Ollie fan

This "outstanding list" stuff is so often used to bash the coach. The truth is: we had and still have 3-5 absolute champions, and quite a few good players behind them. But so do our competitors!! Eg Carlton have had Cripps and Walsh, Weitering and Curnow. Footscray have many good players starting with Bont. Brisbane have got many good players starting with Neale but all around the ground. Etc etc etc. We are not the only team in the league and premierships are not given for the asking. And we have had some bad luck at critical times, most notably the injury demolition of our forward line at the pointy end of last season, not to mention what happened to Gus. Time to move on. We have won a flag, we have been consistently right up there, we are regularly pointed to as a model of defensive setup, and we have brought in a heap of good young players to take us forward. Let's support them!

As for the general thrust of this thread: Henny-Penny, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. No it isn't. We will crack in on Saturday night and beat them.

I just don't understand this post - unless Jnrmac is saying that we should have played Jordon and Bedford more often, and thus kept them. The thing is, if they weren't first 22, why would they be picked? Should we have dropped a first 22 player back to Casey just to play an inferior player? And clearly, they weren't seen as first 22 - at the time, quite rightly.

And TMac

The series is great. Vandenberg was a real favourite of mine and his injury was a dreadful shame. One of the many many MFC foot injuries - why is that?

Spot on.

I agree; May was often a metre or two behind. You are harsh on Oliver. He combined with the others to keep Reid to minor impact.

Love this post. 71 to 22 at half time and he finds only things to whinge about.

One thing our players need to learn is how to demonstrate that they are being infringed. I'm not joking about this: eg if you are being blocked, throw your hands up in the air and make sure the umpire sees what is happening. Ben Brown has always been a master at this. There is nothing wrong with it and I am not calling for staging: just making sure the umpire sees what is happening.

This is a joke, right? Fritta is still our leading goalkicker, I believe, and Petty took 5 contested marks.....

5 contested marks, anyone?? He will find his accuracy soon.

Thought the debut of AMW was outstanding

100% correct

I think there are a few posters on this thread who have a bit of humble pie to eat (but they won't).

Well, I for one am thrilled with the effort. Now for the execution.

I too think Pup is unlucky to have been dropped. He was given 10 minutes and could not have done more in that time. (His kick after the free is overlooked a lot: it was a perfect kick that set it up so only Petty could mark it). I can only suspect that they thought: pick him as sub, let him have a taste to see the pace and toughness of senior football, and then he can go back to Casey and work with that knowledge.

Here's a thought that won't go down well on this site: perhaps it was a good but not great list, that was very well coached.

Gawn sooking to umpires? Did you actually see what was being done to him (as it always is!!)? And we are back on the Clarry rumour mill, are we?

I hate it when we are hot favourites.

You are such a negative poster...

Good ruckmen who are prepared to be second string are very hard/impossible to find. The list managers have tried with Schache and with Fullarton; Schache is a fail, Fullarton may be a fail too but we don't know yet for sure. They have recruited Verralls. In other words, they are trying but have not yet achieved the near impossible.

Change the rules so as to eliminate grey areas as much as possible. Get rid of knee jerk rules eg nominating ruckmen. And FFS, pay the frees when they are there!

Well there's a surprise. As I thought.

I wonder what Collingwood's exposure is re Murphy? My guess is: the concessions suit them a lot more than they suit us....

Couldn't agree more