Lord Travis

Injuries are definitely a reasonable excuse. We have played 31 of a possible 38 players already this season. Pretty scary!

Hope to see Petterd playing next week due to our injuries. He may not be ready, but there isnt many other options :S

We have played 31 of a possible 38 players already this season. Pretty scary!

If they both got the midfield support they needed, they would be fine. Last year when our midfield was applying good pressure, laying lots of tackles, and pushing back into defense properly, Carroll was good. The fact is at the moment he is playing one on one against talented players, being bombarded by masses of ball coming in, and doesnt have Rivers or any decent defenders helping him out. When the midfield gets up and running, and Rivers et all return, he will be fine.

As for Miller, he is having a good season. Already kicked more goals than he did for the entire year last year, and is trying his ass off week in week out for decent results. If he got better supply from the midfield, he would be better off also. Both these players are fine, and will be fine. It's the midfield that's the problem, and the current injuries arent helping!

Cheers for the link. Amazing.

One of the best games Yze has played in a long time. Cannot be faulted on yesterdays effort.

38 disposals, not all of which were effective, but most were. 12 handballs. Doubt Yze has had even half that in any match in his career. Reason he had these handballs was because he was in the contests firing the ball off.

Here are the 2 important stats i like. Contested possession: 11. 11! Basically double anyone else in the side for the match.

Contested marks: 2. The entire side took 6 for the day, so he took a third of the entire teams contested marks.

Kicked a freak goal, and layed 6 tackles.

Bloody good game by Yze. Glad to see him earning his pay packet again in such spectacular fashion.

If he keeps up that kind of form, he will win the B&F and be All Australian again.

Its time for Bell to go to another one of the 15 clubs

Why? Because he is hard at it and playing with some heart? We don't like players like that at Melbourne do we...

whelan was tried as a midfielder earlier in his career n failed miserably. Bell's being tried there n has failed miserably. Some ppl just can't play whilst being in the thick of it. I'm happy for him being a stopper/defender n running out of defence.

Bell has a harder body than Whelan, has more pace, and has one of the best kicks in our side. He was recruited as a midfielder, and could very well play there. He played one of his best games for the club solely in the midfield against Adelaide late-ish last year. He could play there, but only part time IMO. He is not designed to follow the ball around all game. Doesn't have the awareness and concentration to stick to it a full match. He'll play in defence the majority of his career, with stints int he midfield, and I'd be happy with that.

Happy to see him finally up and running and having an impact. Let's hope Syliva can follow suit eh

Moloney out is a bad loss. He is just so passionate and has an impact out there even if he doesn't rake up 30 touches every week. Has been one of our best all year, even battling injury and fitness. Under-rated footballer IMO. With him, Brock, Sylvia, Pickett all out, TJ in average form and under injury cloud, Green not performing well in the midfield, Bruce not playing in the midfield, Junior having an average season....our midfield is really struggling. I marked it in as our strong point at the start of the year, but it is really being flogged. Has been beaten convincingly every match this year. Jones has been great for someone so young and inexperienced, winning a stack of clearances and making his presence felt. Apart from him, haven't been any other shining lights.

If TJ had been out for 6 weeks like originally suggested, I'd have said finals are gone. God I wish Brock was healed up already!

How many goals did Mark Williams get while Bell was on him though?

1.

Kicked 4 on Whelan, 1 on Bell, and 1 when Bell was coming from the ground injured and he had no opponent and thus got handed a freebie. Bell shut him down, as he has shut down every player he has played on this year. He has been our rock in defence this year, taking over from Whelan who has been uncharacteristically sloppy. We cant afford to push Bell up into the midfield at this stage. The backlines already missing Rivers, Whelans been average, and the rest have been poor. Take Bell away, and you've got a likely backline of Carroll (having a poor year), Whelan, Ward, Brown, Wheatley, Holland. Doesnt exactly inspire does it

I think Bell could well play midfield in the future, but only in a part time role.

