deespicable me

Don't tell me we're going to lose Petracca. It'll probably end up being Langdon in and Petracca out. And no better off in the draft. Yeah great MFC. Just so long as we sign up ANB and JKH and Oscar and Stretch. Yeah well done. Hoorah. Can we sell some more home games as well so I don't have to turn up anymore.

I'm not sure Petty will make it. but he us our back up tall. Definite no to Carlisle.

No, no, please no. There are better options out there. He is not a good footballer, looks okay in a well drilled team. Knows when to lead etc. He would be an abject failure with our game plan. If we fix up our game plan you will know it because Weidemann will become a good player and all of a sudden worth what he was asking early this year. Put Weidemann in the Collingwood forward line and teach him the system, the leads etc, and he would become a star. Look what Stephenson did to us on Queens B'day. He would have kicked 10 if he kicked straight. Just a well drilled team who pantsed Goodwin with a game plan that isolated the quick Stephenson against one of our slow back-men. When considering a player you have to weigh up if they will fit into our system and Elliot would just get lost, then injured, like all the others who don't get given clear instructions. We are a rabble and it will take men with leadership qualities to right the ship. Elliot doesn;t have them.

Yes, think Mitch Robinson now at Brisbane. I'm not sure he suits us as we have quite a few slowish brutish types but he would be a good pick-up for sure

I feel sad that Jones has such a minor impact on games these days. He's been taken away from his normal 'in and under' role and has probably (with over a years evidence in front of us) gone backwards. I know Jonesey is a limited footballer but the coaches seem to want to highlight his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Gee it's a hard gig for a bloke like Jones to play wing, he's not super quick and his disposal although improved is nowhere near elite. He still wants to get the ball around the fifty and kick the inspirational goal, it's become his thing like Dunne kicking torps to no-one in particular from full-back. And yet I think he's only kicked a handful of goals all year. I mean what are the coaches doing. As a further contrast look at a bloke like Stephens who has obviously struggled but when given the right role showed emphatically he can still play. As for the captaincy, for mine, it should be one player only, dual Captaincy "out".

"Success comes from within" surely you should know that with your name and avatar. Your not a fraud are you?

Yes trade for sure. We need KPP intercepting backmen that cost a ***king bomb. Corner the market.

Turn Tom Mac out for three weeks, send him North to dabble his toes in the Gold Coast surf and bring in Pruess. For gods sakes Goodwin we need to see what he can offer. Try to turn Stretch into a tagger. He is fit and can run well and his body, although not super strong, is just about fully mature. Otherwise he is lost to us. We need to make better players with the players we have got. Send Jack Viney with Tom Mac North for some rest and toe time in the gold coast waters, he's giving us nothing and the whole team balance is out with Jack and Jones in the same team. Send Spargo back to the VFL for the rest of the year and play him in the guts to try and toughen him up otherwise he is just going to become the whipping boy of Demonland which is really unfair for a young kid in his second year (some of you ought to be ashamed). Bring in JKH for a good 3 weeks and then lets see what we've got. I think he could be okay. Lockhart as well. Stop playing Fritsch back. He is a half forward flanker. Play him there Goodwin and be done with it, your ruining him.

Disappointment is the first half of the season. Surprise will be the second half of the season. Will still go close to making the 8, winning 6 plus in a row.

