RalphiusMaximus

Getting back to the OP, I for one would love to get Wellman back as defensive coach. As it was said above, he had our backline flying when he was in charge. If there is even a sniff of a chance, get on it and try to lure him back. Biggest challenge in football may be just what he needs to get his career back on track.

I wouldn't be signing a new contract right now either, not unless they were offering BIG money. He has until the end of 2015 to show just how good he can be and add a bit of weight to his contract. Also, right now he has no idea what the club will look like next year and the one after. He's doing absolutely the right thing in holding off for a while before considering the next contract.

It can be done, but they need to work damn hard at it and we just don't seem to have anyone who is pushing it in the playing group or the coaching box. They lament poor skills but where is the specialist kicking coach to rectify their actions?

Strauss has to come in and stay in for the rest of the season. Give him at least those four games to settle and show what he can do. Taggert has put together some pretty decent form over a number of weeks also, so has to be considered. The rest I don't know about. Dawes presumably would be straight into the side if fit. I'd love to see Davis get a run in defence instead of Pedo while Frawley is out. I wish Craig were a bit bolder in his moves and willing to take risks with his selections rather than playing the same hacks because he thinks they can do what he asks them to. I somehow doubt there will be many changes given his track record.

WC tanked that year. As has been said, not quite as blatantly as we did, but it was there. The next year, having topped up their stockpile of talented young players, they brought back half a dozen premiership players into the side and suddenly they were dominating the midfield again. The big difference here is that they had half a dozen premiership players sitting in the wings being nursed through minor niggles and maintaining premiership standards within the playing group. Not only do we not have those players waiting to come back, we don't have the coaches to set those standards either. We won't be having a meteoric rise like they did.

Priority picks are a massive red herring. Fool's Gold even. No matter how many high picks we are gifted, they are not going to help us unless we get our player development right. As handy as it might be to get pick 1 and trade it off for a quality mid or two, it is a bandaid solution to a deep-rooted problem and I would prefer the club to address the issue head-on instead of covering it up again. There is a massive flaw in our system that leads so many talented players to fail to reach their potential, and we need to identify the deficiency and fix it before we can get the club moving in the right direction.

Who should be better? Watts, Trengove, Blease, Tapscott, Grimes, Pedersen, Byrnes and Rodan all come to mind. I would add Strauss except that we see him so rarely it's hard to judge. We have a crop of high picks who have not developed as they should have (a trend indicating mismanagement by the club) and a group of reasonably good experienced players who have given little or nothing to the team since they arrived. We are still being carried by our defenders and Nate Jones. Watts has started showing the ability to influence matches but he is still very inconsistent and that needs to change. Had one four goal haul and should have had a few more this year. We have seen him a couple of times have a great first half and then vanish entirely. Trengove is solid and reliable but needs to add ten more disposals a game minimum. Blease is Mr Flash In The Pan. He gives a couple of highlights per game and nothing else. Very much like Jamie Bennell and could be headed the same way. He needs to put his body on the line occasionally and get a lot more of the ball. At the moment he is having zero impact on the game. Tapscott is in limbo. He isn't hitting the scoreboard, he isn't making tackles and he's being exposed for speed. Needs to figure out exactly how he wants to play and build it into a strength. Grimes is out of excuses. He needs to lead this team from the front the way Jones does. We need him to be getting 30+ disposals a game if he's playing as a mid. Pedersen, Byrnes and Rodan are all basically the same. They have not provided the on-field leadership they were brought into the squad for. They aren't really adding to the ability of the team to win contests and in general look like we paid too much for them.

Aaaaaannnnddd still laughing.

As i said in another thread, I'm pretty sure he ran over NCs cat.

Close. Watch other teams, just don't watch ours.

I went to a private school. Nothing sooky about that. Of course in my case I come from a dirt poor family who could barely afford the uniform and we all drive second-hand cars...

J Watts - Half a game.

I think I may be the only one left laughing.

There goes my perfect round...

Quick link for the Dunn-haters: The Laws of Defence. He's rated the no. 1 1-1 defender in the league based on their stats. He's been beaten in a 1-1 marking contest 3 times this season. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that our backline features quite a bit in their lists.

Hasn't been removed. It's right there on the "recent posts" section.

I know I make jokes about the knee-jerk coach-sackings but I think in this case it may actually be time to sack the coach. Looking at the teams he's picking, it's clear that Craig is totally unwilling to be proactive and try to win matches and is instead trying to limit damage (bolster his chances?). Continuing to play Pedersen defies logic as does his refusal to reward those who are playing well at Casey. By continually playing the same group regardless of the results he is sending a terrible message to the rest of the squad and giving us little or no chance of actually pulling a win out of the last five rounds.

Points in favour of Stockdale: - He's an immensely well-connected and successful individual - He has vast experience in politics and dealing with big business. - He brings with him others with similar clout and acumen. Points against: - His age - He wants to bring in Andrew Lezala, and look how badly the trains are managed. - He may place the AFL bailout in jeopardy. In all honestly, he has a hell of a lot more punch than Bartlett. We're talking a middleweight up against a heavyweight here. Bartlett has less experience and is less qualified. It's also pretty much a given that he is not as well-connected. The biggest point in his favour in this discussion is that he is apparently the one the AFL want, which may indicate a willingness to play ball with AFL house that Stockdale does not display. Personally, I think the best result here would be a reversal of the AFL proposal. They suggested Stockdale be VP under Bartlett. Given their respective resumes I would think we would all be better served with Bartlett as VP under Stockdale. If we could get an AFL-approved board looking like that we would be starting things off pretty well.

No surprises. The two least inspiring and under-performing sides in the competition get the worst timeslot. It's a WB home game, so no great loss to us when nobody shows up. Plus it's a charity win to the doggies at Etihad.

I have no problem with this. If I were in his situation, I'd want to know who I was playing for as well. Not just the coach but the board and the entire makeup of the FD are going to be decided in the next few months. He'd feel like a bit of an idiot if he signed and they then appointed someone who he clashed with as badly as Beamer did with Neeld. Nobody wins out of that.

Now with Frawley out, it's the perfect opportunity for Davis to have a go. His form at Casey more than warrants it and he can't do worse than Pedersen. In: davis, Garland, Strauss, Terlich Out: PEDERSEN, Frawley, and a couple of others.

This just makes it obvious that we bring in Davis. Two straight swaps in the backline, Davis for Chip and Garland for Pedo. We could probably find room for Strauss and Terlich as well.

I am reluctant to drop Tapscott after only one game. Give him a few to see if he settles in. If he can get his act together he has the weapons to be a huge asset to the side.

Looking at the VFL review, there is no way they can justify leaving Strauss out again. Looks like he's really hitting his stride. Taggert would be a good shot at a game before the end of the season, but I'm not sure it's this week. We really do need to do something to get the midfield functioning though, so we may see them both in there this week.

20 i50's a game make even the best forward line useless. We need to get the ball to them quickly so they can use their size and speed.