Mono

How so. I arrived towards the end of the 2nd quarter. In the remaining time, he was a fair copy of Newton. He led to the wrong areas, had a turning circle the size of the titanic, was slow (whoever was on him had no trouble covering him), didn't get near to laying a tackle and nearly killed himself when he stuffed up a half chance of taking a mark from a kick into space (nearly slid head-first into the behind post). But I must again make comment on his appearance. His footy gear didn't fit him (looked odd) and he has a weird hunched way of carrying his shoulders. I hope like hell they are not looking to turning him into the Hulk. As I said, he will take time. Fingers crossed.

Nonsense. Bartram is 22, 18 months older than Cheney. Both/either can be there in 2012. Strauss is just starting out - we'll just have to see how he's going in a while.

I thought Bartram was good for us yesterday; better than plenty of others.

Nope. Whatever Bruce's strengths are, kicking aint one of them. Perhaps he had an arrangement to give Natanui jumping/marking practice. If Grimes is not the short receiver, he should be taking kick-ins. On reflection, I reckon that's when the white flag went up. (Heavens, the 5 goal margin flattered us. )

I got to the game in the 2nd half of the 2nd quarter. From what I saw, for mine, Watts looked out of place - with an odd, hulking body posture (somewhat reminiscent of Kepler Bradley? god help us). He will take some years.

Moloney I think. 6 - James McDonald 5 - Jack Grimes 4 - James Frawley 3 - Matthew Warnock 2 - Clint Bartram 1 - Brad Green Mostly backs today - we should have been smashed by much more. The final score line was very flattering. For mine, Watts looked out of place - with an odd, hulking body posture (somewhat reminiscent of Kepler Bradley? god help us). Will take some years.

Not necessarily. Martin would be on a 2 yr contract (end 2011). GWS would have to give up plenty to get him - maybe 2 picks in first 15? Who knows. Depends a lot on what is on offer. The tiges are in big rebuilding - Martin looks good , but not that good.

And you are? I and others had you pegged as Y_M. Ed: Perhaps Y_M payed 113 games.

If a boundary or field umpire are sure a ball was touched, I would have thought they were duty bound to inform the goal umpire. If the boot was on the other foot, I know I'd want them to.

Speaking of Bail. Anyone know where he is at? He's not listed for Casey this weekend, and nothing from the club.

Fairly defamitory! A big shot at our older players. Whether true or not, stuff Malthouse. This was not an honourable loss. That, I think, is the major point. Over the past 10 or 12 years, even when MFC has been up the ladder, I have always kind of had a bad feeling, waiting for us to fall over. I'm beginning to get the opposite; an expectation that we will not lie down.

I'd go after neither. Boak is 183cm, Gray 184cm. We are talking smalls - forward or otherwise. We have plenty of these. (And Danny Hughes is 186cm.) We need 193+cm mobile forwards. Spend our $s on this type.

The GC are not going to throw any serious money at any of our players. For heavens sake! And Trengove etc are on 2+ yr contracts, so are out of reach (for now). Guys, take a bex and have a good lie down. ED: this is not directed at Enforcer25

Whatever happens is of no on-going consequence to the MFC. The MFC, at the moment, has no guns, no bankable players. We also have no one player we cannot afford to lose. If Petterd goes, we will have a number of replacements by the end of the year. Ditto for any mid or defender. Unless you have the hots for a particular player, none of this matters.

Late change: Jordie out, Rivers in. Hopefully just for match ups. Jordie and Bail are 2 of our hardest, accountable forward/mids.

We're at risk of a bad smacking. Bail has been the inspiration for hardness and accountability in the forward line. Hmm

For heavens sake.

The NRL call on the Storm is huge. 1. Rugby League is struggling - because it is played in Sydney, bits of Qld, small bits of NZ, France and northern England. No where else, and little TV OR LIVE patronage. A game in Sydney would be lucky to attract 5,000 attendance. Melbourne is very important because it is an expansion into a significant market, AND it is the big 'hate' team - they give weight to interstate rivalry - very important for any TV numbers 2. Rugby League is struggling - because the game is too simple and is compromised by appalling refereeing of the 'forward pass' rule, and the "scrums" are a farce 3. Rugby League is struggling - because Rugby Union has no salary cap - they have been and will continue to attract the best rugby talent, both in Oz and Europe. The NRL was built on the base of the Sydney Leagues clubs - they no longer carry any of the financial weight they once did. The conclusion is that Rugby League (in Australia) is virtually dead. RIP

We were playing the tiges, for heavens sake. As my daughter said, we were "bigger", not to mention more experienced. As with most posts on this forum, my opinions are just that, opinions. I prefer to think of myself as pragmatic, rather than negative. Agreed Leon Davis is the classic example. Great (media words, not mine) player; disaster finals player - 2 years in a row

I disagree. In the finals is where he will be found out - there is no evidence that he can perform under a 'pressure cooker' atmosphere. Hope I'm wrong, but I won't be.

I'd take Thomson in a heart beat. Sort of similar to but better than Moloney, and much better than Jones. As ever, it would come down to $s and contracts.

Whether Jones can continue to improve his kicking will determine his future. In the 1st quarter (I think), he delivered an outstanding, non-preferred side pass on the northern wing, about 35 metres. He also made some good, if unpressured, preferred side passes during the game. BUT, and this is a big but, a number of times he shanked attempts at long bombs into the forward area. He has a natural, crude kicking action which is to drag the ball down onto the kicking foot when going for distance. He must eliminate this if he is to stay a part of what may well be a gun mid-field. Also, your comment about the smaller tiges bodies is well founded.

For me, Davey's delivery (kicking) was generally very poor against the tiges. Which I thought odd. But a couple of very good tackles would seem to say he is physically OK. Not sure what's happening here. Perhaps just a very off day.

6 - McDonald 5 - Moloney 4 - Grimes 3 - Sylvia 2 - Bail 1 - Green As an aside, I thought Davey's disposal was dreadful for most of the day. Odd. His tackling was excellent though.

My rationale? In the twos, the game is slower, less clean and more crowded, with poorer skills. It is thus harder to get clean ball and in space. A good bash-and-crash player may look better, but won't make it in the ones. Consider Liam Jurrah. If you were waiting for him to dominate a VFL game, you'd be waiting forever. But in a faster paced AFL game, with better/cleaner skills, and space, his talent shows through.