MadAsHell

The unfortunate thing with him being a WA boy and the Wizard playing over 100 games for both the Dees & Dockers is that one suspects Freo will have the inside lane.

From what i've seen of him, he seems to mainly shift between half back with short stints on a wing. Would love to see what he's capable of forward, but suspect he'll either be groomed for the Garland role or as a tall wingman. Or maybe both?

Given there's still restrictions on what the banned players can and can't do, he may not be allowed to officially name a club he wants to go to. Who knows?

Shifty?

70K a year less at Essendon. They offered a trigger clause to activate a 4th year.

Garland & Pick 27 to Gold Coast Pick 22 to Essendon Hibberd to Melbourne With Gold Coasts departures they'll be a bit lighter on in the midfield and may want to move Kolodjashnij in there. That would then free up the 3rd tall defender slot who can also play small when needed. Garland fots this build, and for an experienced player who's been in another clubs leadership group, Gold Coast may be willing to fall 5 spots in the 2nd round given the amount of picks they have?

What's this about Chris Heffernan?

I thought his 2004 was ok. 2003 & 2005 he was horrendous!

Not that i'm in favour of it, but would the club dare trade Salem and Pick 26/27 for Hibberd & Pick 19?

We didn't use any picks to get Lumumba, it was a straight playet swap. Clark to Cats, Varcoe to Pies, Lumumba to us. Has to be seen as a tick as Clark was never going to play for us again.

The only way that's true is if Essendon were offering him 655K a year for 4, as what I heard from a very good source was that Melbourne's offer is only 70K a year more.

Good on Gold Coast for making that type of play i say. Freo would have to seriously consider it. Would allow them to probably land McCarthy, Lobb, Brad Hill and probably still have a 1st Round Pick to use.

100% agree DC. They need to get back to each of the grounds having their own unique traits. Sydney & Adelaide used to turn sideways by days 4 & 5, the Melbourne pitch usef to die as the match went on and stay really low. Hobart was usually the flattest of the wickets, while Perth & Brisbane always had extra bounce and pace. How they can get back to producing these types of wickets with drop in's I don't know? But it needs to be looked at. The OX on radio the other day (tounge in cheek) suggested that they do away with the centre of excellence in Canberra and open up two campuses. One in Humpty Doo NT, to replicate the conditions of the subcontinent with dust pitches, and one on King Island Tasmania to replicate the UK.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/australia-must-pick-spinspecialist-batsmen-and-bowlers-for-subcontintental-tours-writes-ben-dorries/news-story/d19cb23bd7d413174e0047f79639f938 I'm glad to see this has finally been raised in the media.

They may not pass the no d!ck head policy.

Well after this disaster, one of the things that needs to happen, is they need to make a call on the Mitch Marsh at 6 & Nevill at 7 combo. Both have now played between 15 - 20 tests and have a combined batting average of under 45. Our batting is too brittle as it is, we can't afford to carry both. They either need to back Marsh in and sacrifice the keeping quality a bit by recalling Wade to improve our batting, or they keep Nevill due to his clean keeping and they give an all rounder like Stoinis a go or recall Jo Burns and send Shaun Marsh back to the middle order. This would require both Smith & Warner bowling extra overs to make up for no all rounder. Ontop of this, it may be time to call time on Adam Voges career and rebuild a bit. Bring in a younger batsman like Handscomb or Head and see if we can properly develop a young batsman.

AFL have already said if Geelong host a final, that it wont be at Skilled. All things going well the elimination final will be Geelong v Melbourne at the G on a Sunday afternoon.

There's also Essendon 1994 when Lyon kicked 7 on Glenn Manton plus 2002 when we beat the Lions at the GABBA.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Australian cricket team need to start taking a horses for course approach to playing in the subcontinent. I'm a big fan of Joe Burns, but he's not a great player of spin, especially on low slow wickets. Compare that to say Shaun Marsh who's proved to be a very good player of spin but I never want to see play on Australian, South African or English wickets again. Mitch Marsh is talented, but how many chances do you give a guy. Meanwhile Marcus Stoinis made a century in the Australia A v South Africa A match. He also bats at 3 for Victoria. Plus we need to stop worrying about playing two specialist quicks over on those wickets. There's a reason the Sr Lankan's, Indian's & Pakistani's always play three spinners, time we started doing it also. The sooner Stoinis & Fawad Ahmed are drafted into the squad the better. Although I know it wont happen. XI for the 2nd test should be; Khawaja (promote to open) Warner Stoinis (Bats here for Victoria. Also get him to open the bowling) Smith* Voges S. Marsh +Neville Starc Lyon Holland Ahmed Starc & Stoinis to take the new ball & then an off spinner, leg spinner & left arm orthodox. Warner is even capable of rolling bowling medium pace if you really want a first change bowler, but really isn't required over there.

I know I'm replying to this nearly 7 months after it's initial post. But I do agree with your comment about the test becoming more irrelevant with it always being the last of the whole summer. Reckon they need to go back to having a Perth test in mid January and then the Adelaide test over the Australia Day period. Move the ODI's to November just after the Matador Cup and you can then play a few T20's in early Feb after the Big Bash. Makes a lot more sense to me. Also think it helps interest build over the summer. Let the ODI's work as a build up for the Tests which are always more popular and then have a few junk T20's for the kids at the end of the summer when the threat of AFL pre-season matches straling crowds away comes into the picture.

Anyone catch any of Day 1 yesterday? Rolled the Lankans for 117 and 2/66 at stumps when rain hit. Wickets were shared. I must say I was concerned with Joe Burns dismissal. He didn't look to have any idea against Herath.

Point is they should have been our Dempster, Fisher, Gilbert, Riewoldt etc like the Saints have to guide our young players through the season and make finals a possibility. They haven't done that, for various reasons. As such we find ourselves where we are.

After a loss like yesterday, this thread always helps me look at things in perspective. Melbourne ranked 16th in each filed on the weekend with an average age of 23 years 10 months and games experience of 65.8. Saints were 8th & 9th at 24 years, 11 months and 92.5 games experience. These results will happen. It's annoying, but the inexperience of the teams we're putting out there leaves this open. Dunn & Garland's fall from grace, Lumumba's injury and Dawes inability to get back to some of his 2013/early 2014 form has meant we're playing a lot younger then most of us expected.

He certainly could be. Just not in your traditional mold. He's 188/189cm and can play on talls as well as smalls. I rate him highly and can see him landing a role in a BP or HBF over the next few years.

Think they should do what they did with Jetta and move him to the back line where he could be handy. We need other good small defenders apart from Nev.