IvanBartul13

Ive got a bit of faith in Frawley as a shut down defender, I think he will be useful in that role, but when you look at Everitt for the Dogs I think they certainly have the better player, he is just as quick, strong and athletic, but his run and footskills are outstanding. Nathan Brown went pick 10, then Everitt at 11, just a case of we got the third best defende available and he is a bit limited skill wise. One thing to note with defenders is that they do take time, Glass took at least 3 or 4 years to come good and Scarlett was very ordinary in his early years, similar to Frawley - getting out muscled and a non-event offensively. The good thing about him was that he played well in the under 18 championships on a lightning quick crumber in Shane Edwards (now at Tigers) and played well on talls as well. Give him some time!

If you think Bell for Stewart is fair you are kidding yourself, one is a panicking tryer, the other a guy who is tall, can run, kick and is assured with the football in his hand. Power would accept only a 1st rounder for Paul Stewart, but he;'s probably off limits

Not a chance in hell Port trades Paul Stewart

Great story about him. Whe he was a kid he used to wrap tennis balls in tin paper, stand in the Caribbean shallows and practice by playing shots to skimmers thrown at him by the Guyana locals.

Alan Johnson was 26 when he came to Melbourne, it is not a fair comparison.

Going very good, only knock is he loses a bit of concentration with his spoiling sometimes and lets a few get behind him and into dangerous areas

I think the problem the club has had is with assessing its own players and the tolerance and keeping of players who are either not good enough or who have had flaws that have retarded the ability of the team to be anything other than a finals make up the numbers type team. I cant fault CAC too much, he has done a solid job, there are good picks and some howlers in there, but given that the footy dept spending was comparitively low throughout his tenure, its hard to bag him too much. My problem with our drafting is that there have been a lot of players picked that have little scope for improvement post draft, a lot of mature bodies have been acquired which goes against the grain of what I would be looking for, I think the club has had a conservative/risk-free approach and not a taken a few flyers on raw players with great upside where it might have been able to - Garland an example of the type of the player I mean, but there aren't many there. In general the recruitment of experienced AFL players from other clubs has been poor too.

Connolly deserved entry would have played 200 if injury hadnt intervened

Well I think Nathan Brown was a better and more heroic player than either McDonald and Hopgood

It seems to me that the 100 game requirement was quite constrictive with a number of players that I would neither call heoric or good making the list. Stephen Icke, the single most courageou footballer the club has seen missed out, despite a best and fairest, with the reason obviously being that he played only 78. I think the inclusions of Hopgood, Rigoni and A. McDonald are biased with 100 games and recent time in my mind.

yep I think Frawey or Garland will get Medhurst with Rivers or Carroll to play.

Yeah his knee his dodgy, but he is plenty quick enough for AFL even still, he needs to play to his limitations, similar to a lot of them - Jones, Bell etc - problem is we have to many of them.

Bartram is not suited by being in a bad team stuffed with one-dimensional midfielders, he was good value in a good team a couple of years ago, where his Defensive Pursuit Skills and tagging were a defined piece in the jigsaw of a comparitevly complete and attacking team. Now, constantly under pressure and in a team where being a good shadow is less important, he is of less value. That said, his kicking skills and decision making are at a very basic level and barely VFL standard, so its probably going to be a case of playing to his strengths and handballing wherever possible like Viney did and to a lesser extent Godfrey did. In reality, though I wonder whether Bartram is just a quicker version of Godders and forever destined to matchup roles. And a note on those complaing that he is coming back of injury, etc, I dont think really that is an issue, the problems he has in his game have been with him since he arrived and I dont think complaints about his play stem from his ability to run.

Yze is a very natural leading forward out of the goalsquare, would fill the role very easily if required, the one thing that hasnt disappated from his game is his one-on-one ability in those situations, he'll bo OK and should come in. Green should not play forward he is too valuable helping the defence at the moment as a loosey or ceovering from the midfield. My side would be B: Bartram Warnock Garland HB: Sylvia Rivers Bell C: Green Moloney Bruce HF: Davey Miller Bate F: Holland Yze Wonaeamirri Foll: White McLean Rov: Jones I/c: P.Johnson Buckley McDonald, Morton Em: C.Johnson, Jamar, Frawley I think Bell lives to play on Schneider, but he is a limited footballer and would be close to the axe. Bartram for Milne. Warnock v Kosckitzke and Rivers or Garland v Riewoldt probly. Wouldnt mind if Garland was given a lesser opponent, wouldnt want him to lose momentum by getting thrashed by a Riewoldt. I think we will be stretched defensively this week.

The thing people don't take into account with Garland is that in a best case scenario he would be learning and developing at Sandringham, rather than be playing as much senior football as he is doing at the moment. He hasn't had the benefit of elite junior systems and was late riser in his draft year. With that in mind, a lot of the things that he has done that make people cringe, such as punching when he should mark, iffy decision making et cetera are part of his learning process. The unfair thing in many ways for Garland is that he is going through this process in the harsh AFL environment, whereas a lot of other youngsters, particulary the raw ones like Garland, get to go through these learning moments in the relative shelter of the VFL and VFL seconds. I dont think there is any doubt he saved about three shots on goal with great defending of Franklin's leading and there were some other nice signs. His speed, athleticism and reach are very good, he can play tall and small and up forward as well. I think people should just accept that this a raw kid they are trying to develop who will be at best in three or four years and that we are all going to go through the learning pains with him.

MAric is probably not playing due to school commitments, his school (PEGS) is in the Herald-Sun Shield at the moment. Failing that, he may be injured.

Kreuzer kicked 32 goals had 223 kicks, 94 handballs, 91 marks and 406 hitouts in 17 games, but yes its not really fair to compare Rich and Naitanui to him statistically.

In the best 10 players at the club

And while youre at it Luke Molan kickerd 6 for Spotswood and is tearing up the WRFL this year.

Well the club obvviously believes that it can reap some financial rewards in the future. EPL clubs have benefited from involvement with China - Everton etc. Perhaps the club willl international list a player from China and hope to parlay that into a sponsorhip or other financial benefit.

Re Longmuir, we had already picked Johnstone and thus couldnt draft another 17yo, which most of the good players that followed were.

And they beat us by 80 points two weeks ago

Bode has probably been picked to play on Rioli. Frawley has to play for team balance and Moloney and one of the ruckman will likely make up the bench. We've definitely got a midfield edge. McGlynn must be injured as well for the Hawks. Will probably line up something like this Rioli Roughead Williams Bode Miller Frawley Boyle Franklin Dew Wheatley Carroll Bell Young Bateman Ladson Green Jones Moloney Davey Newton Bruce Osbone Murphy Birchall Yze Neitz Robertson Guerra Croad Gilham Campbell Sewell Mitchell White McLean McDonald Taylor Tuck Stokes Ellis P.Johnson Garland Buckley Petterd If we play deep him deep and Yze is in form up forward, Hawks will have plenty of trouble controlling both him and Robbo. If we cant beat Hawthorn on Sunday, we're in a bad way.

there is a bus which goes about 800m-1km away from the ground, but if there are a few of you youre best pitching in for a cab, would only be about about 6-7 buck fare from the station

ABC Newsreader Ian Henderson is a big Demons fan and knows his stuff pretty well as well.