Can we Beat Freo

Wouldn't think so

Bate - 1.5 (Worst player on the field. Needs to go back to Sandy and gain some confidence)

Bell - 7 (One of our best, for weeks running now. Quickly becoming one of our most reliable players)

Brown - 4 (Gathers cheap possessions and has no impact)

Bruce - 8 (Another good effort. Cant remember the last time I saw him lose a one on one contest, and often wins 2-3 on one with the odds against him. Cant fault his effort, one of the few trying)

Carroll - 4 (Toweled up again. Has really poor awareness. Having a shocking season thus far)

Davey - 3 (Goalless for the entire season, and having little impact)

Ferguson - 2 (Useless. At 26 years old, and yet to cement a spot in the team, he will be one of the first delisted at years end)

Godfrey - 5 (Another decent game by Godders, but he is Godders after all)

Green - 6.5 (Only forward capable of kicking a goal down there today. Tried hard)

Holland - 3 (Didnt do much)

Jamar - 2.5 (Decent in ruck, unsighted around the ground)

Johnson - 5 (Did surprisingly alright in defense on a rampant, and albiet innaccurate, Mooney)

Johnstone - 6.5 (Alright today. Still not great, but far better than previous 2 rounds)

Jones - 7 (Our clearance king. We'd be pretty screwed without him. Tries his guts out)

McDonald - 5.5 (Just went. Not playing with the same gusto as last year)

Miller - 6 (Always presents, gives structure, and never stops trying. A pity he isnt more talented)

Moloney - 7 (Again amongst our best. I'd have him in our top 2-3 in the B&F so far. Hope he's not injured, because if he is, then I give up on the year. He is my only joy from watching at the moment. The man is passionate)

Ward - 3 (Gave little drive today, and that's about all he can do)

Wheatley - 5 (Was alright. Abit wasteful and loose...)

White - 4 (Beaten by a nobody AGAIN, and made an insane ammount of errors around the ground. A real worry)

Yze - 5.5 (Better today than has been for a while. Defensive pressure was better, made a few 1%s, but his kicking of all things let him down!)

Agreed. After seeing the team, not looking forward to this one...

Lets hope we come out and pull some sort of miracle win with such a poorly rounded team on the field. Will make it oh so sweet!

Oh my f*cking god?! What is this?!?! Not very confident about this weekend...

Rivers down as well? We really are in the dumps injury wise now. Wheatley as CHB? HAHAHA! Now I've seen it all!

Where is Sylvia? Maybe P.J? And wtf is going through the selection panels mind. That team lacks any semblance of class! Looking at that forward line, and going by recent weeks form, we will be lucky to kick 5-6 goals, let alone win

Assign him a bodyguard. I nominate Moloney. He is to follow Travis around the field and protect him from the illegal bumps he receives constantly behind play, and also take out the taggers with meaty hip n shoulders of his own :D

In all seriousness though, Travis may be injured, he may not. He was ok in Round 1, poor in Round 2. He will work into form, and if he doesnt...well then Sandy may beckon. Highly doubt it'd get that bad though.

Side note: Travis has better hair than Nathan Carroll now

Round 2, however, is not the time to jump off and create disunity...

We will win more than we lose this year, just be patient.

Correct. Been a poor start to the season with bad form and injuries, but it is only Round 2 after all. I'd be seriously surprised if we didn't win more games than we lose this year. We'll still make the 8 and play finals. Our list it too good not to.

We must have patience. Only 2 matches done, and people on here are talking about finishing near the bottom of the ladder and having a complete clean out of our list and coaching staff. Now we may not be doing that well currently, but we've played finals footy for 3 years running. That's the most consistent footy I can remember our beloved MFC playing in many years. Someone wanna tell me when the last time was we played finals 3 years running was?

Well make that 4, because we'll be playing finals footy again this year. To quote the great Van Wilder, "...write that down B) "

He has Chapmans scalp I believe.

