needafullback

No, sorry - his absence will be longer if there are fractures on both sides of the jaw bone.

Sylvia has broken his jaw. Source : C Schwab after the game. At least 3-4 weeks, longer if both sides broken.

I thought the skill level today showed real improvement. There were certainly some very easy shots for goal missed, but I think there is a difference between goal kicking and ball movement across the ground. I thought the kicking and handballing to moving targets was encouragingly good - players didn't have to break stride much etc. It resulted in quicker transitions, and we didn't see too much of the slow and cumbersome switches of play which have been a feature of the last couple of years.

Yeah, I was thinking about him as a possibility. He is an excellent natural endurance runner, but I've never seen him exert himself to the point where he looks positively ill and on the verge of collapse. I've seen Cousins do this a lot. Guts of any kind is not something Bruce has earned a name for in my view.

I agree with those who've suggested that Cousins could be provide leadership to the young players. That is, of course, leadership on the track and on the field. Cousins would not only instantly be our best player, he would be our best and hardest runner (our only genuine gut-runner) and probably our best and hardest trainer. He could certainly set an example of what it takes to be a champion in a way that no one else on the list can. Whether or not he's worth getting in order to set this example for the youngsters, given the risks of relapse, I'm not sure. But there is certainly room for an older player or two on the list if they have his qualities - young players don't just develop through coaching.

Last 10 seconds or so of this package: http://youtube.com/watch?v=h1jgAz6aFyA It's the one the Herald Sun has a link to.

We often say as supporters that when we go to the footy to watch our teams play we want to see them have a crack. We exhort the players to tackle, chase, and to put their bodies on the line to win the ball. To never give up. Neita did all those things, every week. If we had 22 Neitas running around we wouldn't have anything to complain about on a forum like this. I'll never forget Queen's Birthday a few years ago when the Magpies were on the charge - they'd swallowed up our lead and were building a lead of their own. All the momentum was with them and our skipper could see that from full-forward. He moved himself to centre-half forward for a bounce and charged in off the square and put Scott Burns onto the turf. He made a statement that said we wouldn't lie down. It was clear and emphatic and it's hard to recall the like of it from a Melbourne player of the recent era. We won.

I agree! Given how badly we suck at the moment, we can pretty safely say that: (1) Judd wouldn't have made that much difference; and (2) We need to develop younger players. Judd would have cost us Morton (and maybe another good kid aswell) and given where we are at and how long it might take us to be contenders, I'd rather have Morton

Definitely - Bater would have been a great inclusion in place of CJ, who is crap.

That is rubbish. Sure skill errors cost us badly, but you do not get thumped by that margin when your effort and intensity are adequate. The failure to acknowledge that the effort wasn't good enough kills me more than anything. Robertson is an idiot. He's very good at pretending to make the effort and do the team thing - he'll fly for the mark, and then flop around on the ground like a stricken fish while the ball remains in dispute. He's kidding himself, and it looks like he's not on his own. Skill errors alone would have seen us beaten by maybe 6 goals. NOT 104 POINTS.

I hope you're right. But my concern with Newton is the lack of competitive endeavour. Loves taking a mark but when the ball hits the deck he's useless and doesn't seem to try. Going hell for leather at the pill must be instinctive - it's part of a player's character and can't really be taught. If I'm right about those two things Newton won't make it.

It may sound strange after a loss of that magnitude, but it was the little things that really got to me today. A couple of times I saw a Melbourne player get the footy and start to run - exactly what he should be doing - and his mates wouldn't shepperd for him. Hawthorn players would come right up to where the mark was, forcing us to jog back a further 5 metres, delaying the kick by a few more seconds, and they would force us to kick over their arms, which were fully outstretched (once or twice we kicked into their arms). Our players would stand a few metres off the mark and casually raise one arm. Our tackles weren't hard enough. When our players were tackled they weren't trying at all costs to get the ball to spill to the advantage of a teammate. We didn't chase hard enough. Doing the little things well is what playing as a team is. It's why Collingwood and Adelaide are good sides. Not doing them is why we're terrible. If I were Dean Bailey I'd start post-match analysis with the little things, because they are the best indicator of a team's mentality. On match day, you can't make blokes better kicks, but surely you can get them to do the basics.

Ever since it became apparent that 07 was a disaster, I've been very optimisitic, confident even, that we could turn it around in a hurry and push back up the ladder - maybe top 4. Now I'm scared, and I reckon DB is aswell. The message has quietly but perceptibly changed from 'fast turnaround' to 'develop the young players'. Even though they were only practice matches, I wonder whether he realised we were further behind than he thought. I hope I'm wrong of course, but I'll be feeling some trepidation as I walk down to the G from Jolimont station on Sunday week.

Most recently, NAB cup v Hawthorn, but he's been going hard at the contest since his first game. We can't take marks, kick goals or keep the ball inside 50 at all at the moment. I would have thought Dunn is a fair option under the circumstances.

Dunn must play - he puts his head over the footy, and fights hard to keep it in the forward line. I agree that forward pocket and bench are the only two places for Yze. Green must play inside 50. This give rise to a problem - if Davey plays up there that's three left-footers who all prefer the same pocket - no good particularly where we need to give Green space to lead into. Solution? drop Yze, play Davey on the wing and have him running past any contests at half forward towards goal, a-la Brent Harvey. .

Hazzaman Agree with every bit of that except I did question the commitment at times. Too often only one of our blokes was fighting for possession or pressuring to cause a turnover against a few Geelong players. MFC players who were close enough to help out but weren't desparate enough to get to the contest. I agree that lack of skill and confidence were the most important factors, but I think of it this way: the Kangaroos would probably not have been beaten by that margin against Geelong, and yet I would think the list of players we had on the park is better than they could put out there at the moment, even with the injuries. We don't have their fighting spirit. We probably still have a better list than Collingwood, but could no sooner go to Subi and put up a fight against West Coast than fly to the moon. We drop our bundle (eg 2001, 2003). It's weak and embarrassing.