titan_uranus

People have short memories. Just like when PJ was out of the team and some said he was a perfect inclusion due to his wondrous ability to play forward, Dunn makes far too many clangers, has little to no ability to read the play which means when we're defending he's usually in a useless position, doesn't attack the ball, doesn't have much hunger or agression, and doesn't really add anything to the team. We're better off looking at MacDonald, Morton, Bail, Cheney, McNamara, Jetta, Maric, Wonaeamirri, Spencer and/or Martin.

You know, you could just click on 'View' next to their names. This new feature of 'Public Polls' allows you to see who votes for whom. A bit of research goes a long way when posting on Demonland...

Given Bailey's always said that selection will come on the back of consistent performances at Casey, don't be surprised if Miller gets the nod this week. We'd get more out of him than we did PJ. MacDonald might need another week at Casey, given that Morton's also in line to come back in.

Surely this year's had the most ridiculous amount of trade talk prior to Round 8. FWIW, of that list I'd only go near Dawes and Stanley.

Why must it be that if we take the option of removing any possible clash between the clubs because Essendon won't, that we won't still pressure the AFL into making a fairer system? I'm sure if we end up deciding that we'd prefer to wear white to remove the clash, despite it being our home game, that we'd only be angier and more determine to go to the AFL and set this right. If we start this war, North Melbourne will follow us into battle. They have the exact same problem.

Schwab on twitter has said we'll be wearing the home jumper. But I'll bet we'll end up in the white one, just like St Kilda on Sunday. I'd rather us wear the white jumper than wear the home one if we have learnt anything from the Bulldogs match. As Ash said, we don't need to have players handpassing to Alwyn instead of Aaron. But it's clear what has to happen in the future. You can keep preaching, Nasher. I like your sermons.

The best thing to do at kick ins is to take the first option available. Every time. Grimes seems to do a lot of the kicking in and he seems to wait too long for the magical brilliant option to appear, when in reality all he's doing is letting the opposition fully set up a 10-12 man zone across half forward. I'd be inclined to just tell him to pick the ball up and kick it straight away to the first option he can see. Gets the game moving, gets the zone moving, gets the ball away from full back.

Clarke has to go. Anyone could lead the team we've got to the record he's led it to. Let's not forget who we played in that time: Pakistan, West Indies, New Zealand and then the World Cup. A good leader, clearly, and will definitely be the next captain of the Test side, but he is the clear weak link in the batting line up of the T20 side. Furthermore I'd be looking at removing Haddin from the T20 side too. He isn't the prolific run scorer he should be in that form of the game, and Tim Paine does it much better. Plus it gives him more time off to keep himself right for the Test and ODI teams. Kieswetter for England is a good example. Prior's been dropped from the T20 side. Finally, I'm not convinced in Mitchell Johnson at T20 level. Especially when Doug Bollinger can't get a game. Bollinger tore it up for Chennai in the IPL. Johnson, like Haddin, should probably make way which will give him more time to focus on Test and ODI cricket.

This is correct. It doesn't detract from the overall problem though, which is that Essendon has long refused to find an alternate strip that removes clashes with other clubs, including us, and that when the game comes around there will either be a clash or we'll be wearing an alternate strip, which is unfair on us, the home team.

My take on alternative jumpers is this: If you're the home team, you wear your traditional home jumper. No exceptions. If the AFL then believes there is a clash between your home jumper and the away team's home jumper, they ensure that the away team wears an alternative strip, such that there is no clash. Prior to any season the AFL should tell each club which other clubs there may be a clash with, and it becomes the club's responsibility to design an alternative strip that works for its clashes. There should never be an instance where the home team is forced to wear an alternate strip to their traditional one just because the away team hasn't got an alternate strip that removes the clash (examples being North Melbourne at home to Collingwood, St Kilda home to Essendon, Melbourne home to Essendon (there's a theme here, see it?)). In this case, if Essendon's alternate strip didn't remove the clash with St Kilda, then they need a new alternate strip. Simple as that.

