drdrake

Who are we going to beat? On current form we only have a chance against Essendon and WCE at home. It is time to get real, we need early draft picks and three in the top 25 is a good start. My team is a little different to Y_M Petterd Frawley Martin Bell Rivers Bartram Davey Mclean Sylvia Morton Hurley Bate Maric PJ Aussie Warnock Jones Grimes

Play him in the middle for Sandringham, if you can't kick you can't play AFL, except if your a stopping player. Today's game is fast and skillful if you can't perform the fundimental skill of the game you shouldn't be playing at this level.

6 Davey 5 Aussie 4 Bartram 3 Morton 2 Jones 1 Green The only time we played well in the game is when Davey, Aussie had the footy.

Player development is the number 1 priority for th MFC. As a few posters have stated playing Yze, Holland and Carroll would of had little difference, we still would have lost by 50+ points. But what I saw today wa encouraging. Garland, Warnock, Frawley, Bell and PJ didn't do much wrong the lack of pressure through the middle was there biggest problem. Buckley had his best game for the club, Aussie keeps getting better, Morton will be a jet. Jones is a good player and same with Brock, both need to deal with tags but this will come. Valenti looked OK, Moloney tried hard may be a little to hard. Today was the first game this year which all our young players showed something for the future. Always upsetting when we lose but excited about watching these young players develop over the next 16 weeks. We do need though a high quality tall forward and another highly skilled quick midfielder

Its more than just foot speed Judd/Kerr/Cousins and now the Geelong midfield are made to look quicker by their team mates of the ball blocking for them. All it takes is for the chasing team to be blocked and a player can burst away from a pack. We don't do this yet so we look slow. We also have struggled to control the football and you always look slow chasing.

Valenti was picked as a rookie because he was the best available and in case Moloney never recovered from OP. He would be a perfect replacement for Moloney if he still carried this injury from last year. Will be be retained next year, more than likely not unless McDonald retires or we delist Moloney. We have to keep Spencer on the list for two years becasue he is from interstate, and we will more than likely promote White and Mcdonald to Veteran status so we can only have 4 rookies. Unless we have injuries he won't play for Melbourne.

Lets get a little real at the moment, we would have two maybe 3 players that we wolud get a first round pick for, Mclean, Davey and Rivers and they aren't going anywhere. We have no quick fix, but what we do have is a core of young players coming through we have done this before but IMO we have young players good enough to move forward Bartram Frawley Garland/Warnock/Martin Bell Rivers Cheny Sylvia Mclean Buckley Morton Miller Bate Maric Newton Aussie PJ Jones Grimes Thats not a bad developing 18 add more than likely a top 3 pick this year and another two top 20 picks, plus if a few of last drafts picks improve to be AFL standard our future looks good.

There is always a reason why clubs get rid of players, take out players that want to go home, when a club wants to trade someone. Freo wanted a quick fix with Tarrent/Soloman/Johnson/Bradley Kangaroos did the same with Thompson and Hay, Essendon have done it with Michael and others the winners are the clubs who trade them. Hawthorne got 2 first round picks from the kangaroos for Hay/Thompson and Collingwoo got one for Tarrent I wonder who the players are that they picked up. Unless it is the come home factor or a players desire to play for a certain club who can play trading is dangerous and for us we need younger players to complement players that we already have.

I'm so pleased for Jamar, his ruck work against the giant was exceptional. He jumped early and ha very effective. His best game for the club. Miller was our best just worked hard all day. As our skills improve this guy will start to have more influence on games, will never be a star but will present all day and if we can hit targets he wil take 10-15 marks per match. Miller and Bate worked great as lead up targets. Bartram had one to forget, Bell I thought was OK. Its amazing when our midfield finally got on top in the second half none of our key defenders got much of the ball, Carroll, Rivers, Frawley didn't have a possession in the last half but still did there jobs. 3 words that summed up our players in the last half- They backed themselves

Some supporters have no idea and have blind faith in players that have been no good for 2-3 years. Holland and Yze aren't the answer, one poster mentioned Holland had two good games last year, 2 out of 22 possible games for a 10 year AFL player, Yze was injured but was bad enough for ND to drop him for teh first time in 11 years. Stop looking at our senior players they are past it and will not assist us to get better. At least if we play our younger players we are developing them, what is the point losing with Yze and Holland in the team. If we wont to be competitive in 2009 soory we have to improve our younger players they may stuff up and we get beaten, but lets face it most of our players that have been on our list 7+years are on the decline we need to find players on the upside

We need to draft the best key position forward in the draft with our first pick. Time to start looking at what our club needs and maybe no the best player in the draft. We have 5 ruckman including rookie on our list 4 still young, we have about 10 KPP with 2 set to retire a couple more have a couple of years. Young players Backs Martin, Rivers, Frawley,Garland, Warnock Forwards Newton, Zomer We need KPF's

Any football follower with any knowledge of the game knows our list is in serious trouble. We have 4 players between the age of 24-29 that are able to play well at this level (Bruce, Green, Robbo, Davey)the rest wouldn't be in any other teams best 22, three of them are approaching 30. We still have Yze, Neitz, White, Holland, McDonald all over 30yo 2 of these should not be on our list and by years end 3 maybe 4 will retire. We have a gulf between our young players and our older players that have been good for us but are at the end of their AFL life. Besides Rivers we have no KPP that are AFL standard. Carroll is Average at best but at least he is honest, Miller same. We are developing Frawley, Newton, Martin, Zomer but still that is only four players. The highlight of this year is Aussie a rookie and Morton. Bailey has to play the young players because the players that have been around for 8+ years have served us well but will not be a part of a successful future.

