RalphiusMaximus

6. Nicholson- He was awesome with his contested ball and run, and his disposal was not terrible. 5. Rivers- As has been said, dominant game. 4. Watts- Great playmaking and contested work was much much better, especially at the end vs Watson. 3. Grimes- Leading from the front. 2. Garland- Provided a real option up forward. Would have been higher if he kicked straight. 1. Jones- As always, worked hard all night. Nice goal too.

Who is it who keeps saying we need to play Garland forward?

But we need to tank!

Ok, so I was wrong. Damn that feels good.

We're winning clearances.

No way in hell was that a free to Gus. Umpire's goal. While we are ahead, they have had a lot of scores. Kick straight and they will kill us. That being said, loving Watts, Blease and Nicholson.

Expect pain tonight. The bombers play right into our weakest areas. Their small forwards will tear us apart. Would have liked to see Davey vs Davey though.

So he thinks that the two Jacks are so lacking in gumption that they wouldn't stand up and relinquish the captaincy on their own should they feel it warranted. What a [censored]. Sadly Tony, these two are both men of sterling character and if they felt it was better for the team they would already have offered to stand down. How about we back them up and try to take some of that pressure off so they can show us just how good they can be?

I don't know about commentary, but I love Mick Malthouse on special comments. His insight into the game is first class.

I always assumed that he had a bunch of attempted image links in his sig or something.

Ling would add a great perspective to the coaching group, given that at the moment it is very heavily Collingwood-oriented. Geelong have been the most successful team of the past decade, so his insights would be a great addition. Yarran is a great attacking player, but I don't think he would suit Neeld's style. He is known to be less than spectacular defensively and isn't great on accountability. Could be a very poor option for this coaching group and the direction they want to take us. Boak has very good reviews, and we desperately need some class in the midfield, so he could be a very good pickup. We certainly need to get someone to come in and add to our midfield, because at the moment we are all depth players with no real stars in there.

I really hope Nev gets some games later in the season. I'm another who thinks that he and Neeld are a match made in heaven. I would think that Neeld would love the way he plays and he should thrive on Neelds gameplan. I just hope he can get on the park and show the coaches what he can do before they decide to cut him on general principles.

We appear to have two injury issues in Green and Frawley. Therefore they are the ones we need to look at first. Assuming both are out, who do we have to bring in in their place? I'd like to see Davis get a run, and it might as well be against the Bombers given that they lack any truly massive forwards. He should be able to go with their mid-sized forwards if given the opportunity. That being said, Bartram has to come in to play on either Jetta or Davey. We may not have room of both of them. Green playing as a forward/mid utility type is interesting. Do we give Sylvia the spot and hope he can make something happen in the forward line, or go for someone a little less showy like Petterd? Tough call for the coaches I think. Given the ruck combo the bombers have at their disposal, I think we need to bring Martin back into the side, which could see Sellar being dropped. Martin is out of touch, but he can be given a run-with job on Ryder and try to shut down his attacking influence. He should be able to handle that if he can maintain his concentration. I am also leaning towards dropping Moloney in favour of Couch. They are very similar physically and Couch is certain to have a red hot go, while Moloney seems to be doing some remarkably poor things on the field. The only problem with this notion to my mind is that Couch may not be up to it yet if he's been missing games at Casey.

I agree that they all used the ball quite badly. However, I can't say that they were bad. All of them gave us some much-needed competitiveness and won their one-on-ones. These guys are the ones who are desperate for a chance to prove they can play and to get on Neelds good side. They fight for every ball, and that is worth more to us right now than 80%+ efficiency.

We had a much better looking midfield yesterday. Importantly, there is still room for more to come. Imagine the running and attack on the player and ball we saw yesterday with the addition of Strauss off half back, Gysberts in the guts and Jetta working off half forward. Add in Taggert and Viney sometime next year as well. Suddenly it looks like a pretty good bunch of players. Even Evans could still find his way back in there to give us a bit more run if his back ever recovers.

6. T. McDonald 5. J. Grimes 4. Jordie 3. Blease 2. Nicho 1. Bail It was the midfield runners who made it a contest today.

Bloodt Garland! Should never have gone up.

Pathetic effort from Beamer. Ran an arc to the ball. His man ran a straight line and beat him to it. Also, no way in hell was that ball out. Cost us a potential goal. Shocking call.

Not worried. He's a little off, but there's a heap of almost in his game. Slightly better touch and we'll see the almosts become posessions, then he'll show what he can really do.

Anyone see that goal from K. Harper on the tv coverage? Very impressive.

Well done stopping the rot. We'll take 13 points at half time.

Brock McLean?

Agree. I love seeing the ball coming in like that. Really interesting perspective.

Anyone have thoughts on his kicking technique? I know very little about the technical side of things like that, so it would be interesting to see if anyone can see what he's doing wrong in that footage.

Interesting bit of footage up on the MFC website from a helmet cam worn by Tom McDonald at training. Looks to have been spliced together a bit, but it would appear that they are working on drills that don't involve the safe long kick to the boundary option.