RalphiusMaximus

I wasn't shocked at all, except by the fact that we were so dominant early on. Id we'd been able to kick straight it would have been over by quarter time. Sadly, once we missed those chances it was all too predictable and went according to script.

In a few cases his tap was the only time we touched the ball between the bounce and their goal. He has some magical chemistry with their midfielders.

A bit harsh on Fitzpatrick. Yes, he looked pretty bad and kicked into the mark twice, but it takes almost everyone a while to get used to the pace and competitiveness at the top level. He'll be much better for the experience and next time we see him play he'll show us much more of what he can do.

Just a couple of minor alterations.

Can anyone explain how it became a ball up? If it's a mark then he gets a kick. If it's not a mark then the ball spilled free and play goes on. Why did the umpire bring it back and insist on a bounce?

Ugly: Brad Green's set shots. What happened to the guy who used to be our best kick?

I don't disagree in any way with this sentiment, although I do hold out hope that he will sign with us. The fact is that the AFL created a situation in which this sort of deal could occur and didn't make any attempt to protect the existing clubs from suffering long-term damage. Their headlong push to produce immediately successful expansion teams has caused them to give far too much in startup concessions and place an unreasonable strain on the other clubs, particularly those like Melbourne who are trying to rebuild their side. On top of that they have now backflipped on third party payments and stated that while existing deals such as Chris Judd's are legitimate, all new deals made to ward off GWS raids will be subject to investigation. All in all, a farcical situation.

Sunday we see the beginning of THE PHENOMENON, AKA Jack Fitzpatrick is playing his first game. Let's hope he gets a full game.

Well, the season is over for Tomperhaps now he can let us all in on the secret.

Steven Armstrong all over again.

Regarding the drug gossip, last year a bouncer phoned SEN and said he felt he had to comment on the Melbourne boys. He said that with all the negative publicity about Mad Monday and what teams get up to, he felt obliged to say that Melbourne were well behaved and respectful during the end-of-season bash, and when one of our players had too much and they told him to go home, the senior players first asked if they could put him on water until he sobered up, and when told no they put him in a taxi and apologised on his behalf. Absolutely a substance abuse issue here.

And yet some of the best clearance players in the league are comparatively slow...

I'm not sure I can agree with that. He took a long time to get them going because they were pretty messed up when he took over. He built that team from the ground up (along with his recruitment team). I don't know if any of their premiership players were at the club before he took over, but if they were it wouldn't be many. It takes time to put together a top side from scratch, something we forgot with DB. Bomber did that and when his gun recruits were hitting their prime the team exploded and won two flags. DB has already done the hard work on the Demons, collecting the young talented players and getting games into them. If Bomber took over it would be very much like when he'd already been with the cats 4-5 years.

Agreed. The Crows have disgraced themselves with their antics this year. If they put as much effort into their football they'd be in the finals this year.

He has some qualities that would be really useful to us as a clearance player: He finds the ball He can break tackles He can dish off while being tackled Reads the play really well To offset that there are deficiencies: He's slow He can't kick on his right He's weak overhead. If we were to play him it would be right in the guts laying tackles and winning hard balls at stoppages. He lacks the pace to take the ball and run with it so he would need to be winning his own ball and farming it to the likes of Scully, Morton and Blease on the outside of the pack. His size and strength would be a huge asset in this role. He would have to work really hard to be a viable link man through the middle when we were running the ball, and also keeping his opponent in check when the opposition have the ball. His pace could easily be exploited in this situation. It's a bit of a toss-up for mine and a lot would depend on his attitude to training and improving his running.

He spent 10 years at Geelong and it was starting to turn sour with the Ablett issues. He might have gone around for one more year, but I don't know how well it would have functioned. I think he got out at a reasonable time. Obviously it's all speculation, but I don't think it's unreasonable to test the waters.

From the Dees - Jack Fitzpatrick. Other - Israel Folau up at GWS. Might as well take a punt on the long shots. :D

Funny I've been wondering if it would be worth making some enquiries in that direction. He seems to be the forgotten man at the moment, playing a mentoring role with Hird but not being mentioned anywhere in the coaching options. It would be a huge coup if we could land him.

You didn't include my preference. A proper small defender who can stop the small forwards who kill us time after time with our slow top-heavy defence.

I'm sure they'd take Russian for him...

Interesting that nobody has Fitzpatrick in there. I'm looking forward to them putting him in the goal square next year.

How can Trengove catch up in one game when there are at most 6 points on offer?

Nev is another player on our list who has all of the tools to succeed but needs to up his workrate and consistency. He was really good yesterday, both with his strength in tackling and his ability to win contested ball and break tackles, but needs to win more of the ball. He needs to work really hard on his fitness over the coming pre-season so he has the legs to keep making that sort of impact all year and consistently produce games with 20+ possession, 2-3 goals and lots of tackling and clearance work in the forward half. If he can do that swinging through the forward pocket and midfield he'll be a real asset to the team.

Honestly, Casey can manage without Fitzy. I think it would be well worth the effort to give him a taste of the AFL. Tom McDonald has had his shot, so he can go back to Casey. Davey is back from his suspension, so he'll probably be back in the side this week. Not sure who will make way for him though. Edit: Looks Like LJ is out, so that solves one problem. We can do a straight swap for Fitzpatrick. But then we swap McDonald for Davey, and they aren't really similar types. Not sure that would matter given we're already pretty top heavy down back.