drdrake

We forget very quickly. Sylvia is a good footballer and will show us this year once he gets match fit, same with Byron. These two players are very underdone, Sylvia didn't join the main group until late Feb. Once again we play him deep forward and no forward would excel with our current skill levels through the midfield. Sylvia looked OK when he was able to push up the ground and play as a midfielder, but he is still 2-3 weeks away from spendig look periods on the ball. We were all crying for him to be included a few weeks back now we get on his back.

I disagree with Paul Johnson being dropped, he started down back when Everett went there was pushed deep forward and the ball never was kicked to his advantage and went into the ruck and actually competed a lot better than White and Jamar did at the ruck contest. Jamar is the one that needs a stint at Sandy. His ruck work tonight was a disgrace.

Fast Half back flanker for the rest of this year.

White got beaten badly PJ actually looked OK when he was put into the ruck, in the limited time he had contesting the ruck work he looked better than White and Jamar.

All we need now is Brown out for Buckley or Newton and we can start to see what our future may look like.

Don't under estimate the effect on losing Bartram as well, he gets to job on the better midfielders that frees us Mcdonald to attack the footy at clearances. With Bartram out Mcdonald has play defensive.

Well put Jaded, this kid looks to have the ability to play for a long time in that jumper.

I actually like the move of Newton of the HBF, most kids that are drafted have dominated their way through the junior ranks, mainly playing in the positions they want to and doing what they want. We have read from many posters that this kid has got enormous potential and raw ability. From what I've seen at sandy he is also unaccountable and sometimes very lazy. A stint in the backline will hopefully teach him to be accountable for his man and work hard to ensure he beats his man. Playing up forward is a tough job, if the ball doesn't come your way you need to have that defensive side to help kepp the ball in sde your forward 50m and apply pressure on your defender so it isn't an easy clearance. We already have an example of a FF that as a younger player for the MFC player down back. Now he holds the games and goals kicked record at the club.

Thanks, you would have our second pick as well, when did we get Nick Smith

May be someone can help me out I can't remember the MFC first pick since Trav in 1997 to Col in 2003. Players that should be in their prime as AFL footballers. I would like to find out who we picked up with our first pick and at what number.

In 1998, 2000 and 2002 we won games by playing an attacking style of game we out played our opponents with hard running long kicking, take them on type of footy. Everytime we look serious premiership contenders this is the style we play even the past 3 years. They other style ND has tried to introduce, stop start more accountable close in style never works for us. This year the biggest disappointment to me is our players aren't skilled enough to compete. From round 1 to last Sunday it has been frustrating to watch our team consistantly miss targets or kick the ball so the leading player has to stop and wait or even worse we adopted a game plan that has handpassing as a key component, we miss targets two metres away by hand. If we don't have the skill level you can't play the second style because it is about maintaining possesion of the footy. We spent the preseason practising this game plan but we don't have the skills to execute it and lack of skills is not caused by injury, every player on you list should be able to kick, mark and handpass at a very good level. The other thing of note, we are 0-4 with not one first gamer. Buckley and Petterd should of debut over the past two weeks, at least new players give the supporters some hope for the future. It is a fine line for ND he has to try and win games but I think Buckley and Petterd could be no worse than some players that have lined up over the last 4 weeks.

I read in the Sandy post that Beach Road Bazza mentioned the Melbouren players that played and no mention of Ben Holland playing for Sandy, is he injured to.

I doubt we will get either Johnstone or Moloney back this week, so my team would be Petterd Miller Carroll Bell Bate Biz Ward Junior Green Bruce Pickett Davey Yze Dunn PJ White Sylvia Godfrey CJ, Buckley, Wheatley, Newton I want to play Bate on Ryan O'Keefe for two reasons, I see it as a good match up and this is the type of player Bate should try to become. He needs to a defensive side to his game and some accountability, what better way than playing him down back and as I said this is the type of player I would love for him to become. We don't need a true CHF, Miler has been good for us this year but we need him against Hall. If TJ, Rivers or Moloney get fit they would come in. Newton, IMO he is not ready for AFL yet but due to injuries we need to play him to give us a little X factor, the unknown. He can play forward or on a wing.

One big negative we are 0-4 and haven't seen one new player this year. We see the same recycled players week in week out and they may be good VFL players but they aren't up to AFL standards.

