Dappa Dan

Jeez. I can see where this is going. Everyone's already so combative, it's going to get to the stage where whenever Tappy has a good game, people will get stuck into Roost It... and whenever he has a bad game, Roost it will... well... roost it up everyone else. Rather like the "Jayceebee" model where whenever Grimes has a bad game he's right, but when he plays well, he's wrong. Or the "Freak" one where if a player who's 191 or 192cm or whatever it was plays well, everyone gets stuck into him. There's going to be a thread with passive aggressive asides aimed at RI for the next year, whenever Tappy has some news.

Let's talk, RR.

I like it, RR. Well. Maybe not a "great" effort... that would have been four quarters. But that last quarter was certainly a HUGE positive. The Swans couldn't play like that at all (on the G). And yeah, I didn't leave the ground devastated like I should after a draw. Just a bit more relieved. Personally, I reckon it was a great effort to get the lead back, but I thought with 3 and a half minutes to go, they'd take it back and that we'd have to do something extra to win it again. The fact it was inside defensive fifty for a full 3 minutes with ONLY 2 points going through was extraordinary. We couldn't get the pill cleanly. Couldn't wax the clock down... 3 minutes of nothing but resisting them. Jurrah taking it on the goal line... It was actually pretty amazing. When the first point happened I said to myself I'll take a draw. We were cooked. We had to work SO hard for the first 25 minutes of the quarter just to get the lead, I didn't think we had it in us to get it back again... And there were just SO many good signs to go along with it. Petterd, Tapscott, Martin all did so much.

Well that's going a bit early, would't you say? He'll get games this year. And the guy has played a LOT of good footy. Saying that someone who's kicked as many bags as him isn't a "2011 AFL footballer" is a bit ridiculous. I don't reckon anyone thinks he's gonna win a brownlow, but he's as much of a chance as not of coming in, gathering momentum, and kicking 4 like he has a few times. He's not a BAD footballer, per ce, he's just designed a bit wrong for this game as it is. Doesn't mean he won't do some good things. There ARE still some great features to his game... pace, booming kick, engine, bulk, red hair. Yup. Sums it up.

No. Let's hope they do. Dropping a player who had four super weeks in the pre-season for one bad game would be pre-emptive (assuming there wasn't a best 22 player screaming for a spot, like Petterd). You're talking selections... I used the word judgement. What happens if they persevere and Maric comes in next week and kicks 3? Will you still be hoping the FD wielded the axe? Or shall we just go early again and drop Tapscott... Maric was picked for a reason. You have to give him more than 3 quarters of the real stuff to prove himself in 2011...

Really? I mean he's a usable kick. Certainly can dump it 50+ metres when he needs to... but he's not much of a chipper, or stabber of the ball. They all do seem to loop a lot, which forces a leading player into a 50/50 contest, turns a 50/50 contest into a 2 on 1... and turns a miskick into a turnover. The only time he excels at kicking downfield regularly seems to be when he kicks to a space where there's someone in red and blue close to running onto it. I think the exception is those lovely times when he's looking like he's been corralled and he takes off on a sprint and gets around his opponent. At pace he kicks better than when he's taken a mark, or is ambling along, or when he loads up. The momentum seems to aid in getting the passes flatter, and more custom-made for his leading wingmen/forwards. Not to pick holes in him. He's one of my first picked. And he's gonna be a GREAT player... but I think there's gonna be some bad days like Sunday that we'll have to deal with. And I reckon we'll have the same feeling hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS of times looking forward... ie: Ball gets kicked into our defence, marking contest, you see a demon come up with it, Grimes staggers to his feet, looks up the ground... hunches over to breathe... and after the feeling of relief and adulation passes, we will be hoping something happens, rather than expecting it like you would with a Davey, Trengove, even Tapscott type.

Aaah the season's started... and so have the good threads. Just quietly... I am going to keep an eye on the clearances stat. I don't expect us to be world beaters, outdoing our opposition every week... I don't expect us to ever even get to that point as I thought we are a bulldogs-like rebound side at times, and THAT'S where we'll kick bigger scores and win games... But what I'd like to see is us break even one day, or at least get ourselves on the way to that point. Why? Because Jamar is there, Moloney and Sylvia can set up well... and because now with Scully, Gys and Trengove in there that should be an area we look to improve GREATLY... and improve in the early days, as these players won't take as long as a Watts/Gawn/Fitzpatrick type. The other stats are good fun too, but clearances... that's the mark of a serious football side, and a finals contender. Let's get that dealt with.

My God. That's good eatin' His shoulders are like the shoulder pads of an NFL footballer.

That's a bit chicken and egg I reckon... I mean, usually I get annoyed when the players don't look to move the ball on as QUICKLY as possible. Take the option every time, because if you don't you run the risk of getting tackled and it's a fifty-fifty ball or in this day and age, a free against. At least if you insist they dispose of it quickly, you are at least in control somewhat of the direction the ball goes. I think mostly it was round 1 blues. From about round 3-5 last year, culminating in the Brisbane game which was epic, the team found their timing in this regard and started backing their team-mates to be where they're supposed to be. Personally I hope they keep trusting their judgement and at least TRYING to dispose rather than wait to be hit. Pretty soon it'll click I reckon, and there were passages with players like Davey, Bennell, Trengove etc where they were aaaalmost there.

I love Matty Bate.... but unless they find a spot for him... he's going to have to go.

That's what I was thinking. It works for now... but will it stay that way? I imagine what would be ideal is if he can go to the box and let the leaders in the team start doing the talking to the younger players. Right now, and especially since Bruce and JMac left, they're in short supply, and usually if they're Beamer, Green or Jamar they're too busy wheezing their way through the game to instruct.

