Bay Riffin

So any Bruce baggers still want to sink the boots in? I wish the detractors could tell me what the difference between yeterdays performance and work he has done all year? He was and has been very good, sure he doesn't always hit targets by foot but watch the second quarter again when it counted. He was BOG in my opinion - Green was great but did collect many possesions as the loose man. So hit us with your comments of trading etc.

I like him. defintely got pace and our backline worked much better yesterday as he and Bell had the pace to just keep their forwards honest without allowing the usually Adelaide keepings of game. Looks like he has the body type to build up nicely. His kicking style looks a bit awkward but can kick it long. Definitely play him as much as possible.

we actually lost 32 kilos over the playing group if you take into account Pickett's extra 20 kilos lol

Judd being cleared is a F$#%ing disgrace. AFL has just lost me completely. How much more do they want to give the eagles. he eye gouged and you know when your fingers are in an eye socket, it should have been penalised, was cited, found guilty and now he plays. I give up on the sh1te competition ever since te Barry Hall reversal beforethe 2005 grand final. its manipulated and thats that.

can we just.... protect out teammates and show some desperation in shepharding and beffeting off the ball. we did this well in the last quarter if you watch the replay. above all, forget about whats been and show some confidence to go through the middle and be attacking and yes...kick it long to Neita and co.

[good story. He could have been anything but probably not quite a Wayne Carey. Unfortunately his commentary is so ordinary I switch him off. has opinons on a lot of issues he knows absolutely nothing about. liked him as a player but annoying now.

The Dees only seem to get true spirit when we are flying - oh to have the shinboners spirit with our talent.

We need 1. Quality tall ruckman over 200 cm 2. Key backman 3. One 'elite'player at least like Goodes, Judd Forget mentioning more midfielders - you eventually have to say we have enough of one type - we have McLean, Moloney, Jones, Johnstone, McDonald, Sylvias when he strings enough games together. We also need to stop even thinking about recruiting blokes without a strong build. I can fill that void if needed. We need 18-20 strong bodies with only a few of the slight types. Currently we have Johnstone, Yze, Chris Johnston, Wheatley, Ferguson, White, Bruce, McDonald, Davey to name a few... We also need to choose blokes we can mould and take orders. Dunn looks a wise herad who can develop other ways to play the game while he works out how to perform as a forward. We need more of this and less like Johnstone who can look great one week but cannot perform a task the next (ever thought of making him tag ??) Hard to see where the quality will come from as the interstate sides have greater pull from their local markets. massive advantage too. vic clubs are at a disadvantage and they only way I can see to square the ledger is (a) international recruits from Ireland and (B) father son rule to get priority picks without using top draft choices. how else can we compete - do not know ?!?!??!

I am particularly interested in this as I am sick and tired of seeing the Eagles getting treated too well by the AFL. He is a great player but deliberately hit Bruce in the head over the ball, something the AFL have been very clear for players to avoid. He should go and get 3-4 weeks IMO. He has been up before and was it last year, avoided a certain penalty for smashing Mitchell in the family jewells. Who knows what the AFL will do, maybe they will provide him with $50,000 worth of counselling over the publicity of the incident. AFL, stop standing around like a WWF referee as Jake the snake Roberts puts a live snake in his opponents trunks, and pretend you see nothing and start going hard on this crew. They say they will be hard on reckless head high collisions - well make a stand FFS. don't forget Miller gave Hansen I think it was a little slap in the game last year, that grandma would laugh at, and he got TWO weeks for it. Give these pr1cks nothing. No injuries and golden run from the AFL, I wanna see them get hit and have things a little tougher.

Daniher is well liked but its hard to fathom how we can keep him at 0-8 with most players back and stringing a few games together, how we play like school girls when the heat is on. It can change quickly but if we win around 4-8 games for the year with that list, the writing is on the wall. Major frustratons for the Dees is How back up players from the premier side in Sandy constantly fail at AFL level. How we cannot team together in adversity like the Kangas and show a strong tough game each week. ( I have seen us do it twice in 8 rounds) Development of players in the gym to build up (or picking the right type to compete against men). Above all I think another coach wil struggle until we can have a radical change the the ethos of the club - we need a stronger winning culture at the club but F$CK me how we are going to do it honestly. how do you change a club like this? Who will be attracted to this club even with a talented list - will Pagan or Sheedy be ? I really don't know the answer we need.

good point..if we get a credible loss, it just hides the fact we get blown away by the West Coasts and Sydneys when it counts. Did not see the firstquarter but sounds like we were blown apart like Sydney. We need a coach to build a club that copes with interstate games - lets hope Sheedy gets the sack.

so the question is - how do West Cost and Sydney keep their injuries down. Is it technique, is it bad luck or what? It is soooo tiring to see our injuries. have we had a week with only 'ins' and no 'outs'. this week is our best but we lost Moloney - again. Be good if our running players can at least play the last half of the year together. Whelan is hard, I love him but our most injury prone footballer. He has to change his approach to avoid injuries.

I think he finishes his contract this year - is that right? Will be interesting to see if he continues. He has 3 year in him at least with a bit of luck. Thing is he would want to get as much out of his body next couple of years as he may slow up as Archer suggests as the body takes its toll. Welcome back Byron and teach our young guys how to tackle !! Anti Byron members above will eat their words soon enough.

Rivers will never be like Neitz - he would make a handy floating forward type, potentially very good half forward type. Neitz never made it a CHF so why try now. onlt in tip top form does he do well there. Sylvia will be a very good power forward for the moment as they try to get some run into him. You will no doubt see him in the midfield down the track. Big thing for him to is to get out there often enough. Where he plays is secondary for us at the minute. Daniher is doing a great job with Dunn who is showing he has more strings to his bow. may serve a role like Martin Pike down the track who knows? where will be Petterd's best positon ??

