Adam The God

Adem Yze and Jeff White just to name a few.

Thanks. Doesn't mean he can't play the following Friday though does it? He didn't play at all last week, so they've got to get some game time into him.

Slight tangent here, but has anyone been watching Brock play for the last 3 or 4 years? I like Brock, I think he can become one of our top players, but he's never been quick, he's always been slow. That was obvious from the start. Nor was his disposal all that accurate either. Granted, I think his disposal is at a career low at the moment. I dislike digging players, but surely people didn't just notice it this year? The Bailey game plan might also be exposing Brock's lack of pace, with the attribute of run and carry required in our team. I still believe, however that if we get some quick players around him, his ball winning ability will push him through, as that is the one thing about Brock that is unquestionable. In reading a few of these posts, I was just thinking how quickly Sylvia has managed to win me over. He's still not entirely there yet, but I thought he was a lost cause at the beginning of this year, but his last 4 rounds have been nothing short of superb. I'm certainly in his corner now. And having shown his true potential, I hope he continues this. I would not be at all surprised if he polls votes in at least 3 of the last 4 matches, we've played.

This is an interesting post. I'm still having trouble believing we didn't play Bennell against the Pies, so I'd certainly bring him back in and I'd say, with Essendon's pace, we'll need Bennell across half back. He's easily the quickest player I've seen. Furthermore, Grimes and Cheney would struggle with the pace of some Bombers. I also liked what I saw of Jetta again, the other day. I would have been playing him all year, but perhaps he'll get his chance again, in Round 12? I'd still play Maric, but maybe drop Cheney? I wouldn't have a clue who to drop, in order to bring Jurrah in though, because Bate was in our best last week, yet he would seem the perfect interchange.

I wouldn't be surprised if they come out and beat the Eagles. Someone has to win.

IMO there's no doubt Bailey is a good player developer, but whether he has the tactics to win games regularly, is something that we'll see over 2010-2011. I don't think we'll be able to judge him too heavily next season either. I'd imagine we'll win between 6 and 9 games (in 2010) and with a young list that'll be a solid start. The following year, you'd want to be winning between 10 and 12 games. If we can do that, then I reckon I'd have confidence in Bailey taking us the long road. Bailey seems to be in touch with what I'm generally thinking about the team, so I have a lot of trust in his selection and player development. It's sometimes his tactics I question, but like I've said, it's pointless judging him on that at the moment, give nwhere our list is at. 2009 is about improving and developing the list. I think most people at Melbourne understand that we're still going to be lowly positioned on the ladder this year, no matter how many we win. Winning more than 5 or 6 is not realistic with this young list. But next year, I'll be expecting the above.

Sheedy's clearly past it. Even if he'd got the job, he would have retired after about 2 years anyway. He's too old. Bailey's the right choice. Just be patient.

Yeah, it was a nice moment. Made Maxwell look pretty soft too.

I remember that game. I'm pretty sure we played the Kangas. I remember Davey bursting through and kicking a nice goal. Not all that superb, just a little taste of what was to come. If Jurrah is in Aaron's calibre, I'll be very happy.

It depends what happens next round. Do the Tigers not play the Weasles? In Melbourne, whatsmore.

Pendlebury is not in the calibre of Montagna. Morton is already better than him. God that bloke is as soft as they come. Runs around for the easy handball and kick and when he gets it, he often turns it over. Even a Pies supporter called up, noting his disposal ineffeciency, yesterday. As usual, the Pies have talked up one of their players waaay too much. Kind of like Thomas, who's another softie, who likes the easy kick.

