whatwhat say what

as per another post in a different thread - lumumba, grimes, garland, cross, howe (when playing defensively) and potentially even dunn all play the 'third' tall role. we can't have them all in the team at the same time, as other than lumumba and occasionally grimes and howe, none provide any rebound whasoever. when he gets it, garland sits on it. when he gets it, lumumba turns it over. if fitz has another good game as a defender next week, there's no reason why he shouldn't be an automatic in. it'll allow dunn / t-mac to play less on a giant and more on someone their own size.

dee-pressing, isn't it. at the start of the year i said we'd finish last with two wins. we've got two more than that currently, but it's hard to see where the next one is coming from. as you say, the bears are starting to get players back, gc17 look a different team with judas in their line-up, and the blues are a bit like us - competitive but poor.

if we don't execute any trades, hopefully we can land one of schache, francis or weideman with our top pick and one of tucker or dunkley with our second rounder. there's every chance we could still finish bottom two.

gotta disagree jaded. garland is and has been a fine servant of the club, and him leaving as a free agent might gift us a second round pick. that's not being harsh, that's being an optimist (he's more likely to get us a third round pick). he performs consistently middlingly, is neither tall nor small (same as lumumba, cross, howe and grimes) and he is a shocking user of the ball - he 'sits' on it rather than distributing quickly and cleanly and he turns it over far too often. he also no longer rebounds from half-back. howe is younger and offers far more flexibility in terms of playing forward and, preferably, back. he also rebounds really well when positioned defensively. we simply cannot go into next season with garland, howe, lumumba, grimes, cross all as 'third / fourth tall' defenders. they don't do enough.

OUT: lumumba, garland, anb, sos IN: fitzpatrick, grimes, two of newton / toumpas / michie, depending on the casey game tomorrow quite frankly you could drop cross and howe too. the latter might go for suspension, so one of garland or lumumba might survive. B: Jetta - Fitzpatrick - Dunn HB: Grimes - T McDonald - Howe C: Tyson - N Jones - vandenBerg HF: Watts - Dawes - Brayshaw F: JKH - Hogan - Garlett Foll: Gawn - Vince - Viney I/C: Toumpas - Newton - Cross Sub: Harmes Emerg: ANB - SOS - Jamar

hogan - looked completely disinterested n jones - keeps putting in watts - still can't tackle dawes - continues to disappoint viney - still can't kick lumumba - should be dropped brayshaw - shouldn't have played gawn - an outstanding performance tyson - couldn't get going dunn - some ordinary decisions stretch - looked completely knackered cross - tried, but average garland - doesn't do enough vince - greatest recruit ever? jkh - subbed too late t mcdonald - shocking til moved anb - didn't get going garlett - soundly beaten today vandenberg - looked rusty early howe - better as defender jetta - best small defender harmes - had little impact

5 Gawn 4 Vince 3 Jones 2 vandenBerg 1 Jetta

Tipped the peptides. Blind Freddy knew they were going to be fired up for today. We are PATHETIC.

Heppell, Goddard, Stanton... No one from Melbourne is worth a dime. Pathetic!

Well, I don't think we will win another game for the year. Exact same story as last year - winless after the bye.

Stick a fork in about half a dozen of em.

We are the most pathetic bunch of incompetents I have ever seen.

It's a shocking game of football. It's not wet, it's just two very poor sides.

Cross to Goddard.

No working structure in the forward half whatsoever. What the hell is ANB trying to take a screamer for every time the ball comes in? He's an extra in the contest which means that they have an extra at ground level. We are playing right into their hands.

Atrocious first quarter. They are clearly on too as the game was played on their terms. No working forward structure for us and Max is dominating in the air but Goddard and Stanton are clear winners at ground level.

Goddard is killing us.

Agreed frankie, hoping we hit the scoreboard hard early and put serious doubts in their minds. The only positive I'm taking out of the weather is it'll make it slower and harder, and that means our lack of run post-Darwin won't be so important. If we lose today tho...

I'm absolutely packing it on the way in. I really don't have faith in us; the weather should draw the two sides closer and that really worries me. It's going to come down to a battle of who puts their head over the ball and wants it more.

Interesting that apparently garland - a free agent - hasn't spoken to the club or had the club speak to him about his moves in 2015. For mine, we have too many third tall type defenders - garland, Howe, Lumumba and Grimes all essentially can play the same role of being able to play tall and small. Potentially White and you could argue Dunn also fall into that category. Something needs to give, and with Howe and Garland both out of contract it makes sense that one is likely to go.

i wonder if they might run jones and heppell head to head, vince and viney to goddard and zaka respectively.

root is hitting it superbly.

and bellend too. three down in a bit over an hour of play!

starc is chucking pies.

australia's bowlers looking decidedly unimpressive. pitch is up and down in a big way too, but looks slow.