SaberFang

Not sure I get the collective mentality of all players uniting to try and fight this. Everyone and their pet cat knows they've been duped by Hird and his regime of drug-injecting buffoons. Come clean, sue the hell out of him, and show some goddamn integrity. None of these players will come out of this looking particularly ethical by sticking their fingers in their ears going "la, la, la, you've got no evidence to prove we did this!" If my employer betrayed my trust and confidence so grievously, I'd have zero allegiance to them whatsoever. I'd be trying to salvage my professional career using any means possible and seeking every legal avenue to do it. Why wait until the [censored] hits the fan with infraction notices and you've already had your name tainted for life?

Have been confident for a month this game was ripe for the picking. Essendon might have wins on the board but none lately have been convincing. Their last four wins are Bulldogs (8pts) Brisbane (8pts), Richmond (50pts) and GWS (15pts). Their last four losses are Sydney (50pts), Collingwood (23pts), St Kilda (!!! 16pts) and Fremantle (53pts). So that makes them flat track bullies at best. Basically, they haven't beaten anyone good. So just because they have many more wins on the board doesn't say a thing about the form they're in. Take out their best player (Jobe), negate the impact of their remaining leaders (Cross and McKenzie to tag), and crush their offensive game plan with our stranglehold defence. Force them to play that aimless backwards kicking rubbish they revert to every time they panic in matches, and they won't have a leader to drag them over the line. Daniher is only a kid, and Chappy has disappeared since round 3, so Dunn/TMac will take care of those two and make scoring a real challenge. The ASADA cloud is just icing on the cake, not to mention they've been our bogey side over the years. They'll be mentally exhausted and hopefully won't be sleeping much over the next few days. The only thing working against us is the 6 day break, but Roos is trying to counter this with 3 freshly rested ins.

Well the Paul Roos coached Melbourne has never lost at Adelaide Oval, so it'd be a huge upset if Port were able to beat us!

So does Cross tag Heppell, Zaha or Fletcher? With Jobe out they will be desperate for someone to step up and show real leadership. We need to negate that from the opening bounce and leave them leaderless. Should be a ripping match though. We won't be favorites by any stretch but I think we'll win comfortably. They haven't looked the real deal since the start of the season, only notching up a few unconvincing wins along the way but avoiding scrutiny.

Wasn't referring to anyone on here, rather the 22 page long thread on BF with every man and his dog attacking Roos for destroying the game. It's also been a focal point in the media all day, from 360 to FC.

Monday was a reactionary effort to what happened back in round two. And on Queens Birthday of all days, Roos couldn't allow a 100 point flogging after the week of media exposure our team had done. Clearly they went too far in the defensive direction, but the "outrage" over the match is laughable. People have no patience anymore. Have they all forgotten we were an absolute basketcase for half a decade? We're not going to flick a switch and make finals in one off-season, and there'll be some teething problems along the way. People would be wise to get a grip of reality with this list and understand Roos is ingraining a defensive mindset first and foremost. What's the point of starting with an offensive gameplan if the team can't defend first?

After Chip's "leadership" yesterday, he can leave. Sick of him asking for everyone else to put in 100% effort while only giving 50% himself. Also a terrible display from a member of the leadership group to keep coming out every fortnight parroting on about wanting to see improvement from his teammates. What kind of message is that sending your mates?! I'd punch a co-worker in the face if I was busting my ass to improve my performance and had some [censored] telling the world that nobody in his team is showing improvement and he was eyeing greener pastures. Thanks for the service Chip, but we'll take the first round compo pick and get some players that give a damn about teammates.

I do think we need another key forward to join Dawes and Hogan next year, if only because you have to account for injuries. It's left us very vulnerable this year and basically meant Roos has had to compromise his ideal game plan until he has the necessary players to pull it off.

I couldn't believe how slow and lethargic we looked vs Colonwood. We do need a line breaker type player or two because we just can't get the ball anywhere fast enough and teams are completely swamping us with players across the ground to hurt any smooth passage of play. I do think Kent is a lock, but we'll be lucky if Roos makes more than one change.

