titan_uranus

That's true. And I haven't heard his comments either. But I really don't like the thought process players have that in situations like that it's necessary to dump him to the ground.

Possible ins are Sylvia, Rivers and Martin. I'd like to see McNamara but there's no room at the moment. I'd also like to see Strauss get back in soon. Don't think there's going to be a spot for Rivers, especially against Richmond. Possible outs are Newton, Dunn and Bate. Bate will most likely stay, as he improved as the match went on, but I'm not totally convinced of his fitness. Dunn took 10 marks, but made some awful errors. Newton is giving us nothing but I feel we have to have someone in the team who can help Jamar in the ruck, so unless we bring in Martin or Spencer Newton's going to have to stay. Scully didn't play great but I'd keep him over Dunn any day of the week, given that Dunn's not exactly setting the world on fire. Edit: Garland I guess is also a contender to make room but I think he's an integral part of our team and I'd prefer to play him at AFL level if he's fit. With that in mind: In: Sylvia, Martin Out: Dunn, Newton Martin for Newton is iffy and no certainty.

Stop and think about what happened. Three people grab one guy. He clearly wasn't going to get the ball out of there. Yet at least one of the three of them felt that it was necessary to drive him into the ground. Driving players into the ground when their hands are pinned is not a good thing. Guerra was looked at last week for doing just that (though he didn't get suspended, not sure why). Yes, I like seeing intensity and aggression. But smashing Dangerfield into the turf was unnecessary, and could have caused serious injury.

Seems like I would be surprised if I watched the replay. I was certain Bruce spent the early parts of the match on Burton. My mistake. Disagree with Rivers. Many under-rate his ability on this website. I reckon he could have played on Burton.

I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd. Didn't think we'd crack 20,000, what with the weather and the opposition. MCC was quite full and produced quite a roar when Trengove came off after kicking his goal.

Shouldn't have been dropped, and showed why. Loved the run off Maric. But he also showed a bit more aggression than last week. Could turn out to be a good forward pocket.

Not your best work WYL. I'm going to assume you're thinking that 1-3 will be St Kilda, Geelong and the Bulldogs. 4th would then be a raffle of Brisbane, Hawthorn, Collingwood or maybe even Fremantle. Collingwood aside, all those teams have played much, much better football than we have. Much better. 7-12 will be relatively even. Not 4-15.

Nice to hear that McNamara, Strauss and Martin played well. Martin should be in contention to replace Newton this week.

I have to agree re: Dunn. As players such as Sylvia, Morton, Wonaeamirri, Rivers etc. push for selection, Dunn I think will have to make way. He is showing some improvement I think, but the errors he makes just ruin his game. Bruce spent longer than 5 minutes on Burton. What it showed was that he is just horrible as a key position defender. Rivers should take that role, which will mean Bruce won't have to play that role again.

You didn't. But that's how you acted, especially with your 'Hi Nasher' post, and the fact that you said 'Garland is in'. Who cares really. So long as you don't brag the next time your post is edited to reflect a more accurate picture despite you being right, it doesn't matter.

I thought he played well today too. But I wouldn't go as far as saying he's a 'very good footballer'. Average at best. Can't see what you've based that comment on.

No, like I said, it was an educated guess. You observed that 2 of the 3 emergencies played the night before, and that Cam Schwab posted on Twitter in Garland's favour. Like I said, when you said it it wasn't a fact. Great signs I thought. Looked a little behind the play at times but he attacked the contests and was generally in the right spots at the right time. We're a better team when he's in it (and playing well).

Don't be a tool. So you made an educated guess and got it right. Fact remains that at the time of your post there had been no confirmation that Sylvia was out and Garland was in. Nasher did the right thing. Don't act like a [censored].

