MadAsHell

Not a big fan of the squad myself, I was hoping to see more radical changes personally, I was being very optimistic and looking to see. E. Cowan M. Hussey U. Khawaja S. Watson (vc) G. Bailey © C. Ferguson B. Haddin S. O'Keefe M. Starc N. Lyon J. Pattinson S. Marsh (back up opener/batsmen) T. Paine (back up keeper) P. Siddle (back up fast bowler) S. Smith (back up spinner/all rounder) Cowan & Hussey opening would of been great, 2 technically correct batsmen who can take the shine off the ball and wont loom to hit out in the openning overs. Watson can move down to 4, allowing him more of a rest and the chance to bowl more at first change. Bailey in as captain (great state captain) and good middle order batsmen along with Ferguson who should be great at 6. Two spinners needed in Sri Lanka and O'Keefe & Lyon are the best we've got. And they can actually spin the ball unlike Beer! Starc & Pattinson will be good opening bowlers, Starc the left arm quick with genuine pace & Pattinson who can actually swing the ball, our first proper swing bowler since Fleming! The other 4 players I selected would of covered all areas needed to be covered in case of last minute injury. And how Ponting & Clarke can continue to get games is beyond me??? They've been terrible for some time and aren't being held accountable, instead they've actually received pay rises! Edit: Replce Hughes with Marsh Edit: Swapped Haddin & Paine around, looking back Haddin doesn't deserve to be demoted yet.

I'd be more keen on Dangerfield personally. Apparently he made some comment a few weeks back that if Craig wasn't there next year he may not be either????

Here's the list of DVD's I have from my own 'Name a game' selection. Round 20 1992, Jakovick kicks 7 and we beat the filth at Victoria Park who were top of the ladder at the time. Round 15 1993, beat Geelong at the G even though Ablett snr booted 11 with Steven Febey playing on him but managed to run forward and kick one himself! Qualifying Final 1994, the blues match, already been referenced many times, Schwarz dominated. Semi Final 1994, Lyon booted 10 (last time a dees player did this) and we smash a young Bulldogs team that had 3 rookies by the names of Scott West, Brad Johnson & Rohan Smith playing. Round 22 1998, smashed Richmond by over 70 points, as mentioned by another poster Richmond needed to win to make the finals and we needed to win for a top 4 spot, Farmer stands on Lyon's head! Qualifying Final 1998, smash the Crows the defending champs, Farmer towles up McLeod and White & Viney dominate the middle. Semi Final 1998, after trailing early against the previous years runners up Melbourne smashes the Saints at a wet MCG despite the last withdrawl of Lyon. Farmer proved the spark in the 2nd term and ends up with 4 including a brilliant scissor kick goal in the 3rd term. Round 7 1999, beat Essendon in a shoot out at the G in a year they dominated and we missed the finals. Round 7 2000, our first game at the new Docklands stadium and still our best win. Beat the Eagles by more then 10 goals with Neitz destroying Scott Cummins at Full Back. Round 14 2000, Match against the filth. As mentioned by others remembered for Farmer kicking 9 in the 2nd half. Qualifying Final 2000, against the Blues, mentioned by several others. Preliminary Final 2000, smash North Melbourne with Woewodin dominating the midfield. Don't really remember the 88 Prelim apart from watching replays so this was the first time I'd seen us win our way into a GF. Round 22 2002, St. Kilda at Docklands, had to win to avoid an interstate trip for the first week of the finals in what was a real danger game as Stuart Loewe's farewell match. Won a shoot out with Steven Armstrong getting us across the line in the final term. Elimination Final 2002, beat North and any finals win's a good one. Pagan's last match as North coach. Round 5 2004, beat Sydney at Stadium Australia despite Junior doing his knee. Scott Thompson starred! Round 6 2004, beat Carlton by over 100 points, enough said. Round 15 2004, beat the Saints in a top 4 match at the MCG just after their winning streak had ended. Round 21 2005, beat the Bulldogs by 4 points despite being down by 21 points with less then 5 min to go. Round 6 2006, mentioned earlier beating the Cats on a friday night at the MCG with several players out. Dunn on debut kicked 2 and looked really good, thought we'd found a key forward! And as others have said, Davey kicked one of the goals of the year! Round 8 2006, our last win over the Hawks on a friday night at the MCG. Hawthorn tried to rough Melbourne up but got belted by us instead. Neitz also passed the all time leading goal kickers list for Melbourne that night. Round 11 2006, Queens Birthday match against the Filth, built as the two best VIC teams going head to head. Josh Fraser gave White a send off before they went down by about 10 goals. Elimination Final 2006, knocked off the Saints and I thought this was the night that we'd unearthed an A grade midfielder in Brock McLean. Round 7 2008, beat Freo after trailing by over 50 points for Bailey's first win as coach. Round 14 2008, I was in Dublin when this happened at the Guiness Brewery but was called as soon as the siren sounded by the old man. Great desperation shown including the best thing PJ ever did on a football field (chase down on Sherman). Round 15 2009, beat Port Adelaide at the MCG in the match I reckon LJ announced himself to the football world with his first bag of 4 goals and some flying marks. Made sure I had at least 1 win against all opponents. When I order my next batch I'll be sure to include a win over Gold Coast annd an old one against Fitzroy!

