Chook

Did I say we should? No. FAIL

I agree. We've seen what Spencer has to offer; now let's see Fitzpatrick's wares. I'd say that Jamar will miss, and that we'll have to sit through another week of Spencer. Oh well...

Lance Franklin could be a Gary Ablett level midfielder if he played entire games there. PS Stop it with the bloody gifs! I will say that the area where we fall down hard is in our deliveries into about 60-40 metres from goal. Whether that's because of our forwards or our mids I'm not sure (largely because our real forward line has yet to play this year), but either way getting Franklin would allow us to shift our players so that either he or Clark could play the role of high half-forward who gives us that all-important kick inside 50. I'm for it.

Tapscott applied a lot of physical pressure last week. He caused about six or seven turnovers, and to my mind actually played his best game of the year. Nicholson is the very definition of NQR, but he does the things we accuse our players of not doing every week. He runs hard, he tackles and he provides options for his team-mates. His work rate counteracts his pathetic disposal, but I'll grant you that the minute our more skilled players run and present like him, he will be straight out of the side. About McKenzie, he's also a representative of that group of pathetic but hardworking footballers that we have to play every week. I will say on his behalf that he was involved in 2 of our goals last week, and because he plays hard on his man he rarely allows them to collect clean possessions. McKenzie doesn't hurt us. He doesn't help us much either, but unfortunately there are players (like Blease for example) who help us a lot, but hurt us more with their poor pressure and over-eager turnovers.

Bail, Rodan and Nicholson all possess characteristics that Blease doesn't. I'll agree that he should be given another crack soon, but those guys have what we need at this stage of our development. Of course it's worth noting that neither Bail nor Rodan will be in the team this week (Bail probably not and Rodan definitely not).

Nicholson, Tapscott and McKenzie were never going to be dropped. All three were (unfortunately) among our better players last week. Nicholson was our worst of that bunch, but he still ran and delivered the ball as well as he can. Rohan Bail is the one that really needs to be dropped, so from the list WJ provided I'd say the ins and outs will be: IN: Jamar, Trengove, Magner, Jetta, Toumpas OUT: Spencer, Viney, Byrnes, Bail, Sylvia I think Toumpas should possibly remain in the VFL, especially against Richmond. They play a physical brand of footy that would absolutely cane Toumpas at this stage of his development. But if its a choice between him and Davis, I'd go with the Toump. It will be interesting to see what he can bring to the table this time around.

No it isn't. Not even close.

Are you kidding? It's not even the worst Melbourne team of the year.

We give him another week to make amends. If he still plays "[censored]", then we bring in someone else.

Chook's ins and outs for this week: OUT: Sylvia, Bail, Spencer. Possibly Burns IN: Jetta, Watts, Jamar. Possibly Magner Sylvia: Suspended, but I haven't rated his performances this year at all. Burns us so often going inside 50. Bail: Atrocious two weeks in a row, and needs a week or two off. His usual run and carry hasn't really been there recently, and I suspect he has some niggling injury. Spencer: He's had his mandatory two weeks in the side, and can now go back to Casey to work on being able to break even in the ruck, because his around the ground stuff is fairly decent Burns: I think he has been one of our top half of performers this year, but his past few weeks have been pretty bad. He needs to go back to Casey and show some better form there. Jetta: I really rate this guy, and was super [censored] that he wasn't brought straight back into the side after his suspension. Watts: Showed some great stuff in the forward 50 last time he played, and I'm hoping he can pick up where he left off (if he isn't still injured). If Watts doesn't come up, I'd consider playing Fitzpatrick or Rodan. Jamar: Like it or not, he's our second-best ruckman. I think he has played quite well this year, and his rucking skills are underrated. When he wins it, he doesn't take as much advantage as he should, but I feel like his losses are less severe than Spencer's. If Jamar doesn't come up, I'd consider playing Pederson or Fitzpatrick. Magner: Can we please just stick this guy in the middle and let him eat turf like he was born to do?

Sellar wasn't the worst, but he wasn't one of the best either. I count at least ten players who played better than him last week.

How does she go in the middle? But seriously, is this game being broadcast on TV? I'd be interested to see what the standard is.

When I read the thread title, I thought he might have said that Richmond would be fielding a less experienced team than us.

From the headline I thought it would be a calming reminder that regardless of our administrative or cultural problems, we simply don't have the talent to compete. That would be a useful article. Instead we get paragraph after paragraph or unreadable dross whose sole purpose is to tell us something we already know - the absolute antithesis of what "news" should be about. Shocking. Wait, no . . . the other thing. Predictable. Yeah, that's it. Utterly predictable.

Provided Neeld is given until the end of the year, what result would be good enough for him to keep his job?

After reading that article, does anyone really need convincing that Dawes was a good choice anymore? The guy has what we need.

We're going for the record.

I hope they make Colin Sylvia do the same.

Of course! It's so obvious! Give that kid a job now!

I've deliberately refrained from even mentioning Jesse Hogan for this exact reason, and the fact that Don McLardy pointed to this young kid as an example of our great forward-thinking mindset made me sick. It was on that day that I soured on McLardy forever.

Now that we've all stopped disagreeing about Neeld, we need to fill that void of conflict by arguing about who soured on him first. That's Demonland for you!

It's no worse than Jettas which got 2 weeks. So...2 weeks is my prediction.

I have heard that after he was sacked by Adelaide, he went back and really worked on some of the things that failed him the last time. I'm not totally against it, although a tiny bit of me just wants to stick with Neeld regardless. I'm so confused right now.

We need to remove as much as possible all at once, so that whatever crazy problem has existed this past 50 years is ripped out through sheer brute force.

Yep. I'm off the Neeld bandwagon for good. His so-called "reality bus" was all a big sham.