Chook

Even the crappiest forwardline can kick goals if given a regular supply of the ball from great midfielders. Since we have the worst midfield in the competition and at least four potential ruckman already, we need to pick up as many mids as we can from this draft. Some midfielders know how to play a crumbing role also, which would be killing two birds with one stone.

I blame Jack Watts for Russell Hantz and the introduction of the Hidden Immunity Idol and the Final Three.

I think it says more about our terrible drafting and ruthless youth policy than our remaining senior players.

You're looking at it from too much of a "results" point of view. The OP made no mention of how little (comparatively) we lost by, because this year that's largely irrelevant. He saw what many of us saw - an increased intensity, a desire for the contest and a bit more cameraderie. I still think we have a long way to go in each of those areas, but once we do bring them up to speed, you'll see consistently smaller margins. One day, when we're old and grey, we may even get to see our team win again.

Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down? Jack Watts! Jack Watts! Who leaves Atlantis off the maps? Who keeps the Martians under wraps? Jack Watts! Jack Watts! Who holds back the electric car? Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star? Jack Watts! Jack Watts! Who robs cave fish of their sight? Who rigs every Oscar night? Jack Watts! Jack Watts!

It's a blight on our supporter base. I reckon Melbourne supporters are the quickest to bag their own players, and it's really embarassing. When I was about 15 years old, I went to the footy by myself for the first time, and had to listen to two 20 year olds bagging the Dees at every turn. All the while, they were wearing Melbourne scarves and jumpers. Finally I gathered the courage to turn around and ask them "Are you really Melbourne supporters. Because you don't sound like it." "Yeah," they replied sheepishly. We ended up winning the game but those two blokes were nowhere to be found. The fella you're talking about has obviously become Jaded™ over the years and is no longer a real Melbourne supporter at all.

Great point. Totally agree. I reckon the only chance the "stacks on" situation will ever stop is for the interpretation to change to your suggestion. Unfortunately the only way that'll happen is if someone gets seriously injured by having a broken leg or their head crushed under the pack.

If you pay chuckers vigorously, then the rolling maul will stop. If you have any control over the ball and you're tackled and the ball spills out, then it should always be dropping the ball. Apparently there's no "dropping the ball" rule, but there is an incorrect disposal rule, so pay it. Sometimes you have a rolling maul where nobody has possession for about a minute and there's no ball up. To me, that's some of the most exciting stuff in the game. I love those moments when the ball is in dispute. I don't love it when a player picks up the ball, is immediately tackled and the ball drops free. Pay incorrect disposal (dropping the ball) if he's legitimately got it or pay holding the man if he doesn't.

He actually already had the bruise before he knocked himself out

How about nothing? The next time we should mention Jim Stynes from an on-field perspective is after we hoist the Premiership cup.

That's total BS. The players often went to one another to encourage or congratulate.

Because getting payed off-book is morally wrong. It's like saying "Why have money if people can (and do) steal what they want." Not everyone gets payed off-book, so the current system is (mostly) effective. If there were no draft, then there would be no real club loyalty, and those clubs which could (or were willing) to rort the system would win every premiership, fostering a climate of success that would draw in every other success-driven (as opposed to money-driven) player.

IIt honestly looked like he could have killed himself doing that. Then where would we be? But Clarky's made out of rubber, so he got up fine.

Game Plan? Good show, but I prefer 360.

McKenzie's hesitation whenever he gets it is part of the reason our ball movement looks so slow. Not only can he not run with the thing (since he'll get caught), if there's no-one to hand the ball over to immediately (via handball of course), he waits until the last possible second then just hoofs it as far away from himself as possible. My honeymoon with Jordie is over. That party ended for me last year.

Predicting what we'll be like in 7 weeks time is impossible. By that time, everyone will have a pretty good understanding of their roles and we'll (hopefully) be fielding a full side. I'm backing our maiden win to happen against the Pies on QB. Our style probably works best against them, so it's likely that we'll get the cookies then (to quote K. Hunt).

The problem is what happens when he gets it. I'd prefer the thing in Joel Macdonald's hands over Jordie's.

Whoever invented the capital letter would be right royally [censored] off to see you abusing it like that. No respect! If we kept a salary-cap which was strictly regulated and could be sure there'd be no Judd-style deals, and if we could guarantee every player would be more interested in earning money than winning a Premiership, then abolishing the Draft would work. But players can (and do) get payed off-book by wealthy clubs, and many people would simply just go running in search of a Premiership, leaving the poorly-performed clubs high and dry. In short, we'd probably be screwed.

OUT; Macdonald, McDonald, Dunn (Clark, McKenzie). Macdonald's disposal is verging on Auskick stuff. Unbelievable. McDonald needs to learn how to tackle correctly. Dunn needs to either switch to boxing or figure out how to get a kick, because if he's just going to mouth-off all day instead of play footy, then he can just p*ss off. IN: Grimes, Petterd, Sylvia, (Martin, COUCH!!! FFS!) Grimes is our co-captain and is an obvious "in" despite his sometimes woeful disposal. But since he's replacing Macdonald, it'll be "like for like" in that department. Petterd is always the first to get dropped, but when he's mentally "on," he's a ferocious tackler and a great, versatile marking option. Sylvia, who's finally fit and available for selection. Gives us everything we need in the midfield, and is one of our only top-class players. If Clark is injured, he'll go out for Martin. Couch obviously tried to crack on to one of Neeld's daughters, since he can never find a spot in our side, but I think he should be given a run. McKenzie played pretty poorly today, IMO, and needs a run in the twos, so maybe he could make way.

6 - Bate, who showed a lot of people that there's still room for him in the side. Could be a great goalkicking midfielder who uses his endurance to stay on the ground and cause a mismatch while resting forward. 5 - Rivers, who consistently played the sweeper role in the rain and showed me that he still can hack it. 4 - Jones, who is living up to my predictions and having a pretty good year in a terribly down side 3 - Clark, who did everything short of kill himself to provide a target for us up forward 2 - Watts, who should have marked a couple more balls and made a few errors which put a blemish on an otherwise creative (if inconsistent) day. 1 - Davey, who despite giving us two looks at what I call the "Davey Pirrouette" (jump up and do a 360 degree turn with one hand in the air instead of contesting the mark) within 30 seconds, provided some great outside dash and a ripper goal right out of 2004. There's still hope for him. Honourable mention for Rohan Bail, who was really well-suited to the Bailey game-plan and is only just now finding his place in our new one. Here's hoping a few others can too. Jeremy Howe also provided a lot of leap and probably deserved the one vote. Davey just impressed me with his little trip back in time (that 3rd-quarter goal). Dishonourable mention goes to Joel Macdonald, who I've jumped right off. I used to think (in 2010) he gave us some much needed hardness which offset his terrible disposal. Well, his disposal's gotten worse, and he hasn't gotten any harder at the contest, so he's out.

We were better this week than last week. As long as we can say that every week, then I'll be satisfied.

Davey showed a little today, and what little support I had for Joel Macdonald is all gone. Terrible skills. Why can't we just keep the Game Day thread and post on that after the game? It is, after all, still game day.

Old Brian "Wowee, the Dukes" Taylor is a tremendous dill on every level.

I certainly believe that the crumber we've been looking for is not Jamie Bennell or Aaron Davey or even Sam Blease. It is Liam Jurrah. His ability to read the ball and intercept in the forward-line is better than anyone ele on our team. The only issue is that he doesn't provide the tackling pressure required of a really good small forward (who in our team does). Hopefully he can work this attribute into his game when he comes back into the side.

Which means he's probably damn good trade bait.