titan_uranus

Out: Davey, Bate, Bartram, Tynan In: Gysberts, Tapscott, Crouch, Bennell To be honest I don't know if making wholesale changes will do anything. But there has to be one change - Davey has to be dropped. I also don't know who's ready to come in. Tynan seems totally underprepared for AFL standard football. Looks like he has what it will take though. Just not sure he should be playing right now.

I honestly cannot imagine a worse performance, given the context of this game. I'm going to put Jim to one side. Whilst we showed him nothing on the field, who's to say what was going on in the minds of the players. Let's just look at the match for what it was. Brisbane is not Geelong. They are Brisbane. We should be, at the absolute worst, on par with them. To lose by as much as we did, in the manner in which we did, is nothing short of disgraceful. There will be those who say that it's about the future and one bad performance does not ruin that. That is true. But it does not change the fact that today's performance was utterly abysmal. What has improved since Neeld took over? We kick the ball a heck of a lot more than under Bailey. But what else? Are we more skillful? We weren't today? Are we faster? Or stronger? Or tougher? Not today we weren't. The kick-to-handball ratio aside, I see no changes. We're still soft, still slow, still unskilled, and still have no decipherable gameplan. And we still can't kick in from behinds. Today was as bad as I think we have ever played, and it would show on the scoreboard if we had played Hawthorn or Geelong. We cannot brush this aside as simply a bad week in a development year. We have been writing off bad years as 'development years' for enough now. For mine, performances like this against mediocre sides are, quite literally, inexcusable.

6 - Magner 5 - Clark 4 - Watts 3 - Grimes 2 - Howe 1 - Bail Criticism of Watts is utterly ridiculous. Would be as fair as praise of Davey.

Agreed. Key difference - Nicholson knows what he's doing. Doesn't mean he's the best at it just yet (i.e. his kicking needs work) but in Nicholson I actually see a footy player. In Williams I saw a dunce. Also Nicholson can take a hit.

Surely that was Curry? Gives you not a lot outside of a streamload of sh!t. Well that's good. I had written of Fitzpatrick before this pre-season, so it's good to hear he's getting bigger and more confident. I'm not holding out any hope, which I guess means that anything we get from him will be a positive, but it's nice to hear that a developing tall at Melbourne is doing better than expected, for once. Too true. Watts is not going to be the next Brown, Roughead, Franklin, Cloke, Dawes, Pavlich, Riewoldt, other Riewoldt, or anyone else, for that matter. He's going to be the next Jack Watts. And he's going to play in a position which suits him. If that's FF, so be it. If it's CHF, so be it. If it's the wing, or HF, or HB even, so be it. The talent is there, the fitness too. Once the hunger, the aggression, and the consistency settle in, we'll see he has got what it takes.

We've all had our sinking suspicions that this day would come sooner or later. That has made today no easier. RIP Jimmy. You were a true legend.

Who cares? Give him 77 as far as I'm concerned. Let J Viney make his own history. This is the first time I've seen this one. I can't work it out myself. He who...f***ed? fled? I can't work it out.

LOL at the penalties being dished out towards Butcher. Let's take a look at the footage first before crucifying him. And let's not use Trengove-Dangerfield as some sort of precedent. If the MRP used precedent, Trengove would never have had the 3 week penalty given in the first place.

I can't think of anything more ridiculous than to suggest that, because of the way one player dealt with bereavement, that other players should be measured against that yardstick. Clint Batram can be commended for the way he dealt with his father's passing. That in no way can be any sort of comment on how anyone else should deal with a bereavement, and if another player takes weeks to deal with a passing of a family member, so be it.

I would have thought the same, without knowing anything at all. Reports we've heard so far have implied as much.

I have no idea why you chose to say Carlton, when you could easily have said Collingwood or Geelong. But your point is valid and one I agree with. I think a good measure of our year will be not whether or not we can beat Collingwood etc, but whether we can beat the middle of the road sides.

Why? Flooding/pressing/zoning are all legitimate team strategies invented and developed by teams. Why must the AFL see a new tactic and stamp it out with a rule change? IT'S THE GAME! Let the game be played. We're already beginning to see teams work out how to overcome the press (longer kicking, deeper forwards), why do we need the AFL to attempt to do it themselves. How ridiculous. Agree. I can't stand reactionary, knee-jerk rule changes which are unnecessary. This is one of them. The 3-1 rule has had an effect on the game, but let's see how the game reacts.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/129979/default.aspx A coin toss? Really? So Essendon may end up with all four points? Even more ridiculous.

Where did I say I wasn't pleased? I am pleased. Winning > losing, obviously. But let's keep things in perspective, all we did was win a NAB Cup game. I think this is really under-selling Martin's talent, but then again, you've seen him play this year and I haven't.

He may make comical mistakes, but he's not just a talent, he's an integral part of our side, and his pros outweigh his cons. It has most certainly not been put to bed. This is a NAB Cup game. Say what you will about their side on paper, in their minds it's inconsequential. That 'hoodoo' will be put to bed if and when we take 4 premiership points from a game there.

What happened now?

This is EXACTLY how I see it. The only two possible exceptions I envisage are the WB and St Kilda games. We could easily lose both (despite them being at the G), and thus be 2-3 before proceeding to lose the four in a row. Which actually makes six in a row. So 2-1 becomes 2-7, we are the basketcase side of the comp (GWS aside, as they don't count), and then beat Essendon, who are in the top 8, just because we can. Of course, no one knows anything about how things will turn out, and we could easily lose to Brisbane in Round 1, get Neeld all angry, and do something ridiculous like beat West Coast in Perth.

That's ridiculous, Essendon flew to Wangaratta? What a joke. They should be docked their points for stupidity.

I care about the result of this game as much as I care about Rebecca Black's next single. Having said that, if words that are used to describe our performance include 'physical', 'pressure' and maybe even 'press', then there is something to be enjoyed.

I'm trying very, very hard to not be upset about this. Of course it could be nothing. But if he's injured again...

Says nothing.

I love this post.

Ah good call. NZ didn't play a lot of cricket in 2011. I don't think he took a great deal of wickets either.

Definitely deserving. Swann had a poor year, Tahir from South Africa, Lyon, and Bishoo from the Windies are just developing, Sri Lanka and India rotate their spinners too much for one sole spinner to get a long period of wicket taking, and Shakib al Hasan from Bangladesh is good but doesn't play anywhere near enough cricket to be close to in a 2011 XI. Ajmal, really, is well in front of anyone else, although Ashwin is good on turning pitches and Bishoo looks a promising prospect (as does Lyon, really). In other spinning news, Brad Hogg is back in Australian colours, picked in the squad for the Australian T20 series against India. He's 40. Also, Cameron White has gone from captain of the T20 side to not being in it, with George Bailey doing the opposite. He's never played for Australia before, so his first game for the side will be as captain.

Agreed. They may have played much of their cricket against NZ, WI and Zimbabwe, but that doesn't change the fact that they have developed a side that is beginning to gel as an XI, and is playing consistent cricket. They have done a lot of work to find a group of players who actually care, and it seems to be working. Of course, if they were to lose the series to England and lose future series to sides like South Africa, India and Australia, it might all be for nought. But you have to be pleased with what they've achieved over the last year or so, and I see a bright future for them.