Choko

Yes... leadership is filling my bank account so I like you.

Yeh, let's import our leadership from a bloke who doesn't want to play for us and won't even give us his medical records. That's awesome. You said it, not I.

Because if, on your reckoning, Newton is slightly better equipped than Dunn, then he was slightly less likely to lose all the taps. But was was absolutely the case was that he was contributing more in his position than Dunn was in his, so it was a net loss and poor decision.

Not a clue. Not one. Ball, if he was forced to play for a club he didn't want to, would be helping a mediocre club stay mediocre. Clubs that pick Ball are clubs that are on the verge and have a gap. Or Richmond 5 years ago.

If you think culture is airy fairy, then you have demonstated your knowledge of the subject. None.

No feel for footy mate. Almost every post you deliver is entirely clueless. We have gone after elite players. We have failed. Remember Judd? Ball is a good player in a fantastic team. He actively did not want to come to Melbourne. Fev kicked 5 at Casey this week - let's lock him in.

12 - 13 is an exaggeration. Not to mention, more than half the ones that were given were baseless. Martin is proving to be a really good second ruckman. The way he toiled by himself on the weekend was much better than we would have or could have expected. It should be commended.

It was a poor move. To ask a guy like Newton, who was finally showing something with defensive pressure and goals, to perform a role he doesn't play at Casey was a poor decision. Should have been Dunn.

This post is not so much line in the sand as head in the sand.

Hard to disagree with that. It's not his fault he's not up to the grade. Like Brad Miller, Simon Godfrey and many others before them, if they try to get the most out of themselves, then they deserve recognition.

If you need that to prove that he's not up to the grade, good luck to you!

Refer above. They still have a slight sniff at finals. They don't respect us, and nor should they. We are decimated. It's at Etihad. Saints by 6 goals. Sorry, just how I see it.

No chance.

The fundamental problem we have with our injury list is that there is now no pressure on underperforming players. Really, blokes like Dunn, Bennell, even Davey, need to feel like there are blokes who can and may take their spot if they don't do what is expected of them. At the moment, we are not in the position where we can drop most of them. I think winning games is pretty much off the agenda at the moment, so I am inclined to award games to players who are going to do the team things. I think it sends a powerful message. If Davey won't work defensively, drop him. If Green won't give a second effort, drop him. But as I said, you can't do that unless you think there's another bloke who will give those efforts that is uninjured and ready for AFL. And you definitely don't want to give games to blokes who have been dropped for not doing what is expected and have not improved that in the VFL (e.g. Morton) So in short, I think we will be putting up with the same mediocrity for a while yet.

There should be a Demonland award for moronic post of the week. You have it stitched up.

Great post. Exactly right. A legal tackle should be exactly that.

Yes it does. Wow, could get interesting! Stick it up em dees!

I don't want Newton to help anyone out with anything. Ever. If Martin is OK he will surely play, but that to me doesn't necessarily stop Max getting a game and for them to share the duties. The question then becomes whether we lose too much run, but since North isn't such a good running/spread team, I would go Gawn and Martin.

I actually think we will win. Good on the club in any event.

It's a massive blow to lose them all, and for it to be at the same time is devastating. Our best defensive rebounder, our only ruckman, one of our top 3 midfielders at the same time as Scully and our best tackling midfielder is a massive loss. It makes the next 3 - 4 almost impossible.

I hope it's not an injury related to load, or the club has been absolutely negligent.

I was there and I remember when we used to get 14K to these sorts of games. The weather pre-game did us no favours... nor did mother's day or the way we played against WCE. Would have liked to see another 5k, but all in all not pathetic.

Is this a case of mismanagement by the club? http://www.physioadvisor.com.au/9800050/navicular-stress-fracture-physioadvisor.htm Given that Dr Google is telling me that this is an injury caused by excessive load/weight bearing, I wonder whether this sort of injury is a good example of where the millions extra other clubs such as the Filth have for meticulous management of players' loads makes a difference...

That is so misguided it's really a waste of space. Young teams are erratic. We beat the Suns by 90, and they have won as many games as Adelaide. We beat Brisbane and we drew with a good side in Sydney. Like Bailey or not, your contention is simply stupid.

Oy! Nostradamus - what's gonna happen this week?