DemonDave

If the leadership group is reassesed mid-year, do you think Moloney will get back in? He's one of the very few to have flown the flag on a consistent basis this year (although his direct opponent Montagna was BOG on Saturday). If Jamar is on our 'untouchables' list, how many others would be in it right now? Frawley, Scully, Trengove, Watts, Jurrah. Any others? Hamish Hartlett I'd take in a heartbeat from Port, he's easily their most exciting talent. But yeah they have a heck of a lot of list-cloggers (Westhoff = Newton etc) Hawthorn in 2008 is a perfect example of a young team on the up bringing on board a couple of hard bodied 'mongrel' players in Dew and Guerra, to aid and assist their skinny kids, I think it'd be better for list balance to go a similar route.

And here's the 'story': Get Jamar Methinks Roo should stick to his used car sales, and whiney commentary voice he provides for Foxtel. Some of his other alternatives are laughable - Mark Blake? Will Minson? Cam Wood?

I'm a big Bartram believer, but his two or three glaring errors yesterday unfortunately all lead to goals. However as has been alluded to, not having the cattle there to do the normal job of making the clearing kick out of the backline forces his hand by necessity. He had a bad day, but you dont drop him for a rookie. You know that every week you're going to get a good honest performance out of the Bartman. Which is more than can be said for the so called leaders in Davey et al. Bartram and Jones, for all their critics on here, must be two of the first picked every week, as over their entire Melbourne careers theyve both barely missed a game. The match committee/football department obviously see their true worth to the team.

Some players take 20 minutes to adjust to league footy, some take 20 games. For mine over the last 2-3 weeks Watts has finally realised he belongs, and can comfortably play to some of his strengths and have a positive influence on games. Its all finally clicked, and I feel he'll go from strength to strength from here, just give him license to roam, find the footy and bring others into the contest. His awareness is elite, he now knows he can run to a space and the footy will come to him. Very pleasing to see. Will staunch Essendon troglodyte Mark Robinson write a sequel to his embarrasing Watts v Hurley 'scoop' at the end of the year?

The rapture, and end of the world was supposed to happen yesterday. Seems every Sunday night on here is the Rapture waiting to happen.

Strauss is miles off selection for us, his efforts at Casey have been mediocre at best this year. People need to look beyond how high in the draft some of these guys were drafted at, and look at their exposed form instead. Out: Tapscott, Newton In: Gawn, Nicholson I like the idea floated on here earlier of Davey as the sub.

1) The hiring of the Rules Committee 2) The hiring of Andrew D 3) The hiring of Ross the Boss 4) The hiring of Action Wayne Jackson 5) the hiring of etc etc.. On a serious note the Rules Committee meddling, then daylight for mine.

But how would we know which days Nathan Jones go surfing or walks his dog? Or what meal Colin Sylvia had last night?

Do you think more, or less, people would be smoking Benson & Hedges or Marlboro cigarettes if they were able to have their ads on TV every adbreak, or be reminded at the footy "this quarter of footy bought to you by Winnies Blues, only $12.99 at shops everywhere, buy some today!"

Dont forget the money made from Poker machines at the Bentleigh and Leigh-Oak clubs. I figure you're damned if you do damned if you dont with these type of things. Morals quite often have to be put aside if it aids the survival of your club. Look at Carlscum, they were in financial trouble, so the pokies King Bruce Mathieson went and stripped his machines out of other clubs and put them directly into the Blues pubs. Should set them back onto financial prosperous roads again before long.

Colonial Stadium. A team we havent beaten for 5 years. A highly rated team not playing up to their abilities. Several star players under the microscope. All signs point to a Saints win. I look forward to the game every week, but have the feeling that I'll get that awful sinking feeling midway through the second quarter again this week as I did against North last week.

So Morton is not even named as a sub, we have a grand total of 41 games on our emergency list!

You'd think Jordie would struggle to play out the full game given he's been out for so long and played 6 quarters of VFL football all year, so he'd be a leading candidate to be the sub or subee. But its great to see him back!

John Butcher says hi....

I'm sure Brad Green had plenty of belief in the club when he joined in 2000, playing in a couple of finals in his first exciting year. Same with Bruce, Wheatley and Whelan. It doesnt mean that will equate to success.

Wouldnt the GWS talent spotters be derelict in their duties not to attend half a dozen or more VFL games, as well as SANFL and WAFL leagues, to flush out potential 'depth' recruits. I cant see the harm in them picking up half a dozen James Wall types from around these leagues to go with the half dozen or so senior AFL players they'll nab, and the 74 highly rated and drafted kids.

I was close to the bench as well Joeboy. From what I saw after he came back from the rooms he ran up and back a couple of times fairly gingerly. He then shook his head as if to say 'no its not right'. Half a minute later he was given a footy, went for a bounce, came back and gave the nod. So not sure you can blame either the fitness staff or the player for that one. For the query earlier about the Long Term Injury list, if you get placed on it you are not able to be selected in the seniors for 8 weeks. So it will be touch and go whether Fitzpatrick would be out for long enough, or indeed if there is a third player worthy of upgrading (assuming Grimes & Spencers spots get taken) .

Lucky Robert Flower was not starting out nowadays. "Too skinny, will only ever make it as an outside receiver" the cry would be. Morton played almost every game possible over his first two seasons, and teams cant be made up entirely of Moloney/Jones type players. Given our lack of depth in midfielders with (somewhat) experience, you'd think he'd come in for a crack this week.

From the @demonsHQ twitter some player stat counts: DemonsHQ: Possessions Morton 28, Mckenzie 24, McGough 22, Evans 22, Bate 20

Spoke to Rivers after the game he's definitely right for this week. And from what Ive heard from people at the Casey game today (not on here): Out: Garland, Bail (inj), Dunn (susp/omitt), Bennell, Jetta In: Rivers, Gawn, Bate, McKenzie, Evans/Blease Jetta was horrible yesterday, he seems to think he's Chris Judd when trying to work his way through traffic. He got caught for holding the ball at least three times yesterday that all lead to goals. I dont care if he has heaps of tackles, if hes turning over the ball when he has it with such monotonous regularity he cant be carried. Plenty of others on thin ice, Gysberts turned it over far too much but lack of competition will save him. It should not matter if youve only played 10 games, that is not an excuse for poor form and make you undroppable. Aussie was the same playing weight last week wasnt he? Seems when we're winning he's back, when we get whalloped hes too fat. Needs to get more than a handful of posessions and kick the goals when opportunities arise.

North Melbourne have done it the last two years. Its worked wonders for them so far....

Out: Jamar, Grimes, Trengove. In: No, Worthy, Replacements. Good god, we're either going to have to throw in a Leigh Brown sized guy in Martin, or someone whos played barely half a dozen VFL games of note in Gawn to ruck. Please no Jetta, I'd prefer we try Evans or Nicholson. Probably by default Joel Mac comes in for Frank, but his pre season form was abominable.

Have a look at the double page spread in todays Hun with the match review. THe two bigger pictures they guernseys look to have a pinkish hue. But the photo at the bottom of Watts and Garland tackling a hapless crow they look a nice dark red as does the fantastic photo on the back page of Greeny clasping his badge. So to me its as confusing as ever

Trengoves attack on the ball with an opponent coming in hard, to setup a goal on our attacking 50 metre line in that last quarter was inspirational. He had a ripping game yesterday!

I thought Clint Bartram was in our best half dozen today for his tagging job on Thompson, we didnt get many chances to boo him thankfully! It did seem strange seeing Barts win centre clearances and even kick a goal, the first time in a long time I can remember him having an 'onball' tag for a couple of years...