grazman

He turns the ball over every second time he touches it, he's only kicked two goals and he's dropping sitters... he's in pretty bad form.

I'm at sixes and sevens Tim, yes it was our best performance for the year, and as DB said we were competitive for 'most' of the match - though not all of it - but our skill level at the moment isn't good enough to beat more than two or three sides. Geelong could easily have been 7 or 8 goals up at half time and that would really have rocked our confidence again - that they weren't is a massive bonus for us. Even five points down into the third quarter you always knew the cats had something left in the tank. I think Bailey is on the right track in terms of his game plan and making us more accountable, but it will take longer to fix the skills. I think we're a show against the Kangas, but only if our pressure brings their skill level back to ours... We won't really start to be dangerous side until we can be competitive for 100% of game time and improve our skills.

I think you'd be out of place in that particular establishment.

Franky was it his left or right hand? If he broke it in the second quarter, he would have trouble guiding the ball onto his boot and this might explain why he missed so many targets.

Nor do I, but that was the rumour posted on Ology. We'll know soon enough.

That was the other rumour Franky. If true it'd be the biggest selection decision I can ever remember at the Dees.

What the hell is a plastic cast? Is it for sprain/ligament damage or for a fracture? Anyone?

Or Newton, if you believe the rumours, maybe even Robbo.

If only we'd traded him for Sewell. The Hawks would have had to have played Fergs until he reached 150 games just to shut up their supporters.

I think Dunn will be continued to play as a run with player pushing forward when the opportunities arise. Unfortunately he didn't really stop Bartel (but that's easier said than done) but was able to exploit the Cats by pushing forward for a couple of easyish goals. I think this is a good ploy, he's a natural goal kicker and the tendency for the tagged player is to try to get as far from the tagger as possible leaving Dunn more space running forward.

I agree about Martin. If he were to play on the weekend, the first thing most people would comment on was how diabolical his kicking is and they'd miss the point altogether that he reads the ball in flight exceptionally well and as someone from a basketball background uses his body to good effect. I think he's a real plus for us this year. It'll be interesting to see if they choose either him or Jamar to replace PJ this week. Leo Barry is another interesting candidate - again he has that magnificent Defenders ability to read the ball in flight and know where his opponent is at the same time. He's only six foot, but is an excellent defender. - I think sometimes people get a little hung up about who can or can't be a KPP player.

I'm probably one of the few that would get a kick out of someone with a user name of Don Cordner saying "awsum" and "lol". welcome to the text generation Don. :D

Thanks MFM. Of course it's just my personal opinion, and I'm always open to the notion that I could be wrong - but Bailey is a good leader. There's no panic and there's no hesitancy in the face of adversity, just flint hard determination. I still think we're a better side than the likes of Carlton and Richmond, and I expect that the game plan will start gelling towards the end of the year.

I think to be fair Franky, that getting the players to play for him is part of the 'culture problem' we continue to bemoan at the club.... and yes those words may very well have described Danners in his first years - and he was a very good coach, but he lost his way IMO. He put far too much faith in players that continued to let him down and our problems in developing the hard edge needed to go further were because he was too emotionally attached to the senior core. As a result there's still a bit of baggage amongst many of our list that still needs to be discarded in terms of habits and attitudes. A new coach doesen't so much as have a honeymoon period, more like a hangover period. Bailey's pretty upfront and honest. The players will come around, of that I've no doubt. They may not like some of the messages, but the truth, as they say, hurts. Time to dry their eyes and get on with the job at hand. Just by way of example, Neil Craig isn't exactly loved by the Crows players. Not all players adjust and some leave, but I've been waiting for a while for their list to bottom out... Coaches don't have to be liked, but they must be respected. Balmey suffered because of injuries to key players there's no doubt, but comparing him to Bailey is like chalk and cheese. Balmey relied on luck (and he was unlucky) - there'll be no luck involved with Bailey. BTW his talk wasn't really a Churchillian oration, more answers to specific questions, but you certainly get the impression from him that near enough will definately not be good enough.

