drdrake

Jaded, when is then right time? Neitz already back, Robbo in a couple of weeks, surely when he is back Newton will have little chance of playing, unless we get injuries to Neita or Robbo again. Buckley hasn't kicked 11 goals in 2 games.

When we lost Neitz and Robbo in round two I wasn't a fan of bringing this guy in, I though we had other players that could step up and help fill the void left by our best 2 goal kickers being out. However, since watching our team over the past four weeks we missed a good leading forward which by all accounts this guy is. Also contested marks none of Green, Miller, Bate, Dunn take contested marks or are high markers, if you have watch Sandy Newton has an awesome leap and can take pack marks. The past two weeks my opinion has changed to include this guy, not because he is young and thats the way we should go but because he brings to the forward line the X factor like Robbo was a few years back before he found some consistancy. This week against the Bulldogs would have been the ideal time to debut this guy, Neitz as your number 1 target out of the goal square with Newton as your secondary. You could of played Miller, Dunn and Miller this week all rotating CHF FP and bench we don't need to play three tall defenders because the dogs aren't that tall up forward so you could still have two spots on the bench for midfield rotations. Newton unlike Dunn and Miller can also play on a wing. I want this guy to play only because I think he can help us to win, our forward line needs to be adjusted to enable us to kick enough goals to win and this guy is more capable of kicking 4-5 goals than Miller and Dunn.

None of the talls on the bench will play, Rivers will get Darcy and Carroll on Johnson, the dogs don't have a third tall option up forward. Newton must of upset the coaching staff if Garland and now chip with only one quarter of Vfl reserves under his belt get considered before him. Maybe ND is hiding him to take him to his next coaching job.

Trav has won us games and almost won the unwinable game against Adelaide in 2002 finals series, he was the one person that got us into this game. The forwards are only as good as their midfield when Trav palys well our forwards kick goals.

We should play Port or Fremantle in Canberra, they have a small supporter base in Melbourne and we should play Sydney at the MCG we got 45,000 there last year and we weren't traveling so good then either.

Bruce never has a tagger because the opposition know he will turn the ball over a percentage of the time. Trav hurts teams with his disposal thats why he gets the best tagger every week, our opponents are happy for Bruce to have the ball in his hands because he doesn't hurt you, gets a lot of it but also wastes a lot of it. You can't be considered a star if you can't perform the most essential skill of our game correctly. Don't get me wrong I think he is a good player just not a star.

What kids can he play? dunn, Bate, Jones, Petterd, Jamar, PJ, Bell, Sylvia are playing, Mclean and Bartram injured, CJ has had 3 games this year maybe one. The only players left are Newton, Buckley and Frawley who is 3-4 weeks away from being match fit. Of the three the only one that is playing well at Sandy over the past two weeks is Newton he deserves a look in.

If you wait a couple of weeks Robbo is back, with Green, Mclean and Batram. Newton needs to come in this week or next or else he won't get a game unless Neita or robbo get re-injuried.

Petterd Carroll Bell Brown Rivers Bruce Johnstone Godfrey Sylvia Davey Miller Bate Yze Neitz Newton White Mcdonald Jones PJ Pickett Dunn Moloney Out Warnock In Newton The doggies play short up forward we don't need three tall defenders, we need another avenue to goal, I don't think they will risk Green or Mclean on the Telstra dome surface against the fast doggies.

They won't be risked at Telstra dome, Green maybe but not Brock the surface looks good but is still very hard.

We controlled enough of the ball today that we should have been well in front, I agree the umpiring yesterday wasn't good but they didn't cost us the game our turn overs and decision making cost us.

We need someone strong in the air Miller,Dunn and Bate are good on a lead but you don't see them grabbing the high mark. This is what Robbo does, you can't play him from the front, he'll jump all over you and you can't play him from behind because he leads well, same as Newton. Also the X factor for a tall, we have it with Davey a a small we need a tall with. I wasn't a fan of playing him early but on his past two performances he has earnt his spot.

Once again we read that our skills and turn overs cost us the game. Since round 1 our basic kicking, handpassing and marking skills have been well below what is required at AFL level. My concern increased today when I realised it wasn't our young inexperienced players that were making these errors but our senior players.

we all know his limitations, i'm sure the coaching staff does, he should be only used as a heavy tagger. That is what he does best. Next week he get West.

they should look at the holding the ball rule, the amount of good tackles we layed today for the port player to what i saw incorrectly dispose of the ball, they just dropped it when our tackle stuck. not once but many times.

