RalphiusMaximus

It is the one area where we have too many good players. If we have Warnock Martin, Frawly and Rivers in there, along with Bennell and Grimes, what do we do with Garland, Cheney and Wheelan? In a few years we'll be faced with the same problem in the midfield, and won't that be a great day to be wearing Red and Blue?

Very true. Sadly.

Bate looked promising early on when he played further up the ground. He could always find the ball, but never seemed to know what to do with it. Perhaps pushing him up to play between wing and half forward would work better. He has a decent long kick, so you'd probably get the same scoring output out of him. On the other hand, given how badly he's been marking these days, it could just lead to turnovers in a more dangerous position.

In: Grimes Maric Robbo Spencer Out: Bate Bartram Johnson ? If we had the personnel, I would have both Newton and Miller in the outs as well, but they will be needed to draw fire away from Robbo so he can have the freedom to kick a bag. No side can afford to carry a key forward who can't kick straight, much less two, but in this case I think we can make an exception. Bate out for Robbo is obvious. Similar size, but a world of difference in ability. Spencer for Johnson is likewise obvious. Fitting Grimes and Maric in will require a bit of shuffling of other personnel, but can be done easily enough.

Sounds like Adelaide is taking it seriously now.

Goal to Junior. 15 point margin.

Goal to Brock.

Dunn kicks his second!

Sad to say, I think the same can be said of Miller. Big on effort, sadly lacking in execution.

And Newton hits the post again. Bloody hell.

Dunn kicks our first goal.

I have to say, I've just about had it with Miller. For someone to have played that long in the forward line to be that bad a set shot is inexcusable.

My problem with Bartram is that he's a totally negative selection. He is a very good stopper. With him in the side you can pretty well count on one of the opposition mids having almost no impact, and that is a good thing. However he does not add anything. Compare him to Cameron Ling, who can play the same role and still have 20+ possessions. I simply question whether shutting down one opponent is enough of a contribution, especially when he is just as likely to turn the ball over as not when he gets it in his hands.

Agree on Meesen. Would love to see Maric come into the side replacing Bartram. If Green is out long term, will they look at promoting a rookie in his place? We might see Valenti in the side next week.

As so many have already said, pointless bashing of a player who in reality had a pretty good game. I only saw the second half, but he took some good marks, made a contest when outnumbered and aside from kicking a couple himself did well to create goals for other players. He may not be gold, but he's becoming a reasonable performer and giving us a presence in our forward line. I also note with interest that his accuracy is being used as an excuse for much bagging. How is it then that Miller is listed as among our best when his kicking was every bit as bad? Personally, I was thrilled with his performance today and hope that he gets the chance to improve on it in the next few weeks.

So how many of our players just had their first win?

I'm loving what I keep hearing about Jurrah. Any thoughts on whether he looks ready for seniors yet?

And indeed to the others asking the same, I think a large part of his problem is that he has nothing to kick to. In his first few years at the club he delivered the ball beautifully into the forward line, but you have to remember that he had a dominant power forward up there who was demanding the ball in a certain place. If you look at his passes to Neitz from a couple of years ago, you'll see that he was told exactly where to put the ball by his captain. Since we've lost our two main focal points in the forward fifty, none of our midfield have had any idea where to put the ball. The problem will begin to right itself when Robbo comes back, and if we were to put Green in a permanent role as a forward we would probably see a drastic improvement, not only because of the quality of those players as leading targets, but because they will absolutely demand that the ball be delivered to the area they want. Our young mids would be much more settled with that sort of leadership in front of them. Well, we can hope.

There seems ot be a bit of a clash with the team going to Adelaide there. Meesen, Dunn and Newton have all been named by Melbourne.

The question you need to ask yourself is "Do we want another Ox?" I mean no disrespect to David Schwartz, who was a brilliant footballer, but had he not suffered those knee injuries he would have been a superstar. Watts is still only 17 years old and unable to take part in full training due to his studies. He may be an amazing football talent, but that will do him little good if his body is not able to keep pace and his career is destroyed by injuries. Personally, I am thankful that the coaching staff have decided that there is no rush to play him. At this stage he would make little difference to our results, so the gain would be minimal, and the potential loss is catastrophic.

There's not all that much point to this thread, but I was driving home today and I found myself pondering the future of our forward line. If we assume that we will fall in a heap again this season and win less than 5 games, many of you suggest that Butcher is a great choice for pick 1. So just think what we could be looking at in five years or so with Watts, Butcher and Jurrah playing in the same forward fifty. Add in Maric and Jetta and you have to start feeling a little excited.

I wasn't paying much attention to the content. The grammar and spelling were too distracting.

From the two times i've seen them play, I think that Bennell is perhaps a classier player, but Jetta is the most likely to be playing. Basically because there is more room in the team for a small forward than for a half back flank.

I'm just loving the fact that there are people who will be left out of the side. When was the last time we had enough fit players for that to happen?

Robbo. Even giving the rest a 5-6 round start.