What's wrong with that? There has long been a debate about whether clapping players off after a bad performance is the right thing to do. Personally I don't believe that there is anything to be gained by cheering/clapping them off after a performance like the Hawthorn or West Coast ones. I think it'd be better to have the players look around after something like that and realise that it takes effort to make it at AFL level.

The post is correct, but to apply that to Green is wrong. He give his all, and you seem to be one of the few (if only) people who think otherwise. Like I said though, the points you raise are valid. Just like North did. We need to adapt to situations where this happens. Would have thought Bruce would rate a mention in the top 3, but the point's obviously clear.

Melksham > McKenzie That's not to say McKenzie's not a good player, because he is. But Melksham is going to be better. And as Nasher said, who cares? We know McKenzie's good, the FD know it, Neil Craig knows it, hopefully he's understanding that he's good enough at AFL level.

Nipping a player's bad form in the bud worked well for Carlton with Waite and Thornton. Sylvia's been crap for 3 weeks now. You can't play above your own ability, but you can sure as hell play below it. We saw against Richmond that he is more than capable of being an A-grade HFF/midfielder, but at the moment he is lacking confidence, fitness or groundedness (i.e. he rates himself well above where is is in reality; can't think of a better word). Whatever it is, going back to Casey will help him fix it. And at the same time it sends him and the other senior players a message.

Other than Green I reckon that's about right. I thought Green tried pretty hard. And usually does. So a bit harsh to say that Green's effort precludes him from being, or becoming, captain. JMac is inspirational. The kind of player any club wants. He's our Sam Mitchell (or to be fair, Mitchell is Hawthorn's McDonald).

Just a comment I heard from a Geelong supporter who shows little to no interest in any team other than Geelong: 'Jack Watts might look like a schoolboy, but I don't know if I've ever seen a player of his height and experience so damn good at ground level. The kid is going to dominate'. It's coming. It's just a while off.

It's gonna be a tough 6 weeks. But we've done well in the games that we thought might be hard this year so far (Collingwod, Brisbane, Western Bulldogs). 2 of our 3 crap performances have been against teams that, talent-based, are worse than us, but who employed good tactics, pressured us, and made us play some pretty awful football. My thinking is that teams like Port, Carlton, Geelong etc. are going to be more focused on playing their own game rather than worrying about ours. We saw against Collingwood and the Dogs that when that happens we can play a brand of football that matches it with the top clubs. I'm not expecting more than 2 wins, considering the form that Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood are in, but St Kilda and Adelaide are more than beatable, and Port hasn't convinced me yet.

And I said you were off the mark. Telling Bate to pull his finger out when he's clearly our hardest working forward, and who was struggling with a sore ankle, is just out of line (but yes, he could learn to kick on his right). And whilst Davey wasn't great, he may well have been affected by a possibly broken nose.

Yes, batting first helped us lots didn't it? Or more aptly, England choosing to bowl really stuffed them up, didn't it WYL and JJC? Our top order isn't great: it's boom or bust for Watson, Warner and Haddin. Clarke is too slow as well. Too often it's the Hussey brothers and White lifting us up. And opposition batsmen know that we have weak links in the bowling, namely Watson, so they target them whilst just going for survival against Tait and Nannes. We're still a good team, but clearly we're not the best.

Why would that be? AFAIK this is the first time Maric's been in the best for Casey, and of the two Wonna's the one who's shown he can cut it at AFL level. If anyone would cry because they missed selection it would be Cheney and McNamara who have been doing well down there for a long time.

If Nason can't cop that he should cut his hair. He's bound to get attention with that kind of 'do. It's not like he kicked him, spat on him or went for the groin. Come on.

They're the ones you voted for.

True. That was bad umpiring IMO. But yes, it seemed too easy for them to get the ball out of the 50. Partly due to what seemed like a mass hit of lethargy. Just a lot of stationary players who didn't look like they were forming a decent zone.

This basically sums you up.

Where's JJC when you need him? The kick ins yesterday were bad. There doesn't really seem to be any fluency with them at the moment. Maybe that's more to do with West Coast's good zoning than anything, but we seemed to really struggle to bring the ball back in from the full back line.