And we aren't getting thrashed now. Lets face it we need to inject new faces they same old players will get us nowhere. I can cop a thrashing when we are developing players, but all we have seen so far is Morton and Aussie and we are excited about them. This week Bailey has 2 options youth or Safe Safe we include Yze, Holland, Bate and Whelan Out Bartram, Bell, Jamar, Warnock That achieves a more competitive team, but long term want help us to improve. Or Youth Bate, Maric, Martin, Buckley, Valenti(Depends on Grimes if he is close to being fit we cant elevate another Rookie) Out White, Robbo, Miller, McDonald, Carroll A blend would be good team as follows Whelan Frawley Carroll Buckley Rivers Warnock Sylvia Mclean Davey Morton Miller Bate Aussie Robbo Green White Jones Bruce Martin Maric Moloney McDonald In Martin, Whelan, Buckley, Maric, Bate Out Jamar, Bell, Bartram, Dunn, Wheatley At least we are replacing some underperforming players with youth and Whelan.

When I saw the heading I was thinking 2000 turnovers in 2 years, that wouldn't be far from the truth either. We forget quickly that our club also suffered from salery cap breaches and lost picks for a couple of years. They would be late 20's now and could have been the difference that stopped us winning a flag. We are also our own worst enemy we would finish 5-8 three years in a row meaning with priority picks oour first pick wasn't until about 11-13. Our early picks that we use on KPP haven't worked out and the two at 192+ Bate and Dunn are more midfielders than KP. At the moment we don't have the skill to compete and we desperately need a Key Young key forward. Go after Robbie Warnock he will be shitty at Freo for not playing him and Hansen from the Eagles. Use No1 pick for the best player in the draft be it Rich, Natanui, Hurley or someone else. Use Pick 17 and 18 to draft further KPP, I think we have enough young midfielders coming through. Give nothing for Warnock get him in the PSS give second round pick for Hansen

A few injuries and Whelan out my team Bell Frawley Carroll Wheatley Rivers Sylvia Davey Mclean Morton Green Miller Bruce Holland Robbo Aussie White McDonald Bartram Dunn Moloney Jones Bate In Bate Holland Miller Out Neitz Whelan Jamar Holland to be second ruck Bartram to run with Power McDonald to run with Black

Maybe Grimes is almost ready to come back his 8 weeks would not be to far away and this will give Aussie a few more weeks playing AFL footy.

I hope that he can get right for one game our 150th birthday Friday night game against Geelong and lead this club off the MCG for the last time hopefully in front of 80,000.

We will have to draft our own big man besides room in our cap we don't have much to offer. The only players besides the real young ones that are worth anything in trading terms are Mclean, Rivers, Green, Jones and Sylvia but only the first two would get us a low first round pick

As long as we don't win more than 4. This is not saying I don't want to win but we have no chance of making finals and our list needs major improvement. Get picks 1 and 17, 18 and give a chance if we can't improve next year for pick 1 and 2. Time to be real and start to do what most teams in the AFL have done take advantage of the draft to build a strong young list.

It might just cover the 10K we will get at the Freo match

He will be our Leo Barry, good full back with the attacking run

In Miller, Holland Out Neitz, Jamar Play Holland as our second ruck and tall forward target. Miller is a must as we had no targets to link out of defence into the forward line. Bate no rushing play him against Fremantle the following week.

My positives were Frawley only player that seems to take on the game receives the ball at speed run his full measure and hit targets Aussie he will learn to be a little more selfish around the goals, a few time he should as a forward pocket had a shot but layed of instead but gets the footy Sylvia I watch him closely yesterday his work rate was good and I saw on many occasions that he work hard to get into a good position in the middle of the ground but wasn't used I think this was a condience thing with the player with the ball we didn't want to use him and stuck to the safe boundary option. His skills foot and hand are in our best 5. Bartram we will see him returning to his tagging role in the midfield very soon, that is his best spot. Next time we play Carlton he will get Judd

Bailey could of taken the safe option this yearand keep players like Ward, Godfrey, Ferguson ad co on our list we would of been a little more competitive but we still would of finished bottom four. He has played some kids, Aussie and Morton look good, Frawley was good yesterday and PJ before he was injured was our best big man. What Bailey is doing is exposing our senior players at the moment. He can't be blamed for basic skill errors, these players have been playing AFL for many years and should be able to kick goals form 15m with no pressure hit targets by hand and foot mark the easy marks an stick tackles. Our players that have been around for 7+ years can't do this. Todays AFL game is high paced and skillfull, Bailey is identifying how can play at this level. It is not our younger players letting Bailey down the amount of times I saw yesterday White, Bruce, Wheatley, Moloney turn the footy over, missing targets by hand and foot or just kick the high hail mary kicks to no win contests was amazing. Frawley yesterday embraced what Bailey is trying to teach, run hard hit the ball at speed recieve take it on and deliver to a target. Players who can not complete the required skills at AFL level will not be around long under Bailey. Unfortunate for him a tough call was to trade one player that did have the skills to play AFL but the next 3 years will tell on that call.

6. Sylvia 5. Green 4. Mclean 3. Frawley 2. Whelan 1. Rivers Sylvia beat Fisher created of half back then did OK in the last up forward. Mclean would have been best but considering the impact of Judd he had to be put down a liitle.