We did the right thing. Letting him play against West Coast would send the wrong message. He should be made to address the playing group as well. Hope he stays but we need to develop a strong leadership group that want the Dees to do well. If he cared about the demons enough , he should put his head down, earn his money and produce. If he goes, it will be as bad as Scotty Judas Thompson leaving the club once he became a valuable player. be interesting to see how he handles it. He could still get 3-4 years of good footy out of himself but may just quit.

Sorry. Forgot to omit Yze. Good form now but would not rely on him in big games anymore (if indeed we ever could).

Moloney, Jones in starting line up. A fit Pickett also on the ground without question. include Petterd, Bartram. Throw out Holland, Godfrey is you want to play good finals footy. interesting line up either way - lots of great running ability but short on quality big guys in the team, especially ruck and CHF. Hmmm...food for thought.

not really harsh. Not turning up to a senior game as an emergency is almost unforgivable. Does anyone bleed for this jumper anymore??????

if he is quitting as per another thread, I will spew. Norm smith at Port, premiership hardman at North but now giving up? don't understand why he comes to Melbourne with a half #ssed attitude. He won't be playing for at least 5 weeks - such a great player wasting a great talent. Its a real shame as he is so exciting to watch.

I would be in it too. Getting Sheedy would be better than any player for this club. He mentioned last night he would probably coach next year regardless, so it can happen. my gut feel is some quality players and coaches see Melbourne as a bit soft and unreliable as a club, something one person cannot change too quickly. Apart from Pickett, who have we traded to the club of real note? i wish he would come. I have no doubt he would toughen the place up, and change the structure of our side. But in reality he is blue collar, would suit the tiges but Wallace is there for 2 more years or perhpas interstate sides like Freo. One thing is for sure he won't end up at Carlton.

whats the news on Pickett - is he injured? does anyone know?

Here are my thoughts on Danihers ten years at the club. Daniher is a good coach at developing attacking players with an attractive brand of football. I think he is also a pretty good tactician on game day despite what people say. His big glaring weakness I have seen over the ten years is his acceptance of playing unacountable football when we really need it (like this year) and players not developing enough defensive skills, especially in mid field players. It's not just bloke like Travis but new blokes are roaming around with a free reign to float wherever they want which looks ok when you are on a roll but becomes horribly unstuck when the tide turns against you. Yesterday is a good example, which was coached quite differently by Daniher. The doggies flooded the backline knowing their pace could run it out and hopefully pinpoint a target up field. Daniher actually decided to man up, flooding our forward line but making all players accountable. It was effective against a side which would have beaten most yesterday at Telstra Dome. West coast and Sydney play this way and they learn week in week out how to play contested footy, a wonderful blueprint for the young players. My point is this - Daniher normally would not pick up the extra players like yesterday, therefore having a few players on each side unnaccountable and its a case of who can play 'keepings off' the best. Worsfold rarely does this, even when on top of the ladder. For us to succesful, we need to have young midfielders like Maloney, Sylvia, Jones learn how to pick up their men and have a defensive string to their bow when required. I fear another few years of Daniher will be accepting bad habits and unprofessionalism in players just like he has accepted it from Travis Johnstone and Jeff White during his tenure. For those who argue the amount of final appearances, I would also add our finals performances at time have been insipid, lacking character and timid at times. Added to that, in big games like the Adelaide game last year leading into the finals, we fell apart like a wet paper bag and it was utterly embarrasing to watch. I would also say the decision to let Daniher go should be dependant on having someone good enough to replace him. I do not want a coach to show us the 'doggies' fast flowing style of play, I want to model West Coasts and Sydneys utter (albeit on field) professionalism. Watch this week to see how West Coast will buffer, support, shepherd for their teammates when it counts. You don't have to be Chris Judd to do that, and we only reach that level when we are 'flying' and looking a million bucks. Dean Laidley gets far more intensity from an inferior list. Hopefully Pratt sacks a still hungry Pagan at seasons end, or I say track down Gary Ayres who people have written off for some unknown reason. we should thank Daniher and move on.

yes would put Nicholson on the ground and captain. Vardy and Sean Charles were very good but injuries got the better of them. Drop those two, and include one P Hopgood as well.

and before he write him off, he has laid some great tackles - he was absolutely crucified when he laid the perfect tackle on Burgoyne in the centre earlier in the game. Was inspirational to all but the umpire. how Port did not get pinged for quite a few of holding the balls I don't know. Picketts still got plenty to offer, he is not that far away, but concede Sunday was not great.

this is where you realise some not involved in the game just couldn't coach a side. right now Bruce is arguably our best player after 6 rounds and yes has been dissapointing by foot in the last 2 games. Lets take the kick to Davey as an example - most times earlier in the game he would have propped and delivered a pass sideways or backwards as we had no-one to kick to. The number one bug bear of demon fans this season - stagnant football. Is it his fault or the forwards fault?. We needed to track Cornes so if he wanders, do you let him go ? we chose not to - our forwards chose to be up the ground at times and not in traditional positions. Bruce is one of the few with the discipline to perform many jobs for the coach while other big names seem to have one string to their bow. I wouldn't be dropping a bloke who knows how to GET the ball, a rare commodity so far this season. He will never be the tough in and under type but neither is he a receiver. His best footy is still ahead of him so have some patience. there a worse going around at the minute.