Adam The God

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.

Had a read of it this morning. Great article. Let's hope he backs up the article tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm thinking the crowd will be considerably lower than expected due to this constant rain. Lucky to get 50,000 at this rate. It'll probably be about 55,000 if the weather stays the same.

From what I read in another thread today, Jurrah has the potential to go into the middle and win ball there. But, I agree, at the moment, without a full pre-season under his belt he'll struggle to have the fitness to match it with others who have done their full pre-seasons. In the future, I'd expect him to be a lot more versitile than an opportunistic forward and by the sound of it, he will be versitile. It's not just our backline that I'm getting excited about at the moment, it's the load of potential in our forwardline as well.

I must say, I've been calling for his return to the seniors, but I thought today he had little impact and in the end I'm glad he won't play in the 1s this week. Perhaps, in a few weeks though? If he'd kicked straight earlier in the year (which granted, he didn't) he might have had a couple of AFL bags. I thought Jurrah was our most potent and dangerous forward in the first half. I understand what you're saying Nasher and I can't say the thought hasn't crossed my mind before, but for the first time in years, we have the potential to have great depth in our backhalf and we shouldn't sacrifice that, for a draft pick, which may return less potential than Martin offers us already. It'd be arrogant and unwise. Agreed. I think talking trade, is a case of getting a bit greedy. Let's just be happy with what we've got, that being a very good, young, developing defensive unit. I think you're severly undervaluing Jared, Brockstar5. Rivers reads the ball better than anyone else in our entire side, has a heart as big as the MCG and has the potential to play on big KPP and shut them down. The St Kilda game is a great example. Rivers' kicking over the last two weeks hasn't been great, but by the same token, he hasn't had a lot to kick too. Rivers is certainly part of our future and is a geniune leader. You only have to watch him, week in, week out. If there's a pack to be backed into with courage, he'll be there. If there's a chance for an interception, he'll be there. I can't speak highly enough of Jared. He's the sort of player that I'd have in my team every week.

I'd play Bennell over Cheney, but I'd also play Cheney over Bell. That said, the reason I wouldn't is because Bell has to prove himself over the next 12 weeks, in order to stay on the list and therefore we have to give him the opportunity to do so. Cheney will be here next year, but Bell probably won't. It'd be very Collingwood to have Medhurst come into the side for someone else as an emergency, just to throw us off. Perhaps, we're keeping Bennell up our sleeve for him?

I think Bate is best suited to the flanks or a wing, rather than a key position. He's simply not tall enough for key position, then again I suppose he wouldn't be any bigger or smaller than Fevola.

We should all being doing this every week...

Yeah, Rioli definitely went to Scotch. And you're right Enforcer, usually the private schools give these up and coming talents scholarships to play for them. That was certainly the case with Rioli.

Yep it is. I've just come online to waste an hour before it comes on.