You're tough... Watching the game on replay, I noticed Bennell played one of his best games for us. He certainly had a few thrilling passages that you might have seen better on the television than live at the ground. One of the best things was noticing how he ran straight at the ball a few times, and actually came off ok. Was very effective with his disposals too at times, under duress. And Bail, as per the post-game analysis on MFC.com, was on Kennedy and shut him down all day. Then at the end when Kennedy went of cramping, Bail was loosened up and got a number of touches. Very, very good game for mine. Kennedy is no slouch, even if he was playing at a ground he's not comfortable at. Rivers and Maric say hi. Get off his case. He took 6 marks, had 15 or so touches in a tough day for forwards. His attack on the ball was sub-par, and that's what I'll say would make people grumble... and fairly.... but he was a long way from being worst on.

How many times are you going to go with this? Are you gonna keep rattling this off EVERY time he has a bad game? Just because you said it once, and he had a rough game disposals wise DOESN'T MAKE YOU RIGHT! And for the record, his problem when kicking WAS when he looked up the ground. Turnover city. When he switched play, things actually started happening... You're still reading this one ass backwards. Grimes is not an elite kick. He knows it. The coach knows it. So he chooses safer options instead of risking a turnover. Did it occur to you that he may be under instructions to find a loose player at all costs? Consider the opposition. When we went out wide, things started happening. I reckon against Sydney, on that ground, switching up play was the thing that kept us in it in the first 3 quarters. Jack Grimes lacks discipline.... jesus. Now I've heard it all. He'd be among the most disciplined players at the club. He just hasn't got what it takes by foot. And hey, we'd all love to see him bomb it long to contests if we had the marking HFs and wingmen we need, in form, and playing the kind of setup that takes advantage of that.... but that's just the thing. We don't. THAT'S why he went sideways!!! How can you not see it, after all this time? I know people got under your skin, and you got upset, and then clung to your flawed logic so you wouldn't sink, but enough is enough isn't it? Every time he has a bad game you're going to aim this same accusation at him... mistakenly... then when he has good games you'll claim he did exactly what you said... He's a good, potentially great player who just doesn't have a great kick. It really is that simple.

Thing about Rivers is that it'll take a LOT of howlers for him to make way for anyone... Leadership group and all. And he's a good player, if old fashioned. He won't string together the three/four weeks it'll take for the panel to lose patience with him. So he probably won't be going out. Personally, I think round 1 is a bit of a dizzy mess, so I'll wait until rounds 2 or 3 to make judgements.

What? Of course I understand it. Did you actually read my post? My point was that I haven't come across any supporters who've put their expectations up so high that they expect us to be in a premiership window. There are a few stragglers here and there that seem to have forgotten the last 4 years, but the VAST majority hope for 7th or 8th as a best case scenario. IN fact someone started a thread a month ago or so that put us in the top 4, and the response was that everyone here thought they were a fool. Now granted that could just be my vantage point, but I haven't seen any supporters other than this one "getting ahead of themselves."

I reckon straight swap Maric for Petterd. We were crying out for a marking forward. In fact had it been that was we'd have won. Though obviously Maric had earned the spot with a good preseason.

No offence to the demon faithful here, but they're gonna smash us like electric guitars next Sunday. Their first half alone was amazing. Better than anything we dished up, including the Petterd-inspired last quarter.

That same thing happened a lot when Watts was on his own and clear. They did a Morton with him today. Ignored him.

On the plus side, he won't have a worse game by foot... He really was good. Got on the "good" votes for MMM. Even though he butchered it, so did our forwards. When he kept rebounding the ball in the last quarter I found myself saying "thank god" more than I found myself saying "bloody Grimes."

I was sure we'd lost. When it got to the last 3 minutes, and the ball didn't leave defensive fifty... I said out loud I'd take a draw. And honestly, the draw last year hurt more cos of the opposition, and the fact we were teetering in our season. Also, it would really have been an 8 point game as Sydney might well be one of our competitors for finals. So it went from being what would have been a MASSIVE loss for us, to being a draw. It hurts... but it could have hurt a LOT more.

There were cramps all over the joint last night... GREAT game of footy though. Only thing missing was perhaps a tiny bit of execution. Particularly by Buddy who's screwed me on UF... (not demonland one)

Jurrah 4 goals, and 3 each to Maric and Petterd. Boom.

That kind of annoys me in a way. Essentially the message we're getting there is "lower your eyes a bit." It certainly seems like the club's people are concerned by the general consensus that this team SHOULD be playing finals this year. I want to know why that bothers the THAT much. I mean, we were in the running until very late last year, we have a largely fit list with only a few injuries in the 3-4 week category, we have no excuses essentially. I haven't seen a SINGLE fan talk like we're in a premiership window this year. Why is the line that we're still a ways off being rolled out? Other clubs with young lists are giving themselves every chance of top 4. Our fans are realistic about it, even though we've had to wait 3 years for any hope... 4 if you count 2007. They should be talking us up saying we won't accept anything LESS than finals. We're as good a chance as more than half the final-8 threats in the league right now...

rpfc, gonna be an interesting day tomorrow. I have got you on accuracy, hitouts, handballs and frees against... But you could catch me on all of the other ones.

That hurts. But if you can sneak away with it this week, you'll love having him for the rest of the year... I'd like to announce a guy I picked up as last pick in BOTH drafts this year for me... Shaun McKernan... even though he's only a forward on the list, he's kicking goals, getting touches and playing as backup ruckman racking up 10-15 hitouts. Going to be a VERY good pickup. Might be interested in a trade when I need one too, since I already have Sandi... Fear me people.... fear me.