Nasher

Comes as no surprise to me either.

Yeah exactly. It seems strange that McLean and Whelan are named on the bench - I would have thought they are either in the seniors or not playing at all. McLean and Whelan should never play at Sandy.

Agree. It just means they're giving him until the last possible minute to prove his fitness. He won't play.

Out: Warnock, Holland, McLean.

rivs will play and thats about all i think, mclean will play for sandy and same for robbo who i doubt will play full stop.

McLean wore his last ever Sandy guernsey a few years ago.

Yep.

We'll be stuffed by round 10, but still win ten games by the end of the year because Danners wants to keep his job, instead of playing the hard line and going for the picks by playing young 'uns.

9th in 2007...

Mediocrity thereafter...

I just hope that if we do tank (which is what you're saying whether you mean to or not), you and everyone else who supports the idea of "kids at all costs" don't spend the next 10 years complaining that we have a losing culture at the club, and that we don't know how to win etc. That's all that is going to come out of Wallet and his "flying the white flag" as Rhino put it.

If you want to blame someone blame Neitz.

Why do we have to blame anyone at all? It's a team game and in the end, there's probably hundreds of little things we could and should have done differently that might have pushed us over the line. This fingerpointing game we seem to get in every week is just scapegoating, and it's a pointless, fruitless exercise.

It's a team game and every single player should shoulder some responsibility for the loss, not just one or two.

your post just proved that the server clock is 10 minutes out nasher

My home clock could be out as well :D

*grasps at straws*

Rubbish.

Neita's horrific form and stupid 50m penalty, Jones' sloppy tackle that was paid in the back, players missing easy shots on goal yet again... that cost us the game.

Davey was brilliant today, and his run off the half-back line was the main reason we could compete with the Dogs.

Absolutely, completely agree. Davey played the all-round game today. Appeared in the forward line to crumb when needed, and took marks on the last line of defence when needed. To single him out for the loss is absolute madness.

Could it be your clock that is out? :D

The timestamp on the posts go by the clock on the server. IE, At the time of posting this message, my clock says 10:55 but the server clock says (whatever the timestamp up there ^ ^ ^ says). Its clock gets synced with an NTP service so it should be pretty accurate.

Last night was symbolic of the way the game has turned ... just basketball on a bigger court.

Everyone runs back into "dee-fense", the other team kicks around the perimeter until someone makes a lead ("cuts through the paint") and there's an opportunity to mark. What's called man-on-man is usually really just a "full court press", resulting in kicking around the perimeter as far back as the defensive side of the centre square. When there's a turnover, they all then "transition" to the other end for the same perimeter play. "Tempo football" is just another name for passing it around the perimeter, only with no shot clock.

I'm waiting for the fist commentator to call the inside of the 50m arc the "paint", and a free kick a "foul".

Send Dennis a letter Maurie. He'll be talking about it on TV before you know it.

Scoop's right because Carlton lost their first round pick that year.

Indeed. If they'd had it, it would've gone Dogs, Blues, Dees, Dogs, Blues Dees... Carlton may well have taken Brock at pick 5 had they not had it confiscated. I guess we'll never know now. Bad luck Blues. :D

if the afl was a business itd be broke and the shareholders wouldve sacked the board. thats how bad it is being run.

The AFL is a business, and a very successful one at that. If it had shareholders they'd be laughing all the way to the bank because the AFL makes a massive profit every year.

We're missing Wheels, Bartram and now Petterd, so Bell's our only accountable non-tall defender. The back line can't afford to release him at the moment.

Sorry about the long post. Nasher, I blame you. :D

First class thesis as always DD. Fair points on everything you said.

Just on your point about Sandy, I wish I could go down and watch them play. If I lived in Melbourne I'd be at TBO every weekend. As it is I see Sandy play once a year, when they're in Hobart (which they won't be at all this year).

Adobe has a lot to answer for. A Flashy website is not necessarily a superior one. Whilst more colourful than its predecessor it is perhaps even more inept. Probably a lot of footy fans would be happy with a straight text presentation but of course this would preclude advertising options. Heaven forbid.

