deanox

There was an incident with a head clash (not sure whether it was the end of the 3rd or start of the 4th) where he stayed down for a little bit and I didn't see him much after that. apparently got two touches in the last. i don't think he reads the play badly, he found space quite a number of times, and in other games i have seen he has found space and hasn't been used. I put this down to unfamiliarity between himself and the other players. remember that he was only at the club once a week last year and missed a fair bit of pre-season. give them time and they will start to kick it to where jack watts is. physical presence is a concern i have had as well, but his ability to win contested marks last week and the way he brought the ball to ground a few times last night made me think that this wont be a problem as he puts on a bit more weight.

bruce (injured) out for macdonald. bate (injured) out for miller. morton will come in; my tip is for danny hughes (omitted), and it wouldn't surprise me if dunn comes in for PJ (omitted).

exactly why we struggled against north melbourne. he has been very important this year, and completely off the radar. as well as those important touches he straightens us up by often either feeding into the corridoor or getting his possessions when making position in the corridoor. i hope they teach his game to someone else for next time he is absent.

since bennell pulled out that time against collingwood, i have witness numerous times where he has gone hard enough for the ball, used his body in a marking contest or won the ball in contested situations that have convinced me that he won't have a long term problem with being soft at it. he didnt back out of a contested loose ball that he had a chance of winning, he got out of the way of a contest that was only going to end badly. when you see him shirk another marking contest come back and comment on it. he has lifted his game, and he is a player who makes things happen which is valuable. some players crunch otherds. some players use the ball well. be content he does the second well, and generally holds his own at the physical stuff for a guy his size.

aker didn't. aker said lets set it straight, melbourne were the better team tonight but we got the win.

i have two thoughts on this: a) 4 umpires might watch the goal kicked but only one of them actually see the touch due to his angle. B) in both cases the goal umpire was certain that it was a goal, and didn't need input from others. he was in a good position both times and should've been allowed to make his call. has anyone seen replays? what did they indicate? also, there is no way trengove fumbled that ball over the line. it was a clear cut mark imo, from watching it happen, and from the replay. how they paid the deliberate against frawley is beyond me when he effectively knocked it out of the other blokes hands. I can't work out why umpires feel they need to make big subjective pressure decisions that change the course and momentum of the game. They grandstand imo, especially when going to pay holding the ball. why wasn't harbrow reported from striking bennel? it was late, it was high, it was intentional (he punched a player in the face who had disposed of the ball) and it had a pretty reasonable impact as bennell struggled to get up. how many times were players allowed to through the ball up off the ground to passing teammates? AND THE ONE THAT IMO COST US THE GAME: Why were they allowed to dress like us? same colour jumper, dark blue shorts. Would they ever be allowed to wear black and white strips when collingwood was playing? What about a dark blue top in a carlton match? At least three times last night we directed kicks and knock ons towards an umpire and gave up possession. The AFL should apologise for that stuff up.

look back a few years ago to when bate was drafted and youll find that he was one of the quickest on our list over 20 meters. since then we have drafted a number of players with good pace, so he may have dropped down the list a bit and 20 meter pace is not the first few step 5 meter pace which lets you break those lines sometimes. but if he is in a straight line he goes alright. pace has nothing to do with turning either. he has the turning circle of the QE2

im surprised at how many people rated davey's game, i thought he was poor. wasted a lot of the bal, trying to be too cute etc. and i thought that jones was pretty average. yeah he got a bit of it around packs, but did not run or present when he needed too and looked slow and unfit at times, especially compared with his last few weeks. 6. green 5. grimes 4. dunn 3. bartram 2. scully 1. junior

he wasn't our best, was far from our worst. players worse than him today: rivers, martin, macdonald, just to name a few. players better than him: green, bartram, dunn, scully. just a few names off the top of my head. he was in the middle somewhere.

not only jordies tackling, but he pops up in the centre often, straightening us up in our attack on goal, but no one else did that this week.

fair thought, martin did enough to deserve a spot but if it had've been any other week bail's efforts in the first few weeks could have trumped him. this week though - 50 point win over 2nd placed side, combined with nth play 3 ruckmen.

agreed for a man with great pace he seemed to lope along a bit a couple of times when i thought a 10 meter burst could have either won us the ball or caused a turn over. overall ok game, but could work harder.

