old55

Great result!

I think Hogan would be a massive loss and I'm 100% behind keeping him at the club. But ... If he is determined to return to Perth then the way the Dockers year has unfolded has significantly improved our market position. They will finish bottom 3, not top 4. if it has to happen we need to make it happen THIS year while that pick is there and they are not trying to improve their position. I think the market would be 2016 and 2017 1st rounder and possibly a player - Judd was 3, 20 and Kennedy (pick 4). OOC player value plummets - Freo will secure McCarthy for relative peanuts this year when they were offering 2 x 1st rounder last year when he was in contract.

IMO Dawes is competing for Watts place in the forward line. Unless he rucks which seems improbable, he's not competing with Pedersen.

Sum of the IQs probably around 180 though.

I wasn't down on Garland for this week's work, and he's clearly trying to attack more. Tom McDonald has obviously struggled at times too - although those who criticising him for "bad decision making" when he attacks but misses his target through a skill error are completely missing the point. He's trying hard to do what has been asked of him. I think it seems like they need to get with the new plan quickly. If they refuse or can't get into the spots needed for the plan then they have to go - a la Colin Sylvia.

Yes quite possible too. Here's a hint - it's not Roos.

I think it's most likely that Garland was dropped because he failed to implement the zone defence required and as a leader more is expected of him. I also agree with other posters that it is likely that he needs to take the game on more and the example of him running through the middle is a good one despite how "free" Oliver may have been, the example is about his intent to attack in a way he has been unprepared to do previously. Dunn was dropped for the failing to implement the zone properly against St.Kilda. I'm not sure how much of a line can be drawn through his high possession game for Casey. It's about transitioning to play a new style for him. Quite frankly, one or both may be traded at the end of the year and they would have some market value for the right customer.

This week a win against a top side is a definite possibility - that's a hell of a lot more than we could say over the past many years.

Too busy skiing

Too right! Whinging about umpires - what an innovation that is!

Hit-out ranking this year is Gawn, Goldstein, Natanui, Jacobs, Hickey, Mumford. It's interesting, the Dogs have come up against North - Goldstein, Adelaide - Jacobs and now Melbourne - Gawn North-Dogs: Hitouts 49-33, Clearances 31-44 Adelaide-Dogs Hitouts 30-38 Clearances 25-40 They seem happy with Campbell and Roughead and those results against Jacobs are impressive. I thought they might consider Minson but that seems unlikely.

Feel so good for Nathan Jones, he hasn't had too many like that.

Worse than Dwayne and a poor man's Rex.

We're clearly totally committed to zone defence and I look forward to the inevitable Wright vs Jetta aerial contest in the goal square. In the end what matters is the score GC forwards kick.

Totally flawed logic. By your reasoning every player playing a role must be "good enough", therefore if we don't have anyone "good enough" we'll run out with 21. Roos picks Pedo because he's the best option he has, or perhaps the least worst. Ro Bail played a lot of footy under Roos too because he was the best option for the role at the time. It's not a slight on Pedo or Ro who give their all, they are just not flag material in those roles, i.e. not "good enough".

Tremendous ruckmen who have great support in Ben Brown and Josh Jenkins. We've got Pedo up against them, it's not good enough. A tight game game can swing in that 5 to 10 minute period - think Preliminary Final.

Our biggest weakness by far is ruck-fwd. If we had this covered with someone capable of providing a proper contest while Gawn rests then we could keep up 120 minutes of pressure around the ball, In addition Gawn could rest more minutes and be deployed fwd where his marking and seeming reliable goal kicking could give us a real edge. Finally we'd have another marking threat in the fwd 50 when Gawn is rucking - Frosty? please .... IMO if we had Mitch Clark playing at his best we'd be top 4 next year. I know that he's not an option but that's what we need. Geelong has them out the ying-yang - particularly if Vardy and Clark can get fit. Maybe Rhys Stanley is a trade option?

There is no way I'd trade him - a value exchange wouldn't be there. I don't think decision making is a big problem - I suspect he and the team are being instructed to take the game on and he's following instructions. It's skill execution that's the problem. He does need to work on this. I've seen some references to his "pace" in this thread. I'm unconvinced about that - I think that's his other weakness - he's a bit slow for the modern press and struggles to close on the opposition but it's not a fatal flaw if he's surrounded by quicker players. I think he's flexible too - when he was out of form last year he played a bit of ruck-fwd and showed something. If we had competent KPD replacements e.g. Oscar and Frost then I think he could address this hole for us - which IMO is our biggest deficiency.

It's very easy for me to be Harry Hindsight and I'm definitely not having a go at ProDee - quality poster, but I can't help think that there's probably as many more changes to come in the line-up we've been putting up so far this year before we're truly top 4 competitive. B: Neville Jetta, Tom McDonald, Tomas BuggHB: Lynden Dunn, Heritier Lumumba, Christian SalemC: Bernie Vince, Dom Tyson, Josh WagnerHF: Jack Watts, Sam Frost, Jeff GarlettF: Dean Kent, Jesse Hogan, Ben KennedyFOLL: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack VineyI/C: James Harmes, Jayden Hunt, Cam Pedersen, Christian Petracca EMG: Colin Garland, Alex Neal-Bullen, Clayton Oliver There's 8 from that initial 25 in last week's team and I reckon we have maybe got half-way there and something like 16ish will play in a really successful side.

If we did get Hurley we could free Tom MacDonald forward and solve the ruck-fwd problem - we'd be a lot better off at both ends.

It's a good point you make about him not doing any pre-season as a backman. But quite frankly he can't play forward and he doesn't ruck. So he needs to be out of the side. Forward line play has changed over the years and players need to play both ways, offence and defence. Frost offers something defensively - provided he sticks his tackles! But offence hasn't gone away and if anything even greater skills than ever are required to make the most of limited opportunities - Frost offers nothing offensively because his skills are so limited. Drops sitters, miskicks and fumbles. For every decent thing he does there's 2 shockers. He doesn't play as a tall forward so there are a number of replacements for his role. He could possibly have a role in defence where he can use his incredible closing speed and height both to keep with tall forwards and make a contest when it goes over the top. But I'm not sure if we could live with both him and Tommy Macs poor kicking skills together. Frankly we have a massive problem with ruck/forward. Pedersen has played well but when he's rucking we are exposed. Even though I've cited Spencer as nothing more than back-up 1st ruck for Gawn, I am starting to think he's be a better option than Pedersen/Frost. He's similar to Frost in offensive threat but he's capable in the ruck and would free Gawn to be a genuine offensive threat when he's taking a spell. It's NOT a true solution but it's starting to look like the least worst.

Interesting article here: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-04-27/how-do-the-backup-ruckmen-rate

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-04-27/petracca-to-make-afl-debut-against-saints “I can’t wait to get out there and get a first tackle and really play to be honest. I’m really lost for words at the moment – I’m just so excited.”

I stopped supporting Australian cricket, there's a line for me.

I was sitting in the Southern stand on Sunday night and there was a very definite Demon presence coming from the entire Northern stand which was tremendous.