Allen Jakovich

Great post.

+1

When is Brian Royal going to be held accountable, that's what I want to know.

Mate how many possibilities have there been for Sylvia and Petterd to influence the contest? When you lose every friggin stoppage and hardly touch the ball through the middle and the backline it's pretty hard for forwards to "do much"...

Good post. Appearances can be deceiving, and that has been the case so far with 2012. The tide is turning...

Bloody decent forward line!

Robbo drove me nuts in his final season with some of the most woeful displays of selfishness I have seen on the footy field, and a complete disinterest in the defensive aspects of the game, but Bailey could have turned him round rather than cast him adrift... I'm sure Malthouse would have... to name but one half decent coach...

WHat a load of tripe, as if Bailey didn't have the power to keep Robbo and JMac. He was just a sh7t coach, that was his problem...

FFS, haven't you guys learnt anything from Bailey's failures. WE NEED SENIOR PLAYERS. Sylvia has played one full game under the new regime and he's trade bait?

Remember that well. There's no doubt sometimes those types of incidents affects player's willingness to hit the contest in future for fear of another serious injury, which can be a traumatic experience. You only have to look at Cam Bruce pre and post Guerra tackle for evidence of that. But Cale certainly appears to be turning the corner, which Bruce was never able to do... agree new coaching group might be the making of him...

This ^

All year the football we have played has been pretty pathetic... and there have been a few things that have characterised it for me... A Listlessness - crappy tackles, lack of repeated efforts A capacity to wilt in the face of defeat - blow outs Lack of passionate intent - the intent to get the pill has been good, but in a "because I have to, not because I want to..." kind of way... Lack of visible comraderie - the players just aren't playing for each other. From the third quarter on last week, for the first time I've seen this year, none of the above were visible, we played like a team inspired (but lacking confidence and skill) and what's more, we displayed grunt. Hopefully the boys really can play the whole season for Jimmy rather than just that one game, as they keep telling us they hope to. Because if they can bring that same attitude we saw in the last half last week again each week, the confidence that has deserted them will return, and this season may not yet be lost... Go Dees.

If Couch doesn't come in for Jordie Mac someone's on the drugs that killed River Pheonix...

And Brad Gween.

I think a half, then a full game at Casey will probably get him close to selection but with our poor defensive work in our forward 50 he won't play if he's not fit enough.

I might come down. When's the game?

Tell you what, Neeld's press conference was the best I've ever seen from a coach. In obviously difficult circumstances, he towed the line, gave hope to the supporters, highlighted the positives, and said everything right in my opinion. We just don't have any midfielders unfortunately...

Midfield is letting the team down massively. Has to go.

Dees to win. Get on the $4 on off for under 39 points.

Good call DemonDave. Shame the media don't pick up on it and stop paying his comments so much heed.

Davey laying 10 tackles for the match. Frawley dominating Reiwoldt Our forwards actually getting some inside 50s for a change through Moloney, Mager, Jones and Baters contested ball work at the clearances (anyone calling for a forward to be dropped is missing the point). Ricky P kicking 4. Jack Watts 5 goal assists. Us leading all day after jumping out of the blocks with the first four goals and winning by 27 points at the final siren.

Great post OP. Your points on confidence specifically are spot on. The key is definitely in being able to adopt multiple styles as required by the situation, and I've no doubt the entire coaching staff is aware of this. They have been working on teaching the players what is currently lacking, and that is the more defensive aspects of the game, and seems to me the boys have just over-corrected a bit too much with the long down the line stuff. They were better at knowing when to switch quickly or push through the middle against the coast, and I'm expecting more improvement this week and in subsequent weeks. I think there's no doubt West Coast exemplified exactly how most coaches ideally want their teams to play the game this year on Saturday night, so the boys will learn a lot from that.

Here is my team: Bartram Frawley Rivers Grimes Garland Morton Bail Moloney Trengove Petterd Dunn Howe Watts Clark Davey Jamar Jones Magner Bate Couch Martin Sub: McKenzie In Couch Morton Davey Moloney Out Green MacDonald Mckenzie Sellar Bartram to stick close to Martin and keep him quiet. Grimes to do the same to Delidio. Frawly gets Jack obviously and Rivers gets Vickery. Couch, Moloney, Trenners, Jones, Magner, Bail, Howe and Petterd (to get him into the game) to rotate through the middle with Stef and Jamar sharing their time between ruck and FF. When resting at FF, Stef and Russian play as the deep forward with Aaron crumbing them. Clark and Watts to play the high roaming forward roll.

Ta.

Sorry, can someone clarify, is Mark Neeld on On the Couch tonight or on Footy Classified?