Cards13

He would struggle to bruise a bunch of grapes with a bump.

RR you need to watch the replay, twice in two weeks he has gone out of his way knock players on there arse to give team mates time when we had the ball, he might not be a ducks bung hole as a footballer but he is throwing himself into more contests than he used to, not saying it is enough but he is better than he was.

It's not even enough to be considered capable... or a forward... or an AFL player come to think of it.

Putting aside his terrible performance in front of goal, he does absolutely nothing else too.

Lets stop concentrating on how bad he is when the ball is in his hands, and talk about how terrible he is when the ball is not in his hands.

Mind you, Bate isn't far off the mark either, but at least Bate can run all day.

Didn't Newton confess to running out of gas in the last quarter last week?? He ran about 2meters FFS!

Maybe you need to watch him more when we don't have the ball he chases as hard if not harder than half our side. He just struggles with the offencsive side of his game.

Umpires - pathetic. They added to the dreadful evening by the inconsistencies and mistakes.

Some promising signs, we had them on toast except for chronic bad disposal, and missing easy marks and set-shots. And we could tackle harder and more effectively.

I hate the negative style the Crows play, and despite all the mistakes we still could have won. We're on the way!

Razor Ray was at his best today, not quite sure of what is going on but just itches to chuck the whistle in his mouth, says a bit about him I think....

Very promising and so annoying. Listened to Brocky on the radio after the game and as he said "handball happy" early, our rubbish (I need a new adjective) disposal in traffic kills us. Tackling is something we have improved considerably this season but as I mentioned couple of weeks ago we get brushed off tackles, and allow opponents to get there arms free to dispose of the ball to a team mate to often.

Aaaahhhhhh I call it soccer the game the Crows play, just a rolling 4-4-2 zone set up they will never win a flag playing that chit footy!

Fair point, and if it was the normal 2.00pm start, I would say no excuse, but the twighlight game is just stupid.

I would regard myself as pretty passionate supporter, and the time and weather doesn't bother me in the slightest, but I can understand not taking a young family out on a Sunday night before school.

i don't know mate as i don't have kids, but think peoples use that as a crutch and a cop out for the weather not being nice enough and the time not quite being suitable to them. That is life work around it we need all of us going along as often as possible.

? = morton!

he was absolutley horrid today!! Soft and needs serious work on his basic skills...

Granted he wasnt alone in being soft but some of his efforts today made me sick! Needs a spell at casey to get his head right

Don't think he is soft, he is just so under developed physically. Whenever he gets a ball in a congested area he invariably turns it over or misses targets as he is rag dolled around the place. When he finds space he is a much better proposition. He needs antoher couple of preseasons to develop like his brother.

Bate looked promising early on when he played further up the ground. He could always find the ball, but never seemed to know what to do with it. Perhaps pushing him up to play between wing and half forward would work better. He has a decent long kick, so you'd probably get the same scoring output out of him.

On the other hand, given how badly he's been marking these days, it could just lead to turnovers in a more dangerous position.

Good point, his best game this season was against the Pies and he was taking grabs well up the ground on the wing and through the middle. Playing the Crows that is hard to do unless you move the ball quickly from defence to attack which we only did in the last qtr because of there zoning.

As was raised above though his 2nd efforts at ground level becuase of his lack of quickness and propensity to loose his feet are horrible to see time and again. Again he is only 22 but how much can you improve your pace and ability at ground level at this level??

Was always going to be a shocking crowd.

Twilight games...........what's the point?

And the weather was crap.

I went to the game, but if I had young kids, there is no way in hell I would take them out to the MCG on Sunday night in the freezing cold, and I don't blame families for not coming out to see the game.

Sure, we have to be passionate, and get along and support the club, but I can certainly understand people not turning up to the game tonight.