I went along to Willy Oval by the sea today as I live down that way. Just a few notes on the game. Willy are a team full of "pit bulls" as Rawlings called them and they are at you all game. In broad terms they closed down the contest, got the game on their terms, then kicked about 6 goals in a row from the end of the second to the first goal of the last qtr. It was a good test for us and as of the seniors, we came up short. Lever was playing pretty well, his disposal was excellent, he was taking the kick-ins and our back line was on top when he went for a contested ball up on the far wing and looked to twist his ankle. He immediately started hobbling, came off, got his ankle strapped, did a couple of run-throughs, went to half time then came out and sat out the game with his ankle iced. I watched him a lot even when he came off before his injury and at the quarter time break and he is definitely not comfortable yet on his knee. He was very aware of it, stretching and itching it a lot. He is so skinny it will take us all a season to get used to his gangly running action but I am pretty sure he didn't re-injure the knee in any way. He will however be a good 3 to 4 weeks away from seniors footy and probably at least a couple from the Casey games. We also lost Maynard in the second qtr to a dangerous tackle (no free) and he was concussed and out for the day. So we were down two players and all of a sudden we had to shuffle the deck and they got on top. One player I really wanted to see against a strong midfield was Sparrow but he was also out (rested I hope and presume). He was part of a good winning midfield against Essendon a couple of weeks ago where he had a run with role with their best mid (number 4) and did a good job. So with Sparrow out we pushed James Jordan into the middle and he was changing with Lewis off half back and it was working well, both Lewis and Jordan getting lots of the ball and driving us forward, but they tightened up, especially on Lewis and then Maynard went off and they got control of the midfield. Preuss was okay but their ruck was six inches shorter than Preuss so they just wrestled and did all sorts of illegal things to stop his influence and the umps didn't pay one free to Preuss. If they had stopped all the illegal stuff he would have been better but they completely dulled any influence he might have on the game for the period they dominated. He got loose a bit in the last and gave some nice taps to advantage but the game was already gone. JKH was our best player. They tried to tag him but he was too clever and was the classiest player out there. He has developed his defensive game a lot in the last year and laid a lot of tackles as well. He did drift out of the game a bit at times but was pretty good for 4 qtrs and is the most likely for a step up to seniors. He played wing very well and would take Stretch's or Jones's position. If given a good run at it, I'm sure he can become top 22. And why not given we won't play finals this year. Weid was Okay. He cannot take body position well in a pack yet and may never be capable of that role. He also doesn't always run to the right spots and he got hands to, but dropped a lot of marks. But he did take a couple of lovely grabs when given a clear run at the ball. For the most part he was our number one forward today and as such was hassled out of a lot of contests but he isn't ready to come into the seniors and add much more than Smith does. A bit of a negative review I know but for those thinking theres depth down below, think again. In an ideal world we would leave Weid in the seconds for another year, get him to put on another 5-10 kilo of pure muscle, increase his strength and get him to concentrate on getting his percentages at marking contests up closer to 20% rather than the 5% he's operating at now. Hannan was okay, looked fit and well, a little rusty and maybe one more before a call-up but given such a long lay-off a very good return. Bedford had more impact than Chandler today, he played the small forward role quite well and hopefully can develop further this year. Both okay but definately not ready for any senior footy. Lewis and James Jordan. Lewis was good and did well not to get reported as they gave him plenty of stick. He was very good in the first qtr delivering off the half back-line but when we lost Maynard he had to go to the contest more and wasn't as effective. He may still get a recall as he looked fit and well and had a good attitude. James Jordan, I think this was one of the first times they used him on ball and he was good, lots of tackles and little dish outs, he should be proud of his game and he shows plenty of promise. Overall, Willy probably had the best three or four players out there today and are a pretty good side who play their home ground well and played well for each other. Their commitment was what won it and something that once again seems to have gone missing from Melbournes whole footy department.

It's not chaos. There are rules and the players have to play by them. Chaos is something very different. It is however chaotic.

This is your better post for mine. I tend to agree there is no particular bias against Melbourne other than what comes from being lowly rated in relevance. The last public outcry that the umpiring needs to be changed and was faulty was of course the Anzac game where Essendon were convinced the umpiring cost them the game. Then of course Essendon officials wanted an explanation over the Rampe decision last week "for the good of the game". The point in your post I don't accept at all is the bit where you suggest we should just "accept" the umpiring of the game is stuffed and move on. It is definitely a hard game to officiate but the AFL's and their media channels being virtually banned from commentating on umpiring when it so so so influentual on every games outcome, because it is hard to attract umpires to the sport, means there is very few avenues open to actually improve umpiring. There is no doubt in my mind the "rub of the green" was against us on Friday night. I'm all for a thread that discusses the umpires poor form. It gives solace to a loss.

