Bay Riffin

Totally agree. The comments by Green and those two really do show how they think internally. We get sooooo far ahead of ourselves and yes we look good at the minute but what if say Neitx went down for a monh Even when we were flying this time last year, I think they needed to concentrate on developing a harder style of play to survive finals football even if it meant sacrificing a game or two.

here are mine... Bell - almost very good Carroll - tight and reliable Holland - clearly wins again Ward - bad kicking early Bizzell - reliable all day Johnstone - injury early unlucky Bate - very good early McDonald - engine room again Davey - kicking radar awry Bruce - even worse kicking Sylvia - excellent all class McLean - bordering on elite Neitz - damn injured knee Robertson - best on ground White - honest not dangerous Johnson - very good skills Petterd - mixed game today Frawley - good defensively early Green - two saving marks Jones - bull like game Wheatley - wonderful field kicking Godfrey - right foot goal

Yes Sylvia and Mclean are both top shelf and think Bartram and Nathan Jones will be very good as well. Bate will also be very good. Jury is still out on Dunn. Lovely kick but don't know if he is as robust as say Miller. If he makes it , what position will he play?. Time will tell but may not make it. Johnson I thought looked the goods last year for a while but you need a bit of mongrel and ability to get the ball at this level. He has good pace for his height and would be more than handy but he needs his dads tenacity. wasn't he great for Melbourne. Still hope yet. Petterd looks a real gem early. Appears fearless at times. be wonderful to get 200 games out of Petterd, Jones, Mclean,Bartram, Sylvia and even Moloney who all thrive on the hard stuff. Can we actually get a hard team at Melbourne who can play. Last hard team was late eighties but had no skill. When you look at that list it sounds very exciting.

Yes defintely good game yesterday. long kicking stood out, will be interesting to see how he and Bizzell finish the rest of the year as they may on their last chance. Thing is, Brown and Ward have been preferred as they do go in harder, in fact Brown appears so far harder, you would pick him always for a big game ahead of Wheatley. I fear despite his athleticism, great kicking and good pace, he just does not have the mongrel to get the ball. I tend to think he is very soft at stop plays and not reliable enough. I hope he proves me wrong. My guess is they will delist Bizzell and keep Wheatley as back up, don't know why but gut feel.

big call - trade him for Judd - who wouldn't we trade for the best on baller in the league and premiership captain? next you will be saying you would even trade him for Jonathon Brown. so whats the point of this comment?

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.