Chook

Well, I guess Newton out is the obvious choice. It'll be interesting to see how Jamar goes by himself and how Scully fares against the team he supported as a youngster. I hope he plays well.

Then my judgement will be all the more accurate.

I wasn't mad. Sorry if I sounded that way.

Are me and Sam Newman the only ones who couldn't care less about this? Honestly, they wasted an hour on the Footy Show - and I say "wasted" even compared to most of the crap on that program - "breaking" a story that all the people to whom it actually matters (Brendan Fevola, Michael Voss and Fevola's family) already knew about. So Fev has a problem with gambling, you say? He's getting it treated, you say? Then why should anyone but him get involved, I ask.

Yeah. Don't let his two goals fool you, Bate was pretty awful on the week-end, and I am not a Bate-Basher. Not poor enough to be dropped, though. Neither was Dunn for that matter. It's always harder to pick the outs after a win, so it's going to be very interesting to see who the unlucky one or two are. But I rated Bartram our second-best player against Adelaide, right behind his Holiness Chip "SOBOS (Son of Brother of Spud)" Frawley.

Wow. An AFL-level player puking on a 3k? He must be pretty talented then, since fitness is obviously not what got him where he is.

Yes, but you also want to instil in every player the idea that good performance will keep you in the team, and poor performance (no matter who it's from) will see you dropped. If Scully is dropped (which he should be because he was one of our worst performers two weeks in a row), but is a s good a player as his draft pick suggests, then he'll dominate in the VFL and be swiftly re-included in the senior side at the expense of another poorly-performed player. It's a fool-proof plan. Scully still gets game time (albeit at a lower level), less "fashionable" youngsters like Bail and McKenzie get to stay in the position that they've earned, and everybody realizes what it takes to keep a spot in the team.

I'd be unbelievably happy if they did that. As I've said all week, Scully was our worst-performed player this week and was also poor last week. He's young, so it's no sleight on him at all, but if they drop Scully to the VFL and bring in Sylvia, I'd be stoked. I'd love to have been able to see a backline with all of Rivers, Garland, Warnock, Macdonald and Frawley in it to see how all our talls would work together, but I guess I'll have to wait. IN: Sylvia OUT: Scully BENCH: Macdonald, McKenzie, Bennell, Newton.

Unless you posted it last year, that's an observation, not a prediction. But it's true, nonetheless.

Oh, I'm sorry, is it now against the rules to talk about players from other clubs?

I'm going to reserve my judgement on whether the Brock trade was good for Carlton until I see Judd, McLean, Kreuzer, Murphy, Warnock and Gibbs all in action together.

Richmond were dumb for not utilising the system. Why should they be rewarded (and at the same time every other club punished) for their ineptitude? They had the same opportunity as every other club to recognise that they weren't going to win a premiership (if that is indeed their goal) with the players they had, and thus could have gone down the path we did a little earlier for a much greater reward than they will end up getting over the next few years. Despite the fact that Richmond have won more games than us in the past 15 years, they still haven't won a Grand Final, so unless their ultimate goal is to become the winningest team, they have been equally as unsuccessful as us, but the difference is that we have recognised our players' flaws and rebuilt when we had the chance.

INS: Sylvia OUTS: Scully Scully's disposal has been poor, but I know he won't get dropped, since he's in need of experience. I just think that in terms of optimising our team's performance, there isn't anyone else who deserves to get excluded. That's also why I haven't included Rivers. I would have dropped Newton, but we need some form of back-up for Jamar. Warnock might get excluded if we want to bring in Rivers, since he doesn't have any clear match-ups this week. Again, I can't see Scully getting put back into the VFL so soon, but if we want to include Sylvia, someone will have to be unlucky. Other candidates include Bail and Moloney, but again, they have probably done enough to avoid being dropped. If Davey's hammy is in any trouble at all, I would consider resting him, but he'll probably get up. If the Club is dead-set on excluding Newton, we could bring in Martin to replace him, but I'd like to see how the Juice goes against the Tigers. Man, this is getting difficult.

I would assume the same thing that is in it for the Tasmanian Government. Advertising in every state when that team plays. I've also wondered why the Melbourne Football Club doesn't capitalise on its' name as much as I think it could. But I guess the City of Melbourne isn't interested, and since its' such an obvious connection, the fact that it hasn't been done already suggests that neither party wants it done.

I wouldn't lump Port Adelaide with the likes of Richmond, North and the Eagles, but that combination of easier and harder opponents is going to really show where our team is at.

I honestly believe it's because of idiots who ring up and complain about the "health hazards" of really loud speakers. I agree that there can be a level of sound that's simply too loud (to the point that it hurts), but we need to find a middle level, where everyone's satisfied.

6. Frawley 5. Bartram 4. Macdonald 3. Grimes 2. Bennell 1. Jamar

I totally agree with your summary of how he plays the game. His strength is his leading. But until he can transfer this skill consistently to the AFL in the manner he did (most notably) against Fremantle in that final in '06, he won't have much to offer the Demons. I think he has a lot of positive attributes, and if I were his size, I'd play exactly the same way he does, as I think having a strong lead-up forward who provides a marking target up the ground can be incredibly valuable. Unfortunately, his marking isn't as good as it should be, and his kicking is fairly poor as well. So instead of presenting a strong link between half-back and half-forward, he becomes a risky option to kick to (because he may not mark the ball you kick) and he needs somebody with better skills near him to dish off to, since his kicking is poor. So in essence, you could just get rid of him and kick directly to that man who Miller would normally dish it off to, freeing up a position in the side that could be taken by another midfielder or a stronger forward.

Jaded, you are a keyboard hero in the absolute best definition of the term. Get off your arses if you haven't already, for the fire has started and there's fuel to burn.

But he hasn't done anything yet. There are a small number of people saying he was a mistake, but most of us are waiting until he proves his worth one way or another.

So what's your point? Considering your signature, I thought you might want to make one.

Lucky for us we didn't have this kind of stuff going on while we were trying to rebuild. I'm sure it just makes things harder.

I make it a point to ignore anything that talks about percentage at any time before about round 18. It's just so irrelevant this early. I'd love to be 2-2 after four rounds, but as for winning margins, who else loses and so on, I'll be interested, but certainly won't be actively barracking for anything that doesn't directly involve Melbourne. It's just so pointless to me. EDIT: I'd just like to add that in 2008, there were all kinds of tables and graphs floating around here before Round 22 about how if we beat Richmond by 70 points or more, we'd hand them the wooden spoon. What happened? We turned around and lost by nearly that margin. Also, it happened to Collingwood last week against us. I don't want us to do the same thing again. You don't know what you've got till it's gone. Don't take anything for granted or you'll risk losing it too.

As someone who made the same mistake last week, I would recommend you have another look at the game if you can and see for yourself how absolutely amazing James Frawley was today.

Just out of interest, what should you do if you want to maintain touch of your opponent? Do you use your elbow/forearm or do you play beside or in front of him, or what?