Hards

I just went back and checked the numbers, he played 11 games up forward in 06 and kicked goals in 9, and we won 8 of the 11. Dunn was tried by ND as a midfielder because he has the engine for it. The wrap on him coming out of under 18s and into his first year of AFL was his ability to find the goals up forward. Dunn has the engine to run CHBs around, the ability to do something with the ball and the footy smarts to play the toughest role in footy. Nice of you to throw up an alternative btw. What would you like? Davey or Weetra leading across half forward? Brad Miller? Pretty easy to sit back and throw darts without doing anything constructive.

Second half of 06 when he was playing CHF

He does when he's deep but he can lead up futher fine. And he's got the engine to work enough that he'd run most CHBs off their feet. Plus with Neitz/Robbo/Newton we wouldn't need him flying deeper in the forward line. He'd be about the only crumber up there!

I want him at CHF. He's really good around goals, he's got a great engine and he's a smart footballer, which we don't have many of. Play him at CHF with Sylvia and Bate rotating flank/on-ball beside him as another option. It'd actually give us some options at CHF, which we didn't have against Hawthorn and we didn't have under ND in 07 either.

That's no reason for him not to tackle though - he makes the contest but goes for the strip instead of the tackle. I love Flash, but he's gotta be better than that. I agree though, I'd like to see him go back to the forward line. It's not that he's not capable of being reasonable up the ground, but he's more use to use if he's providing that defensive pressure. And not just the chases he makes but the ones that the opposition think he might make, the perceived pressure.

Can't believe I tipped 7. Bloody North.

I would like to know why Davey doesn't want to tackle anymore. I haven't seen him do a rundown chase and tackle since 2006. There was one at the city end where he went for the strip instead of the tackle. If i'm coaching he gets dragged for that, you have to put on body pressure.

Yeah Buckley was the only thing to take out of the game imo.

Dropping all the senior players won't solve anything, their issues are ingrained from a long time ago. Weetra isn't ready yet. Garland is border line, I'd give him a bit more time at Sandy before bringing him back at AFL level. Morton stays in, his natural talent needs him to be played at AFL level to get us to the pace. He has the skill already, and in time he'll develop the body hopefully. Bring in Rivers, Syliva, Dunn and Bartram. Out go Miller (no need against smaller Dogs forwards), Weetra (not ready), Garland (not ready) and Pettard (unlucky but looked like he needed a full run or two at Sandy and right now I don't know if there's room for both he and Bartram in the same side).

He wasn't far off a career high in stats and he played with an intesity and a workrate that we would kill for right now. Give him credit.

He did look a little rough, but his acceleration was still there, maybe not 100% but almost perfect. Without knowing the exact issue with his groin, I get the feeling it's one of those ones that is not bad at full pace but becomes a major problem when he cools down. Problem with that is that each week he plays the harder it'll be to get back to close to 100% - the recovery gets harder and harder. Carlton in general got badly overrun, and perhaps too many guys playing off short pre-seasons? Stevens and Judd in particular, plus Murphy got knocked around a bit. They're just so young in the key positions other than Fev and Thornton (sorta), by the time Edwards and those guys become consistant key forwards it's going to be three+ years. Those guys aren't Buddy Franklin's that can start turning games by themselves in year two...

Yeah go Tiges, good to see Carlton go down. Judd did look in pain, he didn't use to grimace that much when stretching out. Maybe it's just a matter of playing through it while coming back from the surgery. Maybe its worse than that. Still, he has moments that are just brilliant, only its a bit harder when you don't have Kerr/Cousins/Embley/Fletcher/Braun/Priddis/Hurn around you.

Yeah this is the designated game, so 11 game Home members get into it free.

There's also a big difference between Lyon and Brayshaw/McGuire. They are President of their respective footy clubs. Garry is not. It's not his job to go pumping us up at every opportunity, whereas its a pretty big part of the reason the other two have got to the position they have for their clubs - their profile in the media.

It was put up about 5-10 minutes before the press release came out. Not that early. Someone should have been telling them to hold it anyway.

I'm not one for kicking the club unneccessarily but I thought the announcement itself was poorly handled. Twice in a row now major announcements have been preceeded by rival organisations (Mark Williams announced our new coach and Golf Australia our new CEO). The official announcement should have been with a press conference with tv vision, as they had the day after, which was a day too late, as the news cycle has moved on. Carlton had announced they were doing a 5pm presser re Fevola, so I would have held the announcement until Thursday and then backed it up with a Footy Show exclusive Hutchy/McNamee quick chat that night. I'm guessing the reason it wasn't done was that Mac wasn't available on Wednesday, but that's even more reason to hold it until Thursday. It got lost a bit in the ether, would have been a great chance to have massive exposure and give us a lot of positive attention and more run for the 150th celebrations.

