dieter

6; GAWN 5: OLIVER 4: BRAYSHAW 3: HOGAN 2: SALEM 1:MELKSHAM

From the vision shown on television Lewis connected with Walters' arm: the rest was Hollywood. I don't see how this equals May's hit from behind on Higgins on the monetary scale of things. Then again, what hasn't been mentioned is before May hit Higgins they were involved in a contest and landed on top of each other. You just see there's 'involvement' between the two as the camera follows the ball further into North's forward line. I would guess Higgins delivered a snipe or two at this point and when May got up he retaliated. It amazes me that the sniper who starts a conflict, if his victim strikes back, is treated as the innocent victim and the retaliator as the aggressor and the fall guy who pays the fine or who gets rubbed out: witness Hogan against Lamb last year...

Bugger, I missed Brayshaw. If allowed to recast: Oliver Gawn Brayshaw Petracca Salem Viney

This is not about streaking....

The sooner this game is dumped the better. What the hell is the purpose of it? To unsettle and exhaust players and make them play in conditions which would exhaust any athlete.

I think anyone critical of this win hasn't taken into account the very tough conditions the game was played under. The heat, the humidity, and dampness caused a lot of fatigue, and more importantly, fumbles and missed marks. I thought it was a terrific effort by Melbourne.

6: Oliver 5: Gawn 4: Petracca 3: Salem 2: Viney 1: Fritsch

Where was Dion Johnstone today?

Then again, it was the likes of Sylvia and others, the dudes who wouldn't run the Tan etc who made Melbourne Footy club a halfway house for recalcitrant youths twixt the MCG and Pentridge... I'm happy those days are gone. At the same time I really sympathise with the blokes who didn't make it. Our society is cut throat and one dimensional. My heart goes out to the Jarrahs, the Sylvias, the guys who tried ....

I couldn't imagine changing now. I'm 68, bin a demon man/boy since I was 8. Yoicks, that's sixty friggin years!!!

We never had a problem beating them though...And they always let their supporters down when it counted - a bit like the Demons of the past 3 years, I guess...

Richmond are scarily awesome. How can a side rise from absolute shite to this good so quickly? Same coach - I can't bear his smugness these days, much preferred his grumpy thuggish side because at least he was true to himself. And, more or less, the same team. They simply play amazing football. PS: No, I'll never forgive what Hardwick and Wallis did to 19 year old Green in the 200 Grand Final.

I feel for Petty. Picking him last week indicates to me that all is maybe not as sweet as we want to believe at the home of the Demons. No, I'm not suggesting perfidy or unrest, just a suggestion of failing to see the forest for the trees, to coin a metaphor. Also, Baker will be an asset and good but let's be done with throwing babies to the wolves for a while. Baker and petty's time will come...

Also, I'm looking forward to the end of the bad old days when selection was literally a revolving door. I don't think Weidemann was the right selection last week because I want him to kick goals consistently, not just against ordinary teams like Coburg, before he gets a promotion. Once he's earned the promotion he needs to be given at least 4 or 5 weeks to prove himself, not one week, out the next. That treatment demoralises players and makes them wonder what the hell they're doing at a club in the first place. Weidemann will be a great player for us if we start to treat him fairly. And, just for the records, how heartening to see the consistent efforts of Frost rewarded and how good is it to see the mighty Jeffy back. There are many among us and you who want him to be who he's not. He will never kick a swag while we continue to play the long range bomber game, while every kick forward sees ten wanna be high fliers attempting to outmark each other. That's kids' stuff. We need to be better than that. And, finally, please give Stretch a 4 game run. The kid has got it. Give him time to show it. If we are playing decent footy players like Stretch will evolve their way in. Playing him one week, dropping him the next is bullshite. Welcome back Mr Spargo. I like the boy. And thank god we didn't bring in Baker. That would have signalled wailing panic stations to me.

Do a runner: NFA...

Great player. Loved watching him. Tough as well. He was reasonably successful coaching Carlton too, wasn't he?

Who was grandpops?

Seems to me that turgid old patterns are starting to emerge. In them dark days players like Mckenzie, Mat Jones, Ritchie etc would be in and out of the side. It meant simply we were going nowhere. Today's Mat Jones is, unfortunately, Tyson. In the meantime, players who have and can contribute - Garlett, for example - are made scapegoats by a coaching staff in perilous danger of returning to the same useless in and out rotations which got us nowhere. It would also seem to me that, seeing how we persevered with the mighty Oscar for so long, a similar investment in proven players like Garlett, players with serious attributes like Frost, players like Pedersen who have made terrific contributions in the past and project players like Stretch are worth persevering with instead of the current policy of either simply ignoring, or playing yo yo style, in one week out the next, while the likes of Hannan and Harmes and Neal-Bullen are given week in week out endorsement to mainly produce sweet f-all.

From what I saw Hannan isn't the only one flying for marks that aren't his. Most of the marking packs on the Melbourne forward line are full of Melbourne players trying to out mark each other. I don't understand how coaches don't kick players' arses for continually making these basic errors. The selection of McDonald, Hogan and Weidemann simply compounded this problem this week. Throw in Harmes and Hannan and sometimes Fritsch flying at once as well and hey, it's not bloody rocket science.

Unfortunately the stormtroopers also think they are saturation bombers.

Watched most of the 2nd quarter on the TV. The Aerial Bombing obsession is just dum-dum footy. How's a bloke like Garlett to get a glimpse of the ball when this rubbish is persisted with? Interesting how a mark to Pedersen which wasn't paid turned the tide Essendon's way. Pedersen's was much more of a mark than the one paid to King. That's footy, I suppose.

First of all, Rance had elbowed Franklin's jaw, Franklin pushed him off and the weak turd Rance threw another Hollywood. Harry Weinstein needs to sign him up while he still has his looks, before someone really takes to him and gives him what he deserves.

Nope, not the buck: some chronic leg injury...

If one umpire can't get it right, multiply that mistake factor by 4.... Boundary umpires can't even work out that if a ball passes over the white boundary line they ought to blow their whistles.

And Phil Rohde...