drdrake

I have changed my stance on this, it is time for the Melbourne Bubble, we deal with issues is our way under strict confidence and any one that breaks that confidence is shown the door. It is time to close ranks and get the players focused on what they are employed to do.

The club needs to make a strong statement today, joint press conference with Neeld, Davey and Grimes time for complete honesty if it wasn't Davey tell the world who it was it will come out regardless, it will be better coming from the club. If it was Davey he should disclose what he said. On the AFL, I can't believe the AFL is advising the MFC to go after Grant Thomas, private conversation or not this was started by an an employee of the AFL discussing this with a friend that works in the Media. We do need to make a stand against Grant and 9msn the media can not continue to report fiction that causes harm to individuals and clubs.

When you keep giving ammunition to someone they are going to shoot. We are easy targets for the media because our onfield performance has been unacceptable for the last 2 years. 2010 we should great progress, we should have beat the premiership team twice smash Sydney. 2011 was a huge disappointment wew deserved every whack we got

No way Thomas is a paid Journo, it is his job to dig and report, if someone is stupid enough to make comments to a someone in the media they deserve the what they get. There is no such thing as off the record the media is just as competitive as playing AFL the more you can unearth the longer you keep your job

I went through the pain again last night and watched the match. It doesn't look good for Brent the amount of times he was caught on camera just jogging with no real purpose or token chasing was alarming. Beames constantly ran away from Moloney with no effort to chase.

What do we expect? He is a first year coach, the team he coaches just got thumped, the output from his players in the second half was totally unacceptable, he was attacked by a former coach accusing him of segragation by race and having lost his player group and he was facing the brother of our football director plus a former coach. He had every reason to come accross a nervous.

Reading the Casey player review, McDonald taking 13 marks deserves to come in, I think Petterd will have to play for Casey this week, 3 weeks with out a match you need a run to get you touch back.

We need to add Rivers to this list, IMO he is done, it is unfortunate but the tall forwards are to big for him, he can't play on leading forwards and can't play on mid size as the are to nimble.

I hate to say this but Rivers is a big issue. Teams know to get him one on one deep and he is in trouble. He can't play on a leading forward, he can't play small and he struggles on the bigger forwards. He is good third up but unless we play him as a loose man in defense he is going to struggle. Add this to his poor kicking skills IMO he might find himself at Casey for a long period of time.

Look at the weekend since 2007 -2010 we have had 11 first round and priority picks, 2 are no longer with the club, for 1 we have 2 first round picks in 2012. On Saturday we had 4 of the remaining 9 playing, the 5 that missed are coming back of injury, Gysberts is the only one that had nearly a full pre-season.

I don't thing our drafting has been that bad, the issue lies more with getting our picks playing to there potential. There has been a few reason why this hasn't happened but mainly through injury. Morton, Grimes, Strauss, Blease, Tapscott, Gysberts, Jetta and even Cook have all had injury concerns. Scully and Trengove were always going 1 and 2 so there was no reason to interview Martin. Watts is still only 21 years old he is 2-3 years away from being strong enough to dominate a key role. 2010 draft we went after a requirement rather than best available with our first pick, Cook is a mile off AFL football, but our late picks in McDonald and Davis look OK We need to keep Grimes, Gysberts, Tapscott, Strauss, Blease and even Morton fit they all will get better if they can keep their body's right.

Rhino, Didn't Brad Green mention yesterday that the long bomb was meant to be the last option not the first. The long kick into our forward line can work but don't kick it to the pockets as a defender you just punch to the boundary side nice and easy. Kick it 15m out in front of goal the defender has to make a decision on his action, the boundary line is not an option to far and if roved there wil be space, if he punches straight down the goals open up, does he try to out mark, we need to make defenders think. The long bomb was caused by our slow ball movement we gave time for Brisbane to get inside our forward 50m arc. To me our players took no risks and you may be correct this could be a direction, if so we are in for an extremely long year.

We have had this issue over the past 4 years, the club has looked to youth and in the process retired delisted players that believed they could go on or should have had more opportunity. There does seem to be a gulf between certain players, this is highlighted by Moloney the B&F winner looking to be traded last year. I keep reading he bleeds Red and Blue if that is the case why entertain the idea of leaving the club? Expect the club to draft midfielders and mid size defenders this year.

This is my team Bartram Frawley Sellar Bennell Garland Grimes Bate Jones Trengove Howe Watts Petterd Blease Clark Davey Jamar Moloney Magner Couch Martin Mckenzie Tynan In Bennell Sellar Couch Out MacDonald Green Rivers Reasons Rivers is to small to play as a key defender one on one he gets smashed and decision making has always been poor. Sellar comes in bigger body nice foot skills, Garland becomes the third man up. MacDonald-Bennell I love Macdonald's efforts but once again makes poor decisions and basic skill errors, I have posted this a number of times we can't have Rivers, MacDonald, Bartram in the same back line only 1 should play. Green-Petterd Green is a leading player we aren't playing in a way that suits a leading forward, he also is starting to struggle once it hits the ground. Martin and Clark in the same forward line isn't working, we need to create space in our forward line I want to 2 crumbing forwards they both need to perform. Watts was OK on a wing but with Subi we need a link up thorugh our half forward line, the ground suits a running CHF.

