Vipercrunch

So people will be able to see Melbourne train from Punt Road? Luckily I am changing jobs and won't be travelly home that way for much longer. I would have caused some traffic jams.

I think we need to develop a stopper of some sort, but hope we don't create one like Ling or Rawlings. These guys take hard tagging to a disgusting level. Ling just hugs his oppenent at every contest. I wish the umpires had enough courage to start pinging these blokes, even if the player they are tagging isn't Chris Judd.

Did anyone hear what he said last night? He guaranteed that Shannon Grant would never play VFL football while he was the coach, regardless of his form. It's one thing to support your player when the media are having a crack at his form, but to come out and publically make that promise is very strange. I hope DB never makes that sort of promise about any of our players, both now and in the future. Surely no player is above getting dropped?

No, any long term arrangement that on a specific day every year a small club (US) plays against a big club (THEM) where the small club is ALWAYS the home team, taking all of the gate will be seen by many as a game exisiting for the sole purpose of making money for the small club (charity). I can't think of any other game in a given year that fits under that criteria, for us or anyone else for that matter.

45hotgod - you are making a lot of sense to me. Unfortunately RR doesn't seem to be able to comprehend your pretty simple arguements and resorts to insults and arrogant VD. With some creative negotiating, it is more than possible to broker a deal that benefits us more than the yearly "charity" QB home game. As long as we maintain our position on the QB fixture, and receive some sort of benefit from the "deal" then why not. It would be nice not to have supporters of the Filth believeing they are contributing to a charity by attending.

I noticed his whole demenour changed when moved further up the ground against the Lions and have been saying ever since that he needs to be played in the middle or across half forward. He seemed far more relaxed and suddenly was executing his foot skills so much better. Please, please Bails - give the kid a break and release him from the backline. Perhaps switch Sylvia down back like he was several weeks ago and did very well.

About 5-6 games ago and you could change the name "Bode" to Garland or Warnock and we could say the same things. Gouga is spot on. Perhaps he just needs to be given the chance to convert whatever the coaches see at training into games. Bell on the other hand has had many chances, but continues to struggle when the heat is on in the backline. I think he would make a good midfielder or half forward and I would hate to see him lining up for another club in the coming years proving me right. CJ surely deserves a spot now after what sounds like several classy performances at Sandy. Just not at the expense of some more games for Bode to thake the next step like we have seen from Garland and Warnock, and not at the expense of Bell who is a good footballer.

I never much go for ranking who is better etc etc, but one thing to note is that Ablett took several years to develop into what he is now. Apart from his name, he was nothing more than a good small forward for his first couple of seasons. It has only been in the last 2 years perhaps that he has turned into one of the competetions elite midfileders.

I moved at Half time to get away from a bunch of loud mouth gits. I found a somewhat unusual Collingwood supporter to sit behind who made a fair bit of sense and often turned around to make friendly and sporting banter. He was missing most fo his teath though... I have a Collingwood supporter friend who totally cracks me up. He refuses to go to Collingwood vs. Richmond games because the Tigers supporters are so "feral". Yesterday was the first Queens birthday game he has been to for a while because they always lose and the Melbourne supporters are too loud. Go figure.

Grant Thomas also had a crack at Melbourne after our Hawthorn game. What he and Malthouse seemed to have forgotten is that young teams (both young in age and how long the footy team and coaching group have been together) will be inconsistent. Both of those guys have coached struggling teams before and had their good weeks and their bad weeks. Consistency in effort comes with experince and trust in each other. Once they have that, the motivation for effort will come from within, not form external sources like Kennett, Neitz, and the 150 year celebrations.

Bode - I think of him now much like I used to think of Garland and Warnock. Maybe he shows the right stuff at training and needs the time and confidence to bring that form into AFL level. Persist IMO Bell - Get him out of the backline. Please. Free him up at half forward and see how he goes. Brock - Frustrated me very badly yesterday. Not his usual intense self I thought. I can't put my finger on the reason, but by 3/4 time I cringed every time he went near it. Yze - Showed he has all the skills in the world but doesn't play the team game. Unfortunately some of the younger brigade seem to becoming just as selfish. This MUST be addressed.

