Axis of Bob has pointed out, he already demonstrates all the aspects you speak of. And if he is in the middle where he plays his best football then surely he is going to come up and contest against all the superstars of the competition. There can be times where it is beneficial for a footballer to be a tagging role (teach defensive skills, work rate, etc). But Scully does not have those weaknesses. So why wouldn't you get him to develop his obvious strengths as a footballer than pidgeon hole him based on a cliched developmental role where he demonstrates all the attributes.

Bailey has already he said that MFC are going to continue to get games into younger players. I dont think there is any reality they will punt the horses for the first six rounds givne the LT needs of the list. Scully is a natural ball winner with a huge tank so why would he be earning his place as a tagger? I would have thought it would be more beneficial to develop his natural solid gamestyle rather than negatiing.

Were we???? I think your making it up. There might have been some naive posters that had possibly McLean and TJ there but others I dont think so. The expectations on Scully, Trengove, Morton and Watts to be 200 game plus players who individually become very good to elite is a reasonable expectation. Frawley Grimes all have reasonable potential and Jurrah...could be anything. So if our last AA in 2006 Junior McDonald can make the AA team then why the hell cant each of these young players over the course of their hopefully long and successful MFC career. And if you cant be excited about our current crop of players and see this should really be a better side than we have had for the past 10 years at least then life must be pretty sour for you indeed.

Guess!

So we would you bury him out on the wing away from the main action?

Too much sense! The only thing in common with Scully and Gibbs is they were both talented and both No 1s. However, Gibbs defensive skills were not as well honed as Scully's and there are aspects he needed to learn. For something novel, why dont we get Scully to develop his strengths further? I trust the MFC coaches have this in my mind.

You have a player who is a natural ball winner and effective user with a huge tank with the prospect of being an elite midfielder and there is a call to have him as a tagger! Good grief. I am not sure Dunn is going forward and IMO is fighting to justify himself in the best 22.

I'd be very careful making statements like that about the medical staff going forward. You are not a doctor. You dont know the facts at hand and you have proven nothing except.... Mikey J and High Tower have answered you perfectly on this.

Agree. I am not sure our disposition is that unusual against other Clubs. From my understanding Davey's is a slight strain/tear. Being couped up in a plane for 16 hours is surely going to make it worse before it gets better.

I realise that. But if he were available..... Cheney...part of premiership defence..interesting. Would have thought there were others well ahead and with better skills than Cheney. IMO Cheney will have to develop some pretty strong strings to his bow to make it. At present he does not have them. Grimes will come off the HBL for Rd 1

Isn't player welfare the critical issue here? Perth is going to be max 35. It will be close to that when they start to play at 5.30pm. Hopefully they have expanded the benches and packed alot of ice suits Why play it earlier unless its at 8/9am. FWIW, I dont why footy is scheduled in WA in Feb/Mar at all. There is a line about floppy drives and hard disks that I will just leave alone. B)