I think we're expecting just a little much, too soon. I've heard a lot of whinging in the media lately, along the lines of 'stuff all this, be patient crap', but it's true. Be bloody patient. Listening to David Parkin last night (gee he speaks well) reinforced my thinking, in that we're going in the right direction, but it's going to take time. Hawthorn won a premiership a year earlier than they would have been expecting (I'm basically quoting what he was saying now), but generally it takes 4 to 5 years to truly challenge for the flag. We're half way through our second and I'd say it'll take us another 3 years from now before we can think about being a true contender and not pretender. I thought I'd write out my preferred team (probably for the 2011 season), including an elite midfielder and key marking forward option, which I believe we need. In this case, for arguments sake, I'll use Scully and Butcher. B: Bennell Garland Warnock HB: Rivers Frawley Grimes C: Morton Sylvia Davey HF: Jurrah Watts Bate F: Wonaeamirri Butcher Maric R: Spencer McLean Scully INT: Jones Moloney Strauss Martin EMG: Miller Jamar Blease Working my way down the line up, starting with the defenders, the last few weeks has made me realise, even more, how much we miss Garland's versatility. I believe he is in our two best defenders, Rivers the other. He can play on a small, tall, slow, fast, anything. Each week, Colin would get the oppositions best forward and Warnock or (probably) Rivers would get the second best. Furthermore, having Garland out this season has exposed Warnock a little bit, as instead of playing on the second or third best forward every week (granted he's done a few good jobs on the best forwards), he's been getting the best. With Garland back in, this would improve our balance markedly. Then, it would be a raffle, where I'd play Bennell, but it'd either be in the back pocket or off the back flank (notice I couldn't find a place for Cheney, I'll say he's a bit unlucky). In either position, he has pace and poise and certainly has the potential and easily the speed to play on the competitions best small forwards. It would have been a good experience for him to play yesterday. You might have found Dick/Didak or Davis would have got less of the ball. Anywho, I'd have him in my side every week. Rivers and Frawley would play the floating, spare defender role, with Frawley, the ability to run with reasonable pace out, off the back flank. Then, Grimes on the other flank has poise and effective disposal, which would be very handy coming out the back half as well. He could also rotate through the midfield, in time, with Morton, who could play that sweeper role across half back, if Bailey so desired. Moving up to the middle of the ground, Morton and Davey both provide silky skills, good decision making and much needed pace through the centre, with Sylvia offering a bit of extra grunt, strong skills and ball winning ability, just as the former do. Both Davey and Sylvia are well capable of kicking goals from the midfield as well. Watching Spencer, briefly the other day, he's still rather clumsy, but some of his tap work was impressive and so would get the nod ahead of Jamar and Paul Johnson. The latter is quickly slipping into the trenches and becoming, at best a depth player and another with huge potential that hasn't delivered. McLean and Scully would both be major ball winners, McLean as an inside mid, whilst Scully on the outside. McLean offers a bit more grunt and leadership (and hopefully improves his decision making and disposal capabilities) in the middle, whilst Scully injects the pace and silk that we so lack at the moment, in the midfield. Moving into our forwardline, Jurrah would probably drop deep and provide a third marking option and play as the Robbo small-playing-a-tall-role and perhaps with a few pre seasons under his belt could push into the midfield, to release even more pace in there. Next to Jurrah, Watts would play up the ground and occasionally play deep, when the opportunity arises (I noticed a number of times, Whopper being in the right place at the right time, with fantastic ability to read the play, against the Pies). He, like Franklin also posseses the ability to play anywhere on the ground. If we so needed, Jack could push himself into the midfield, or even win the ball across half back. On the other flank, Bate would play the lead up role that Miller plays (notice no Miller as well, I didn't know where to put him), with the ability to kick the long goal from the flank (as on Monday) or even push deep as well. Finally, to the full forwardline, Aussie to roam the feet of Butcher, Watts and Jurrah, as he did so well last year (even though we barely had any tall forwards to crumb off!). Next to him, Butcher, to play from the square or rotate through half forward with Watts. He'd hopefully provide the main target inside forward 50. While, Maric would play the role of crumber and balance our forwardline out nicely. Each week, I'd rotate players through the bench. I'd probably play Jones each week though and rotate him through Brock's inside mid role, as well as Moloney. Strauss would offer further poise and effective disposal, just as Blease would too. I'd probably play Martin off the bench and keep him mainly in the backline, but occasionally, pushing him forward (once he's learnt his trade) and into the ruck when required. Jamar would occasionally replace the likes of Spencer. In short, I think we have a lot of talent on our list and by far the most promising list we've had for many years. Be patient, Bailey and his coaching staff are on the right track. The kids are the foundation, but they'll take a little time to develop. However, when they do, watch out AFL! Go Dees!!!

