rpfc

A great deal of dislike for Oscar, Dom, Angus, and Melksham... I am not a fan of Oscar's output right now but he is doing enough to keep an underdone Frost out. He only played a half at Casey. He is not coming in. No to Spencer - he is no replacement for Hogan and certainly not at Etihad - don't take too many lumberers there... If Brayshaw needs a rest for his concussion (poor bloke) then so be it, but otherwise he stays. Melksham was messy but works hard, he may missout to Hibberd but our half back line needs his run. And Dom helped turn the game in the last - I will go back and watch the tape but I thought he was good and I am sticking to that recollection. Bugg, Kent, and Spencer played well according to reports. OUT: Hogan, Lewis IN: Vince, Kent Happy to go with a smaller forward line at Etihad and trust our skills (which were just terrible on Sunday...).

His neck looks really fused. Reflected in his play...

We are about to have numbers that we got in June last year - we will easily get 40k and looking like 42k+ if we compete with Geelong and beat Freo and the Tigers at the G who knows where we will get to... I understand that we will 'run out of people to sign up' but we are getting people out of the woodwork for the first time in a decade. I don't think we know the numbers in the woodwork.

Especially when we are playing a bad side... Also, finals are won one-on-one. When the heat is on, these tactics fail because they rely on the minds and focus of football players and they go to water most of the time. Finals are won in the contests, not on the whiteboard.

Too many bluebaggers for my liking. I hate it when people don't apologise for their existence...

Double bump. You know you have been here a long time when you can do that... I don't agree with you, Wise - CB is usually positive but like all of us, has his bugbears - one of them are the basic things that excellent teams don't do but we just can't get out of our habits. Saw those bad habits on display yesterday - and yes, we are few months younger than the average AFL team - pointing out those habits helps explain performance like yesterday, and the difference between seasoned teams that will beat us this year and us.

Yeah, he went straight from Weids to his bloke to give him some curry. The guys have bought into the gameplan of overlap from behind the ball but don't expect Hogan to like it too much, as a CHF I hate it when we set up from stoppages with 4 forwards.

Thought Bolton out coached us and they will trouble sides this year. The forward line setting up with 4 blokes always worries me because it means you are telling mids to avoid being direct when we get first use. Thought we could play man-on-man against an inferior opponent... They soaked up, flooded, and countered and we weren't ready to run back today. Salem, Jetta, and T Mac great. Missed Vince. Lewis precise but not prominent. All the kids were frenetic and fumbly... Tyson was a calming influence. Really thought he turned it with Garlett and a couple others. Worst 35 touch game Oliver has played in a while... So glad I came down to see that live...?

45 seconds on HIGH should do it...

I liked Roos' line about Oliver's footage and his ranking; 'if there 14 better players than Oliver, it must be an unbelievable draft.' I recall a similar conversation on here with Clint Biz around the same time, over footage of Oliver.

This is fake news! Democrats lost so badly they trying to get my name on things that are terrible. SAD! Works better when you do his voice...

We did have the 450 touches. Can't tackle a bloke if you have the footy...

We didn't get in the way of players developing themselves - Jones, McDonald, Garland, et al. So that in itself makes it better than our drafting - we were terrible. I don't want to start a 'drafting' vs 'development' argument because you need both but the raw materials are delivered through the draft and we didn't get them in to even experience our poor development...

And then re-started in 2014 when Roos turned him into one of those Sydney Defender Robots that just do everything right and don't get beaten.

We could play Watts back if we need a match up on a taller/medium player in defence... Dare I say it - but it might be a good game to 'blood' someone as we are only playing the lowly Demons...er, Blues.

Added to Gawns dominance is our desire to not play 'hero footy' in the stoppages. We will give lightning quick hands, even 50 cm hands to a player, then the next player, then the next player, then we are outside. Viney occasionally busts through a couple of tacklers but it isn't sustainable with our midfield so it is excellent how quickly their hands have improved.

From what I can see, Oscar has trouble when in a position with multiple players to worry about. If teams want to isolate him one-on-one that is fine with me assuming we have a desirable match up. And the happy issue with isolating Oscar in the square with the 2nd of 3rd forward is the opponents best forward is sitting out of the danger area with Tom McD near him. That falls apart when the second forward dominates him but there are not too many twin towers around.

He lumbers for sure but it is not his foot speed that is the cause of his issues; it is the lack of quickness and decisiveness in his decision making. He dwells on the ball, he doesn't seem to give himself in to the ethos of the team at the moment; give the ball as quick as you can to a red and blue jumper until you get into some space to kick the footy. I would prefer he make mistakes with instinctual handballs than the glacial three steps he seems to plod once he gets the footy... But, yes, he is showing enough to be persevered with.

I remember that...

Hang on a sec, wasn't I told by 'the people' on here that Jetta was done?

If the club gave a hsit about catching them we would offer $1 (pay us later please!) memberships like the Saints are offering...

Here is the awful thing - go waste 2 hours: http://www.afl.com.au/ladder/ladder-predictor I had 14 wins with a loss this weekend... The lid id off for me, but I haven't lost the lid...I know exactly where the effing lid is! I am still holding the lid. Should I put it back on? ... I'm going to put it back on.

If Spencer spends more time in the ruck than Gawn, that would mean we have moved our AA ruckman to the forward line to accommodate our C+ pure ruck. This may sound a bit MFCSS but that is so Melbourne...

Maybe against Longer or Hickey the coaching staff are happy to have Spencer 1st and Gawn more forward. It's the kind of thing that would blow up in our faces... Just can't see Spencer as a back up ruck, the days of a pure ruck as back up are over.

Yeah, he has played a lot on the flank under Roos though...