I don't know Real Dee when the club is still at it's lowest ebb we need people to turn up. We keep hearing other clubs and supporters rubbish us for our fair weather supportes and efforts to turn up, today just showed again they are spot on and it really gets my goat. I hate it so much but again it is proved correct not good enough Real Dee in my mind and it needs to change or we will still be a second rate laughing stock to other supporters, sponsors and teams.

end rant

Dunn is a terrible footballer yet gets lauded by Melbourne supporters.

Amazing.

I thought he was very ave today but then again I think I miss/forget a lot when watching a game live. I will watch the replay this week to get a better guide but when he went onto Goodwin he got towelled up I thought. His lack of desire for contested footy for a bloke his size today really stood out I thought, maybe I'm wrong but I noticed on numerous occasions he half goes in half stays out of a contested situation, he should be going full tilt into them.

Although I do agree he is glacial and rubbish bending over and he will not improve these at his age so think he is limited in what he can do with out good fast delivery.

Otherwise absolute rubbish. When all of our fwds are constantly having to deal with 4,5,6 defenders zoning back on you. When the fwds have leads completely ignored there is not much you can do.

[censored] poor effort from the Melbourne "faithful" today. Parked my car just near the Tan and walking over I saw maybe 10 MFC fans wandering over I knew it was going to be poor. But to see so few people at the game was nothing short of disheartening. I had two mates who pulled out and gave them a spray for being soft ons.

If we can get a full side to choose from in the next few weeks Jetts and Benny would be playing two's. Only reasons being they are still not quite up to full AFL fitness and strength. With a few coming back into the 2's this week you might see them having a spell. jetts looked out of gas early in the 3rd qtr. Both had little influence besides Bennys fantastic fantstic tackling.

Robbo in for sure and if Maric does no play I think it is ridiculous we are crying crying crying out for a small fwd. The number of times we had 3 talls in the fwd contest the ball and the cros run it from there feet so easily was infuriating today!

Thanks for the updates KC. It is much appreciated.

just heading off now!!! bbbrrrrr

Great idea will be there along with my St Kilda supporting missus!

Sewell....... sigh.. if only... Ferg you duffer you might still be playing if you had of agreed to the trade and we would have had a fantastic footballer on our hands. 20/20 is a great thing though...

Maric and Bartram are not playing the same roles and I am dumbfounded why posters think Maric replaces Bartram.

I think your assumption about Bailey wanting to teach Maric a defensive game is correct. Its no good having the "skills" to be an AFL footballer if the application of defensive pressure is not one of them.

Maric is not a decent exchange for Junior. In a team that crying out for leadership, Junior is critical out there, particularly with Green out.

Was not saying they are similar players at all, except they seem to only go one way. Maric fwd, Barts defensive with no other strings to there bow. So why does the defensive ones keep getting a run if the fwd ones are not. I know the answer but I would have thought at least one bloke who from reports is developing the defensive side of things would get a run. Anyway all in good time i hope to see Maric lobbing shots from the boundry after running down is opposite number!!

would assume that both Jetta and Bennell have a different feeling going into the game this week.......they got their chance at the very beginning of the season because there was no one else available and they have grabbed it

They obviously showed something as they have stayed in BUT DB has a habit of playing guys for a number of weeks then setting them things to work on in the magoos. They might get another couple of weeks before some changes are made.

Where's Jurrah?

Someone (KC from Casey) is trying to find out, it was raised in a Casey thread earlier.

TIME FOR SYLVIA TO STEP UP: BAILEY

Applying the blow torch.

Fantastic. But don't expect to see instant results or full games like his first half last week. Hopefully he will build into becoming a consistant performer.

Ok. Now what is this hatred of Bartram coming from? Isn't he doing what he did last year? Nullifying specific players at the detriment of his own stats? Happy to be corrected as I haven't had all the games delivered yet, but surely if he's still doing this job, wouldn't it be fair to assume he'll stay?

