titan_uranus

Terrible, terrible article. Richmond bias clearly evident. After today it's damn clear we can't be bundled with that rabble. He has no idea about modern footy. GWS is going to suffer with him at the helm.

Quite unbelievable how Frawley could go from BOG to having an absolute shocker in 7 days. He was pantsed by Riewoldt. He was holding him when he didn't need to, pushing when he didn't need to, being led to the ball, not spoiling like we know he can. Odd.

9th is good. Didn't realise that only 2 more goals would have had us above the Dogs (which would have been quite interesting). When was the last time our wins equalled our losses and/or we had a percentage above 100?

You're not the only one. He is playing like I've never seen him play before. That kick on the boundary to find Sylvia(?) directly in front in the 4th quarter was superb. Top effort.

6 - McDonald (proving everyone, including me, wrong. Super effort again) 5 - Moloney 4 - MacDonald 3 - Jamar 2 - Sylvia 1 - Bail (loving this guy) Plenty of others miss out: Grimes, Green, Warnock, Bate, Scully, Petterd.

I know we're short of players who could possibly ruck. Don't you think the FD knows that too? Like I said, if we thought we needed someone else to ruck, Newton, Spencer or Martin would be playing. The fact that they're not suggests to me that the FD would prefer to take the risk and keep players like Bartram, Dunn, Scully and Bate, who haven't been performing terribly well, but one of whom would have to make way to fit another tall in.

Read a few of the posts above. If we wanted Newton or Spencer they would have been picked already.

This I'm not sure about. I've never seen either of them ever contest a centre bounce before. Newton wasn't giving us much, but Dunn gives Simmonds and Vickery a lot of height. Should be interesting to see how they go.

Exactly. This business of assuming that we'll make a change just because a certain player is named as an emergency rather than in the 22 is preposterous. Newton was dropped. Unless someone gets injured between now and tomorrow, that's the team we're going to play. Whether you like it or not.

Green and/or Garland are going to have to play forward all day.

Final team: Melbourne Team Backs: McDonald, Warnock, Frawley Half backs: Bruce, Garland, Dunn Centreline: Trengove, Davey, Bartram Half forwards: Green, Petterd, Jones Forwards: Sylvia, Bate, Bail Followers: Jamar, Grimes, Moloney I/C: MacDonald, McKenzie, Scully, Bennell Emergencies: Newton, Spencer, Cheney Team Changes: In: Sylvia Out: Newton

Yeah, I did too. Martin seems to fit the bill of a forward who can ruck more so than Miller, Newton or even PJ. Agree re: PJ. Again, like Spencer, he'd only make the team as a 'number 1 ruck' under this kind of philosophy. I just don't think he is good enough to take a spot in the team as a second ruckman to someone like Jamar, as he's close to useless as a forward.

The argument, though, is that at the moment Jamar is streets in front of anyone else as our number 1 ruck. He will spend most of the game in the ruck. Therefore, if we play Spencer, he would be playing as a 'second ruck'. With his kicking skills, mobility, and general influence in the play, he wouldn't really add anything to the team. Whereas Newton/Martin would arguably provide more to the team as they could go forward, whilst not conceding a hell of a lot in the ruck department. Players like Spencer are better suited to being the 'number 1 ruck'. For teams that don't have two clearly decent rucks (I'm talking Cox and Naitanui, e.g.), it's becoming a better idea to play a mobile forward who can pinch hit, rather than a specialist ruck who takes the spot of a runner and doesn't offer too much outside of the ruck duels.

The KoT tips the team he thinks will lose. Evidently he thinks Richmond will win. Or more aptly, that we're nowhere near as good as most are making us out to be after a couple of decent weeks of football. Who cares?

