titan_uranus

As opposed to last week, we only had a few players who didn't contribute or played poorly. Bruce was one of them. Probably our worst today. Not good. Newton was another. Bennell didn't touch it in the first half. Frawley wasn't great. Other than them, we had a consistent contribution from all. Bail surprised, he's fit and can kick (if only he'd had a bit more on that last one). Petterd was fantastic, as was Green. Lead-up forwards, what a difference it makes. Davey was superb through the middle, and Grimes was BOG across HB. He reads the play so well. Jamar dominated Fraser and Jolly, absolutely dominated. Pity he missed that goal in the second quarter. MacDonald was really improved on last week. Looked faster and stronger, beat Cloke more than once one-on-one, and took the game on. Well done.

No he didn't. Sorry, but Martin must replace him. We need to ensure we can support Jamar, and Newton didn't show anything as a forward.

Us.

Anger and passion are going to influence everyone's opionions, but this was appalling, close to the worst I've ever seen. It wasn't biased towards Collingwood (and obviously not us), but it was consistently bad. The umpire blew his whistle with the Strauss one before he'd handpassed it. Horrible. Shaw clearly did not dispose of it. Should have been holding the ball. The umpires were afraid to pay decisions in that pocket/flank due to the Collingwood supporters there. Rubbish, rubbish umpiring. It didn't cost us the game, but it made what would have been a great spectacle a bit worse.

Better.

6 - Grimes 5 - Petterd 4 - Davey 3 - Jamar 2 - Green 1 - McKenzie Special mentions to MacDonald (really good), Bail and Dunn.

At the end of 2007, Lyon, along with others, thought Bailey was the best option put in front of him. That doesn't preclude him from making critical comments about him 2.5 years later.

Edit: This ended up being somewhat of a transcript: Mark Robinson claimed we are a passionless club. Schwab didn't like that (and fair enough) and took him on. Says we're coming back from the furthest behind that any club has ever had to. Acknowledged the lack of goal posts at traning. Debt is almost cleared. We're unable to cope with injuries to key players. Brereton asked if everything was a 'strategy': Schwab said it was. That every choice we make now will affect how quickly we make it to the top (if at all). Says we have good strategy, and we've surrounded ourselves with talented people (e.g. Prendergast, biomechanists, etc. Bailey made that list). Brereton also likes the way we back our youngsters. Then asked if we thought of taking someone like Podsiadly, who costs close to nothing, who could 'ride shotgun' and lead the forwardline (or maybe Robertson). Schwab said it's not about guys playing games as much as it's about guys playing games together. Example: McKenzie, Scully, Trengove, Spencer standing together at a bounce last week. Brereton thinks we need senior players to guide the youth. Spencer has a lot of development to go. He's 'as raw as all get out'. We were 'relatively competitive' for all but 30-40 minutes. I disagree with that. Stynes was the calming influence after the game. Said we improved during the game. Said that calmness is important. Said DB would 'unconditionally' be our coach next year. He's had the toughest coaching gig you could imagine. 3 CEO's, new board, crap facilities etc. Defended him 100%. This is year one, effectively. Brereton says signing DB is a strategy and it's a good one, despite last week. Signing him is the best move we can make right now. Removes all the uncertainty. Hudson says no one really can say if DB can coach. Schwab says he can. He sees him at the club. He says Wellman and Mahoney are good assistant coaches. Says we have a good quality (young) coaching team. Back him in. Brereton said 2014 would be our time, and asked if DB would be there then. Schwab said he would, that that's the plan. We have confidence. DB is poised and direct. He likes that. Hudson asked if we should put a system in place that we want to use down the track, even if it hurts us now. Schwab says 'probably yes'. Plan B is 'elusive' because we struggle to implement Plan A, but he thinks the best way to go about it is to play in a style we want to use in the long term. Robinson said one-on-one is easy to play, clubs struggle to play to 'plans' but one-on-one is doable. Brereton then said it's not necessarily playable. He mentioned Collingwood: Malthouse has had since 1999, with the best facilities, and still haven't won a premiership. Robinson said that Demetriou made a comment about DB (that he has to start winning). Asked Schwab if that was appropriate. He said Demetriou is in the media a lot and is reasoned in his commentary. He just answered a question. ... Time to go to the footy now.

