titan_uranus

Looks like he'll be missing for a couple of weeks. Was quite stupid.

Yeah I reckon you're right. Davey mustn't be fully fit so they've left out one emergency in case. I watched most of the match today: Sandy were shocking. They turned it over repeatedly by foot and there was no real focal target up forward. Daniel Bell looked alright, but I'm no expert.

Well Freo's started well against North, but I get the feeling they'll lose.

Apparently Travis Cloke is the Collingwood equivalent of Mayfair. That is, he is the classiest specimen at the CFC.

Freo and West Coast are still dangerous.

Last time these two clubs played at the Dome was in 2005: you may remember Nathan Brown sustaining quite a bad injury in that game. We won, too. But yes, it's ludicrous that two MCG tenants are playing at what is really a neutral ground.

I too have grown accustomed to the logo, which is something I didn't expect when I first saw it. But we must bring back the demon. It's good for the kids to have that icon, like the mascot at the ground or in those comic things.

YES!

Yeah I tend to agree Doggo, with the rise of Garland and Warnock, he doesn't need to be played in defence. I reckon when we had Carroll only DB, and Daniher last year, were using Frawley in defence in the hope that he'd be the answer to our KP problems. Now that Garland and Warnock have KP defence down (hopefully), DB can release Frawley to another position. And we all know we need to unearth some talent in the forward line, so who knows, Frawley might just solve some problems.

Interesting discussion here....... McLean is slow. Not too slow. Just slow. There are plenty of slow midfielders in the comp. What he lacks in pace he makes up for in strength, aggression, possessions and to a lesser extent, leadership. He also takes the opposition tagger, freeing up Jones.

I reckon the reasoning behind it is good, and it does help the rest of the backline in terms of his experience, but I'd prefer Whelan down back to Macca. McDonald is a midfielder, not a defender.

At the moment I can't envision Rivers playing an uninterrupted 5 games, let alone half a season. A good read though. Nice work.

Not only is he injury prone, but his form over the last 2 years or so where he's been able to string together many games is not exactly super. In fact it's not that good at all. Don't want him.

Good outs for us, they lose their full-back and some of their run. Rance was a first rounder last year, wasn't he? Is it his first game?

Nah, I also think that the 3 emergencies come from the bench. Bate on the bench, Frawley in the forward line...what is the world coming to?

I like these two points, they seem fair to me. Would probably mean the end of 'rivalry round', unless it was round 1. Not that anyone actually cares.

I think now being a tagger is Dunn's last chance, but I am not holding my breath.

It's about time we had some decent prospects in defence for the future, but each week I get increasingly worried about the future of our forward line. Hopefully DB can develop Zomer or someone else just like he has developed these two.

I thought the umpiring was better than some other weeks, but not flawless (never is, probably never could be anyway). I can't stand the free kicks against the guy with the ball for a fend-off, we seemed to give a few of those away yesterday.

Hehe, good one.

You make some valid points deanox. However, I think the best way to fix some of these would be to give him a run with Sandy where the pressure isn't as intense and making a mistake isn't so costly. He'll be able to regain some long-lost confidence and hopefully work on his handballing and decision making.

Good idea jacey, that should satisfy most. However where are the other 2 wins going to come from?

You're right Nasher, Malthouse was just stating the obvious in regards to our inability to play well each week. However, it's not his job to say this. But that's kinda beside the point. I guess the more pressing issue is that Malthouse is complaining about having 'too many blockbusters'. I wonder what he would have said if they'd lost again, whether he'd blame the loss on the fact that Collingwood didn't get up for the game like we did. He should think for a moment as to whether he'd prefer to play to large crowds week in week out in the high-drawing timeslots or play to much smaller crowds at smaller venues in less fancy timeslots.

Yeah, he's right about our inability to fire up week in week out. Last night on Footy Classified he spoke for a while about motivation, and was basically hinting that he thinks Melbourne players need some source of external motivation in order to play well. He mentioned that Davey was talking about QB 2 weeks ago, whilst we still had yet to play St. Kilda. On the one hand, he's right because we need to focus each week on the team we're playing and concentrate on being motivated enough to win. On the other hand, he coaches Collingwood, where each week's a blockbuster. Melbourne players are entitled to look forward to QB because it's the biggest crowd we're gonna get this year and with the 150th celebrations this year it is a big match.

I think Richmond going winless for the rest of the year is a real possibility, but I still want to beat them this week.