I can't believe people have included Martin, he was a spud on Saturday, couldn't hang onto marks miss timed his leaps only had it 8 times. My 4 Magner, Watts, Tynan and Bate(he had it 10 times in a quarter and was effective at stopages) Bottom four Rivers, Green, Moloney and Davey you four should hang your heads in shame, if you don't want to put your head over the footy and have a crack we are not your pension cheque, go play reserves at Casey not league VFL reserves I would rather develope players that want to play for our club.

We have to many dumb footballers. It has been this way for the past 6 years we continually make bad decisions on the footy field. This was highlighted on the week end our players took the wrong option made silly mistakes just dumb football. On Saturday Magner was good but the only player that created something everytime they got the footy was Watts. It is Dumb when midfielders play like under 9 footballers, we don't need 3 players going to the footy or for a tackle we need 1. This has been going one for 6 years we get sucked into the contest all our players are flat footed around the contest all it takes is for the ball to spill out and we are gone. Stick our tackles, we don't need 2-3 players tackling 1 player its not rugby we get sucked in again we don't hold our position we get stuck between the contest and the next contest. Our Backiline is dumb, Rivers, Frawley, Garland and Bartram seems to always make bad decisions It is dumb to kick to the members wing on all occasions, great I sit on that side of the ground but the other side can be used as well It is Dumb to long kick to the forward pocket, if you kick long into the forward line kick to 15m out directly in front and not to the point post It is dumb to handpass the footy back towards your opponents goal line when you are under pressure It is dumb to constantly drop the footy when you are tackled, you don't need to do this if you haven't had prior opportunity Finally it is dumb to play slow stop start football, take risks but smart risks and that is the problem we have to many dumb footballers to take the smart options.

Mitch is a great pick up and meets a need we had, the next big need is an elite or A grade midfielder and I just can't think of any that will be up for grabs. Dangerfield is one name thrown up but he is at the moment a potential A grade Midfielder. I'm happy to draft Viney and two young Midfielders with our first 3 picks we are still 2-3 years away from chalenging for top 4.

The easy one is a Plain "Jimmy", using to fire our guys up and for Jimmy's help from above

I wouldn't really call what they did sprint sessions, It was repeated 150-400m runs it was about endurance and your endurance guys will feature. If it was about speed Davey and Blease would have been in the first group not the last. I agree with a prior post, you can be fast by the way you move the footy rather than pure leg speed. We do however lack players that can accelarate from the contest and run at the defensive lines, this then creates space as you draw defenders to you. This is why Yarren is so important to Carlton, he runs with the footy and puts pressure on the defensive.

Not to many guns will be available. I will be supprised if we trade these picks.

In Hawthorn's recent premiership they were the UnSocial football club. It was a tag they loved, they had a few suspensions a long the way but the intimidated weaker opponents. I rememeber a few years back David Neitz made a statement in an opening game V Hawthorn it was a big hit and goal it set the tone for the year. IMO there is two types af toughness, one is the hardness at the footy and contest and the other is the ability to work hard through out the match more mental toughness. We lacked both last year, I'm a firm believer we have talent this is where we improve.

This helps but the problem over the past 2 matches we couldn't get the footy enough and get it inside our forward 50m arc it is the same problem we have had for the past 4 years, we need to find a way to get the ball inside our forward 50m 55+ times per game. No point have Clark in the square if we can't get the footy to him. This is the concern I have for this year, we talk about having big body's in our midfield, that's great but big Body's don't usually carry the footy, we have limited number players that can run with the footy and hit targets. Sylvia is one, Davey and Blease are two others Bail and Nicho fill one critera but not the other more important one.

No, but I think he will play. My line up, Bennell as Sub in case Grimes can't run out the game. Bartram Frawley Rivers Grimes Garland MacDonald Trengove Jones Bate Howe Watts Petterd Martin Clark Davey Jamar Moloney Magnar Green McKenzie Blease Bennell Sellar Dunn Couch

Most players think they can keep playing, if you play 10+ years in the AFL you are a competitive beast and can play. James played well on the week end and good luck to him, if we had our time again we would of kept James and shipped of Bruce which happened anyway. It was the right decision at the time handled poorly but as mentioned if we knew Cam Bruce wanted to leave it would be a different story.

1 week to go, it will be intersting to see how Watts goes tonight hope he kicks a bag. My team for round 1 Bartram Frawley Garland Grimes Rivers MacDonald Green Jones Trengove Howe Watts Petterd Davey Clark Martin Jamar Moloney Magner McKenzie Bate Blease Dunn