praha

Stats and influence, imo, are completely different. Bruce had little influence when it counted. He had influence when we were down 35.

Ok. You've missed my point here. I'm not delegating Bruce to the bench or to Sandrigham. All I'm saying is that some of you have to take him of that high purch. You hear "He was fantastic yesterday" because he got 30+ possessions. Most of them were in the quarters where we butchered the ball and when we trailed by 35 points. I'd love to see the stats of how many inside 50s he had in that last quarter, a stat you'd expect to be fairly high considering the stature of player he is according to many on this board. I don't think he had a big enough influence, or ever has a big enough influence, to help us win a game or when we need him. I am very critical of him being considered our "best player" and our next leader.

And we should beat the Roos next time round; it's only about 6 or 7 weeks away.

Are you having his babies? Honestly, you cannot surpass the play of Jones, Bizz and even Godfrey in that last quarter. He may have made a few good plays that got us closer, but he was as far away from bringing this team back from the dead as Daniel Ward was.

I never disagreed that Wheats shouldnt be sacked at the end of the year, actually I think he will be, but to call him the worst 100 gamer ever is extremely harsh. He helped hold up out backline with Rivers and Whelan for a few years.

Fixed.

Agreed. He is a ball magnet, granted, but he doesnt have enough impact on the game imo. For example, so people don't jump all over me. He had the most possessions of any Melbourne player at three-quarter, yet we trailed, big. Last quarter, he played an identical game as he did earlier in the day, and we came back. How? Through the games of Jones and Bizzell. They led by example and brought has back. I don't think Bruce has done anything like that for about 3 or 4 seasons. Bruce is a good player, no doubt, but hardly a leader and hardly our best player. I'd have 10 players on this ahead of him in a flash, that's for sure.

He probably wasn't there, but that has obviously been included in the game plan all of this year. They absolutely butcher the ball. They did yesterdat big time. If it wasn't included in the game plan by Danners, I'm sincerely worried about the mental capacity and football smarts of our players...

Thank god we are playing Adelaide and not the Power or Freo this week. Crowd estimate - 25-30k If we were playing freo or port - 10-15k It's the sad truth. Crows fans come out in droves in their caravans with their tea and blankets. I can't be there because I'm working start at 1pm. Sunday was my last match before I go overseas. Leave the day of the Pies game.

A little harsh on Wheatley. He has had a shocking past 2 seasons because of injury and fitness, but he was instrumental in 02-04 imo.

I won't be surprised at all if Bizz gets dropped for Rivers. Also, "only hamstring soreness" is probably nothing for most players, but it's Colin Sylvia; I won't be surprised if he doesnt play for another 3 weeks.

You can't blame Travis. Twice he threw his hand in the air because no one was leading, his only option was to kick it to himself and kick it towards the boundry. Bell almost got it, but it bounced badly and went out of bounds. I hardly blame Travis. I'm sure he is cold about the 3 quarters, but we were ahead and it was like the 30th minute mark.

It was so bad up to three-quarter time that I wanted to go home. There were far from outstanding. I think journo's need to do their job and watch the games before writing something like that. It makes Melbourne look good which they aren't.

I believe it was in the second quarter. On the southern-stand side wing, Brock was chasing down a ball. He had 4 Kangroos players all running at the ball as well. He practically beat out all 4 of them, working tirelessly before the ball went out of bounds. The next 3 players to arive to the vacinty for the throw-in were Kangroos players. The Melbourne players, the entire time, were jogging towards the area. As the ball went over, Brock turned around and, not to the umpire but rather to his teammates, threw his hands in the air as if to say "where the **** is my help?". It was clearly directed at his teammates because the direction at which he was facing and yelling to there were no umpires, only Melbourne and Roos players running towards him. Jones, Bell and Johnstone all went up to him to pat him on the back, but he, quite obviously, ignored their encouragement. Don't know if anyone else saw this, but while it was happening, I remember yelling out "who's helping him?"

lol @ Neitz I'd take Sheedy over any over them.

Unfortuantly for the club, losing means more fans drop off. It's the sad truth but Melbourne fan's are like that. We may not be on this board, but most are. If we keep losing, the lower the crowds and the less money. This team can't afford to start building for 08 now; literally.

I suggest sitting anywhere at Subiaca when we play Fremantle; they are the scum of the world. Believe me, Melbourne fans are as far away from being 'WORST IN THE COMP' than we are from winning a flag.

IT'S NOT THE COACH! WE HAVE INJURIES! IT'S THE PLAYERS! fyi, that's sarcasm

I said "ones" meaning plural lol more than one playing, or all the players u mentioned hehe

Yah. Seemed to be the only ones that play for the jumper.

Was our warrior in the backline today. Absolute fantastic game. I always knew this guy still had something in him. Fightback in the last quarter was ignited by him imo, along with Jones. Ran it out of half back wonderfully. Set up 3 goals in the last.

Yep. Almost won the game for us. Plus the run of half-back by Bizz. But Jones has the heart of a lion. An absolute champion with leader written all over him.

Don't blame him. He had no one in front of him and was practically standing on the line. Anyone else would have done it. It was just unfortuante.

Yah. After the first goal of the lasy quarter by the roos I was literally about to leave. I said "I'll wait it out to the 10 minute marke..."

How could you not? 3 quarters of absolute rubble does not equate a win. They weren't disappointing quarters, they were embarrasing quarters. They deserved to win that match just as much as Daniher deserves to be coach next season... look at that as you will