St. Kilda final 2006. Queens Birthday 2006 (match that pitted the 2 best victorian teams against each other) when all the experts tipped Collingwood. Last 3 rounds of the 2005 home & away season against Geelong, Bulldogs & Essendon to sneak into the finals. Think the combined winning margin in those matches was about 14 points? Beating St. Kilda in 2004 just after their winning streak had ended. Beating Brisbane at the Gabba in 2002 with a depleted back line. And an oldy but a good one! Collingwood at Victoria Park round 20 1992 when they were top of the ladder!

I see your point, but that way we get Viney under father son and then still have 2 more first round draft picks in that draft which may be a very strong draft, but I guess the club will look at all the options. Either way I'm still optimistic that's a problem the club wont have to deal with, unless it's compensations picks for Morton or Warnock???

Cheers WJ, Personally I think he will stay, I've been very impressed with the way the club have handled the saga and think Scully would be as equally impressed and will see his future at MFC. If we were to loose him I think we should get a priority pick at the start of the 1st round of any of the next 5 drafts but am aware that wont happen. I'll accept 2 first round draft picks where they'll fall after our first pick and end of 1st round. Use them in the 2012 draft I say so one can go towards Viney!

Cook definatly has the makeup to turn into the hulking monster (David Neitz type) FF that we're after IMO, whether or not he does, time will tell. As for Fitzpatrick I see him more of a Paddy Ryder/Justin Longmuire type forwar/ruck. More of a lead up player who can use their pace rather then the hulking type. As his upper body strength improves though I'm more then confident he'd be able to hold his own in pack mark situations. He's listed as being a 'test' with his ankle for this week so fingers crossed he plays for Casey reserves. Give it a couple of weeks and he'll be back in the Casey seniors very quickly IMO. Although having said that with Casey having Fevola, Dunn, Bate, Cook, Gawn and Campbell all available also it'll be difficult to get in. Starting to see the issues of Fevola being a Casey listed player.

I saw one of his first games for the year with Casey reserves v Frankston reserves earlier on. He kicked 6 but could have easily been 8 or 9, was a class above that level. Was called into the Casey seniors the following week where he kicked an early goal before he got injured in that openning term. I'm a really big wrap for Jack and reckon he and Cook will be battling it out for our FF position in the next 2 years.

IN: MacDonald, Tapscott OUT: Bennell, Morton If we weren't playing in Darwin Jurrah would be added to that list also.

6. Petterd 5. Watts 4. Trengove 3. Frawley 2. McKenzie 1. Nicholson I thought Gysberts was ok in the first half also and that's about it!

I reckon Morton will go to Gia, he might be of some use in a lock down role. I'm really excited about Sam's debut tonight. It's time to unleash the Blease!

Say we stay 9th by the end of the season and no one uses any compensation picks in the draft this year, that would leave our 2nd round pick at 36. Bate still seems to have some sort of currency (in the media anyway). I would have thought maybe Bate plus pick 36 and maybe some swapping of other picks could get us close. Otherwise I don't think we have any SA players that want to go home.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/116833/default.aspx Out of contract at the end of the season and considering returning home. He could be our gorilla type defender at his height & weight, 197cm & 97kg. Maybe a Bate or Dunn plus a 2nd round pick may get it done?

