drdrake

I just wish his damn OP would go away, he s a midfielder first then forward and once he can play consistantly in the midfield he wil be awesome. What a tough midfield Mclean, Jones and Sylvia, it wil be good for Jones if Col can get more time in the midfield, the poor kids body must be hurting he gets hit hard every week, we will see the best of Jones when Brock and Col can hel him out with the in and under hard ball gets.

If Mclean is right I'd rather give him a half at Sandy than send him to Subiaco, that ground can flattern you for weeks if your not fully fit, and even if Brock's foot is OK he wouldn't of been able to run or kick for the past 6 weeks. I can't see many changes this week we don't need both Warnock and Holland playing replace them with a running player more likely CJ or Buckley or Petterd if fit.. If Rivers declares himself fit I still woul give him another week off. If Holland is clear to play he should be played on Lynch, run Bell with Hanson and Carroll to pick up the other tall. Petterd or CJ to run with David Wirrupunda. Moloney does look in need for a week off give him this week. Our forward structure is still a little concerning, subi should suit Miller the ground is made for a lead up CHF Petterd/CJ Holland Carroll Ward Bell Bruce Bate Johnstone Green Sylvia Miller Davey Yze Neitz White PJ Godfrey McDonald Dunn Brown Jones Newton Godfrey gets Judd, McDonald to Kerr. I thought PJ was our most effective tap ruckman yesterday, lets start him in the centre bounce then push him forward and White to do the around the ground work. Try it if it doesn't work then bring Newton on in the forward pocket.

Depends what time frame are we talking, the next two years we need Neitz to have a better chance of winning the flag. Beyond that we will have no choice because there is a good chance he will be retired.

I've posted several times Bate should play a similar role to Sydney's Ryan O'Keefe a hard running CHF HFF tat pushes forward and runs deep into attack. Playing like a midfielder but with a more foward idset to link the defense to the forwards and kick a few goals.

Yze and Pickett

It is time to play this guy as a midfielder first and maybe rest up forward. I don't know his OP status at the moment but if it is under control he should be fit enough to play mainly as a midfielder. As a forward for the past couple of weeks he hasn't had enough impact but his brief runs up the ground he looked good. I would like to see our midfiled for the first bounce White, Johnstone, McDonald, Sylvia with Jones and Davey on the wings.

Don't forget with Brock he broke his foot, you can't run or kick with a broken foot, he is still a couple away, I'd say against the Kangas.

According to a few posters Buckley has struggled at Sandy the past three weeks, Newton is in form and our forward line can't kick enough goals and last week they had enough supply to kick a winning score. This week we don't need Holland Warnock or Frawley playing as I have stated the doggies aren't tall up forward Rivers Carroll, Bell with maybe Bruce, Brown and Ward can cover down back, which then opens a spot on the bench for either Newton, Dunn or Miller. Why don't we test the Dogs small defense by rotating four talls through our forward line. Miller, Dunn and Newton are all three diferent types of forwards and can play in te same team. Why play Newton when Robbo and Neitz are both playing, so he can sit on the bench four 90% of the match. We still have to try and win games, bringing in form players into your team can only bring us closer to this. What happens next week if Newton kicks 10 in the Sandy 2nds (if they are playing this week) does he go to WA to be smashed by the Eagles?

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 .