Damo

Cant believe this is not resolved for so long. If Smith had been given half the chances Tom Mac has been gifted in the last 2 YEARS he would be a good tall KP player by now or at least moved on! Toms name is just in indelible ink on the white board. For Fcks sake make a change. Try Oscar! couldnt be worse.

Kozzie has has plenty of time and has had a heap of praise. All sizzle no sausage. He just runs to the wrong spots. Its obvious. Spargo gets to the right spot but is a little fumbley at speed. Bedford looked great early in the year why is he not tried? On a windy day with a hard surface, small fwds should be waxing in, getting goals. We lost because we had many players not running hard enough. Wied just wont chase and Melksham will but never catches, reminds me of Frawley. The other obvious reason we wont go far is we cannot hit targets and we seem to praise each other for "nearly' taking marks. There is not enough acid placed on this team when they lose. Only one side suffered from that wind. Wont take long for the coach to blame conditions. It makes me spew up!

Can someone explain why we cant ask the ruckman to punch it in a certain direction, say towards our goals? Preuss does not have Gawn's finesse and to say to the midfielders I am going to swipe it left, right or forwards must give us forewarning even if it does not come off without a hitch. Doggies midfielders will be expecting the ball to land in the circle as a result of a nil-nil ruck contest and a probable scrum.. i know i loved Strawbs and I havent moved on but why not give it a go? serious question.

We need outside run and small forwards.These can be found or developed. Jeremy Cameron is very expensive. As RFA he would would cost 1.5M at least. It may mean we need to sell off Petracca or Angus. We have 1 or 2 too many great midfielders which will be hard to pay. We would win a flag with Jeremy Cameron in our team like Tigers did with Lynch. They didn't balk when Reivoldt was still kicking goals, as they knew they had to get one of the best. They had small forwards but they came up with the contract and got the chocolates. Time is right, Now or never.

If he is objective he would point out occasionally where we missed a free or how we tried to set up play. he sure points out our oppositions failures to get a free kick. He is obsessed with us not converting inside 50 which stymied him tonight because we did. He brings up good points often as a commentator but could praise us now and again. He was on cloud 9 when Port [censored] on us.

Oliver Petracca Langdon Brayshaw Spargo May

Cant believe how many think the glass is half empty.... wait we are melbourne! Go Dees!

Good call @WERRIDEE

Tell Pruess to punch the ball at ball ups. It would have to help us if we are aware of his intention and help his career. Even if he only plays 1st half at 90% because he gets cooked, it would be refreshing to see and Oliver and Brayshaw would pounce.

Im starting to come around to Ben Brown. He is the right age group and he is solely a FF. But at what cost? If we swapped Weid for Collingwoods 1st rounder would we get anything more than that pick 15-20 to make the deal with North? If just a straight swap, would we need to absorb some of his (as I understand it) large contract? Would we have to add in another player, maybe a midfielder for North to be interested? Brayshaw, Salem? It sounds over the odds for Big Benny but if we are truly needing Brown for a flag and Ben King and Cameron are unobtainable, who else is ready to go and a true Full forward?

Would like to see Tom Mac but it generally means all his opponents in the air are labelled "has great closing speed".

6 - Gawn 5 - Petracca 4 - Oliver 3 - Viney 2 - Langdon 1 - Weideman

Todays Age has a preview of the game between Melbourne and Hawthorn. Melbournes coach and personnel are not mentioned once. It is just about Clarko.

I see the Weid is doing rucking practice in the other thread. If Max is up against McEvoy maybe he will spend time helping out down back and sharing front half ruckwork with Weiderman. If we will be squeezing into 5 and 6 day layoffs between games, this may be a relief for Max.

There is always an argument for best position vs where best for the team. I personally believe we need more help in the Forward line this year. I also believe Joel is almost 2 years behind in preparation and may be juggled back and forward further into his career. At this point his best game when he got injured last year, he kicked 4 goals up front and looked a natural. Id like to see him as a fast defensive forward and allow his obvious leaping skills to progress. There was plenty of excitement about him that seems to have evaporated.

More suited up forward IMO

Dropping marks, taking up space instead of manning up and half volley kicks. Needs to be fixed. Coach is a rabbit in the headlights, never making a change or giving instructions. He looks scared.

Well they aint my friend ATM.

We drop marks, kick half volleys and dont man up.

Ive taken the draw at 51/1

Sorry to divert slightly but it may be that Dean Cox has not got a long time left working with John Longmire. That was the impression I had last night. I have always been impressed with Cox who was above the drug controversies at West Coast. A very good and smart footballer. Extremely focused and hard. What a coup it would be to have him as ruck/stoppage coach next year. I believe he will be a senior AFL coach.

I see Nicky Winmar is sueing Sam Newman for saying that the iconic photo of him by Wayne Lubdey was about a gutsy win and not of a proud black man. That was also my impression at the time and that "never let a good story get in the way of the truth", was the reason that, that was the chosen path. Mike Sheahan agrees with Sam too. I cant remember who told me that it makes a better story at the time but I thought he was a friend of Ludbey. I dont really care and maybe I have been wrong all these years. But it is interesting that either my recollection or the history of the world is wrong.

Im incredibly angry that the media doesnt GAF about our situation of missing playing pretty much our best side. All i hear is how lucky we were not to play Essendon.

Playing Essendon Tuesday or Wednesday is still possible going by the dodgy rules set out. If Wednesday then our game with Geelong would be probably next Monday night. 5 day break but possible which would leave our season on track. But it leaves Essendon moving the Blues match as well. Going by Jake Nialls BS story in todays Age he is more concerned about Ess-carl than any mention of our fixture. We are at full strength and I expect to beat Essendon but M Lloyd is a [censored] and is always looking for a Dons excuse.

Cats coming late. Glad I had Blues to be in front at the half.