Positives, Yze played well, good to see Dunn, Pickett and Sylvia playing, all three underdone and will only get better with the run. Miller tried hard only wish he could hang on to more contested marks. Many times today he had clean contact with the footy but his hands are like rocks the ball bounces out. Once again our skills are below AFL standard, we can't hit targets by hand or footy, Yze should never handball, for such a skillful player he cant hit a target by hand. Our skills are our biggest concern, injuries happen, but a lot of our players have don't have the skills to play at this level and it is experienced players with this problem.

Should be put down back and taught how to play accountable footy. 191cm handy size, learn the game from down back, accountable and running straight at it would of been a good match up for Tarrent when Bell went down. Sometimes with kids you have to take them out of their comfrt zone so they can be educated at this level. At the moment he doesn't no what a one on one contest is or accountability and hates the hard footy. Some time done back could be good for him give him a job.

Don Pyke or Guy McKenna, I like defenders as coaches, look at some of the successful coaches, Malthouse, Sheedy, Worsfold, Roos all defenders when they played and all have premierships as coaches.

The dockers like to push thier Giant forward every quarter, we will need to play PJ to combat this. I'm worried about pickett being back, as I stated all week Freo run hard and fast getting a lot of drive from Half back, I'm worried pickett will be under done and we won't get much out of him. He is class though and you have to respect that. I would of liked to see Buckley for a bit extra pace, we look slow through the midfield.

Although Newton has done nothing at Sandy firsts level and I personally feel he will struggle at this time at AFL level, if you are going to even look to play him this is the week. Fremantle aren't an over physical team their style is more we will take you on and kick more goals than you do usually high scoring games. Saying that though I think to take Freo on we need to inject speed. They are a hard running fast team, at the moment we look slow through the midfield, Buckley and Petterd have good speed these are the kids I would be looking at this week. But as stated if you want to see Newton, Freo would be one team you could do it against, I can't see ND doing it though.

We have to look at who we are playing, the Dockers, their style is hard running, quick team, Pavlich is the only real power forward, Carroll plays well on him, the wil end the Giant up forward to change with Longmuir, give PJ another Crack down back. Tarrent will get Bell. We need to inject some pace into our team to combat Freo's foot speed. On our side Rivers is doubtful, Pickett is still under done, Col who knows and the other injuries we all know about. B: Whelan Carroll PJ HB: Petterd Bell Biz C: Wheatley Jones Buckley HF: Bruce Miller Davey FF Dunn Green Yze R White Macdonald TJ Int Godfrey Jamar Moloney Brown In Petterd, Buckley, Dunn, Biz Out Holland, Ferguson, Bate, Ward Petterd and Buckley over CJ and Pickett because of Freo's speed and hard running both Buckley and Petterd are quick, if Rivers is fit comes in for Biz, if Sylvia is comes in for Dunn

ND will coach us until the end of the year. I don't blame the coach for losing yesterday, losing I can take, not very well but can accept when we are beaten by a better team on the day. What I can't accept is that our players skill levels are well below AFL standard and his game plan that he has tried to implement cost us against St Kilda and he was out coached by Clarkson. We read that so many times out coached a 10 year coach in the first two weeks gets out coached by a first and third year coach. Look on the bright side we can still lose another 6games and make the final 8, the downside is our next 5 look very tough. I say keep ND till the end of the year, if we keep losing at least we will have an early draft pick. We we are to get rid of him at years end we better get into the market quick because the Kanga's will be looking and if Freo don't improve so wil they.

Our skills in all facets of the game are below AFL standard. We drop chest marks, miss handballs, can't hit targets by foot, our tackling is good but we get wrong footed to easy, we don't sheppard, our vision is like we wear blinkers that point at the boundary line, they need to be adjusted for the middle of the ground and our awarness of players around us in bad. You can be the fittest, strongest, fastest time in the AFL but if your skills are crap you will not win games. Apparently ND said in his press conference we couldn't match Geelong's skill level. Skills come back to the coaches.

Let's play the Rev's paddock, push all forwards to the HFF and us Davey's pace, kick the ball beyond our forwards and make it a foot race. Our just bomb it long and pray that we get it.

The only way we can get Judd is if we offer Travis Johnstone and a early second round pick the Eagles will want a first round. I dont know when players contracts expire but to make room for 1mil player, delist Yze promote Jeff White to Veteren Status and Trade Trav, each player would be on around $500,000 IMO. Besides maybe Robbo, TJ and Brock are the only currency we have for a deal like this. Lets face it who would you rather have Trav or Judd.