Even if he had, I think he's level-headed enough to realise it's not an easy game.

Greeny is one of my favourites, but he was poor against the Pies. Easily his worst game for the season. Mind you, he wasn't alone out there, unfortunately.

I'm especially glad that he backed up the article that was written about him in The Age, by Quayle. Often you find (particularly Melbourne) players struggle to back up after an article is written about them, but perhaps, considering the articles content, it was added motivation?

I wouldn't be surprised if we came out and beat Essendon....

I don't think it's crazy at all. I was talking with my family during the game yesterday and we mentioned him putting his hand up for the leadership group. He clearly showed the most leadership yesterday. If next year's too early, the year after that?

I know this is a little off topic, but at least Jack kicked in long, when he got it. What the feck were we doing playing our dry weather footy? Football in the wet is a very simple game. Win the ball, kick it long, quickly and something will invaribly happen. Instead, we played a ridiculous game of dry weather football, without altering our gameplan at all. The handball game just isn't going to work on a day like today. Kick it long to the forwards, if it doesn't get marked by a forward (who's playing in front), it'll skim off the pack and go to the back. If you have quick crumbers by their feet, easy goals are to be made. This was no more evident than goals from Dick, Didak and Davis. It was bewildering that the players seemingly weren't instructed this at any stage (it's at least the second time this season, that we've attempted to play our dry weather football in the rain). If anything, we reverted to this game style for the last ten minutes of the game and it proved a lot more effective. It's games like today, when a side gets a run on and an obvious move needs to be made (and is not fourthcoming), that from a coaching point of view, we're tanking.

Very good post. I agree, wholeheartedly.

Was a bloke in his first game meant to step right in and have an impact? I think the expectations are ridiculously high. As it turns out, QB might not have been the best day to debut Whopper, as being a first gamer, you're already nervous enough, let alone having to worry about the wet conditions. Still, I'm happy that Jack got through it unscathed. He'll be harder at it next round.

He was bloody fantastic wasn't he? This kid is beginning to go places.

Actually, his kicking action reminded me a lot of Mark Williams at Hawthorn. Very easy, natural kicking action. Beautiful to watch. I thought Pask beat Silvagni early, but then lacked the supply after the early stages. To me, at least, every time Strauss touched it, he put it to the advantage of one of his team mates, usually by foot. Yeah, I've watched Newton over the last few seasons and had hoped he would bulk up a bit. I'm the same age and roughly his height and I've overtaken him in terms of muscle definition and I'd reckon strength. I go to the gym three times a week, but I'm not on any program dietry or weights wise, yet I'm sure as a professional AFL footballer, he would be. It's disappointing, because during 2007 I thought, if he could bulk up, he might have even become a stay at home full forward. He has the height. Apparently, that hasn't happened.

He did it effectively yesterday, but he was probably just pushed out a little too far from goal (40 metres:P). He still needs to improve his kicking, which I don't see happening, considering he's had plenty of time to develop that part of his game and to be honest has faulted. The thing about the Casey performance was that the kicking to him made it impossible for defenders to spoil him. The kicking was great. When we improve as a side and our skill level rises, perhaps Miller could play from the square as he did yesterday?

Spot on, Doggo. This is exactly how I see our forwardline operating.

Yeah, the only thing I'd question about Bate playing on a wing is he doesn't have great awareness and it's something you need if you're going to play up the ground, particularly in the middle, when you've got the smaller, quicker players chasing you down and putting pressure on. He's a nice, penetrating, long kick, so he could be a very damaging playing between the wing and half forward.