Adam The God

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.

Rawlings is a hopeless coach. I saw him coach the VFL a few weeks back and he doesn't seem to have a clue. Time will tell, I guess.

I'd exchange Jones for Macca in the middle then and have PJ, Maric, Bennell and Newton on the bench.

He was in my house too. Brett Deledio was also in my class in year 12. Both reasonable players. Private vs. Public school is a poinltess debate, as it's by no means a measure of how good a player is.