My only issue is that Bails doesn't seem to be using the same brush for all. Barts skills are appalling, he runs himself into pressure and more often than not turns the ball over. if your a tagger or not you still have to have some semblance of skill, Barts at the moment doesn't where as someone like Maric is super skilled. I assume Bails is getting him to work on getting his fitness up adfter off season surgery and also work on defensive side of his game but still very disappointed again he is not in the 18. I would rather see Maric than Junior at present to be honest.

It's funny how two people can watch the same game of AFL and come away with completely different impressions.

The impression that Newton gave me on the weekend was one that has become familiar: A new inmate at H-Block looking for a wall to push his arse up against.

One of the great mystery’s of footy is each individuals own perception of what is out in front of them, I love it. If you talk to other knowledgeable people about football you can see things differently than you normally would.

2nd comment is gold, do not agree though thought he was putting in and having a real go at it. He is keeping his feet better than in the past and working up the ground helping create more pressure on backs and mids when we don’t have the ball. It's only a week though....

Things to consider:

1. Newton is 21 years old

2. Newton is 91 kg's, still very underdeveloped for a tall forward. He should be aiming for 96-98kg at least, so he is still 3-4 years away from hitting his optimal weight where he will reach his peak physically, also around the same time he should be maturing mentally.

3. Newton took 3 contested marks inside 50, compared to 1 contested mark for the whole team in round 1 (which was on the half back flank).

4. 'Newton is lazy' is a myth perpetrated by idiots on this site. He chases, tackles and bumps harder than any other tall forward in our side.

5. We have won every single match this year that Newton has played. "No Newton = No Melbourne".

Keep up the good work Juice.

Not sure it was perpetuated on this site it was a fact, he was dropped after 1 rnd last season and struggled to get back into the bottom side. That said the weekend was in my eyes clearly the best game he has played. As people pointed out already, contesting really well (hopefully he will be able to take some of those pack marks as he improves). He chased and put numerous pressures on the tiges backs, in one case causing a free kick which we goaled from. Tank needs to improve so does his kicking for goal. Light at the end of the tunnel hopefully.

As a number of others have said in Maric out Green. Only changes.

Newts contested, chased and harrassed most of the day his kicking really needs to improve. Bater had a little bit of a downer but he is working as hard as most, he was ignored numerous times whilst on his own in the fwd 50. Pettard needs to stay on the ground more often for mine and not fly into contests when we have Miller, Newts and Bater also looking to fly into marking contests.

I read somewhere that Wheels has done a quad last weekend, .

I'm sure I read on he <_< re someone mentioned they spoke with him after the game and he said he had done a quad..

We're only 1 win out of the 8...

Crumbs!!! I am dumbfounded Maric has not got a game........ I am desperate to see him in the fwd line crumbing the taller fwds we have. No one else comes within a bull roar of being able to do what he does at a fwds feet in the match day squad.

Is it just me or does Marci seem to be given a lot less of a look in than a number of other players (read Newts, old Col etc..) getting a game in the 1's?

He's not as skilled as a Gary Ablett, or Luke Hodge, but his football skills are better than most of the players on our list. Plenty of times I have seen him take strong overhead marks, kick long range goals, deliver lace out passes etc. The guy has the ability to play the game better than nearly all of our players. He simply does have talent.

Have I seen it as oftern as we would all like..............of course not!

And looking at plenty of the other posts many agree he has talent.........what we can all agree on is we simply don't see it enough.

I don't recall him being called a champion either. Pick 3 comes with no guarentees. Plenty of ordinary footballers have been top draft picks, and never reached their potential.

Most of the vitriol towards Col seems to be about him being such a high pick and not delivering to that expectation........I can understand that, but we have to face the possibilty that it will never eventuate, and he may end up just being an average footballer.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the talent point. I think we can both agree that we would like to seen him deliver on his potential a lot more than what we currently are.

I see what you're selling there and from the outsides it looks ok. After having driven it around the block a few times not sure if I am sold as yet.