Good post. The first half brought back a lot of the problems we showed in Round 1, and not a lot of the football that got us so close last week. Nobody forward of the ball. Allowing Adelaide to zone off and play as they wanted. Bad decision making across half back. Basic skill errors. It improved quite a bit as the game went on but these kind of things shouldn't be happening any more. We saw last week what a difference it makes when we have a targets to aim for. The first half should not have been like it was. As for Maric, I think Jamar was probably more tired than he was, so he (Maric) was able to get down to full back quicker than Jamar and plug the gap. Not sure though.

Bruce is not a KP defender. He filled in for Rivers. And it showed. Once we made the move (I assume because Hentschel went down which freed up Frawley) it was the end of Adelaide. Dunn has got to eradicate the basic, basic errors from his game. I see improvement and maybe a future, but we can't keep him in while he makes so many mistakes. Possibly the worst post I've ever seen. OK, so that's exaggerating. But Newton does nothing to suggest he should hold his spot. The reason he shows (possibly) half-decent defensive pressure is because he continutes to spill marks and fail to present as a target.

Dunn made so many errors it virtually cancelled out any good he did early on. So many basic errors. Bate is damn slow, and makes too many errors when he has the ball up the ground. Too often he cuts back in, then gets too close to the man on the mark. But he did kick 2 goals in the third quarter which got us going and he looked better this week than last. Not playing well, but I think with more game time he'll improve. Defence outstanding. McKenzie good again. He and McDonald make a formidable tackling duo.

He was good. But I think Bastinac and Melksham had better games this week. No worries. He'll get a nomination eventually. Loved his joy when he kicked that goal.

Great atmosphere at the end, which is something considering at half time the place was flat as a tack. A win's a win, a good cliche to use here. First half was appalling, second half was encouraging and definite improvement. To hold Adelaide to 1 goal for the second half is a testament to our hard-working defence. Frawley, Grimes, Warnock, MacDonald, Bruce, Bartram all played their parts today (despite Bruce being beaten a few times early on by Burton). It's a strong platform for us.

6 - Frawley 5 - Grimes 4 - Bennell 3 - Jamar 2 - McDonald 1 - Warnock

This surprises me. I didn't think Garland would be fit. I also thought Sylvia would be ready. If we had doubts over Sylvia, and I think we did because there was an article a couple of days ago saying we'd be giving Sylvia every chance, shouldn't we have left Cheney out of the Casey team? Losing Sylvia means we lose run, and Garland doesn't provide that. Although he probably could free Bruce up from defence.

It just gets worse: Forecast for Sunday Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Isolated thunderstorms with hail possible from the late morning until late afternoon, mainly over bayside suburbs. Winds west to northwesterly averaging up to 45 km/h tending west to southwesterly up to 50 km/h by the afternoon. City Showers. Windy. Min15 Max18 Now there's gonna be thunderstorms, hail, wind, coldness. Great. Sigh...

But most people felt we applied a fair amount of pressure last week. That's why I don't really get the relevance of this stat.

FWIW, turnovers don't include the instances where Bruce handpasses to a flat-footed teammate who immediately gets tackled and we lose possession.

What are you getting at WJ? I don't understand... I'm pretty sure that first bit's the definition of 'turnover goal'. I think the point is to categorise each goal kicked in terms of how the team gained possesison of the ball. The three categories are 'Stoppages', 'Turnovers' and 'Kick-ins'. So your second paragraph would be a 'kick-in' goal.

Final team: MELBOURNE v ADELAIDE Melbourne B: Matthew Warnock, James Frawley, Jamie Bennell HB: James McDonald, Joel Macdonald, Lynden Dunn C: Rohan Bail, Jackson Trengove, Aaron Davey HF: Brad Green, Colin Sylvia, Cameron Bruce F: Tom Scully, Ricky Petterd, Clint Bartram Foll: Mark Jamar, Jack Grimes, Brent Moloney I/C: Matthew Bate, Jordie McKenzie, Nathan Jones, Michael Newton Emg: Jake Spencer, Colin Garland, Kyle Cheney In: Sylvia Out: James Strauss