Cards13

Robbo, on SEN this morning when asked about Liam said something like "He's got great speed, go-go gadget arms and a terrific leap. I don't mean to put any pressure on the kid but he'll be the next Buddy Franklin and the saviour of our club"

no no robbo, that would not put any pressure on the kid we are supposed to be sheltering from getting freaked out and running away haha

aaahh I only heard a part of that snippet from Robbo, I thought he was reffering to Watts. Didn't he then say he is only 18.. blah blah blah.. saviour of the club Mousey or did I miss the boat completely?

I'd love for Rivers to play on Richo, because not only can Rivers defend, but I trust that when he gets the ball he'll actually use it in a productive, meaningful way that will advantage our forwards.

I can't see anyone else playing on Richo and being able to both successfully shut him down and make an impact on the game.

Hhhmm Doubt Riv has the tank to go with Richo when he is roaming from wing to FF, Martin would be my option on the big fella.

Messen will play another 3 or 4 games unless he puts in a Newton type performance from rnd 1 last year. Bails has shown time and again once he elevates a player he plays then for a number of weeks in a row unless they are really putrid.

Was dragged along to see Janine Garfoulo (spelling?) the American "comic" last Friday and she was launching into football players in general. Turned me off from the start and thought it was a typical over reaction

Could care less if he kicks no goals, just get the games under the belt and take it from there with no long term injuries...

Great to see Wheels, McNamara and Grimey named in the 1's, not sure all will play in the 1's once the Melb squad is finalised. Bail and Strauss que?

Interestingly, after speaking to a person with a fair amount of clout at the club I was lead to believe that the fat, lazy logo on the alternate jumpers is not set in stone to be our logo from next season. There is a push for a more old fashioned, 'angrier', less stylized logo. There is also a push to change the acuteness of the V on our normal jumper along with ensuring the blue stays a true navy blue. The jumper will look more like the picture that poster 'CarnTheDees' uses.

Really good news! Hope it moves quickly to happen for next season. I love the fact it is back to a red and blue desgin but as you said it is a slap dash, LAZY logo.

We tend to have most of our fwds stop moving at points during games, it is very frustrating to see. I have not hadmuch time for Bater for awhile now but this season he is leading well up the ground, most of his possetions against the pies were earned up on centre wing and through the centre of the ground leading up marks and then pushing hard (slowly) back into the fwd 50.

Drop Sylvia and I'll buy the 1350 remaining memberships!

You will be interestedin the final sides on Friday Chok!

I know it's a cliche to say about a player that they 'bleed for the club', but having had a bit to do with Robbo over the years, he really really does bleed for this club. He has always been realistic about his abilities and downfalls, and it would be a great shame for him to finish his career when we're on the bottom.

Hopefully he can get through a couple more years, because he really is a great player who has always been a good contributer and given us many highlights over his career.

Good luck with the rest of the recovery and I really cannot wait to see him back out there!

He has worked really hard on his game and trying to improve every season after his first two or three seasons. He realised he needed to add more strings to his bow and become a harder working forward rather than that bloke who just flys for everything. Credit to Danners on his development and continued role at the club and hopefully he can be around for a tilt at finals!

Well I now know how Robbo feels. I on training tuesday night stuffed my achilles .. I have never experienced pain like it. Minimum 8 weeks out more tests tomorrow could be 8 months out and lots of rehab. Bugger.

Ah disappointing Tingles, hopefully it is not too bad and you can get on the park sooner rather than later.

The latest is the insipid Demon logo we have, methinks he has been gourging himself at Maccas when

in recess. He is not lean and mean and mighty (even unclean) instead he is fat and lazy looking. Some

fearsome logo, I don't think so. Hell, he is so fat he wouldn't be able to stand on a set of skis.

I love the traditional jumper but am happy to have an away jumper if it raises extra $$ for the club and if it is does well then it is a jumper you'd love to have.

BUT this jumper is hideous.

