Jumping Jack Clennett

If they were first to the ball, how could it be that we had significantly more possessions(esp. If you take into account the free kick differential.)? I get the feeling that some posters get a "holier than thou" feeling when saying the umpires had no influence. Almost invariably, when there is a discrepancy in the free kick count, the side who possess the ball more wins more frees. I think it is seriously foolish adjudication to pay free kicks to guys who dive at opponents' legs headfirst, trying to "draw a foul". Unless umpires become educated on this soon, someone will become quadriplegic. Carlton got at least two frees using this tactic. Poor old Chunky gets up from the bottom of the pack, untangles arms from his neck, as 2 guys get their knees off his back, throws the ball back to the "holding the ball"free recipient, and just shakes his aching head.

Must be more than 23 years, Radar.....''76 was 37 yrs ago. I remember the Coll. supporters near me at Victoria Park cheering when they knew we couldn't make the finals. I guess it was because we made them win the spoon. I liked that because I hated Weideman(Then!), and he coached them to the spoon. I've finally forgiven the Weed for'58, now his grandson is part of our resurgence.!

Oscar's a single figure golfer,too. A really modest guy with heaps of talent.

We've been pretty competitive v. Port on the Adelaide Oval, though we haven't beaten them there yet. The first AFL game there (?2012 or 2013) we lost by about a point, but we actually won. The home town bias of the umpires that day was beyond belief.

Our best win last year...at Geelong.... no Hoges. Today...... no Hoges. Interesting.........

This Friday night,I'm going to do something very unusual for me.....barrack for Collingwood!!! I If they slaughter Richmond by 100 points, surely it would dissuade Dion from going there, and make him think about going to his beloved Dees. BUT......we better not look like a train wreck against the Tassie Hawks.

Herath's a good bowler. It was a good tactical move to bring him on in gthe second over. It probably caught Burns by surprise. A poor shot, but I wouldn't write him off on the strength of that one dismissal. Warner's shot was a shocker, but I always think bat to pad to stumps is a bit stiff.

It wasn't "Brian "Keogh, was it? But what was his first name? He was Carlton's Trevor Keogh's relative(?cousin) He was a gutsy middle sized left footer, who was good overhead, and quite elusive. I thought he might become a star, but he didn't achieve a lot with us, or the Saints.

Burston had a great suntan in the middle of winter!

Abbey Holmes deserves promotion.

Does anyone else think Kielty reminds them ofStrawbs O'Dwyer? He and Pedersen did fantastically after Spencil had to go off.

There's no way Gawn's handball out was deliberate. He was under pressure at the time, and it went over his team mate's head. That decision cost us the game... Like the Vince " deliberate" against North.

The importance of Collingwood losing transcends any other consideration.

Yeah....that "think tank" worked a treat!!!!

Point kick ins. Did any other Demonlanders notice that after each of our ( many) kick ins after points, we failed to clear the ball past 60 m, and were immediately under pressure? In marked contrast, StKilda kick ins resulted in forward thrusts,rapidly putting our defence under pressure. Bernie did most of the kick ins, and he usually does it well. But against the Saints, there appeared to be no options( no one running to offer leads). He either had to take the short option to the pocket, or the highly predictable long and wide kick to Gawn, who was well covered by Saint talls. St K seemed to be able to find a bloke unattended at 55 metres, who could play on , and start a fast entry into their forward 50. It was particularly noticeable after StK's run of 5 behinds in Q 3. Every time , we failed to clear the ball from defence, the way they could.

Northey had the ability to create good performers out of average players like Dean Chiron, Doug Koop, Jamie Duursma andAndy Goodwin. I think there were others....Eishold, for example. Duursma managed to beat Brereton( or was it Dunstall?) and Kernahan in successive weeks. Chiron managed to beat Platten(who Brereton rates as the best player he ever played with)

I like Matty Jones, and I think this has been his best year by far. That injury came at a rotten time for him, he was in his best ever form. And...,last week was his first AFL game back for a couple of months, and he played well for about a half, and should improve next week.......BUT, and no one has mentioned this,...isn't he 28!!! For that reason I'd play Buggy, Trenners, and ANB ahead of him.

I reckon you,re spot on bringing this topic up, Vogon, because it seems to me that tackling is one of the most important aspects of our game. Though there's nothing in the rules to say that a good tackle should be "rewarded", a good tackle impresses umpires, and is likely to result in a free. If a player is tackled immediately he receives the ball(" no prior") ,one arm is pulled back, and the ball drops free,the home crowd yells "BALLLLLL", usually a free is paid(incorrectly). We should coach our players to tackle by grabbing one arm,and pulling it off the ball. The good teams do it to us. One of the most important assets of tackling is to make sure the opponent doesn't somehow get the ball off to a team mate. Players are amazingly quick at this now. Multiple short hand passes occur within the pack situation , until , eventually, someone manages to find a team-mate free enough to seek an option downfield.The question is... Should the tackler go for the waist( old theory),the arms,or the ball? Perhaps in the congested, pack situation, the tackler should attempt to knock the ball, to disrupt the "give off" to a team-mate. But if a tackler " blind sides " the opponent, he should grab one arm, while pulling him off his kick,trying to make the ball fall free. Its noticeable that when a side starts to get the ascendancy in a match, one of the most obvious features is that they continually tackle the opposition effectively every time they get the ball.

Anyone who gets injured from GWS or Gold Coast will be a high draft pick, but they're OK there's umpteen more where they came from. Your posts have convinced me, DeeSpencer........we have been dreadfully unlucky with injuries to high draft picks. By the way, your namesake did his knee, too, but we're not discussing the lower draft picks. If Wetering or the Bont played for us, they'd have done their A C L by now, and they've both been pushed straight from junior football to AFL. No clever gradual development there.

One or two from each club. Has any other club got six or seven examples. I'm not talking about pick 17(Clay Smith, Cam McCarthy)... I'm talking about picks in the top 5. Petracca,Brayshaw, Scully, Watts, Trengrove,Salem,even Cale Morton ruptured his posterior cruciate ligament in a practice match early in his career,holding back his progress badly. Other clubs get one or two top pick casualties. We get half a dozen.

Equals Petracca what about the other 6?

Are you sure that's right, Barrie? I reckon Danny played after the drop kick had faded out. But he could barrel them with a torp. And he was so tough! Tassie did the big drops.

That's one....not half a dozen.

Am I paranoid, or are Melbourne perpetually unlucky with injuries to high draft picks? Petracca, Salem and Brayshaw have all had their careers seriously affected by injury/illness into their early years. Hogan missed a whole year. Watts missed most of his second year with back trouble. Can Demonlanders remind me of others? The Bulldogs get full seasons from the "Bont", Macrae,etc... these guys have rapidly become match winners. Ditto the Swans with Heaney, and the Blues with Wetering, Cripps etc........the list goes on. Is it just that I'm more familiar with our very high draftees, and don't notice the other teams' injury woes?

James Frawley would surrender one or two goals a week with unforced turnovers. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to happen now he's playing for a more experienced side. That could be the moral of this thread.