agreed, he used his body really really well last nigt, i was very impressed. and that free kick was a joke, he only barely touched him and it was his hip on his opponents, hands no where in sight and it was called a push in the back. i was furious.

it wasn't a late change for the sake of a late change though jaded it was an injury. and miracle, i paid special attention to bruces field kicking last night. and it still isn't excellent. i saw him fluff 2 completely and no other kicks were genuinely excellent kicks, they were just kicks to a player in the loose. he doesn't hit it hard and flat like her would if he was an excellent kick, he hits it up and under. * i want to note that i am not bagging bruce here, i think he played a really good game last night, i am simply commenting on whether he is an excellent kick*

Bail was meant to be playing but didn't get up from a knock from last week. Not a planned late change.

sean wight was pretty good in his days, and I thought you were old enough to have seen neitz at CHF playing on Carey et al.? but i agree that frawley is amazing. he has the potential to be the best full back in the comp for the next 10 years.

6 Frawley - kept the best forward to one goal and towelled him up. Brown was the one player on the ground that could tear the game up by himself and Frawley nullified him completely. 5 Jones - His attack on the ball, his work inside the packs and his running all day was supurb. 4 Trengove - Best game for the club and his couple of goals topped it off. So cool and confident. 3 Moloney - Another fantastic game from beamer, our most prolific ball winner. 2 Bate - Our CHF for th night got 26 touches, 11 marks and a goal and did a lot of work off the ball that doesn't get credited in stats. 1 McKenzie - 22 touches and a goal, always in the right spot, and his tackling is fantastic. An awesome find. Apologies to: Petterd (set the tone early and set the game up for us, but went quiet later); Green sort of like Petterd but stood up at the end not the start); and Col Sylvia (who is always dangerous and is turning into a very dangerous player)

if you mean he is good at short kicking to a loose player then you are probably right. if you want to make that kicks over 35 meters or kicks to contested situations i disagree. i wouldn't want bruce kicking into the forward 50. he cannot kick it low and fast enough for good delivery and he does not have the ability to direct to advantage on purpose. as i said before, he drops the ball too high. not a big issue when you are kicking to a loose player who can move 5-10 m in any direction to recieve the ball, but he cannot pinpoint it the way davey can. he is not an excellent kick.

us. we are a small running side without marking forward targets. that being said, brisbanes talls are more likely to perform in poor conditions than ours. i thought we've been good in the clinches the past few weeks, and that will be important tomorrow night.

it looks to me like we've just decided that unless they are good enough they don't get a game, and decided we'd play short!

bruce is not an excellent kicker. he has a terrible ball drop (almost throws it upwards). He is not a bad player. He does what he does well, very well. That is things like cover ground, beat his man defensively, get lots of the ball etc. What he doesn't do well is kick the ball. And his biggest flaw the past 2-3 years has been his penchant for handballing to a player who is either flat footed or about to be tackled. He hasn't done that as much the last 2 weeks so im not too concerned. but don't claim he is an excellent kick. scully, grimes, trengove, morton, green, are pretty good kicks. davey is an excellent kick. bruce is about as low a standard as I would want from an afl player (other players are worse but I think that their kicking is unacceptable).

17 round comp with 18 teams. top 6 straight into the finals, next four play a knock out 7 v 10 and 8 v 9 for the last two finals spots, so we get an extra week, and the top 6 all get a week off. (we are still 4 weeks down on previous years though. it does give you a chance to bring back SoO without disrupting the number of weeks? perhaps, i don't see it happening.

if the league changed the rule to 2 interchange and 2 substitutes i'd bet that teams play 1 ruck and either have a forward/ruck option or the other ruck is a substitute, used only if required. neither spencer nor martin will win the ruck so i cant see the point in bringing them in. AND im still a bit sceptical about ruckmen. even playing well they only get 25% to advantage. id like to see stats on 'to disadvantage', recorded exactly the same way but a tap to an opposition mid. i bet you they would be similar %'s.

im not expecting anything from meesen, but the way it tends to work with rucks is the older the better (although meesen wont have the benefit of 50-90 games of experience as well). might be a smokey to keep around depending on what they expect from gawn and spencer in the next couple of years.

bell dislocated the ac joint in his shoulder. jurrah dislocated the ball and socket joint in in his shuolder. the shoulder came out backwards (which is worse than forwards) thus the extended absence.