titan_uranus

6 - Davey 5 - Morton 4 - Moloney 3 - Whelan 2 - Grimes 1 - Bate

I too considered Valenti as too slow, until I saw him a couple of weeks ago against Coburg. His pace was evident (mind you, I guess it is easier to look pacy when you're at VFL level against bodies that don't have the same level of fitness). Today is very important for Valenti.

Hahahahaha... Whilst Richmond usually plays well against the Bombers, Essendon is a much improved team this year. Richmond will struggle against them. Very good. They've still got Richmond twice, North at home, Fremantle and us again. I can see two wins from that lot.

Official confirmation from the club that Bennell is being rested: Dees resting 'long-term' prospect Bennell

Me too. I'm going tomorrow, and I wanna see us win. If we lose, well, I won't exactly cry, but my first want is for us to win.

We're already 2 games behind everyone except Richmond. For those who are that worried, the only team that we really need to see win this weekend is Richmond.

That would be the point, Jaded. The AFL, rightly or wrongly, is attempting to become the national sport of this country. To do so, they need to make AFL the sport of choice in Queensland and New South Wales. That is the plan. Money is obviously the driving force. But, given how much NRL sucks, I'd be happy to see AFL become the clear sport of Australia.

I haven't got one. In fact, I've never been SMS'd by the club. I guess they don't have my number then. By the way, I like this comment in both the emails and the ad that we place every Friday in The Age: "This weekend, the Demons return to our favourite time slot, Saturday afternoon at the MCG. The best way to ensure that we are fixtured to play more Saturday games is to come along to this game."

Disappointing changes. I would have preferred McNamara to Whelan, and Valenti doesn't really add anything given our outs. That backline looks shocking on paper.

Whoa, I completely missed that one! It's not Damian Barrett's fault, though. It would have been a sub-editor who wrote the headline.

Really, if Spencer's fit we should be giving him a go whilst the opportunity's there. We've all seen Jamar.

This deal seems more certain to be going ahead now: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl...4-19742,00.html Both clubs have said they'll be happy for it to happen, provided St Kilda fans who have a reserved Etihad Stadium seat get compensation. I get the feeling this is going to happen, unfortunately. I'm surprised Melbourne hasn't said anything about this yet. PS: There's a poll on the Heraldsun website that is currently sitting at 82% in favour of moving the match. If you want to be heard on this maybe you can vote on that.

You can't seriously suggest that Jamar is comparable to Jolly or Hille? To answer the question, I've never really doubted Jolly or Hille as AFL ruckmen. I'm not sure exactly why you're asking, either.

You probably don't exist in the AFL's world.

Yes, well unfortunately he can't. Nor can he get more than 10 disposals in one match. Nor does he impose himself on the contest. Nor does he seem to know what he's doing when he's out there.

Essendon will beat us. Other than that, I think you're about right M2W. WC and Freo should be beatable at the G, which gives us 3. The fourth is likely to come from one of Collingwood or Richmond. Port really should beat us, and we never play well at Etihad, which gives North a head start. Sydney's very up and down at the moment, but we don't travel well. We aren't a chance in the rest of them.

Agree. We should use another 5 or 6 picks this year. I think that's being a little harsh on a 2-game kid who, let's be honest, played pretty well in Round 1. I'd be upset to see him get the flick if we kept any of Bell, Dunn or Bate. Not every AFL player needs to have speed. I think Cheney showed enough to be persisted with.

Add to that the fact that Emma Quayle rated him as the 25th best prospect in the 2007 draft (albeit she did name him 'smokey' of sorts). This week is as good a time as any to give McNamara a go.

Dunn wasn't a good stopper. He might have a had one or two good goes at it, but Bartram does it much better than he does. And Bartram doesn't mind getting the contested ball or putting his body on the line. I agree with Hannabal above where he says that Dunn's best chance is as a third forward. He just seems to have neither the aerobic capacity nor the skill to play in the midfield. And as for defence, well I think there are better options down there. Cheney should be in front of Dunn in terms of a half back flanker/back pocket.

There's a tidbit in today's paper which says that Bennell could have played cricket, as he was in the WA Under-18 Indigenous Team (or something like that). Shows the boy's talent I guess.

How is Dunn versatile? As yet, he hasn't had dominant performances, or even good enough performances, to suggest he's capable forward, back, or in the midfield. As it stands he is a bit player. With Frawley, Jones and Garland, people at least knew what position they were playing. With Dunn, after 4 years, we still don't know where his best position is, and he hasn't really shown enough in any position.

Ignoring contracts, you would say that the following players would not be on our list next year: Dunn Newton Bell Whelan Wheatley McDonald Possibly one of Jamar/PJ Now, McDonald will retire, Whelan might also retire (if he doesn't he'll be delisted) and Wheatley will probably be delisted. You have to think that one of Dunn, Newton or Bell will be paid out, because we just cannot afford to keep these list cloggers as we begin our ascent up the ladder. Next year is so vitally important to this club, and we cannot risk taking in those who are just bit-players. So at least one of Dunn, Newton or Bell must go. This of course says nothing about McNamara, who we may think isn't good enough to hold his spot after he gets a game this year (I don't think this will be the case, but I'm thinking of Weetra here, who got 2 games last year, which was enough for all to see that he wasn't going to hang around), nor Buckley, who I think the club will persist with.

I don't know about ready to step up, since we haven't seen him yet. I think he's ready to be given a chance at AFL level though.

There's no chance Ess v Carlton would be moved, you know that. St Kilda has agreed to play 1 match this year at the Gold Coast, which, along with Carlton's and Richmond's, makes up for North Melbourne reneging on their Gold Coast deal. So that match won't be moved either. This leaves Ess v Brisbane, which seems a likely candidate to be moved. But that same day, Etihad already has a match scheduled (Western Bulldogs v West Coast). Same problem with North v Bulldogs in round 13 (St Kilda v Richmond is on at Etihad the same day). So neither of those can be moved to Etihad either. Your point about moving another match between Etihad-tenant clubs instead of us is valid, though.

OK, I have done a bit of research, and I found this on Champion Data's website: This was from http://www.championdata.com.au/files/rankings.pdf, which explains how they come up with those 'Ranking Points' that you see in the Herald Sun's stats after a match. This might be a good way to look at what statisticians mean when they say 'effective disposal'.