titan_uranus

I somewhat agree. It's tough to judge players when they're not playing in the AFL side, but similarly it's tough to get into the AFL side if you're not playing well at VFL level. Maric hasn't shown anything (yet) at AFL level, and until his form warrants selection, he won't get back in. So if he doesn't improve at Casey, he mightn't get back into the Melbourne side, and that might mean his chances for next year are diminished. I definitely believe McNamara has what it takes to be an AFL player. I reckon he could be a good forward, as he has a nice long kick. Cheney is also a good player I think. What I meant was that if the FD isn't giving them games this year then that doesn't bode well for their futures. Especially while we play players like Miller, Dunn, Newton, Bartram, an under-performing Bruce etc. PJ, Bell, Miller, Bartram make 4 spots available. That should be enough I think, which gives Maric, McNamara, Cheney (and Dunn) more time.

Exactly. No need to rush him back. I'd rather they do the required testing/analysis to make sure that he doesn't have some sort of techinical flaw to his tackle technique so that when he does return to competitive footy he doesn't just re-injure himself.

I don't think Maric showed anything in the pre-season, but that's just me. I rate Bennell higher, but there's no doubt he has to harden up (or, more aptly, rid himself of the moments in games where he looks like he opts out of going hard). Agree that this is Maric's last year if he doesn't seize his chances. Same goes for McNamara and Cheney (if they do end up getting chances) I guess.

Martin's an interesting one. If we're going to play someone as a second-string ruckman who doesn't have a lot of ability in the ruck, and Newton currently holds that spot, then Martin could easily take that position. But we've seen Martin as a ruck and as a forward, and he's never really looked capable in either position at AFL level. I think Newton is probably a better forward, which says more about Martin than Newton. Martin certainly has more upside than Newton though. I can't see Newton improving much from where he is now, but Martin could.

This is how the coaches saw our game: Collingwood v Melbourne 9 Ricky Petterd (Melb) 8 Mark Jamar (Melb) 4 Dayne Beams (Coll) 3 Jack Grimes (Melb) 3 Aaron Davey (Melb) 2 Brent Moloney (Melb) 1 Scott Pendlebury (Coll) Both Malthouse and Bailey give 5,4,3,2,1 to players from either team. Nice to see they both acknowledged Jamar.

Where'd you hear this from? Or is this known news, and I just forgot? I highly doubt State of Origin will return.

Stupidity. Maric showed nothing in the pre-season and has no form to speak of. Bennell didn't play brilliantly, but he showed enough, that one dropped mark aside, to keep his spot. I see a lot more upside to Bennell than Maric anyway.

Though I haven't seen the Sydney game, so I don't know how well Hannebery played, McKenzie did really well and I was somewhat surprised that he didn't get a nomination this week. Doesn't matter, he'll get one at some point.

He got off: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/91729/default.aspx 'The panel said that Guerra and Johnson were running in the same direction. Guerra tackled Johnson and brought him to the ground. The tackle was one action only, with the momentum of both players taking Johnson forward. Guerra did not sling Johnson to the ground in the tackle, or drive him into the ground with excessive force. No further action was taken.' Lots of other reports, though. Scarlett, Mooney, Osborne and Shiels all out for 1 week.

Teammates rally round Petterd I like this: 'We came out and played exactly how we wanted and it [almost] paid off, so it was shattering not to come away with the four points.' Just had to reinforce that bit, didn't he?

I thought my post made that pretty clear. Easy percentage. They want to play finals. If they miss out on the 8th spot, or the 4th spot, because of percentage, they'll look back on that match and possibly be quite annoyed they didn't go on with it.

That would be handy. He tore us apart in the twilight game last year.

Interesting trivia: Our current position of 12th is the highest we've been since the conclusion of the 2006 season (finished the season 7th on the ladder, beat St Kilda and ended up 5th losing to Freo). Throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009, we never once made it out of the bottom 4. In 2008 we were 16th for the entire 22 weeks.

The clock's out again. Current time: 12.00 Post time: 2.00

No need. As RR said, that's what percentage is for. I was surprised last week that Hawthorn took their foot off the pedal as early as they did. If they want to make the 8, even the 4, they're going to need to have a decent percentage, and we were ripe for the killing. They missed out on a lot of easy percentage.

If Ricky gets 30+ that will be a great outcome.

Let's hope he has the same mentality as Jordie McKenzie.

If the umpire calls play on I don't think the man on the mark has any protection at all. AFAIK he was waiting until the umpire blew the whistle before approaching the man on the mark, and he didn't lay a bump, which is illegal, but just blocked his run.

I don't think he's as good as you probably think he is. But he is good, and he's being asked to do a lot more than he's probably capable of. The fact that he's in the team without a pre-season doesn't necessarily show the esteem he is held in. It may well just show the fact that we don't have any other options. I see what you're getting at, but Bartram's in the same boat as Newton. Only one game for him.

MacDonald played on Cloke and did very well. Frawley did well defending on Medhurst, but I wasn't happy with his ball-handling. Nothing big to worry about though. Warnock finally got his act together in the second half.

Ditto with Garry and Melbourne, and to a lesser extent, Caro and Richmond.

Yes he can. It does get annoying at times, but overall it's probably necessary. The other thing I don't like is his St Kilda bias. But other than those, really he's a good part of the team.

Disagree. Thomas is the best part of that show. He isn't afraid to speak his mind, risks getting into trouble if he thinks criticism is due of the AFL or umpires, and he is generally reasoned with what he says. Unlike Hutchy, who blows everything out of proportion and makes ridiculous comments most of the time.

It won't be Green's 200th. There won't be 50,000 people there. The opponent's not Collingwood. We're Melbourne. Add all that up, and I feel we'll lose. Adelaide still have a lot of talent in their team, and this is an absolutely crucial game to them. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if we did pull it off.

Inanunder explained it. O'Brien did nothing illegal. He only approached the player once the umpire had called play on, before which he stood behind the player which is legal. If he'd been laying massive hip and shoulders then things would be different, but since he was only getting in their way, rather than taking them out, he played by the rules.