I see the obvious solution here, keep changing game plans until we start winning and then stick to it like glue. Absolutely under no circumstances should we review our list - we'll be a pioneer amongst league clubs. By all means lets keep talented players with poor attitudes. We've already traded Trapper unfortunately, but maybe we can get someone like Chris Tarrant in a trade

I was pretty happy that he was the best man for the job after he got through a pretty thorough process as a virtual unknown. If there were any seeds of doubt they were completely blown away when he presented his views on coaching up here in Canberra. There are three things you immediately feel when you hear him talk, firstly he's extremely intelligent - he understands the game and importantly can communicate that, secondly he is extremely confident, not in an arrogant sense, but he knows what he wants to achieve, how to do it, finally he's determined, absolutely 100% committed to success and while that may sound trite in relation to any league coach or player, he's a tough cookie and will expect that of the players. It doesn't surprise me he doesn't sound fazed by the losses. He would have had an understanding of our list from an outsiders perspective, but he would have seen pretty quickly that the transition was obviously going to take some time and casualties.

Oh dear... you don't think character in some way contributes to performance?. Why were so many Melbourne supporters so in love with Trapper? Ah yes it was our facilities that cost him a premiership medallion and not his approach. All the talent in the world and only 51% of the application needed.

A good analysis Scoop. I thought Davey working his way back into the second half was a positive as well. I just watched the second quarter again, and PJ is having a very good year, except kicking against the wind he continually turned the ball over by foot yesterday. He and Belly must have shared a dodgy curry, because their disposal is usually a lot better, both had pretty off days in terms of delivery. I was super pleased with Brock's game yesterday, even after the Ling tag he still got enough of the ball and he was blocking and shepherding for team mates and giving it off straight away (I think the more he doesn't play with Trapper the more he won't try to nail the 'perfect' option as opposed to the 'best' option). Jonesy is still young and he learnt a lesson about how to execute a tackle yesterday (and I hope he got a bake for trying to kick a fifty meter goal against the wind without even looking up to see if he had any forward options). I was very pleased for both Cam and Wheaters yesterday, they had super games and they're the sort of blokes you'd just love if you were a coach, because they just do the job they're assigned without any fuss. The margin could have been worse, but the positive was that for the most part we stuck to the task all day, though as you pointed out - we're not going to win too many games of footy unless we learn not to butcher the ball.

McLean 22 disposals including ten contested to half time He's getting first to the ball. He's in his element, Geelong are a very good contested possession side, but they aren't exceptionally quick. Brock is making sure he get's there first. Dunn, White and Bruce are playing significantly better than last week and PJ is continuing to improve - even took a contested overhead mark. We won't win this one perhaps, but you can see what Bailey wants to achieve with this team.

Leunenberger looked very good last night Fan.

I know many have doubts as to the viability of Valenti due to his lack of foot speed, but if our current situation continues I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world to give him a go for a few games. It's unlikely that all of Jones, McLean, Junior and Valenti could run through the middle at the same time, but if he can replicate his preseason form in the season proper, then we should look at other options like playing Brock off a HBF, where his field kicking could be better used.

Does he know Kelly O'Donnell?

Wrecker I was incredibly disappointed with his first up performance in rd 1. Last year he was committing himself to second and third efforts and chasing hard out of our forward line. In rd 1 this year, he made that lazy arse Trapper who literally walked from one contest to the next look like a workhorse. I hope it's a confidence thing rather than attitude, because you can give a player confidence, you can't give them hunger.

The Bulldogs won because not only did they get superior numbers to the contest, but they were able to run the slow Saints off their feet. Triple teamed Riewoldt and made Gehrigs lack of pace and mobility a huge issue for the Saints. The Saints rebounders were pretty much harassed out of the game. This seems to be the new trend in Modern footy. I still have nagging doubts about the dogs. Welsh & Hudson were both two very good low risk pick ups that have slotted in nicely, but I just wonder how their light frames will stand up to the rigours of a whole season, especially in September. I would rather have a Jonathon Brown or Nick Riewoldt standing at CHF than a Robert Murphy.

Buckley has one !% and five tackles in two games. He's only got 35 possessions and 9 of those are errors. It's got nothing to do with giving kids a go, he's got stuff he needs to work on and the selection committee want him to work on them at Sandy. I don't have a problem with that. He's ostensibly been replaced by CJ (very similar players IMO).