Bay Riffin

ironic one of our biggest front running players of the daniher era would comment on our current front running side. Very easy to take pot shots on a club who played him for more games than he was worth and on very good money too. When the chips were down, he was often the first to go missing. This behaviour is the pits to me.

Is this a joke - ask him how they did in their only final in Adelaide. Is he conveniently rewriting history here and all the shallackings they went through. His team just kicked 2 of the last 14 goals against the pies and wants to preach how we are not as strong as the bombers. Given his coach just told us how selfish he was not playing the coaches way I call the pot calling kettle black here

Why not go for Jesse White who can play a very similiar role to Dawes? People bag Jesse White but Dawes also is not a natural talent but very important to the pies structure. If you look at Dawes output for the amount of delivery he gets, he does not set the world on fire, but he does bring a contest to allow the smalls to wreak havoc. Why couldn't White for us? I really don't think we will progress unless we can get 1 or 2 key positions of decent size to help straighten us up.

So how do you explain that whilst Scully has stated all along he will wait till the end of year, he will then make up his mind within one week after our last game? If you were leaving, you have to leave straight away before functions, best and fairest etc but why is it too hard to make a decision at this time with all details laid out on the table, but then he will make his mind up in a few days....hmmm...explain that one. I must wait until the season is finished but then will make up my mind immediately !!

Are you suggesting Tom doesn't know about a huge contract has been offered by GWS even when his manager states this on radio. that he wouldn't know the money being offered? is this candid camera (looks around the room) ??

I just find that impossible to believe. How can we believe whilst the footy world discusses this every day, Scully himself has no idea what contracts are on the table by GWS and Melbourne. If this is what he hears, I smell soemthing dodgy.

Melbourne have invested heavily in running players last 3-4 drafts. what we absolutley need is a couple of bigger bodied key positon types. We can't spend 2012 all year hoping Watts and Jurrah can be our talls all year.

The worrying aspect is his manager saying Scully won't make up his mind till after the season ends but will then make up his mind straight away and within 1 week. That screams out he has made a decision already, and he can't announce he is going. That and his latest quote that Tom is happy at Melbourne and that is not a factor in his decision. might have let that slip, as it doesn't make any sense as you read it, if he was staying. Those quotes have me thinking he is gone. If he goes he was defintely lying as how did everyone know about this big contract that was only just put on the table a week or so ago.

I think you have it right, his job and the way he goes about it at present reminds me of Frawley when he first started, he had pace and was learning to just do a shut down role. Helping out teammates and doing some grunt work. Once Frawley gained confidence to defend, he then he started being more and more creative as his confidence built. it may happen for Strauss. I like Strauss effort tonight, there seems to be a lot of team work happening in our backline and Rivers, Frawley are starting to team ok with him there. I reckon the coaches are happy as he is developing his weaknesses at present. Actually thought the same about Cale last night and neither set the world on fire mind you.

This really irks me. Sometimes people get their perspective all out of whack like somehow MFC need to pander to each player. We have every right to talk turkey with Toms management. Every right. This is a key contract that effects discussions with other key players like Sylvia etc. If Tom doesn’t like it, get over it and quickly. GWS and any other club would do the same. In no way does the club need to be apologetic for putting an offer on the table at round 17. The perception is we have to walk on egg shells or something. Geezz, most here would give their left nut to play for the dees, and people are suggesting the MFC are to blame to start negotiations on a key young player. Let’s not forget the oldest club in the land is bigger than the individual here. Talking to his management is not only acceptable.

exactly what i thought. Seemed like a content bloke with no reference with dealing with the MFC at the end of year.

bit out of left field but if Scullys mind was set on leaving for bigger money, surely we could provide a chance to go to Gold Coast instead. From his point of view they have Ablett etc and a more favourable environment all round, they can offer him more money than any existing clubs BUT can trade us something decent for him, most likely in terms of draft picks. Don't forget they will be possibly first cab off the rank (outside of GWS) in the draft say pick 4, or even pick 6. They may be very tempted to go with a player who looks on performance very likely to play 10 years compared to a player with just potential. Isn't palatable, but if worse came to worse we can end up with decent compensation. Let's not forget Geelong were given peanuts for giving up the best midfielder in the league. an end of first round compensation pick for a champion.

we need to take note of ourselves here and learn from the recurring issues we have. time and again for god knows how long now we have had certain players play well then turn in shockers like today. The three who have consistently let us down have been Bruce, Green and Rivers. Bruce is gone, Rivers is a function of being able to beat certain types like lumbering ruckman then gets carved up by big forwards like Hawkins, Cloke etc. This is also a function of Baileys obsession of recruiting midfielders on mass whilst we lack decent talls. Green however I have no answer for. he seems too slow now. even last week he wasn't getting much separation on his opponents and hasn't all year. A couple of years ago he was our gutsiest player, almost suicidal in fact, but now he is putting too many lamentable performances together like times gone by. i just feel only natural attrition and turning over our list will eliminate this massive inconsistencies in our performance.