I am surprised so many people are so un-concerned by the results in this survey. Ignoring them because we don't know exactly what methods the survey used, or becuase some of the people in Sydney might no really follow Sydney that strongly is just putting your heads in the sand. Our competitors are in THIS state and the team that we are closest too has more than 10% more supporters than us. Norh Melbourne has more than 10% ore people from whch to draw mmberships and to encourage sponsorship $$$'s. To hear some poeple on this forum mock North Melbourne as a basket case is laughable. The big boys in THIS state have over 3.5 times more poeple from which to create $$$. Go to a Auskick centre and see how few Melbourne jumpers are worn. If you have a close look at the Roy Morgan release, then you will also know that premierships don't count for much either. There is some short term gains but nothing really sustainable. The people influenced by premierships probably aren't the kind to invest in the club financially or are to young to contribute for 10+ years. IF we win a premiership??? A very big IF, and one that won't count for much in the long run. Demetriou has given us an ultimatim for this Monday. I think we will have the 65k+ numbers covered, but it is a worrisome trend that he is saying publically that things important to our financial stability can and will be withdrawn if we don't get enough people to games etc. I am kinda worried now that the AFL has said it is expanding 18 teams and the new teams will be started from scratch. If we go belly up financially, then what happens to us?

Link to Roy Morgan Article Not sure if I would dismiss these results so quickly. 52,574 seems to be an adaquate sample size to draw conclusions from. I can't help but think the AFL will notice and the MFC will be concerned.

Link to Article Very interesting. In one sense it shows that we are doing extremely well membership wise and with bums on seats at games. On the other hand, it is very disturbing. How can we compete long term with that sort of disparity? Lok forward to what others make of it.

That is so harsh man. Stupid Universities. I will be there with my kid, probably even joining in the March to the G. Not confident of seeing a win but I will settle for heaps of endevour.

Forward for me also. He seems to be have been given a chance to play midfield in practice and Sandy games, but hasn't set the world on fire. Definetely seems best suited to a role across half-forward with Bate. Miller needs some time inside F50 (as in start his leads from 10m out) to find out if he has got it.

Its hard to gauge what our biggest need is from up coming drafts. Our midfield is youngish, but could do with a star in there. Someone like Palmer. Our forward line needs a target and as mentioned, the incumbents are either too old, don't kick goals or haven't found there feet at AFL level. Then there is our ruck combination. Some OK games from Jamar and PJ, but we would love a Cox to be in there. So what do we go for. Our early picks pretty much have to go to the best player, regardless of where they play I think. We will find a spot for them I'm sure.

Where is Newton!?!?!?!?! Surely now is his time. No Neitz. Most likely no Robbo. This guys has a golden opportunity. I hope he takes it. www.injuryupdate.com.au lists him with a Knee injury and was likely to return last week. If he is fit, bite the bullet put him in the seniors.

So far this year we have played:- - the top team twice - the 2nd team once - the 3rd team once - the 4th team once - the 6th team once - the 8th team once - the 9th team once - the 15th team once 5 games against teams in the top 4 7 games against teams in the top 8 Our only game against a team outside the top 9 was a win. Now, our record would probably be the same regardless, but how is that as a initiation for a Rookie coach.

Tanking after 7 rounds

The real test for North will be in the following years. I doubt they will be able to sustain those figures which arose from the desperate situation the were in. Many memebers would have more than one membership, people from other clubs have bought in (heard from many talkback callers). Time will tell.

I've had the same sort of questions since Sunday, and am glad to hear that Bailey has said the 2nd half was what they have been training for. I'm sure he would keep it too himself if it was otherwise though.... As far as how it differs to Danners game plan I am not sure. Danners game plan was good as his results showed, but my problem with him was that he couldn't get the players to ALWAYS play winning football. The slumps both during games, or the longer slumps that lasted several games were my biggest problem. Maybe the changes Bailey is making is to get the players always playing in a certain way. Time will tell.

I fess up. I actually left after the first quarter alss, BUT I had a really good excuse. My son was playing in the half-time Auskick game at the Dome. We made sure we boosted the crowd by tunring up for the first quarter but then left. I would of course loved to stay and watched it all, but it was also great seeing my son who is in Prep playing against the older kids on the Dome. He kicked the first goal of his game to boot. We have watched the second half of the Melbourne game twice now. Not quite the same as being there live, but still bloody brilliant.

I had moved to the Telstra Dome by the end of the Melbourne game to watch my kid play at half time, but I was listening to the game on TripleM. The trumpeter started up with about 1 minute to go. The commentators made reference to it and you could even hear it in the background.

Whelan will hopefully be in the team by then, probably replacing Bell or Bartram. Carroll should go on Franklin imo. Rivers will be most useful playing off his man and blocking up space or being third man in. I can't remember him being too effective playing on the best forward, but we all know how good he is helping out. I like your match-ups for Frawley and Garland. Great tests for them. All these are pretty irrelevant though if we can't show something in the midfield. If Hawthorn control the midfield we will be in trouble wherever our defenders play.