I really liked some of the ideas floated on here for the red based alternative jumper with the MFC initials but I think this jumper with the Demon logo looks so so so so so so 2nd rate it is not funny. Looks like they have pasted the logo in a word doco and stretched it to far tot he sides just to fit it on the jumper.

Needs to be rectified.

I think our tackling is horrible.

From an offensive (when we have the ball and are trying to break tackles) and defensive (when we don't have the ball) point of view. The amount of times from an offensive point of view we can not get our arms free or only one arm free from a tackle resulting in a stoppage or turn over and the amount of times on the defensive side the opposition team does get both arms free from a tackle we lay and get the ball off to a team mate in space or the opposition is able to break our tackles is hugely frustrating.

Yet I still see it as having improved some from last year, we seem to be laying more tackles and more stoppage producing tackles. It still needs to improve significantly for us to be anywhere near the likes of St Kilda who are leading the tackle count so far.

Do the Tig's have enough cash to pay Wallet out and bring another coach in during the season? Not sure they would.

Wonna and Maric in the same fwd line applying defensive pressure for a change (we apply virtually none at present) snapping goals from left and right... can not wait to see it in action. We kicked over 10 goals this week too, adding these two will help us even further!

That reminds me of the story of the guy who has a one night stand. After a night of mad, passionate love making, he rolls over in the girl's bed and notices a framed picture of a guy on her bed side table.

Curious, he asks if it is her husband?

She answers, "no, I don't have a husband".

He says, "well, is it your boyfriend then?" And she replies, "Your so cute when your jealous (and she snuggles into him), but no, its not my boyfriend."

He then asks, "So, is it your brother?" She says, "no, I don't have a brother either".

To which he says, "I don't get it, what woman would have a framed picture of a bloke, next to her bed, if she was not close to the guy, or at least related to him?" And she says............................................................................

................................................................................

.

...........................

"Don't worry, the picture is only of me, before I had the operation."

story "of a guy" huh............. <_<

If Maric doesn't come in, I will cry.

Remember the kid at the end of last year?

Walked straight into the team and immediately looked a cut above anyone else we had out there.

Didn't they name Messen, Newts and Dunn as the ins for this week on footy show last night??? Can not believe Maric has not been named.

They have approx. 7,000 Tas based members.

A team in Tassie is at least 5 years away so Hawks will have good time to try and hold the numbers.

The loss of the huge sponsorship money of approx $3.2 million per year would hurt them more. Its money for old rope for the Hawks.

I know it is a long way off but gee wizz I hope it does go ahead.

Since the 1996 merger debacle, Hawthorn have regularly attained over 30,000 members, even in their lean on field years.

Hawthorn are looking at a membership of 45,000+ this year. They have huge sponsorship which they did not have some years.

How many members will they loose if/when a Tassie side comes into the comp? 10,000/15,000?

I hope at least as many to wipe the smug of the president and supporters faces.

You forgot to mention that 90% of his handballs end up at the feet of teammates under little or no pressure.

He puts in, runs his guts out, gets a lot of the ball, he knows what to do with it... if only he had the skills to execute.

His skills are not great but he handballing was better than his kicking from watching the replay on the weekend.

MELBOURNE

James Strauss (ankle) available

Matthew Whelan (calf) available

Simon Buckley (groin) 1 week

Jack Grimes (back) 1-2 weeks

Daniel Bell (broken thumb) 2 weeks

Austin Wonaeamirri (hamstring) 2 weeks

Mark Jamar (foot) 5 weeks

Paul Wheatley (quad) 6 weeks

Colin Garland (foot) indefinite

Get these two in for Jetta and Bennell.

reckon they might need a game or two to get match fit???

Still waiting to hear from Hazy after the MCC Signing!

Maybe we should move on and forget about it... He said his piece and it is done and dusted. I am sure he is fully behind the club in the future plans.

No i a m NOT Hazy!!! I actually applaud our new Board for what they have done, But i do expect them to be Tougher on the place and always demand a certain Level of excellence.

was kidding mate.....

and yeap that is what I meant Rhino.