It was embarrasing when he announced he fully expected Bruce to be at training on the Monday to start pre-season and he wasn't. I thought he would have learnt from that. Don't play it out in the media Bailey.

Geez I wonder why i have to read stuff like this. go replay Marics last games against North and Saints. how many of our blokes can wheel around and dob them from 55 metres? his kicking is very good. just needs to work on other areas. Yes Strauss and Maric have been softish, so can't kick ?? yes he kicked some bad ones, but who has 100% efficiency? People should be barracking hard for this kid Strauss. he has v good pace, very good kicking skills and could be a valuable weapon for us. That was his third game and he did some good things. if he can maintain his spot going forward we will be better for it. not everyone has skills and toughness like a Tapscott, be he showed good composure on Friday night.

I would have thought a key stat for Morton was tackles which hasn't been his strength. in game where we didn't have the ball he laid none. zippo. Nicholson came on and laid a few tackles. I am still amazed Bailey cannot get Morton with elite running ability to get quite a few tackles into his game. he should be a right nuisance, impossible to get away from, but he doesn't tackle !! He was ok on goodes so why not give him some defensive roles on good running players. this week perhaps Heppel as a defensive forward ??

add him to the pile. are we apporching half our team out yet? Gee Willickas.

might need Wonna back as well. we were getting the ball into the forward line on Saturday but failing to convert.

Yes but problem is who do you play full forward. small leading types like Petterd are not suited to the dome where low stab passes always seem to get cut off. We plonk Juice at full forward and he does very well then thrown into the ruck. So I can't see why we wouldn't play Juice and perhaps bring ni a ruckman. otherwise if you play Juice and Howe I can see us with a team of lost looking players not playing to their strengths. leave Juice up forward for another week and see how we go.

More important is the name Jon Ralph who just wrote a useless nothing pathetic article for the umpteenth time. how many times do you read the headline of his articles and there is nothing just no substance whatsoever in the article ? anyway I think we are doing the right thing by Morton and letting him develop on his weaknesses finally. Does beg the question why he is so behind in tackling etc after 50 AFL games. his tank and height, reach etc should be a nightmare for the opposition if he was tackling, but alas not. right know we have a young Cam Bruce with better kicking skills, maybe we can get it right this time around and teach him how to influence games.

Casey player review Plenty of positives to come from the coaches review. Thought the comments on Morton were interesting and reflect what most are saying on this forum. Good to see he made some progress in that area. Hope he spends some time down there for his own game, so he comes back a more physical player.

any write ups on the Dees players ?

I hope Martin and Juice can stand up as it would be unfair to throw Gawn in when he really has just gone from second ruck with plenty of rest to taking on the no1 ruck duties in Casey seconds. A senior player would be given continuity after a major injury (e.g Petterd look very rusty in early games this year) so given he is just starting his first full season let him have plenty of time trying to handly just getting the tank to be a number 1 ruck. it will be very interesting to track his progress now Spencer is out. I felt we would have been better equipped for a Jamar injury about mid year so timing is not great.

I could see both he and Cook playing CHF and CHB equally as well. I also noticed watts started using his speed more as people have pointed out as his weakness. he was free in the middle of the ground but instead of loping and being run down he immediately put on the after burners then steadied to kick into the forward line. he is learning the game.

I know I am inm the minority but I wondered why we would contest this, unles of course we had inside knowledge. The AFL have cracked down on contested situations where players have been concussed or have been in serious danger. Was Dangerfield in serious danger? Yes he was. He was defenseless in his position. Did Trengove show malice? no, in his short career in fact he has shown he is a model footballer, tough but fair. Still doesn't mean Dangerfield could potentially have been a serious career ending injury. Ask oursleves if dangerfield a hard tackler did the same to Trengove and injured his neck to end his career, what would you think ? and tell me that is out of the question when you watch he replay. Thats all I ask.