RalphiusMaximus

6- Viney 5 - Howe 4 - Sylvia 3 - M Jones 2 - N Jones 1 - McKenzie

The obvious answer to me is to only play the players who are desperate for a place in the side. Sellar has been gifted games because of some perceived utility or maturity that is supposed to make him more use than the other similar players in the side. That stops. Davis would have given us much more today, simply because he is all competitive all the time. I've never seen a worse case of white-line fever. We can't keep on putting in these slack performances. Players who coast or who take their spot in the side for granted need to learn that playing for the MFC is a privilege and if they can't be bothered putting in 110% every time they put on the jumper they can play for Casey. There are a bunch of guys who would kill to play in the firsts, and it's time we let them.

It's a bit odd listening to this. You have very rapid switches from (Melbourne player) breaking through, running in, they're looking like scoring to GC are running the ball through the middle and bringing it into their forward 50. It almost seems to be seamless, as if the Melbourne player was running the ball out of defence for the GC. We must be showing some truly astounding lapses in basic skills to manage that over and over again.

Love the Viney.

I'm hearing Kazoo music.

ROFLMAO!

Col Sylvia showing some fight apparently. Just not of a terribly productive sort. How many weeks do you think?

Agreed. It shows that we should have promoted Magner when Grimes was hurt.

LOL. OMFG Umpire Steve is a [censored].

Incidentally, did anyone else catch Pter Jackson on MMM this afternoon? Interesting little interview. He sounds like he's planning on upsetting some people around the football department. Words like "streamlining" and "cost cutting" were thrown around. Sounds to me like we may see a couple of people in the FD sent packing.

Kent three marks for three kicks. I'd rather he didn't take marks and got involved in more running play.

This is actually kind of funny. I'm looking forward to the media circus. Footy Classified should be interesting.

We really won't. Sorry, but they're smashing us.

I really wanted Hall for us.

Free kicks 11-4 against us. Not that it excuses anything, but it's interesting.

Anyone else played a match (of any team sport) where the opposition has one guy who is just way too good for the level they are playing? They float around the back half, don't really make a big show of being better, but whenever your team look like doing anything they step in, take the ball off you with contemptuous ease and farm it back out to their less skilled teammates to go and try to attack with again. That's what is happening here. Ablett is strolling around the paddock doing whatever the hell he likes and any time he thinks he needs to step in he takes the ball off us and farms it off to Bennell to run it forward again. If we want to have any chance of getting back in we need someone to negate him, and Dunn isn't the man to do it.

This is sounding bad. Our midfield is getting smashed.

The problem is that they really are rubbish. As I've said before, there is no useful method in place to determine the value of defensive acts. As long as they continue to base their scoring system on possessions it is inherently flawed as it only measures half of the game. A spoil needs to be valued as highly as a mark. Effective blocks are worth every bit as much as a possession. What about the Jimmy Bartel tap-on last week that made a goal out of nothing? No stat recorded in any column, but he created a goal. Until they start adding things like these to their system it has very little relevance to the actual game.

In: Watts, Jetta, Fitzpatrick, Jamar Out: Sellar, Spencer, Nicholson, ?

No comparison. You have to see it to believe how bad Davis can be with the ball in his hands. He's a bigger version of Kyle Cheney.

If he could kick he'd already be in the side as a regular.

They've already shown themselves to be a farce. Look at the defender ratings and figure out where the best full backs and CHBs are. These are some of the best and most sought-after players in the competition, yet the ranking system does not have a mechanic to allow their abilities to be reflected in their position.

Looking at the bench, I'm hoping for Kent, Strauss, Davis and either Davey or Road as sub. Sellar will probably get the nod ahead of Davis, but I don't think that's a great move. We've seen what he can do, might as well have a look at the new guy.

For a start, a lot of his set shots aren't registering scores. I would also say that even when he isn't getting a stat he's putting enough pressure on to impact the contest. I bump won't get you a stat, but its still a contribution. Edit: Just checked the figures. If he'd converted the set shots he should have he'd be first or second in our goalkicking depending on what you consider to be a shot he should have made.

Mark Neeld from the Trengove article on MelbourneFC. Sounds like he's going to be backing some of those fringe players to get a few more games in the seniors before he makes wholesale changes. Obviously he sees that they are doing the things he wants them to do. I think everyone can agree that we would have been much closer had the kicking been better. We missed so many set shots and gave away so many goals. I'm not sure whether he tackles that by removing the worst offenders or by sticking with them but giving them a hell of a lot of work on hitting targets under pressure. Just imagine if we played that way but with kicking efficiency around the 80% mark. Big difference in the scoreboad.