All true. If it wasn't Richmond, though, I'd be highly concerned with having just the one ruckman, with someone like Dunn or maybe even an undercooked Garland doing the relief work. Which means that at least next week vs Brisbane we're going to need someone else to help Jamar out. Oh yes, 10 marks. That's enough. Doesn't matter that he made countless errors by hand and foot and looks lost half the time. Also doesn't matter that, in a game in which we kicked only 7 goals, Bate kicked 2. Nor that Bartram has done a good job defensively over the past 2 weeks, and runs 10 times harder than Dunn.

That mistake aside, it's not a bad article. What he's saying is that if you have one decent ruckman, such as Sandilands or Jamar, you can then get away with using a mobile forward with some sort of leap as your second ruckman, and thus get another runner in the team. For Melbourne he suggests that this provides Newton with more value, and gives players like PJ and Miller something to work at (which is ludicrous, as I highly doubt Miller would have the capacity to ruck at all). Didn't mention Martin, who fits the bill as well. In other words, players like Spencer need to be good enough to be considered 'No. 1 Ruck'. Otherwise they're too slow and too ineffective to hold a spot anymore.

That's all fair enough. But on the other side of the coin, Bailey wants to reward performance and play the best 22 he can each week. If Scully's the 'worst' performer in the team, and someone like Sylvia/Cheney/whoever is playing better football (or would play better football in the side), then shouldn't Bailey reward that player? Personally, I don't think dropping Scully will do any harm at all. None. But I don't think he's the one who should make way, and I'm sure he'll play better against Richmond.

Vickery is a second ruckman. Dunn could be wasted there if we feel we need extra run, and Juice could go. But I feel Newton has to stay until we bring in a proper second ruckman (which, down the track, could end up being PJ, which wouldn't please me but why else is he on the list?). Or at least Martin.

Rutten is 26. Don't realy think he's part of their youth.

So who goes out? Dropping one of that bench is tough enough. Cheney isn't doing well enough to knock a second off.

Or Martin. Dunn doubly lucky.

I know. That is the worst team (on paper) we'll see this year. They have this: C: Dustin Martin, Brett Deledio, Trent Cotchin And absolutely nothing else.

Not unless he's a late change. Come tomorrow there will be at least one change.

And this is the Richmond team, who have possibly broken the record for the most ever ins (9!) RICHMOND v MELBOURNE Richmond B: Shane Edwards, Alex Rance, Matthew Dea HB: Mitch Farmer, Kelvin Moore, Matt White C: Dustin Martin, Brett Deledio, Trent Cotchin HF: Troy Taylor, Jack Riewoldt, Mitch Morton F: Ben Nason, Jayden Post, Richard Tambling Foll: Troy Simmonds, Daniel Jackson, Shane Tuck I/C (from): Tyrone Vickery, David Astbury, Jake King, Graham Polak, Robin Nahas, Tom Hislop, Andrew Collins In: Polak, Hislop, Nahas, Collins, Farmer, King, Taylor, Astbury, Dea Out: Chris Newman (leg), Luke McGuane (club susp), Dean Polo (club susp), Relton Roberts, Daniel Connors (club susp), Ben Cousins (club susp)

Melbourne B: James McDonald, Matthew Warnock, James Frawley HB: Cameron Bruce, Colin Garland, Lynden Dunn C: Jack Trengove, Aaron Davey, Clint Bartram HF: Brad Green, Ricky Petterd, Nathan Jones F: Colin Sylvia, Matthew Bate, Rohan Bail Foll: Mark Jamar, Jack Grimes, Brent Moloney I/C (from): Joel MacDonald, Jordie McKenzie, Tom Scully, Jamie Bennell. Michael Newton, Kyle Cheney, Jake Spencer In: Sylvia, Cheney, Spencer Out: - So one of MacDonald, McKenzie, Scully, Bennell or Newton will go for Sylvia. I can't imagine Bennell would go after his performance last week. McKenzie's been playing well too. So it'll be Scully or MacDonald I'd think. Edit: Or Newton, of course. Most likely to go, actually. Dunn lucky again.