Col was good today, at least he hits targets with his disposals, not like some of our more senior better players. Col will only improve once he can spend more time in the midfield. He doesn't struggle to kick 50m, he missed 2 shots today which he had to kick from outside 50m, distance no problem just wasn't straight.

Jaded, I thought he rucked ok today, it will be interesting to see stats on hit outs to advantage %, I though in general ball ups and boundary throw ins he held his own .

today ND played Bate the way he should be like Ryan OKeefe from Sydney. Not a midfielder but a tallish forward that can cover ground and kick goals

good on Sandy, even with our depleted list they findd a way to win. Newton has to come in, take pressure of Neita as a leading forward. Neitz has to start playing like Alistar lYnch did towards the emd of his carrear, more body to body strength from the 25m- goal line. Newton to come in as the hard leading forward.

I understand ND has to put what he thinks is the best team that can beat port, but he also has to balance this with the development of younger players. Jamar needed to be dropped his form is going backwards, CJ very unlucky, personally I would prefer CJ than Brown, IMO Brown has no future after 2007 at the MFC. Garland had a taste would have liked to see him again this week but with Neita back he gets his spot. Good to see Bate playing but if is sore on anyway he should be rested, we don't want to push a kid his age to play injuried. Neita will still be limited it would have been nice to see him play in tandem with Newton.

I hope PJ gets the same amount of ground time as Jamar has had over the first few weeks. All the PJ knockers will change their opinion if this guy can get good game time on the ball and aloud to run. He has got good skills, from what I saw last week in Sydney his ruck work has improve, he had more hit outs that Jamar in the very limited time he rucked and had our best hit out to advantge percentage. Jones and Bate would be in some doubt, it wouldn't hurt Bate to have a week off anyway he is young form hasn't been that good and he will be still carrying that ankle injury, give him the whole wekend off to freshen up. Holland or Warnock, depends on Hollands Groin injury. I hope to see Buckley debut but not at the expense of CJ. CJ is being played like a MR Fix it for such a inexperienced player he gets thrown around the ground by ND ever game. I would love for him to become this player because at the moment we rely on Bruce to do this, where IMO Bruce is to important to our midfield rotation to play deep defensive and tagging roles. We will win this week, if your a betting person have some on the big odds we are paying.

Green will still be in doubt, you don't pull out with just hamstring soreness, he will have a slight tear. Neitz he is a an older player will be lucky if he plays this week. I don't see the reason for dropping Garland after one week, it would be nice to see him at the MCG next week. B Petterd Carroll Biz HB Bell Rivers Godfrey C Bruce McDonald Johnstone HF Pickett Miller Davey FF Newton Dunn Yze R White Sylvia Moloney Int PJ, Garland, CJ, Buckley We don't have mich to choose from, this is an inexperienced team but hopefully Petterd can play like last week and either Newton, Buckley and Garland show us something tobe excited about.

How do we know if Buckley is in Petterd's class, he looked OK in the Pre-season and looks fairly convincing at VFL level. Wouldn't Dunn be the KPP to replace Neitz, at one stage our forward line contained Miller Dunn PJ and Garland in wet slippery conditions. Most of the time though on of these guys was one the bench withte resting ruckman. This effects your midfield rotations have another midfielder instead of a tall would not of effected the result but to me when it is slippery and wet would be the better option.

If we look at every match day forum this season the same issues are common each week. We have injuries, but we haven't even looked competitive at all over the past 3 weeks. If we do get a mini run on our skills let us down. We drop chest marks, miss targets by hand and foot, our one %ers don't exist we look slow and we keep getting more injuries. Our defensive side of our game is the worse I've seen for a long time, one area is our defensive pressure on point kick ins. We have to stop kicking points because it usually turns to the other team having a shot on their goal with little pressure on the ball movement from our goal line to theirs. Petterd was a shining light but the other side some of our more experienced players the light is almost out.

Going back to team selection did our coaching staff make some big errors. Do they look at the weather forecast, I don't think so, because if they did and knew it was going to be slippery why would you play Jamar, PJ, White and introduce another KPP in Garland, wouldn't you of been better suited with another running player maybe debut Buckley instead of Garland or play him instead of one of the three ruckman we played.