mauriesy

Tom McDonald plays his 100th game this weekend. Neville Jetta has played 89 games. By comparison, Hurley has played 119 games. I suppose we could always try Dunn (165) and Garland (141).

I thought Tyson's was more deliberate than Gawn's.

You are far too centred on the outcome (number of wins), rather than the process (how to build a finals winning team). This year is actually all about next year. I don't particularly care how many wins we have for the rest of 2016, I care that the process of developing the team to be AFL finals ready is followed. If you want to build a backline from our young talent, they need experience, not wallowing in the seconds until they're 'ready'. We have got to get our talented young players to 50-60 AFL games minimum, not just ask them to put on 15kg.

I think there are quite a few here that love sitting down on gameday with their computer, pad or phone in front of the game, ready to post some negative comment the instant someone makes a mistake. It might be a little "happy we are losing", or the somewhat opaque view through the "veil of negativity", or it could be just plain "MFCSS". But it's particularly galling when you can't watch the match and are trying to get a handle on it through Demonland. When I first read the Gameday discussion on Saturday I thought we were 10 goals down, only to discover we were actually a goal or two up.

Tyson was BOG in the voting in the Nine Sunday Footy Show, Channel 7 Sunday and in the Sunday Age. I think he should get a lot more praise than " slow to offload".

Hogan's more likely to kick the goal though.

Agreed. Some of the suggestions, criticisms and angst aimed at players and coaches in the aftermath of a loss are offensive.

Fremantle might have lost, but they didn't look tired to me after a six-day break and only making two changes. So what's the requisite number of 'tired' players we need to 'swap out' after a Darwin game? 2? 3? 4? 8? 10? What numbers will make a difference? Why do you think players can't recover from game that was not particularly hard after 8 days? Why not the whole 22 just to make sure the whole team is 'fresh'?

Nevertheless you'd be mad to do it, especially when the same people have Max King in their sights and Mitch King is out for 12 months with a knee.

So who's to say it will be the same this time? But I guess if we do lose, everyone will blame Darwin.

So many people here with access to the club's performance and conditioning data. How do you know more than the club? Why do we need Misson? We've just had an 8-day break. It wasn't as though Darwin this time was a really hard game.

No way would you get rid of Spencer if he wasn't contracted. We'd have no backup to Gawn whatsoever.

Honestly, you make pessimists look optimistic.

He's got to over 100 games. Sometimes that's how long it takes.

I think everyone should get over it. It's signed and delivered for the next two years, and I think we're as much a willing part of the deal as the AFL and NT Government. Peter Jackson has stated the amount of money we get from the NT deal is the equivalent of having four crowds of more than 60,000 at the MCG. You are never going to get that against Fremantle or Port, even if we were on top of the ladder. This year we've got an 8-day break before meeting St Kilda. The players are professional athletes and the club is a professional organisation, so they can manage recovery. You can't tell me that sitting relatively still on a plane for 4 hours isn't manageable. Are the players prima donnas? As for 'weight loss', rehydration is important and I'm sure the club is managing it as part of the deal. The quality of the Darwin game has never been great, due to the humid conditions, and often due to either the quality of our opposition or our own poor past quality. So don't expect high level skills and exciting scores, especially in the second half of the game. However, I've been to a Darwin game, and it's a great expereince, one that is well worth making the effort to get to. I'd actually rather go there than soul-less Etihad. As we get better, we can make Darwin our own fortress, one that opposition teams don't like travelling to.

It was a joke.

Yep. Tom, the Ballarat boy, will go to the other side of the country, to the world's most isolated city, to play for a bottom of the ladder side coached by that denizen of attacking football, Ross Lyon.

So was Marcus Bontempelli.

Am I the only one who thinks the idea of a "rest" at Casey is somewhat of a slight on that team? Top of the ladder, needing to keep up the wins, the last thing Casey needs is players just turning up for a "rest".

I'd much rather Pedersen, Dawes or Dunn than Vickery.

Our greatest problem is effective kicking out of the back half. I'm not sure Grimes is an improvement on OMac although he is probably better one-on-one. If Wagner is available, bring him back in (he is possibly only out for a week). We miss Salem in that respect. Definitely like Oliver in to give us more clearances from the middle and around the ground.

None of the Sunday games in the bye round have been on FTA.

Bernese were working dogs on Swiss farms. They have no problems in Melbourne, just don't sit them out in the sun in summer. They are very placid and great with kids.

Optimism? Nathan Jones is meat and potatoes, Viney needs to curb his aggression, Oliver needs a rest, Trengove's slow, Petracca tries to do too much, Brayshaw's always concussed, Tyson is 'meh', Melksham can't kick, vandenBerg can't kick, Lumumba turns it over, Bugg's just a trier, Kennedy's too small, Spencer's unco, Tom is going to Sydney, Oscar is weak, Neal-Bullen isn't good enough, Wagner makes too many mistakes, Hunt doesnt get the ball enough, Harmes is too unreliable, Salem is always sick, Watts doesn't go, Kent plays one good game in four, Frost is not accountable, Vince gets reported too often, Kennedy-Harris's hamstrings are like tissue paper, Weideman is in the seconds, Hulett will never make it, Jetta's had two bad games in a row, Dawes can't clunk a mark, Dunn's gone, Grimes is gone, Newton's gone, Pedersen's gone, Garland's gone, Michie's gone, Roos is just in it for the money, Goodwin is tainted by Essendon, we won't win any more games for the rest of year and by 2018 we'll be the Tasmanian Devils. All we've got is Gawn. Come on. Get with the program.

Better this year than next year then.