IN: Gysberts, Jamar OUT: Bartram, Gawn FB: Garland, Farwley, Nicholson HB: MacDonald, Rivers, Strauss C: Trengove, McKenzie, Jones HF: Petterd, Watts, Green FF: Howe, Martin, Jurrah FOLL: Jamar, Moloney, Scully INT: Gysberts, Morton, Sylvia SUB: Bennell EMERG: Bartram, Gawn, Maric Bartram plays if Garland fails to get up. Gawn plays if Jamar fails to get up. And Maric plays if Green fails to get up.

Have to give Joel credit, I thought he was gone at the start of the year but he's been fantastic. Grimes getting injured has given Joel the opportunity he's needed. Playing himself into a contract extention at the moment.

I agree, either Nicholson or Bail will have Bartram dislodged from this role by the end of the season IMO, long term Bartram's not an option for us because of his poor disposal, just like Warnock. Both Dunn and Bate are contracted for next year, they'd have to be traded.

6. Scully 5. Watts 4. Green 3. McKenzie 2. Martin 1. Gawn - something happened every time he went near it. * Appologise to Howe and Nicholson who both had great games, Moloney could have easily got in there also.

I don't have any issue if the club offers Scully the 2.7 or 2.8 million over 4 years, as long as Scully never expects a wage increase in future contracts with the club unless the salary cap is significantly increased.

Gawn had 8 possessions, 1 mark, 23 hit outs and 4 tackles on monday playing as our 2nd ruck, not bad for a 2nd gamer in my opinion, especially when Hille was playing as Essendon's 1st ruck. Got to agree with that, have to love the principal making his son school sports prefect after the crash incident. Didn't mind his sister Stef though!

As mentioned Campbell had been injured and has now only had 2 games back with Casey. Gave Casey's midfield an armchair ride against Collingwood on Saturday. As for your question as to why he hasn't played ahaead of Gawn? Even if he was fit we couldn't of played him. Newton was our designated rookie promotion at the start of the season and Evans and Nicholson were elevated for Grimes & Spencers injuries, as Campbell's still on the rookie list, and was still injured when Grimes & Spencer went down we can't play him unless there's another long term injury. I agree Hille's a decent player, but personally I don't like him and don't think he fits any needs that we have. Edit: Missed a word in last sentence.

First of all I went to school with David Hille and can't stand the guy and would be shattered if he ended up at Melbourne. Secondly I'd suggest we do have good cover for Jamar, if Campbell's given another year on the rookie list, plus another pre-season into the likes of Martin, Gawn, Fitzpatrick and Spencer I'm really starting to like the look of our ruck depth personally. I'd be more on the look out for either a pacy midfielder or a key position forward if I was to be trading for anyone.

I went with Beamer. Longer term I'm liking either Trengove or Grimes, but think it's still a little early for either of them. I'd like the 2012 leadership group to be Moloney, Grimes, Trengove, Scully, Jones, Rivers. Moloney captain for 2 or 3 years (Sam Mitchell like) and then we should have a really good field of potential leaders to pick from after that.

Appologise for my flipant respose DC, been a long day. Point I want to make is that it's no sure thing that a proven coach in Malthouse will equal on field success, and may just cost us money in the long run. However as another poster mentioned Carlton were on a downward slide when Pagan came in and with draft restrictions. Personally if Bailey can equal what he did last year 8.5 wins or better I'd be willing to give him a 1 year extention with a simple finals must scenario going into 2012. If he managed to get us into the finals this year then he'd be looking at a 2+ contract. 4.5 wins already this year, he needs at least 4 more in the last 11 for me to be happy for him to stay beyond this year. Edit: Spelling

Dennis Pagan and the Carlton Football Club say hi.

Shattered that he got injured. I saw his 2nd game for the year (Casey Reserves v Frankston Reserves) where he absolutely dominated. Kicked 6 but could have easily had 8 or 9, was clearly a cut above that level. Then for his first game with Casey seniors against Northern Bullants after kicking an early goal he got injured. Has amazing mobility for such a big bloke. I've got really high hopes for him. Green's an interesting one. Ideally his best role would be Jurrah's or Howe's roles, he's to small for CHF or FF, and I don't think the defensive forward role is the best role for the captain to play. As for the small forward role do we designate that role to Jurrah and ask him to play the roving role allowing Green to play deep in the other pocket? With Wonna, Maric & Jetta all struggling to make that spot their own do we trial a medium sized forward there instead??? Either way, long term Green wont be there and with him out of contract at seasons end and struggling for form he may not be there beyond this year?