99% sure Channel 9 picks that team just to put it into the format for showing it on air. That's how it usually works for when they have to do it on a Wednesday, and that's why those "teams" aren't in the paper this morning.

b: Bartram Carroll Wheatley hb: Bell Miller Rivers c: Green McLean Buckley hf: Bruce Dunn Davey f: Newton Neitz Robertson r: White Jones McDonald i: Yze, Pettard, Meesen, Moloney e: Holland, Morton, C.Johnson --- Bate misses through injury and Sylvia through suspension. Whelan gets another week or two to get match fitness up - no point risking a guy with his injury history first up Perhaps Jamar gets a run first up ahead of Meesen, but I'd like to see him get first crack. Runners on the bench to counter Hawthorn's runners.

Interim CEOs are like interim Coaches, they are there to keep the seat warm and nothing else. I'm not sure if we would have benefited from one, but given Harris' problems with the Board and with his own staff I am surprised he agreed to/chose to stay on until now. Regardless he's done as of tomorrow and an unsuccesful chapter closes. Re PG I think he's done an alright job. I wouldn't say he's done a great job, but certainly not a bad job either. The one thing he and the board have done which they must be given enourmous credit for is stopping the endless cycle of board coups and public slanging matches between "factions" within the footy club. I don't think he has sold our club well publicly at times, but I think that is a general issue for the footy club, and not the domain of just him individually. Hopefully the appointment of Paul Mac will change that very serious problem. I see these facts about funding and about Harris not being re-appointed and its great that they are brought up here but why aren't they brought up by the club, published in the media, and those making accusations about the club that are incorrect challanged on their inaccuracies?

Melbourne $3.326 milliuon ($8.239 million) Collingwood $3.294 million ($8.207 million) And part of our 3.326 is 1m in special assistance right? So without that we'd have 2.326 in "other funding". Why does Collingwood get 3.294 in "other funding"? On what grounds are they given that money? The figures are very interesting, and I would hope that any time someone in the media or a rival club President comes out swinging at us about AFL funding we produce those figures and shout them from the rooftop to remove the public perception that we are the only ones living on AFL funding. There's no point holding a quiet high ground if people don't know the facts, the club has to make this public (loudly) to show that we are not on deaths door.

Yep, I'm looking forward to seeing us have a much greater presence in the media then we have for the last five years. There's nothing like free advertising.

PG openly admitted the other night on footy classified that the utalising the contacts and the expertise of the Past Players was something that the MFC has struggled with in recent years. Lyon and Stynes went to Gardner about this very issue not long after Harris was sacked. Schwarz like anyone has the right to have an opinion on how the footy club is running. He and Lyon know more about its struggles off field than 95% of the people on this board. FWIW I agree with him on the China issue, I think its a massive mistake, and the Melbourne Tigers unsuccessful foray into it is evidence of that. At some point Lyon will make a final decision on whether or not he wants to coach or stay in the media. Should he stay in the media at some point he'll be on our board and most likely President of the footy club. I for one hope he is President sooner rather than later to give us a genuine public face.

I still like him as the nominal CHF with Sylvia alongside him and rotating Bate through that sort of position as well. DB is obviously going to have a running game plan, and those mobile tall forwards will be pretty handy. I'm not sure he could handle key back, and Buddy would be a heck of a task first up, but he can definately run through the middle as well, his engine is excellent.

Garry has an insight that nearly every other media pundit looking to stick the knife in doesn't have. His words carry far more weight. Should he make the decision to not enter coaching, he is our next President. We need the public profile. And I wouldn't knock what Brayshaw has done in a short space of time at North, he's raised capital that has allowed them to expand their footy department for the first time in roughly a decade, and with yesterdays Government grant and more fundraising they'll have a $3m upgrade for Arden St. They might be a long way off the Collingwoods of the world but they are taking steps forward, and that has to be respected.

Pretty weak interview with PG. He handled it well but it was a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. Williams did make a bit of an arse of himself but it's good to see coaches take it up to the journos who print half-truths and speculation as fact. At first I couldn't stand Choco but he's grown on me, he will staunchly defend his club and he speaks his mind without fear, two traits you can do nothing but respect.