titan_uranus

Completely spot on post. Ignore the fact she's a woman. She just sucks, in every possible measure.

I didn't think he was that good. And playing one quarter out of four isn't good enough. Needs to lift to keep his spot over Wonaeamirri, Jetta and Maric. As well as Cheney, Strauss, McNamara, Bail, McKenzie, and the upcoming return of Morton and Jurrah.

Jarrad Grant spent a lot of time forward, and looked pretty good too. Johnson was further up the ground. Grant commands a taller player, but nothing to stretch our defence to the point where we must keep Rivers.

Please explain. I thought he was just OK. Nothing very special, and needs to overcome his habit of doing nothing in the first half.

6 - Bruce (can't believe there aren't more who gave him 6. I thought he was clearly our best 4 quarter player) 5 - Davey 4 - Green 3 - Grimes 2 - Bartram 1 - Scully

Sad. Petterd was really playing well this year. Hopefully it's not too serious.

The Dogs won't go as defensive as North did. But we need to learn to adapt to teams who decide to clog the centre corridor as North did. Bailey must help our youngsters deal with tactics like that. It's never going to be always going in our favour. I feel the FD crapped themselves and panicked re: the North talls, and thought that since McKenzie was (possibly) line-ball with his corky, that we'd be better off with Rivers. A half-baked McKenzie (if indeed he was sore) would have been better than Rivers was yesterday. We treated North's talls like they included Brown, Bradshaw, Franklin and Pavlich all at once. They're Hale, Goldstein, McIntosh and Edwards. Nothing exceptional there. We should have backed Frawley, Warnock, Garland and MacDonald in to do the job. If McKenzie had to be rested, someone with run should have taken his spot.

Terrible thread. Bruce was our BOG yesterday by a mile. Only one to play 4 decent quarters.

Somewhat under-rated on this site. IMO he's a better prospect that Johnson. He won't play though. He's a rookie and I highly doubt the FD will bother promoting him. And he isn't that good.

First things first: there is no point, no point at all, in bringing in Johnson, Newton or Miller. None of them are the future, none of them are any good, and none of them are required for the Bulldogs. Bringing any of them in would be a step backwards. Batram was good yesterday. Did his role. People loved Dunn's work on Brennan last week, but Bartram did a better job on a better player. And the talk of dropping Garland (or giving him a 'warning') is absurd. He was great yesterday. Again, Dunn will be protected by the statistics, which lie. Yes, he took marks, got 20 odd disposals and had numerous inside 50s. But he made countless basic errors, some of those inside 50s were useless and gave us no advantage at all, and his influence wasn't that great. Bennell was poor too. He's just got to start giving 4 quarter performances. Rivers was poor, we lost run by selecting him, and he goes. McKenzie should be fit (general soreness suggests to me he was dropped for Rivers, which if true is disappointing on many levels) and is an automatic inclusion. We missed his run, his clearance work, his endeavour, his kicking and his tackling. Bail, if fit, comes in too. More run needed. Martin stays. He's a better choice than any other ruck/forward we have on the list at the moment. PJ is terrible. I'd be looking at Cheney and McNamara as possible inclusions. McNamara to go forward in Petterd's place. Watts to stay at Casey until he proves he's good enough. In: McKenzie, Bail/Cheney, McNamara Out: Petterd, Dunn, Rivers

Firrito did what he thought was appropriate for his side, since they were totally outclassed for 15 minutes and were on the back foot. Some leadership for the young North players. I didn't like the way he came over to our huddle though.

I've been a big Rivers fan. But he showed me yesterday that he brings close to nothing to the team. Don't read anything into his beating Edwards. Edwards is useless. Anyone could beat him. He is slow. He can't kick. Those together spell disaster if you're trying to get a spot in this team. And yes, MacDonald didn't play well yesterday but he's played well up until this game. He's a good one-on-one defender, but we've already got Warnock and Frawley, with Garland a much better kick, runner and equally adept at being the third man up. I just feel so down about it, but Rivers doesn't bring anything to the team, and playing him keeps players like Bail, McKenzie, Cheney, McNamara and Strauss out of the side.

Was much better yesterday (not that he was particularly bad last week), but he is showing his skill as well as good endeavour and speed. Might get a run up forward this week with Petterd out.

Or maybe McKenzie's injured? I'm hoping it's an injury (obviously that's bad for Jordie but if he's fit then I really don't like this decision).

I guess it's just impossible for us to play an unchanged 22.

Yeah, but 'deceptively quick'? That makes it sound like he looks slow, but is actually pacy. I think he's just average. Doesn't really surprise anyone with pace. And yes, has the turning circle of an Isuzu.

McKenzie's out for Rivers according to http://twitter.com/demonshq I don't like that. At all.

Robert Warnock is a perfect example of looking past the fact that we have a player's brother. Look at the player's ability. Alwyn Davey had one breakout year. He was dropped from one of the 4 worst teams in the league this year. He doesn't get enough of the ball, and isn't damaging enough with it. We have Wonaeamirri, Jetta and Maric who can all play Davey's role, but better. And the potential cost of getting him just makes it totally unworthwhile.

I don't know if that was officially the reason, but I'm sure it was an important part. That was a horrible business move.

And Brad Johnson too. Bruce does have the football ability. It's just that in the last few years his disposal has waned, to the point where the ball goes too high (by hand and by foot), and often to the wrong option.

Martin should not be dropped. If the rumour is true, and Rivers is in, it will be for an injured player, which puts Petterd at the top of the list. But of course this is as yet just a rumour. In 10 minutes we will know for sure.

Err.. Good article though.

Give it up Bub. Your arguments are terrible.

Me too. I suspect he's intelligent enough to know that there is siginificant pressure for spots in the 22 at the moment, and that the club is heading in the right direction. I doubt he'd be put off by playing VFL this year. At his age, with his talent, the time will come, but it won't come until he begins to show he can really dominate at VFL level. There also needs to be an obvious spot for him in the AFL team, and that is not the case at the moment. Bad post. Logical reason 1 = there's no spot for him in the team at the moment. Logical reason 2 = he's not playing well enough at VFL level to suggest he's ready to play at AFL level. (don't misread this for me saying 'he's not good enough'. He will end up good enough, he will end up a great player for us, I strongly believe that. But right now he's not there yet). Logical reason 3 = whether or not he plays this week, or even in the next 6 weeks, will have no impact on his AFL career.

Wouldn't that be something? Then at the bottom you'd have Richmond and Adelaide winless, West Coast with 1 win, one of Hawthorn and Essendon with just 1 win and the other with 2 and North with 2. So there'd be a fair gap developing already.