Bay Riffin

Crucial game for the Dees this one. absolutely has to be one where we must draw a line in the sand. We have been pathetic interstate and are playing a team coming off a spoon with a bit of form. We need to bury them. I will be disappointed if we do our usual trick of chasing them after getting jumped early, show some typical flashes of good play, coast to coast stuff, but end up letting too many goals through playing our attacking game where the midfielders do not defend properly. Blokes like Davey, Sylvia, Moloney, Green etc are good enough to hurt this team but when will they stand up and play well when it's a bit tougher without a home crowd? I am bracing myself for a game where we play decent football in patches, but don't have what it takes to beat what is an ordinary side with an average midfield interstate. 10 losses in a row over there. when will it stop ? we started developing players in 2007 with a longer term view. We should be winning these games by now.

yes good thread. I watched all the game and Hurley was slow, reactive or basically non-existent. I watched him recently against Carlton and he was probably in Essendons bottom 5. the old athlete vs footballer debate continues as he is a footballer but was too slow today and cost them dearly. interesting Hird said recently. if he isn't 'our most important player' now, then he will be in 10 weeks. a rookie coaches mistake I would have thought personally. was surprised he wasn't subbed but Monfries has been average. i heard Hurely has 11 possesion in the last which suprised me but most were ineffectual.

we have to suck it up. Our injury list is actually not too bad at present. We would love Jordie back in as well but it is rare for us to have most of our best 22 up and running at this stage of the year. it makes absolute sense to be conservative, and if he is going this gives opportunities for others anyway.

Unless it was James McDonald, tell him to move on and few would disagree with the coaching staff on the changes.

Yes exactly what I thought Yesterday. He looked slow, reactive and not in the game.

Maric did more last week than Morton did today.

Thanks KC much appreciated. In your opinion how far away are Blease, Strauss, Gawn, Spencer and Evans at the moment ?

my opinion - blah !! Geez I was about to post I hope it's not another analysis on games played, age of playing group, being too far back in rebuilding phase etc but thought no don't be cynical before I watch it.... but it was !! What I see hear means little. great for off the field we are developing nice reports etc but I am sick of hearing reasons why we cannot put up some sort of show against a Hawthorn. What should we do ? play with some mongrel, attack the opposition ruthlessly. Compare say a North who have had less draft concessions than us but to me they have more guts and much more fight. forget what happened on the weekend or recent record, for the last 20 years I have said I would be happy to pay and watch my side if they put in like Noth week in week out. We DO NOT. We have a shocking front running record ever since Balme to Daniher till now and the time is now for Bailey to do more than just be 'competitive' as Schwab put it. Any coach worth his salt would have finals as a minimum pass mark this year. We have over half the side this Saturday being top 20 draft picks against a decimated lions side. I would expect us to trounce them into the turf after last weeks game. They should be dreading playing us. I know a lot like Schwab, but I find his style uninspiring and his theoretical talk of little practical use than to try and feel better for not being competitive. His personal loan of $140,000 does not help either.

I know many here are more than ready to pot Maric but reckon he is harshly treated. Came on against an avalanche and got 6 possies in a quarter. Reckon he deserved a few full games, he wasn't going that badly. Jetta just had a bad game, the dropped mark aside, Rioli obliterated him early. Good to see Gysberts and Wonna back and on the back of some good form. interesting they are named on the ground, whilst Morton is not, I assume to find form and fitness in the magoos. If Grimes goes to the middle that will be very interesting. He has shown some ability to win clearances, something we desperately need.

Christ this is hard to take. Out injury record for new recruits is appalling. Are we the worst in the league ? It feels like every high draft pick bar Trengove has had major injuries since they arrived. many in their first year. It is a long list. Taken one out, there will always been an explanation, but it it a disturbing trend, especially when it is in the crucial development phase of these players.

anyone hear Dean Bailey on MMM yesterday around 5.30 ?? Brayshaw asked about Watts and he replied he is now 92 kg and should comfortably be 96-7 kilos next year and then we will see a real difference in his ability to contest. For this year though he said he expected watts to start sominating some quarters of football. This is where Baileys development skills will be put to the sword. I hope to be pleasantly surprised but i cannot see him dominating quarters unless he was left alone. possibly on the ball ? I also find it hard to believe he is 92 kg when he looks slighter than even the lighter talls in the opposition. I hope Bailey is right, he sounds confident, but he never looked like dominating on Sunday.

This board is extraordinary. When the chips were down and we were getting smashed most of the 3rd quarter, there were only a couple of blokes who really stood up for us, Moloney and Grimes. Maybe Garland. When the going got tough he lead from the front. Why are we obsessing about his kicking. Collingwood are full of [censored] kickers especially across half back. Give me a pure footballer who can play any day of the week. We have got a gem here. astonishing to hop online and he is the one getting bagged. might as well bag Tapscott, who by the way should be given a medal for injuring a Shaw.

really thought this blokes was gone last year despite his injuries. never looked like it to me. never..until today where he floated back took courageous marks, a half volley pick up at full pace early on was fantastic and some of his taps were simply fantastic. played a game full of good little cameos. maybe just maybe he can help Jamar out who can get some respite. it helped us today.