At others mentioned, we had so many players that day not playing today. But we also had a forward line. The movements of the ball by hand were good, but they worked because players looked up and had targets forward of the centre. Jurrah being one of those makes a hell of a difference, but I'd hope today that our mids can take the ball at half back, look up, and have someone to aim for.

He's right on every point. It's a good article. Except for the bit about Dunn having the potential to be a good run-with player.

Truly, though, the three are good. I'd have Gibbs in front of Murphy though. Let's just hope that Watts, Scully and Trengove (technically not a 1 but whatever) turn out to be as good as those three. Carlton would be so much worse without them.

I thought he was OK in the ruck (in terms of hitouts to advantage). But totally useless in all other facets. Leuenberger and Clark had his measure. Kreuzer, though, is a gem of a player. They hardly need another ruckman with him in the team.

Disagree. I think it's pretty clear he's lagging in the tactical nous department. Having a young team doesn't preclude judgement in this area. That's not something that should automatically prevent him re-signing though.

I'd like to see McNamara up forward. Though losing Rivers means we have to bring in a defender, or at least put someone else into defence. But TMac I reckon could be a decent half-forward. Agree that McNamara would be too slow for any of those three. It's going to be a tough job for Bail.

Let's be honest, there's not a lot of competition in the ruck department at the moment. Stefan Martin has been tried there, and he just isn't a ruckman. We have no one else. Not that I'm saying Spencer is much better, but maybe we're giving Spencer his opportunity whilst he's on the senior list.

Whilst I'm not against bringing Bail in, I see more upside to McNamara, and I think he would have been a good selection. I disagree re: Rivers. If he has no clear match-up he could play loose, a tactic Bailey usually employs.

I don't want to say I told you so (well, I guess I do). I'm certain they just make that up to have something to say on the night.

No Sylvia is frustrating. Dunn is the luckiest footballer ever to have lived.

Melbourne B: Jamie Bennell, Matthew Warnock, Lynden Dunn HB: Jack Grimes, James Frawley, Joel Macdonald C: Aaron Davey, Cameron Bruce, Nathan Jones HF: James McDonald, Matthew Bate, Ricky Petterd F: Tom Scully, Brad Green, Jack Trengove Foll: Mark Jamar, Jordie McKenzie, Brent Moloney I/C: James Strauss, Jake Spencer, Michael Newton, Rohan Bail Emg: Clint Bartram, Jordan Gysberts, Brad Miller In: Newton, Bail Out: Brad Miller, Jared Rivers (knee) Edit: Ooops, delete away. Edit: Oops again, that thread I saw is for last year's teams. So keep this one. Newton in. We've stooped that low. Sad. Miller's career is over it seems. Rivers out hurts, though some will disagree.

Also, Presti's out. If we had a key forward, that would be somewhat interesting.

How do you know that?

Pfft. They have no idea. I guess they just took the 3 emergencies, then swapped Sylvia for Bail (probably because no-one there has heard of Bail).

Both. We will play better. But we will be well beaten. I voted 20-29 as what I'd like to see. But I should have voted 60-99.

Just confirms that the Match Review Panel has no idea about anything. I also don't understand how Hille got off.

Katich in supreme form at the moment. 106*. Shared a 155 run partnership with Hussey, who just went out for 67. Again caught behind after nibbling outside off. Seems to be a bit of a problem for old Hussey. But at least he made some runs. Leading by 213 currently. Need at least another 150 to be safe. I'm sure Ponting will want a lot more than that though. Edit: 4/247. Katich gone for 106. Lost 2/1 in 2 overs. Need to be careful now, the lead's not enough and we've got a flaky middle order to come. Haddin and Johnson aren't in good batting form.