RalphiusMaximus

The thing he's doing brilliantly is giving the young players confidence. They are improving every week. If he could get similar results out of the guys who have been at the club a few years i'd be thrilled.

I have a sneaking suspicion that our young guys are getting better a little too fast. West coast, Fremantle and Richmond are all weak sides and I think we may beat them all (assuming we play Richmond and WC again). All it would take from there is one upset against someone like North Melbourne or the Hawks and we've thrown our priority picks away. Did anyone else notice during the final quarter against WC that when we were overhauling them DB pulled our two best mids off the field?

Agree with the mojority here. Grimes and Bennell, maybe Maric if he has a day out, and Watts for an outside shot.

Just another example of some incredible stupidity from a kid who was never taught not to lead with his head. Once again we see the results of the AFL's attempt to protect players' heads. More head injuries.

Brad Green for Captain. Davey for vice and maybe to take over when Green moves on.

I don't entirely agree here. I absolutely back you when it comes to the players falling to their knees to milk a cheap free, but there are still instances where the tackler puts significant pressure into the back due to their own efforts. These still should be payed. All we really need is for the umpires to start reporting players who dive to milk frees from this rule, rather than being sucked in by them every time. I would propose a rule amendment that says if the head is below waist height on the tackler, the tackle can not be high. This will help get rid of a huge number of these frees. It would also end the trend of players diving headfirst at the ball to win a free. It might also be worth making a point of which player is initiating contact. There have been a couple of reports this season when a player has lowered their head and charged a tackler to win the free, effectively headbutting them, and the poor tackler has been penalised. I actually have no problem with the umpires recalling a bad bounce. Let's not forget that Melbourne suffered on the weekend when a bounce wasn't recalled, leading to an uncontested goal for WC. I'd prefer for the umps to learn how to bounce the thing properly, but it's better to have a second go than give one side a free run at the goal.

Agreed. Another one who showed us that he's got something to offer today. If only he can find a way to show it more often.

According to the articles on the MFC site, Frawley has damaged either his Hip Flexor or his Adductor. In either case, not good for next week. No word on exactly what Rivers has done, so who knows?

Funny thing about Jumps racing. There's nothing wrong with the races, it's the trainers that are the problem. They don't teach the horses how to jump, they just make them run fast and expect them to hurl themselves over the obstacles however they like. No wonder so many fall. What they need to do is introduce proper regulation of the trainers and make them meet mandatory minimum standards in things like jumping technique.

The question I find myself asking is; how many of these injuries are caused by the new rule interpretations giving cheap frees to the player diving in head first? It seems to me that since the rule makers have decided on this approach players have stopped protecting themselves. Once upon a time they were taught to turn so that they crashed in side-on and the contact was to the shoulder. Now to do that is to likely give away a free kick and risk a report because the other guy was too stupid to protect himself in the same manner.

Trade bait?

My biggest concern is that they might convince one of our new draftees to chase the money. None of them are on long term contracts.

Well, at least it happened this year when we weren't expecting him to play anyway. It would have really sucked if he did it in two years time. Now he gets the benefits of our medical/physio department to help him recover and will be way ahead of all the other guys lining up for their first games next year thanks to a year of weights/fitness work with our guys. It sure sucks for Sam, but it could have been sooooo much worse.

I'm just not that big a fan of Bell. I think he'll be in the next round of cullings and probably we won't be able to trade him. He may try hard, but he's just not that good. Can you really see a place in the side for him two or three years down the track?

As I said somewhere else, I think he was too aware of how fast the game is. He had far more time than he thought and wound up rushing his disposals when in reality he was under little pressure and could have taken time to settle and think a little about it. Given a week to relax and review his performance, I think we'll see a much better game next round.

Again with the Dunn bashing! He was far from disgraced today. I don't know why you'd want to dump him. Bate I agree on. He has to go until he learns to put in. Aussie can come in for him and everyone will be happy. Well, except for Bate. I'd also like to see whoever the umpire in the middle was during the last get sent back to the reserves. How many times was Morton grabbed and dragged away from the ball while the Umpire was birdwatching?

It looked to me from the bit I saw that he didn't know how much time he had. Perhaps people have been telling him about how fast the game is? Every time he got the ball he was in a mad rush to get rid of it when in reality he had the time to steady down and control the disposal. Hope he plays again next week. I would expect him to be much better after a chance to chill out and perhaps look at the footage of how he played.

Don't you mean a lot of niggle and pushing and shoving and creating? I admit, I only saw the second half, but he created a contest whenever the ball went near him, won more often than not and did some very good things in tight spaces. The guy has yet to disgrace himself this season. Loved what I saw of Bennell today. He is going to be a star. Davey's chase and smother in the 4th deserved a better reward but there were simply no other Melbourne players trying to win the ball around them. It looked like Robbo destroyed Scarlet. How many forwards can say that? :D

The short answer is You Can't.

Funny thing is that that's exactly what Jeff said. His contention was that while the broadcasters wanted this to happen, it was the AFL that allowed them to do it without any consultation of the people who would be most effected. Jeff went to great pains to point out that he was not targeting the umpires but rather the AFL as personified by Demetriou, Anderson and Gieschen. Every point he raised dealt with the dictatorial nature of their administration. His primary point regarding the umpires was not about their ability to call games but rather the constant unnecessary rule changes being trundled out. Personally, I can't think of a single rule change instituted by this administration that has been of benefit to the game. The best thing these clowns can do before they resign in disgrace is to admit they were wrong and rescind the idiotic alterations. Pity it'll never happen.

That's the best forward line I've seen for us all year. I'd love to see them line up like that.

I'd love to turn up. Unfortunately I don't get off work until 4pm and it's another hour from there to Richmond.

Well, you could put your best inside ballwinner on him and see who gets to the ball first. You remove the ball from his area rather than preventing him from reaching the ball. Admittedly, it would take a spectacular effort to pull it off, but i'd rather see that than Bartram picking himself up from wherever he's been dumped and watching Ablett disappear into the distance.

Robbo has been our most effective forward for years. Perhaps he can't single-handedly win us matches anymore, but with our shocking forward line I can see him playing an important role for a few years yet.

Of the two I think Dunn has a better future. He is a better runner, more versatile and can gather the ball at ground level.