If the umpire mistook Jetta for JKH then it really shows how clueless he is.

Matt Jones dropped? No. Find a way to get Kent back in, followed by Jordie/Riley/Toump.

"A few of our young guys you could tell are just starting to wear out a bit, so you address those sorts of things at selection." "I did notice today, the young players...even some of the mid range players still haven't played a lot of AFL footy... are more mentally tired and just dropping off in little areas." - Roos in the presser. Probably means Salem will be back to Casey to work on his form, maybe JKH too if he isn't giving Roos the desired "spark" as a sub.

Dawes being out of action for 3 weeks probably didn't help, useless MRP flogs. But even then, it's become an obvious trend that he's being double tagged by most teams and becoming effectively useless (apart from drawing two players away from the rest of play). The umpires don't seem to give a [censored] about it either, despite him being pulled, poked, prodded and yanked in every direction whenever we try to get him the ball. His miss at the end of the first was a real buzz killer, too.

Has anyone worked out why Riley was dropped yet? He'd make a great sub, ramping up tackling pressure in the 4th with fresh legs.

And replace him with who? We're playing him forward for the long-term benefit. He'll likely leave the team at the end of the year, and Hogan will slot into his place. Meanwhile, we keep the structure of our back line in place without relying on a player that'll be gone in 2015.

Nicho's run could have helped us today. His kicking isn't that much worse than a few others getting a game every week.

I think Salem's lack of preseason will really begin to be a factor in the coming rounds. He seems to have fantastic games with a big impact, then others with almost none at all. Not a criticism because he's still learning the ropes, but he needs to be managed very carefully here. The only reason I would drop JKH is form. He's not going because of a dropped mark, but if he's becoming too fatigued to play full games and isn't having the desired effect as the sub either, I don't know if keeping him in the team is a great idea.

Such a frustrating match after last week when we showed so much flare. Our forward line just did not work. Our classiest player was completely shut down. Turnovers still killing us. Basic skill errors everywhere. Hand balling to teammates under pressure over and over. Show some accountability! Colonwood got an armchair ride from the umpires of course, which clearly shook players confidence. What did Roos do to JKH at 3QTR time? Because it didn't work. That match was lost at the selection table. We had too many talls, lacked speed and X factor, and our midfielders aren't taking the game on and taking shots at goal. Aimlessly handballing around center half forward 6 times then turning it over is not helping our cause when Colonwood are pressuring us with an extra man in defense. Get our tall forward deep then kick it low and fast to contests, or kick for goal ala Vince's "goal". Kent in for Salem and McKenzie tagging Pendlebury may have helped our cause today.

JKH was certainly a spectacular failure as the sub, but I'm sure giving Salem full games instead of him would be player management. JKH has played a lot more football this year and he's still very young, so seeing him tired at this stage of the season isn't surprising. Definitely think McKenzie and Kent have earned a call up now. We need midfielders that are scoring goals because our forward line just is not working. Kent in, Salem sub, JKH back to Casey for a rest. 6 day break also a factor, so keeping the team intact without changes would be unwise this week.

Can't help but wonder if the umpires are rubbishing us with free kicks because they hate the defensive game and it's their way of discouraging teams from using this game plan.

Free kick count: 13 to 5. Farcical, absolutely farcical. [censored] useless white maggots, I hope Roos goes off his head in the presser, they sucked the life out of the game when it was getting close. They did everything in their power to stop us from getting anywhere near them by cherry picking [censored] frees. Gutless pricks. When will there be some goddamn accountability from the AFL about these flogs?!

That umpiring was a game ending, corrupt, unacceptably [censored] up decision and I want that [censored] banished from the game.

Free kicks 7 to 2 or something the Pies way. Nice to see absolutely no bias going on for the game's "super star" Pendebury.

Fkn Mcaffer killing Tyson.

Getting really frustrated right now, we are getting it close to goal then completely [censored] it up and forcing stoppages. Wake the hell up guys!