Jumping Jack Clennett

Last Sunday, Melbourne made an extraordinarily low number of interchanges . This may have been partly due to injuries, or perhaps it was designed to help us to lose...... but what happened? We played an in -form side, full of confidence, who we didn't want to beat , and , surprisingly, we played much better than we expected , and bloody nearly beat them! Perhaps it actually HELPED us to make so few changes! Perhaps our on-field eighteen actually developed some stability. Defenders actually knew who they ere on. Players who scored goals actually stayed on the ground while their confidence was raised! Perhaps we may have learned something,in addition to the fact that Warnock and Frawley aren't useless up forward. Perhaps we,(and every other side) are making it more difficult than it need be, by making 100 interchanges in a game. Iknow it's perhaps a bit simplistic, but do any other Demonlanders have doubts about the value of multiple interchanges?

I was sitting close to the ground on the Members' wing. At no time did I hear the final siren. A friend of mine was at the Geelong /Haw game at the MCG the previous week. He didn't hear it, either.Both games were as close as possible. Something's got to be done about this before there's another farce like the one in the StK/Freo game in Launceston. Actually, it'd be great if Coll lost due to a goal being kicked after the siren in a Final(but it could happen the other way around, and I couldn't tolerate that!)

I'm very surprised that Demonlanders weren't impressed by Cheney's game yesterday. Perhaps his opponent dominated? Who was he on? Otherwise I thought he played an excellent game. He took a couple of strong relieving marks backing back into the pack, which I admired greatly. Valenti was good, too. Reminded me of the young Sam Mitchell. Keep them!

[quote name='sylvinator' date='Aug 3 2009, 02:59 "Please someone tell me that i'm being paranoid and this could not happen. " I think you're being (justifiably)paranoid. Surely even Vlad couldn't change the rules midstream. I don 't think so!

I'm pretty sure Jetta was returning to the field from the bench when he absolutely crunched Riewoldt. When the Richmond player looked upfield, he saw Riewoldt free and unmarked, near the members' wing boundary. He executed a good pass, but by the time it reached Riewoldt, Jetta had entered the field of play, and spoiled the ball and the player really hard. I was sitting just near it, and the boy looked really sick after the clash. I think some coaches have been able to use the interchange bench deliberately in this way(was it Sheedy?)in the past. Should we look into trying to exploit the bench somehow by delaying a player's re-entry to the field till it is advantageous to us? Possibly a loose man target for the second kick after a kick-in? In these days of the predictable "switch", it may be possible to devise some tactic that we can use to our advantage.

quote name='Clint Bizkit' "makes him a very valuable player and must be kept." I have a really high opinion of Buckley, but I sometimes begin to have my doubts when I see so many negative comments. I'm so glad that you have seen his qualities , too, Clint, since I've always admired your analysis of the game on this forum. It's not obvious how fast he is, since he's quite chunkily built. He has a strong body, but doesn't hit the opposition hard. He uses his strength to break tackles and then his pace to break away. He's quite tall, but not strong overhead. I'm impressed by his creativity. He picks good options with his handballs. He can kick long,though accuracy isn't his forte. If he was playing for Collingwood now, we'd be looking at him, thinking......"why can't we find players like that?". Mr. Harrington....you've had no chance to see Simon in your time at our club. PLEASE don't delist him. The boy has real potential.

I can't help but see a similarity between the way the Hawks lost on Sat. and our incredibly unlucky loss after the siren in the 1987 Prelim final. They are whingeing like blazes about the Umps, and their own inaccurate kicking for goal etc. I remember how sympathetic they were(?) for us in '87, when we were ripped off over and over again by Howlett and his cohorts, and three normally accurate kicks(Campbell, Eishold and Yeats)missed sitters. It cost us a premiership. I say suffer in your Brown and Yellow jocks!

Bad Luck, Brad. You were a good chance for your first Bluey. You deserved it, with all the courageous acts, as well as the skilled play. From the Club's point of view, it's good. Our standard will drop without your input. Try to look at it from the point of view that a bottom finish significantly raises your chances of playing in a winning Grand Final(Without having your head held still while Dean Wallis punches your throat in.)

There's one good outcome from this game, I reckon. Collingwood's good effort will deepen the schism at Coll. between those who want Malthouse, and those who want Buckley(?most?.) I like the thought of schisms at Collingwood.

I found myself barracking for bloody Collingwood, I'm mortified to admit. I thought the umpiring bordered on the ignorant! Tiggy touchwoods followed immediately by obvious scrags going unpenalised. Who were they? Well....one was" the proboscis". Surprise, surprise!

This is torture!!! I want them BOTH to lose. I used to barrack for Carlton in this encounter(eg in the 1970 GF), but I've developerd a violent loathing for Carlton, too,now. I'm getting severe dyspepsia contemplating this dilemma, but perhaps I'd prefer to see the twisted grin wiped from Juddas's face slightly more than I 'd like to see disappointment on the faces of Thomas and Didak. Jealous? Yes. Rational?No. Sincere? Yes!

Rookies are on a low salary(?$50,000), which rises significantly when they're promoted(I wonder if it's on a pro rata basis, ie Jordie's salary might rise to that of the lowest ranked listed player for 6/22 of the season) That's the way to go, however financially strapped we are(remember when the green-grocer put in money for Flash to be elevated?) It costs the club money to give deserving rookies a game....but it pays dividends! Financial constraints must never preclude the promotion of a deserving rookie. I'm just a bit worried Jordie will play so well that we'll achieve the dreaded win!

Let's get one thing straight .......... we're not trying to "LOOSE". We're hoping to LOSE. Sorry if it seems a bit pedantic, but posts lose their impact with infantile spelling.

:D Hooray!!! Really looking forward to seeing Jordie in action for the Demons on Sunday!!!

Could this be the week that Jordie McKenzie gets promoted? Though I haven't seen the Scorpions recently, it seems he's the sort of inside midfielder we need in the ones.

In fact there are no tactics whatsoever in our point kick-ins.....let alone "decided each week!" I'll be serious if we don't do anything about it next season, when, I hope, it'll matter.

As we all know, we mustn't win more than one game. But it's not feasible to tell the players not to give their all. Also it's hard to drop senior players who may be competing for B and F honours(eg Davey, Bruce and Green). One very effective method of making it hard to win games is to have absolutely NO tactics in point kick-ins. The poor player designated to kick in(often Grimes today), looks up to see nothing but stationary targets. An opposition point therefore results in enormous defensive pressure on us, and a lilkely goal to them. This happens repeatedly, with absolutely no tactical change. Is this , in fact, very clever? It would be almost impossible for our side to win without devising a more effective kick-in strategy. I fear I'm fantasising. The real facts are that we don't consider this an important phase of the game, and have done nothing about it since Daniher. Perhaps our naivety could have an up-side when it comes to draft selection.

[quote name='Ooze2Juice' I like your style, Ooze!