The three of Frawley, Dunne and Howe were good mates and in private conversations amongst themselves I'm sure they worked out the best way to advance their careers was at another club. Good, solid, loyal players stay and work out how to improve their team or suffer for the cause. I include May in that bracket along with Lynch at Richmond and over half the Hawthorn team. Scully is the ultimate mercenary and well hated by most of the football public.

Gee, he's only been out of the side one week.

I liked the Wagner boys, Hoare and Hunt in their new roles. I would like all four to be given some time to develop synergy within the team. The Wagner boys are tough, fearless and quick. They tackle well which suits our game plan. I know they are blue collar which means they aren't always AFL standard but given time I think they can hold down positions. Hunt spent last year in the VFL developing his defensive side and is our best small forward at the moment, when you need two or even three in your team. Where that puts some of the others I'm not sure but stick with those four against smaller forward lines for me.

One of the major problems is that our two main defensive players that we spent lots of money on aren't available at the moment and the two incumbents in Frost and Oscar are looking at downgraded expectations as soon as the other two are ready, It's not a great plan to "buy into" for those two. Right guys heres the plan. You go out there and get beat up by Buddy and make sure you fill that hole and hold your ground when Buddys bearing down on you at 100 mph, then when we've got these other two guys up and running we're going to f**ck you off to Casey and then more than likely delist you at years end. Not a great working environment.

I think we need to look back,,,,,, to go forward... when honorable losses were an art form, web pages were created in honor of Richmonds Jordan McMahon and we could all look forward to juicy "priority picks" and create Messiahs out of young men who hadn't even played a game yet. Yes lets tank!!!!

I agree. It's not just Petracca. Look at Tommy Mac, Weid, ANB. Look at the scoreboard. If we don't get some system down there 25 points in 3 quarters of football won't beat anyone. The only forward playing reasonably well at the moment is Melksham. A good team with system would simplify the game for Petracca and help him become a very good player, maybe in time a gun. If we are in for a bad year, lets not eat our own.

Oh come on. No last chances for ANB. I've had enough. I'd rather play with 21. And O'Mac needs to go back to Casey and try and enjoy playing footy. Go for a mark. I've never seen such a defensive mindset in a player. Poor coaching.

Ommmmmm

Weid was not being served well by our midfield yesterday. Goodwins game plan is contested ball with plenty of random F50 entries. I don't think this game style suits Weid at all. It suited us with Hogan in the team as we had structure, Hogan had the great presence of a full forward. In my humble Weid needs to watch tapes of Lloyd from Essendon in his prime and Goodwin needs to change our game plan to suit. I think Weideman could be elite as a leading full forward if we got a game plan together that stopped bombing the ball in randomly and they worked out leading patterns that freed up space for him to lead into. I can tell you they don't practice it.

Went down to training and very pleased to report no new injuries! Preuss was doing a lot of work with the mids and I would suggest he is in strong consideration for Saturdays game. Didn't look hindered and trained the whole session. Players "next in line" KK. He was in the midfield group and another who trained the whole session and looked good. They trialled him on the wing in their midfield "plays". Really think he can add something when he is right to go. Baker. Another who they trialled on the wing in the midfield plays. Looking forward to a good year from him, he is another who has a lot of upside and is close to selection Sparrow. Last time I went along to training I wondered what all the fuss was about with him but after a taste in the pre-season you can see he has come along very nicely in the last few weeks. They have him in the middle mixing with Oliver, Gus, Viney and the likes and he looks like he will be equally as good in a year or two. He finished off slamming goals from outside 50. Massive boot, he looks the goods. Watched Gus for a while and if he was a racehorse you would say he is a lazy track-worker, he rarely stands out and as some of the young guns want to show off and impress and have a laugh Gus was just doing what he had to to get through. I think he might have his sights firmly set on Saturday. Melksham looked tired. Really wanted to see him as he is so important to us but he didn't overly involve himself. Don't know why and I'm sure it was nothing but I hope he fires up on Saturday.

Don't give up yet, we can still get there.

I would just like to add my vote of disapproval to the umpiring today. A good game ruined.

Three free kicks to the All-Stars directly in front says it all. If we get some sweet favors in the second half we can still win