titan_uranus

Quarter time Geelong 4.4 28 Melbourne 3.4.22 Goals Bruce Wheatley Neitz for us, Ablett Stokes Ling Hawkins for them

Neita just missed one but we're giving a good show of ourselves - 19 to 1

Sounds like a good start!

Does anyone know if there have been any late changes?

Did anyone see in the paper yesterday that Carlton would be scrapping its white jumper after they play us because it doesn't represent them being the 'Blues'? This was brought about because of member backlash. Maybe if enough of us get angry with the club they'll have a rethink...

The Dogs will be top 8 for most of the year, but their second half will be crap compared to what they're showing now. You're right about their light frames. I don't even rate St Kilda as highly as some others. They played awfully against Sydney (though thats to be expected sometimes against that mob), hardly looked convinving over the pathetic Blues, and then was outscored by 12 goals in three quarters last night. Yeh, they won the NAB cup, but a) that never means anything and they won most of their games by less than a kick (Essendon, Geelong, Adelaide). Not premiership material.

That's what I think - DB's said he doesn't want to play players who aren't 100% fit. I don't think Davey is going to be fully right for the match, but they're probably giving him as much time as possible. I hope its Moloney who gets in - I remember a couple of years ago when he got real aggressive against Geelong (possibly got reported for charging in that game) - I still think he was our best against Hawthorn

Whatever anyone offers for Green should be taken

Unfortunately whitito the problem isn't the lack of noise from who's at the ground, rather its the lack of numbers at the ground. More people = more noise.

What about Frawley - what's he doing on the wing??

Yeh, and at least Wheatley can kick (well, could kick). Garland missed targets 15 metres away from him under no pressure last week. Btw, I thought he was a forward. Let's hope DB doesn't swtich him between forward and defence this year, or we'll have another Miller issue on our hands.

Here we go. Exactly why Davey needs to play forward until Maric/Wonaemirri is ready to become the pressuring crumbing forward of the team. Robbo, Neitz, Newton, Bate whilst effective in the air and can kick goals, none of them are fast (in fact, all of them are pretty slow) and thus apply little pressure to running defenders. Having Davey in the midfield is a waste of goalkicking and pressuring ability. So many times on the weekend the ball hit the deck and was swept up by running defenders who were never under pressure to release the ball.

We have the MCG advantage over them... Who plays on Brad Johnson?

No spot in defence for Holland, who only plays well on slow lumbering forwards of which the dogs have none. Garland, though disappointing, deserves more time.

No way Buckley gets dropped. Weetra probably deserves one more go

Maybe Wheatley should receive the first kick, then bomb it 50 metres towards our forward line so that we either pass over the zone defence or, the more likely option, when we lose possession of it its not in our defensive 50 its up on the wing

He's not half as slow as Newton, and at least he chases.

We have to have some years down to make up for the 3 consecutive years of bottom half of the top 8 (04-06). By no means should we aim for a crap year, but at least if it happens we will have some good young players. By the way, between 2000 and 2006, did you know that we were the best performed club in terms of finals appearances (only didn't make it in 01 and 03). That's 5 out of 7 years. This was rivalled only by Essendon.

Anyone else remember the semi final against Freo in 06, where Miller took 14 or so marks at CHF and gave us a target to kick to?

Green's a friggin forward... we might have been a little more respectable yesterday (i.e. 80 points not 100) if we'd damn well kicked straight. Green can bloody well kick a goal from 50 - he's useless on the wing.

Personally, I say he should have been played at CHF his whole career. Unfortunately, one good game against Barry Hall has meant a career of switching ends each week, to the point where he hasn't settled down in either. One thing that yesterday proved though is that he is not a defender. I feel as though we have wasted something in Miller.

Not so. I thought Cale Morton showed enough to promise a good future, and PJ asserted his position in the team. Other than that though...

That's exactly right. You can't expect first and second year players to develop if they only play AFL for one week at a time. Meanwhile, Jeff White should be so ashamed of his pathetic performance yesterday, he should nominate to play with Sandy until he improves. That was the worst I've ever seen a so-called 'Number 1' ruckman play yesterday. Newton was the biggest disappointment for me: he was incredibly slow, applied little to no defensive pressure and was too concerned about taking a speccie than kicking a goal. What's wrong with Frawley? If he's fit, maybe he should come in for Carroll, who looked hopeless yesterday. I know it's not his fault the ball was delivered so well, but he was beaten almost every time in one-on-ones. Next week Frawley will get some young Bulldog forward (some guy called Hill??) which could be a good opportunity for him to play as a key position backman.

Jones, McLean, Moloney to become the no. 1 midfield in the comp

Garland is a 200 game player? I doubt that. You're right though, we'll be much better in 2010 or so Miller has to be given a go this year as his last chance at MFC before he loses CHF to Newton and CHB to Frawley/Rivers