deespicable me

He looked injured to me last week at training. But I would have said it was a sore back. They were doing some sprints and he was well back and taking very short strides. But before hanging the medical department at the club I also thought Harmes looked like he had sore groins or hips. Harmesy was great on the weekend. Buddy doesn't train all week but gets up for the games. They say a lot of players are carrying stuff towards the end of the season. I don't know how it works. I would also add that Gawn looked fine jogging around the boundary and I'm sure the way Melk and Hibberd trained if Sunday was a final they both would have played. I don't think its fair to slander the medics coz it can be a pretty inexact science. Whos to say if Bernie had of played in the ones and Hunt in the twos both players would still be fine. Sliding doors.

Vandenberg will most likely stay in in my opinion. I think it will be Melksham for Spargo if he is right to go. Not sure down back, they have a bit of a shuffle to do. I liked Smith coz he could play tall and small and he was quick. He was no superstar but he will actually be hard to replace. Wagner is the like for like. But really Smith was a poor mans Lever and Wagner is a poor mans Smith. Thats a double downgrade!

Fair enough, I saw that you didn't back the decision, just gave insight to the umpires thought process that has given rise to him giving the softest of frees, and then hiding behind the guise of "correct interpretation". If we all hide behind facades nothing will change. Did you agree the free should have been paid? Will you be happy when the same free is paid against us?

No worries, you can believe that was a "correct" free all you like. Almost every free is "technically" correct or can be argued so, as they do every week when decisions are questioned. But if you reckon it was a deserved free and the umpire shouldn't have kept his whistle dry then I'll certainly beg to differ. That type of free is what makes Footy unwatchable

I think through the rose coloured glasses and getting way ahead of myself hymn book we are a strong chance to win all four remaining games. If this is the case and I'm sure after the euphoria of last night the players will at times think this way then nobody will want to give up their spot in the side. I agree with an earlier poster that JKH played his best game for the club. His 7 point play in the third was a beauty and its moments like that that can make a player and give him the belief he belongs. He received the ball and kicked beautifully to Jones 30 out in front. Jones misses and so JKH gets involved in the next play and kicks the goal himself. Great stuff. Thats how good teams become great, when the fringe players start to stand up and want to be a part of it. Smiths closing speed is fantastic and although he still plays nervous I love the way Goodwin has enough patience to see what a player can do when he becomes confident. ANB is testament to this. Smith and Frost are doing a good job and I reckon Tyson has even improved and become more team oriented. No-one will want to be dropped now.

The worst decision of the evening (among many) was the push in the back free to Hoges in the 3rd quarter. A lovely easy goal. It's great as we become a serious side that we can have periods and occasions where the umpires see things our way and give us that "good old push along". I hate the umpires more than Essendon but the last two weeks at hostile home grounds where you expect decisions to go against you they have been fairly good. (or equally awful to both teams)

I find the "celebrity" frees a joke. Apparently one of the umpires from last weeks Richmond/ Geelong game has had a mental breakdown and had to sit out this week. when asked what was the problem, he just mumbled"Cotch, Dusty, Danger, Little Gaz, Sellwood, I didn't know what to do!"

Bakes. Oscar Baker will be the cult figure that adds the x-factor we need. He will be a big upgrade on either Lewis or Vince off half back in time. just waiting for injury or suspension, in he comes , away we go!!!!!!!!!

How was the free against Melksham in the 3rd qtr for protecting the ball drop. Beautifully played by Melksham and he more than likely would have goaled as he ran in after the free and kicked the goal resulting in a 50 metre penalty. The umpire (No. 15) paid blocking. Absolutely mind boggling. The thing is, if it was Wingard down the other end it would have been holding the man. Then the worst commentator ever, Ling would have come out and said "ah yes, no doubt about that free" I can only view myself as a moron for continuing to watch this crap the AFL has turned the game into. And the problems of the game have everything to do with umpiring.

Ryder is a good ruck too. His season stats would look better but for injury. Good teams bounce back. Good players respond positively to criticism. Big game next week.

I don't particularly like Slobbo and his Top 50 at the start of the year was so wrong it was laughable, but that's a pretty good side he's named and although Gawn and Nev were a bit unlucky the players in the side in Grundy and Laird are really good players. Six wins in a row against opposition that have rolled over very easily each time after losses to teams that bought genuine heat does not a season make. We have plenty more tests ahead before we can think ourselves the best in the league. We are playing well as a team and sharing the load. Celebrate especially Oliver at 20 making the team and the recognition for Hogan delivering on his promise and making the Slobbo version for the first time. Also Tom McDonald would probably be close to Ben Brown as would Nev to Laird.

What about a Lethlean, Macnamee joint ticket. Bring back table top dancing in the board room I say.

I think some of the office staff thought he was extremely rigorous at certain aspects of office life.

