drdrake

We have 3 and a half wins on the board. Over the next 4-5 weeks we should see McKenzie, Scully, Trengove, Jamar, Rivers all come back into our team. After they all should be back we will play Fremantle at the MCG, Richmond twice, Port Twice, Gold Coast, Western Bulldogs, West Coast at Etihad, Hawthorn Geelong and Carlton. I will back us to win 8 of those matches. The next 4 weeks will be a struggle, hopefully we can supprise and pick up couple of wins but 1 would do, but our run home with the players coming back should be a positive.

On Morton's disposal, I read last year about Maric that he was this elite kick at junior level and when he came to the club they worked hard on his technique to enable him to kick further. Until this year, the games I had seen Maric play his kicking was anywhere but elite. This year however his foot disposal is great he is kicking low, hard and hitting targets. I wonder if this is a result of the work he did or has he reverted back to his natural action. On Morton, I wonder if he is in the same boat, drafted the same year, when drafted he was meant to be an elite kick, he is over 45m-55m but anything shorter than that he can't hit a target.

Would love to see some new faces line up. We all would love to play finals but 2011 is still a development year, its good to be getting games into Tapscott, Watts, Gysberts, Trengove and hopefully now Maric, but we still need to introduce new players. Gawn should play as we need a 2nd ruckman and one off Evan/Nicholson/Blease should come in. McKenzie and MacDonald are givens to be included. I don't rate Rivers as an Automatic inclusion, unfortunately the coaching staff will this week if he is fit.

On Hawthorn, when they went though their re-build stage, like us they got smashed most weeks, then one week at half time a legend of the club had enough, he draw a line in the sand. From there the club changed they got the hard edge. We seem to have the line in the sand match then we seem to jump back over the line the next, this can't continue to happen.

Thanks for all the updates, on Evans from what I have seen he looks good, runs with the footy has pace and good disposal. I'm all for him to be played for Melbourne this week. On Gawn I would play him, you can't give up 11 free kicks at stoppages, he will give a contest.

Bartram was on Harvey and did a good job, Harvey got his usual cheap kicks. Bail was on Wells.

I don't think he has all those players played against West Coast, Brisbane and Hawthorn.

It was bad today, like the hawthorn game we showed that when we are on that we can play very very good football. The only problem is in both todays game and the game against Hawthorn we played 1 quarter of good football and 3 quarters of our bad football. I've posted this a couple of times this very our good is better than last year but our bad football is the same. We can't stop teams scoring against us when we go through our bad patch. I've never been a Bailey basher as I understand what he had to do and is doing with our list, but the fact that he hasn't been able to stop teams high scoring against us in four years, I'm starting to jump off the fence. We can't keep putting up with these bad peformances, it's not about winning that will come but we are still not competitive enough when things aren't going our way. We have heard this for 4 years and as stated above with the talent on our list our good footy is better but our ability to stay in the game when we are challenged remains the same as 4 years ago.

Campbell is not ready, he played a half in the Casey 2nds last week, he will get a full game for Casey seconds tomorrow but they are only playing a scatch match as they have the bye this week. We can't go in with the same ruck combination as we did today, we need to have one person who can at least compete, no more third man up, we must play Gawn, he might no give you a lot around the ground but at least we will geta contest at the stoppages. You keep Martin and Newton in, Newton up forward and Martin to Ruck. Same with McKenzie, as good a footballer he is he will need at least to more weeks at Casey In Gawn, Evans, Macdonald Out Garland, Bail, Dunn Tapscott Warnock MacDonald Davey Frawley Bennell Jones Moloney Sylvia Petterd Watts Green Maric Jurrah Newton Martin Gysberts Bartram Gawn Jetta Evans Sub Aussie

I think Thomas may be to quick for Tapscott and we need him to be our attacking defender, we want the ball in his hands of half back, Frawley could but I think we will need him to play on a tall, more likely Aaron Edwards. Bennell has all the attributes to match up well on Thomas.

When picking a side you need to look at match ups. Bartram will go to Brent Harvey, who then gets Thomas, I would of thought Bennell was a pretty good match up for him. You would bring in Jetta to replace Trengove, he should start as a sub.

I have no problem with our arrangement with Casey, if you look at that team it is basically a Melbourne Reserves side with Casey top up players. We have 15 Melbourne players named to play, this will come down to 14, you would expect Jetta to replace Trengove. Hopefully it is a nice day, it will be a good match, we have 6 players that we drafted last year playing, Gawn from the year before, add in Blease, Strauss, Mckenzie, Jetta, Morton we have all our fit and available players in the seniors. Davis, Campbell are coming back from injury and Johnston is the only guys that aren't playing.

We need attitude training, not altitude training. We need to learn that we need to bring competitive footy every week and we can play good footy, it comes down to attitude, to have the right mental approach to each game. Even under Danners we enjoyed a roller coaster ride and once again it was all about our players attitude, the ability doesn't change.