Thanks so does that mean we would get 1 and 2 or 1 and 3 ? thanks.

2 years in a row we get a priority pick before the "first" pick in the draft so essentially picks 1 and 2.

Well said Cards. That is exactly my point. We as supporters have to make sure the Board (who we elect) will not stand for that attitude anymore. We have been a "soft" club compared to the rest for 45 years and i will not take it anymore. We should have been 5 goals up on collingwood at half time. But Senior players made Crucial errors-including our captain. They wouldn't last at other clubs.

Are you Hazy in disguise... (who we elect) ha ha.

It is not a matter of the board putting up with it, they are there to keep us on the field. They then appoint people to run the on field side of things, they need to appoint people who will take us up the ladder again and be the club everyone (have to swear here) farken hates because we are so good and so ruthless onfield.

We have to make lemonade at present I am afraid WYL....

And Why is that RR? Why are they not Good Enough & should we as supporters who love this club put up with it. Top Line Draft picks will not shine if the senior Group is ordinary Richmond are a classic similiar case to us sadly.

The chicken or the egg.... They were either never good enough when drafted or did not develop to there potential... It is all so subjective when picking kids who are 17/18 yrs of age. Whatever it is they are not good enough at present and will probably never be. It will be the next generation of players that will get us there. Will the next generation have developed fast enough to allow some of the senior guys to play finals again? Not sure. We have to put up with it WYL, who else do we have to play???

The last point is so spot on the money but at the same time are they top line players? Even if they have beentop line draft picks?

People just dont realise the load these young players are taking on.

They are also doing at a Club that until this year did not have a ground to train on that had goal posts on it or with ready access to a weights room. Last year they trained at Trinity then had to drive for nearly an hour to do weights in a sh!##y little underesourced weights room at the Junction Oval.

We have a lack of quality senior mid level players. Furthermore we have no stars, no A graders and few if any B graders.

Yea and I admit I do sometimes get caught out inbetween on that point. I look at other sides and see players coming through, at places like Port and the Crows, in there first years and think where are our guys doing those things.... crumbs, if we had half the senior guys like those clubs our young guys would be looking like future stars too.

Something Hirdy brough up on (is it) On the Couch. I can't recall who he was talking about but he said the player is lucky to be at a club like the Bombers as if he was at a club like Melbourne he probably wouldn't develop into anything much. I nearly broke my TV but that is how we are viewed in the football world and hopefully this will change now we have a training ground like Casey and the new staff bails has brought on this year to improve the development of our young guys over a number of years.

We played 4 debutants in the first two rounds.

We have elevated three rookies in the past two years.

We have taken a potential talent from the further outreaches of Australia who needs to develop both on the ground and off the ground to survive let alone succeed in AFL.

We played an ex- basketballer we picked up via Sandy as PSD. He has played 10 games.

We have a No 4 draft pick from last year that has been blooded in one of the most feeble midfields to learn his craft.

We would have played another player with only 1 game played last year if not for back injury.

We have 2 defenders (Frawley and Garland) who have had about 20 games each put into key positions.

We would have been playing a player off the rookie list from last year except his hamstring is shot.

We are about to play a small forward Maric with sharp disposal skills who is return from hip injury for his sixth game.

In each of those games these young players have had to operate with little leadership around them, no on field stars or established players to often take the leading defender or forward.

If all fit then our best 22 would contain at least half the side who have either less than 3 years or 20 games experience.

How many more "risks" can we possibly take?

Both Zakaharis and Rioli have debuted with both strong leadership and within winning sides. I wonder how they would fare being thrust into unsupported roles within MFC.

I must admint this is something I keep jumping between... Watching other sides "find" these young players and I think where are ours..... far out they are all over the field. As Blight mentioned during the coverage we are sporting close to the youngest defense ever put on the park!

We have a lack of senior, mid level players carrying the load so our youngsters are doing it all and need more time to develop, unfortunately a lot more time.