No I didn't see him

Went down to training and as there isn't a training post and I'm not big enough to start a thread I'll post here. So the first thing to tell is that Tom trained the whole session and pulled up well. Yay! Weid was back on track and looked terrific, he looks better each time I see him and may come back into the side in the next week or after the bye. But not this week. Smith deserves his spot and chance to cement his position. There will most likely be no change. The give away is when they split up for a small part of the session and the VFL boys do a bit by themselves. It was the same groups so most likely no change. Geez our depth is good. Only Kent, Vanders and King missing I think, so Filipovic doing lots of ruck work and at least 5 in the seconds who would walk into at least half a dozen AFL sides. Tom and Hoges doing lots of marking practice together, they are really forming a great combo. I'm not sure what other teams train for but the whole session was about getting the ball clear of congestion and moving it quickly forward, kicking on both sides, marking the ball and kicking goals. Sounds very simple but we are the number 1 team at all those things at the moment. Lastly as a very damaged Melbourne supporter whos moods swing from wild optimism to down in the dumps pessimism, when we are in the rare bubble of success like we are at the moment I always tend to have one eye looking for the impending crash back to reality and I saw no signs today. So keep going you good things.

And quite nice guns.

We need to get with the times and appoint a female CEO regardless of credentials. I think we could wind back the clock to the days of Captain/coaches ala Big Carl Ditterich and make Daisy Pearce Captain/CEO. Actually whats Big Carl up to? He could start by shirtfronting Gil, Eddie and Kennett.

"I won't reveal my sources........ Troy Chaplin"

I think if you are looking at reasons ANB keeps his spot he played on the Saints Captain Geary last week who didn't have a big influence on the game. Geary is a good player. I think Harbrow, Aaron Hall and Ah Chee are good players who are named in the Suns back six. I haven't watched the Suns this year much but I know they have got a lot of rebound from Harbrow in the past so ANB may be marked to be the defensive forward on him? I think if you want to get a positive read on ANB look to see what his opponent does on Saturday.

Yeah, when I was there near the end he was training with Joel Smith who was beating him in one on ones. I think he is limited in the number of positions he can play, with run off half back being his main weapon. I just think they want to improve his defensive game so he isn't a one trick pony and although we might think he has gone backwards a bit his aim is to add more strings to his bow. It's a good way for him to develop by moving between the ones and twos and as you say his desire to improve is obvious to see so he doesn't drop his head when sent back. (that is if he is in fact dropped this week) We have a fair depth at the moment. Van den Berg was working with Crossy, Mitch King and Kent were doing run throughs at a fair pace. The only one missing was McKenna. Everyone else (I think) is available and the seconds have plenty of AFL quality running around. Plapp was doing a lot of work with the mids which was new for me to see. Very hands on and vocal. I think we are building quite nicely.

Hunt trained with the seconds as well. Would assume the only change may be Salem in for Hunt.

The thing that I find funny is that bubble headed fan boy masquerading as a journalist, Slobbo, not only had Joe Daniher number 6 in his top 50 at the start of the year but Hurley and Merritt both in the top 30 as well. No other team had more than 3 in the top 30 and we only had one, Max in the 20's. I wanted to post after the game against Essendon that although Hurley played Ok we had so many better players out there that wouldn't have even been considered in the top 100 footballers going around in Slobbo's tiny little mind. Coincidentally the jerk then comes out on the Monday and does a big write up saying there's something wrong with footy and the AFL has to fix it. Then all the lazy assed media jump on board. I can tell you whenever Essendon gets beaten and Slobbo is all sad sack the AFL and footy is looking pretty damn good in my eyes.

Trac is still learning what he is capable of. He is very ambitious but his ability isn't quite matching his ambition. A perfect example was in the 3rd quarter against St Kilda when he got given the ball on the wing after a turn-over and looked up at an open forward line with a player free over the back. Ne was probably 70 metres away and Trac tried to kick it there but couldn't quite execute and it dropped short to the Saints player. He has good vision and wants to do the extraordinary and when he learns to match his ability with his skill level he will be a gun. A matchwinner. He's only young and still developing. Gus is a chance to become elite but he is an accumulator, more blue collar. Like Harvey from the Saints by the time both boys hit 25 they will most likely both be top 50 in the league. Great for us to watch them slowly deliver on our hopes and dreams.

I did. There was a bloke near me who barracked for the Saints and he was in a bit of pain blaming umpires and the players etc. It made me realise we are becoming a good team because I remember carrying on for the last umpteen years getting frustrated and looking to blame anything or anyone. I was very calm today. I enjoyed watching the footy. Gus was great. He has a great winning attitude. I'm very appreciative to go to the footy today and watch a game where my team was clearly superior to the Saints. We had winners all over the ground and the Saints only had one good player in Stephens. Things can change quickly and Gill will try his best to create deals that favor them but they were poor today with very few prospects. Boy I'm glad we finally look like we're out of that awful rut. Touch wood, fingers crossed.

Their only asset is to score quickly at Etihad. They can be shut down by a good side and like us they don't have a plan B. Melbourne have scored poorly in the last two weeks and haven't been capable of playing 4 quarters. Their backs in Hurley and Hooker should be able to control Weids and Hogan so we never get clear of them, then if they turn on their best game in one quarter and score heavily against us we will lose. Essendon can definitely win this match. The wild card for us is TMac. If he plays well we can win. Anyone who thinks we should just win is delusional. It's an even money contest.