A lot will depend on what happens tonight with Trengove. Macdonald will replace Grimes, the ruck issue is a concern if Martin is not fit the only fully match fit ruckman we have is Gawn, Campbell is still three weeks away from even being considered for AFL. If Trengove gets three weeks we need to bring in an inform midfielder, Evans has been in Casey best every week, Jordie is 2-3 weeks away, Morton, Bennell need to work on their games, the other option is Jetta.

You cant play blokes that have only played a half of footy in the VFL reserves for the year. If Martin is not fit We have to play Gawn

We will have 3 forced changes, I think we will line up Tapscott Warnock Frawley MacDonald Garland Davey Green Moloney Jones Sylvia Watts Petterd Maric Jurrah Aussie Martin Gysberts Bartram(Harvey Tag) Evans Bail Dunn Sub Bate In MacDonald Martin Evans

What would of happened if a holding the ball decision was paid. That would be extremely embarassing for the AFL and it could of happened Dangerfield didn't correctly dispose of the footy, an umpire on the right angle could of easy awarded a free kick to Trengove. This is scary you can lay a legal tackle on Sunday get a free kick and be rubbed out on Monday.

The crowd was OK, last year we only had about 25K against Adelaide and that was coming off from memory a good game against Collingwood the week before, it was a nice Sunny Sunday afternoon not Mothers day. The club would of budgeted for 20K and that is what they got.

What I like about Maric's kicks are they are low and hard. It gets to the target quickly, he got front and square something we hve lacked so far this year. Like most of our team he must be consistant, you don't expect him to have 31 touches each week but he need to make sure he stays in the game for long periods of time. And Bate was very bad yesterday

Yesterday proved one thing to me we need two Clint Bartrams. Who would of thought 2 years ago we would be seeing that comment. Yesterday he reminded us that he is our best stopping midfielder. This week agianst North I would love two of him, one to play on Brent Harvey and the other the play the back pocket role. Yesterday it suited with the weather conditions to play 1 ruckman, going against North at the Dome we need two rucks and assuming Grimes isn't fit changes are Out Grimes, Bate In Martin, Bennell Bennell goes back to the role we drafted him for a speedy defender, this will allow Bartram to smash Harvey. We stop Harvey we will beat North, this bloke has carved us up over the past few seasons.

I've heard this about the crowd a few times, I thought given the weather, the day and who we are playing the crowd was OK, last year on a bright sunny day against Adelaide we only got 25,000 people and it wasn't mnothers day, we would love to get 30K against interstate clubs, but history shows unless it is Brisbane or Sydney we struggle.

Good to see some changes, but the midfield stays the same, time to bring Grimes in. We should line up as follows, we need run on our bench, we need a Half forward line that will present and contest all day and a tall forward who can go into the ruck. Bartram Warnock Frawley Tapscott Garland MacDonald Jones Sylvia Trengove Bate Watts Petterd Maric Newton Jurrah Jamar Moloney Grimes Green Davey Bail Sub Gysberts

Over the past few seasons the focus has been on contested footy and tackling, thats fine and extremely important but we don't do is help out our team mates. We don't create space by blocking and protecting, we don't apply any blocks on tags, we don't protect the man going for a mark. I went to Subiaco and what the Eagles did was work hard off the ball to do those things I just mentioned. Everytime we kicked to a contest one an Eagle player would put work to take the Melbourne player out of the contest leaving his opponent to take an easy mark, it as just a simple bump that put us off balance. At stoppages the Eagles protected areas created space which resulted in effective clearances. We win the tap and it was either sharked by the Eagles or we got caught for a seondary bounce. Look at the amount of times we get first hands on the footy at stopages but can't break free, this means that players are more concerned about spreading rather than help to create space for the person with the footy.

I have just got back from the West, we need to add skill and run into our team. Bate and Petterd can give us marking mobile half forwards, Maric today deserves another chance and I think he is a better option than both Aussie and Bennell. Maric can run in the midfield and it a leading forward, Morton and Dunn need to be dropped, upgrade Nicholson or Evans, Scully is still 5 weeks away. Move Grimes into the midfield, from the limited time he gets in there he is a very good clearance player. We need to stop trying to win games from the backline, we need to win from the midfield and get the footy inside our attacking 50m arc. Bartram Martin Frawley Garland Rivers Tapscott Trengove Grimes Jones Green Watts Bate Davey Jurrah Petterd Jamar Sylvia Moloney Gysberts Bail Maric Nicholson In Maric, Nicholson, Petterd, Bate Out Aussie, Bennell, Morton, Dunn

This is great by the club, to keep all these guys over the next 10 years, they need to increase their earning potential from outside the club. The best way is to appear in the media, get a regular spot on a footy show, a column in a paper or get on the TV coverage of other games.