titan_uranus

I, like Jaded, have a sinking feeling that the glamour of Naitanui is weighing upon the MFC. Clearly, Watts is the best player. It would be nothing short of a mistake to not take the best player available. But this club doesn't always do things rightly. So I wouldn't be surprised if we took Naitanui tomorrow in the hope that he adds something off-field to the club.

Thanks Haydo, WJ, Rogue and others for the info. I'm still praying that I hear us call out Watts' name tomorrow.

IMO he's out best defender, and one of our better players overall. He reads the play brilliantly, is selfless, gets into the contest and spoils really well. But, as RR said above, spending so much time on the sidelines and not playing makes it more and more difficult to make a return to AFL. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets found out if and when he returns. But I'm still praying that all goes well, he regains his fitness, and gets back to playing some splending football.

They've also got Ryan Sidebottom, who's in the top 5 Test bowlers rankings. But yeah, they're a bit devoid of talent after that. Pietersen as captain doesn't strike me as right either. And how about Nathan Hauritz? Can't get a game for NSW, but it seems as though Hilditch and co. prefer finger spinners to wrist spinners (or so I read in one of the papers), and so they went with Hauritz. Casson does only have 1 wicket in 3 matches for NSW this season, but I can't believe they've gone for a hack like Hauritz before him.

And it comes with that great offer to get a subscription to The Age from Friday to Monday, as well as an advertisement for the MegaStore. $35 for one of the old alternative guernseys...

Here's the real quote: "I wouldn’t say Melbourne has gone cold on Watts but the Naitanui factor has been growing on them." I guess the bigger story is that, in the Age today it's reported that Freo is now set on taking Hill at 3 (assuming Watts and Naitanui are gone), leaving Rich to slip out to pick 4-6.

Those are ridiculous odds for Carlton. No way they can beat Hawthorn or Geelong. They'll scrape into the eight at best. As for us, well, what did people expect?

Definitely. I still rate Lee as a bowler. He has that knack of dismissing top order batsmen on Australian soil. And he's still something like the 6th best bowler according to ICC rankings. I just don't think he will be around for too many more seasons. Speaking of the Ashes, how do people rate our chances? I've heard plenty of commentators suggest that England will go into the series favourites if we don't crush the South Africans, which seems a bit odd to me, given England's current Test squad. I think the upcoming England v India series will give a good indication of where England's at.

Hmm, that's a very good point fork. That in itself is enough of a reason to want to name it before Saturday. Here's a grab from the HUN today, in the article about Stynes asking the AFL for $2m: "The Demons had considered announcing their No. 1 draft pick on Friday to maximise their exposure. But it is understood the AFL wanted to maintain at least some element of surprise. "We fully expect Melbourne to announce it on the day," AFL media manager Patrick Keane said."

Of Johnson's 9 wickets, 5 of them were bowlers (batting positions 8-11). IMO, scoring an unbeaten 131 on a batting deck that undoubtedly was tougher to bat on than bowl on deserves more credit than taking 9 NZ wickets. Oh well. Agree re: Lee. He's down something like 5 to 10 km/h on average compared to last summer. I wonder how he'll go against the South African batsmen.

When I read Emma's article this morning I at first thought it was a mock draft, which surprised me because I saw Rich at 9. But then I read the article properly, and I like her analyses. I also noticed that, for last year's draft, she had Tom McNamara in her top 25 (23rd maybe?), and we got him at 66.

Ha! I wish... No, I just feel as though it can wait until draft day. I don't really have any specific reasons. I don't think it matters either. But if it was up to me I think it can wait.

All over red rover. Australia win by 149 runs. How's this for injustice: Johnson gets man of the match for taking 9 wickets on a bowler's pitch. How about Katich's match defining 131 not out? Not only was Katich clearly man of the match, but I'd have had Clarke and Clark above Johnson: Clarke for his 98 which saved our first innings, Clark for the important wickets that he took. Johnson was good, but not that good. Krejza should come in for Watson. He took 2 wickets in the first innings, didn't really get a bowl in the second, and failed with the bat both times. Adelaide should be more conducive to spin as well.

I just heard on SEN that Melbourne has asked the AFL to allow us to announce our number 1 draft pick at a sponsor's function on Thursday. I'm not sure what's more important, the number 1 pick being named, or the possibility that this might be the naming of our new sponsor. By the way, I'm guessing the AFL won't allow us to name our number 1 pick early. NAB has sponsorship rights to the draft on Saturday, and they won't want the hype and excitement of the number 1 pick being removed from draft day. Plus I reckon the AFL will say something like 'it will hurt the integrity of the drafting process'. I'd rather we waited until Saturday.

Yes, I agree. But I'm confident that he'll improve our midfield.

Yeah, well I guess there are arguments on both sides. I'm just not sure about West Sydney accepting an AFL team to the extent that a new team needs support, but from the looks of your friend, it might work. Good point about getting in before A-League.

But I'm not certain that would be achieved in Western Sydney either. Of course the AFL would want to take over Western Sydney as a part of reducing NRL support, but I would say that NRL is on the decline anyway. And I don't know if a West Sydney football team would work. Melbourne Storm, while successful, are full of Sydney guys, not Victorians (the point being the Storm haven't swayed Victorians into playing AFL). And I wouldn't say NRL has grown in dominance here amongst supporters. A team in Tassie would have a pre-existing supporter base that's ready to go, which would help in the short term when the club would need as much support as possible to stay afloat.

Not sure if this is new news, but I guess it's related. I read the other day that Tasmania has finalised its proposal for an AFL license in Tassie, and they're about to submit it to the AFL for consideration. I seriously think the AFL needs to look at Tasmania before Western Sydney.

Do I detect a hint of scepticism WJ? You're not sure that this will work?

That's a pretty fair assessment Freak. I would say he's too bulky which prevents mobility, rather than speed. Dropping a few kilos isn't going to make him really speedy, but he might be more agile, which would help.

We've had the best and worst of Rudi. That decision on Taylor was a gem, but giving Hussey out was poor. Mind you, Hussey shouldn't have had his bat in a position that would allow for the umpire to consider a snick. Lunch on day 3. 8/220, Katich 113 not out, Johnson doing well on 18 not out. Lead of 278. That's a good lead, should be enough IMO. Katich was dropped early on by O'Brien as a return catch.

West joins Demons "In a major coup the Melbourne Football Club is delighted to announce that it has appointed Scott West to the role of Assistant Midfield Coach. West joins the Demons in a part-time capacity, and will assist Mark Williams with the team’s midfield group, specialising in the stoppage area of the game."

This is the session we needed. 4 wickets, not a drastic amount of runs (but still alright given the 214 we made) and some good bowling. All the bowlers have a wicket as well. Edit: Hmm. Almost 100 runs so far this session, with 10 minutes to go. Taylor's 36 from 39. With only 214 to defend we've got to tighten up a bit.

Well we did what was needed. Redmond out first ball. But a bit unlucky since then. A couple of very close LBW decisions that might have gone our way on other days. Haddin did nothing to help his cause by dropping Ryder. He flew in front of Hayden: it would have been an easy catch for Hayden at 1st slip.

Smarter Brent Moloney free from injury You get articles like this every summer, but I liked how he recognises that he needs to 'train smarter and not harder'. He's only 24, and with Scott West to help him out, then hopefully we'll see some genuine improvement in him.