Would be the wrong thing to drop Maric. for gods sake give the bloke a few games at it. He wasn't terrible today, could have been better. He played a decent game against the swans last year and it ended up being his only one as he was dropped. Let him go for a few games, he deserves the chance. Likely ins are Gysberts and Frawley so take out a defender and on baller type.

very promising reports. all of a sudden looks like we have 3,4 or 5 blokes pressing for selection we didn't have even two weeks ago. Can people describe more on the talls in Gawn and McDonald ? Especially Gawn who we haven't seen much of.

Continuity is the key here. There are just too many examples of young players looking out of their depth but who had not really strung together at least a season or two uninterrupted. Sylvia comes to mind. not so long ago he was chastised on this board. I just hope we finally get a full seasons development into Blease, Strauss, Tapscott and Gysberts. same goes for Jurrah and Aussie. Get that first and we will only get stronger as they work their way into the demons line up hopefully. Strauss has had two games and played poorly. he has scope to improve. I watched Garland in an early game against the doggies and he was shocking. embarassingly so. but we now know that was not anywhere like his real ability once he got some confidence. Let this boy find confidence and see what he can do.

Interesting the comparison with Hurley. I worked with his dad and at the time he was drafted we spoke a lot of who was going where and predicting the top 16. i remember he had some slight doubts on Watts and lots of doubts on Natanui for different reasons. As the draft drew closer his son played on Watts and beat him and Watts was shifted up the ground but still did ok. he watched this and another subsequent game of Watts and suprisingly had pretty high praise for him. we did a top 16 as he knew and had seen most of the talent quite a bit, and he had Daniel Rich pick 1 and Watts pick 2 based purely on best players, not where they would go to each club. He was never going to nominate his son of course even though he had Watts measure at that stage, but he could see just this natural talent and skill in Watts you cannot find in most players. His comments were along the line 'you can see it but it's just not there yet'. He had real doubts Natanui would be able to learn the game quickly enough. He also thought James Frawley was the one player to base the defence around, and he was right on that one.

'pretty reliable' hmmmm....

told by who ?

good to see Gysberts and Tapscott in again. both seem to be on the same conservative program but good to see they can hit the ground running for round 1 whether it be at Casey or the Dees. No sign of Blease, yet hear he played a praccie match last week for Casey ? no Lucas Cook either ?

Garry is the biggest fence sitter in the game alongside Jason Dunstall. special note to Andrew Gaze who can't comment on anything in sport without sitting on the fence.

i think you will find that is the reaction of some at the Dees. Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab said last night: “We made our position clear to the Scorpians that we didn't support it but in the end it was their call.” Melbourne football manager Chris Connolly warned last week: "We would expect when it comes to decisions made on playing personnel, the opinions of Melbourne Football Club would be taken into regard.’’ Casey have done the wrong thing by us. no doubt.

how the hell is this in anyway good for the Dees? We have invested in Howe, Cook, McDonald etc and now our affiliate recruit a bloke we will never recruit who only plays full forward, the one position we desperately lack !! How is this anything but bad for us? We have Juice, Cook and Howe hopefully playing key position for Casey seniors this year and we will have basically one spot for them to learn their trade ? ridiculous decision, whilst the Collingwoods develop the Dawes etc under their own guidance. I see this as a stuff up by us. We should have insisted he never plays as we want to play Howe etc at full forward.

Robbo came out after his retirement and accused the Dees of tanking and now he makes this comment. Answer to an innocent question or not, he must know this could have been a potential headline. In my opinion he is not a true Melbourne F C person for doing this sort of rubbish that does not help our cause. Many of us have paid part of his wage and all he is showing now is some last self serving piece of fame. He means as much now to the demons as Cameron Bruce. Both have shown their limited loyalty whilst sitting on substantial pay packets throughout their careers, even when their performance was not up to scratch. At least we don’t have Bruce and Robbo to talk us up as premiership material after we win 2 games in a row.

interesting when you look at our new players like Tapscott and it's frustrating as well. How many new recruits in recent years have basically played shortened seasons or no season at all at the Dees in their first year to two? Gysberts last year, Blease, Tapscott, Grimes missing huge chunks. Jurrah, Bail, even Watts to a lesser degree. Maric, Strauss missing big chunks with shoulders. Compare that to chip Frawley who despite his recent injury has had continuity in his development over 4 years. Would be nice this year if Cook, Howe and co can play senior Casey football all year at the very least. Already Davis has a thyroid condition seemingly taking months of development away. hopefully that's the worse of it for this years crop as year long injuries to new recruits are getting tiresome. I know new kids are more susceptible with the massive increase in training loads but geez, we have had a frustrating run in development. Other side of the coin of course is we have a queue of top recruits barely seen at AFL level yet.