Adobe don't have anything to answer for. Flash is just one of their products, they don't force people to use it. The AFL and the crew they contracted to develop their site (Telstra) are the ones who have a lot to answer for. The current AFL website stinks.

I think I may have missed a pertinent point here DD but are you saying that of the plethora of young forwards we've got, not a single one of them are suitable to play the "stay at home" FF role in the future?

Our options are Miller, Dunn, Newton, Garland, Bate, P.Johnson. Of those, we can rule out the following:

- Miller. His biggest strength is his leading and running up the ground. It need not be as far up the ground as it currently is, but either way you'd be wasting his best asset if you plonked him in front of goal. He's also not "goal aware" enough, doesn't like taking set shots and (now I'm just guessing) probably wouldn't kick anywhere near as many goals as Neitz does in general play, just because he hasn't shown any propensity to doing it before.

- P.Johnson. He's the only one of our "ruckman" who looks like he might actually be able to get the ball in general play. His attributes mean his best use would be in the ruck (if he can somehow learn how to tap), or as a stop-gap in the backline. Personally I don't believe he has all that much of a future at the club at all, let alone as our #1 forward.

What are Neitz's attributes that makes him such a good forward?

1. He is built like a brick outhouse, and in general play knows how to use his body to his advantage by clearing the deck of all opposition midgets

2. When on song he can outmark any backman in the competition

3. When on song his set shots score a goal the majority of the time

4. His defensive side is sound in that he always chases and applies defensive pressure without exception

5. He can get the ball off the ground in general play and score

Of our remaining options (Dunn, Newton, Garland, Bate), none meet criterion 3 at this point, but all appear to be good enough set shots at this point in their career that improving to Neitz' level should not be beyond them.

Criterion 1 is the biggest worry I have about Dunn. He is as skinny and weedy as they come. He's still young and has plenty of time to fill out, but I doubt he'll be able to become rock solid like Neita. I've not seen enough of Garland or Newton to comment on their body shape (can someone fill in the gaps here?). Bate in this regard definitely has the right body shape. He's quite tall but already he's got that type of strong, heavy body that Neitz has. He's still under 21, as he reaches his peak he is only going to get stronger. In years to come he could well develop in to being the strongest bloke we have in the team. How many teams play their strongest player on the HFF?

Criterion 2 is strongly related to Criterion 1 and I think last week Bate demonstrated that he's got hands like vices, which will only get better. At the moment he would have to be leading the stakes in this regard. Again I think Dunn is a worry here due to his build.

Criterion 4 can be taught.

In short I personally believe that Bate could well be the answer for FF in the future. I believe he's got all the attributes and as his body develops, he'll prove that he's got everything it takes. I also believe that you've labelled Garland as a tall flanker a tad early. He's still a kid, his body has a royal crapload of developing left to do. As I said earlier, I've not seen a great deal of him, but he didn't appear to me to be a weed like Dunn. Who's to say he won't fill out as necessary?

scrap that comment he is an emergency...

No he isn't! He's injured. Strike two for you, would you like a third crack at getting it right?? :D

Out: Petterd (hamstring)

FFS. There goes my favourite part of the season so far.

It's Celebrating 'Whealen the Wrecker' and the little hardness still left in our game, you must be more of a Cameron Bruce person.

Err. Whelan fell on his leg, there's nothing hard or tough about that, it was just a sheer accident. Anyone from Rodney Grinter to Ryan Houlihan could've done that.

You're a dog? :D

Taller than I imagined.

Any chance of having some (screen) names to the faces?

Maybe everyone that abused the umpires after the game (from home and from the ground) should send $1 TJ's way, as a thanks for speaking on behalf of all of us. There'd be $2 coming from this house.

He'd come out with a pretty tidy profit I reckon.

My viewing companion for the game did cry. I just sat in stunned disbelief.

Even if you do believe that Armstrong and Jolly shouldn't have been removed from the club (which I don't), you can't possibly argue that their careers were ruined. They're still playing, and rather successfully, aren't they?