Bell is a tough and speedy small/medium defender. He is one of the few players I have no worries with at the moment. He is finally over his OP it seems, and is growing in confidence and getting bigger jobs wit every match that passes. He is doing fine, and will be a good player for us. I'd leave him as a defender for the time being, with maybe a move into the midfield a few years down the track when Bruce, Green, Travis etc all retire and he is then a senior player. But for the time being, we have enough midfielders, and we need him down back. Pretty reliable. Anyone who says Williams carved him up yesterday wasnt watching. Williams carved Whelan up, and badly. Williams only kicked 1 goal when Bell moved onto him, and that came from a dubios free kick. Bell did a good job on him, jsut like he did in the NAB cup.

No concerns regarding his future.

Not sure about White, he was OK. But Davey and Travis were certainly in poor form. No point dropping them though. We've got bad injury problems at the moment, and they're both too important to drop quite frankly. Poor start to the season

'LOL'

Look forward to the return of Sylvia

We are [censored] for a while then :S

A very very flawed genius is our Travis. When his kicking and brain are switched off, he may as well stay at home and play PS3.

Travis has a PS3 already?! No wonder he isnt paying attention

He doesnt have any hard midfielders to protect him

When Brock, Sylvia and Pickett are back in the team Travis will shine. Sad, but true

Hit the nail on the head. Not saying he's scared exactly, but he is getting no support whatsoever. Everyones jumping on him for a poor game yesterday, and while he did have a poor game, I don't think people realise how badly he was being harassed. I counted at least 3 ball up contests where he was sandwiched by 2 hawks players illegally blocking him from the contest. None of his team mates helped him out, and it got to the stage where he'd be focused on the contest, get drilled by bumps from both sides, look around at his team mates who were standing round hands on hips, and he'd just sink his head. There is no comradere in the midfield at the moment. The hard work that the players did last year, the running, the chasing, the 1%s, non-existent thus far this year. Shows how important Brock really is to us. As soon as he left the field in round 1, our midfield has been lost since. Soft, lazy, losing.

When Brock, Pickett, Sylvia, the harder players return and take some of pressure off Travis, he will shine. He's too good a player not to. But it's abit hard when you're being tagged by TWO players at once. There was no Mclean, so all they had to do was take Travis out of it and the match was theirs. Travis is good, but he's no Judd unfortunately.

Right just got home. Shocking game, but we did fight it out considering the bad run with injuries.

Whelan - was soundly thrashed

Carroll - was not disgraced

Bell - solid medium backman (I thought he did well today, though alot of you appear to disagree)

Brown - gave decent run

Rivers - well rounded game

Ward - under the pump

Johnstone - harassed to death/career worst game (yes he had a terrible game, but his team mates didn't help him out at all. he was blocked out of numerous contests by 2 men tagging him at once, and his team mates didnt do a thing to help him. I'm defending him because he's my favorite player. As sh*t as he was, I blame team mates for not showing any comradeship whatsoever. And therein lies our main problem currently)

Johnson - not doing enough

Green - poor milestone game

Davey - becoming a passenger

Moloney - another solid game (am I the only one on here who thinks he is actually doing well considering how little footy he has player the last year and abit?)

McDonald - battled as usual

Robertson - not much opportunity

Neitz - get well soon :S

Jones - made small contribution

Miller - is getting better

Jamar - is going nowhere

Bate - lacks confidence + form/mr butter fingers

Wheatley - poor milestone game

Bruce - battled all match

White - switched up game

Godfrey - what we expected (tried hard, but just isnt a good enough AFL footballer)

Terrible start to the season for us. Slightly worried, but we lost first 3 last year and came back. Problem is we've lost 2 at the G already, that's more than the entire season last year :S I had both matches penciled in as a win, and they'll obviously come back to haunt us.

CMON DEES. LIFT YOUR F*CKING GAME!

We're getting injuries at the wrong time. We're being forced to use depth we shouldn't have to. Having Ward, Brown, and likely Godfrey in the same team is not a good sign. Maybe 3-4 years ago, but it's 2007 now and we have far more talent than we're getting onto the field :S

Looking forward to the return of this promising young forward

Heffernan. Played some great footy at the Dons, and was touted as future captain. The we picked him up as the Dons were forced to trade away some talent or fall down the ladder badly. I thought we'd got a steal. What we got was midfield depth, and poor one at that. Disappointing.