Binmans PA

The goal umpire's gender is not relevant here though...

As I said in another thread, our forwardline is beginning to look quite dangerous. I think the makings of an extremely successful forwardline are there...Bate, Watts, Jurrah, Aussie, Jetta, Sylvia, Petterd and I'm sure I'm missing someone. If you think of Geelong and their forwardline, you don't necessarily need two power forwards, like the Hawthorns. I'm now firmly in the 'fix up the midfield' camp and if we do that, these already exciting youngsters will start to blow games apart. That said, for some insurance, I'd pick up Vic Metro's Carlisle with my first second round pick (obviously, if available).

I'm with you there, why you little, but I'm probably a little biased, as I dislike Carlton immensly.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, Robbo is a dog, but he's still vital to our structure and we look so much better with a target to kick too. This week, I wouldn't mind seeing Bails stick Bate in the square (ala vs. the Hawks in the NAB cup), next to LJ and clear out the rest of the forward line. Play Petterd as a lead up forward across half forward and through the middle. Bate is really starting to excite me as of late. His finishing is becoming deadly. I back him from 50-55 metres just about everytime. His finishing in close has been spot on too. With LJ naturally exciting my pants off, throw in Whopper and suddenly you have a forwardline worth talking about. Oh and then there's another deadly finisher called Colin Sylvia and throw forward pressure and goal smarts from Aussie and Jetta- we're improving. Bailey is doing his job, as far as I'm concerned. Let's fix up that midfield and we've got exciting times ahead. I suppose on my above evaulation, we can't afford to get rid of Robbo just yet, as his presence allows the players around him to develop at their own pace. But, that's why I say, Bailey should start to work out some potential future forward structures now. May as well start this week against the Swannies. Sorry, slightly off topic, but we have a bright future if you side track a little bit, outside of this thread.

Very good post, Akum. This is the major reason why I've valued Flash's output so highly this season. He hits targets and turnovers rarely occur from his foot.

Really? We never really headed them. We did play decent quarters after quarter time, but the game was over at quarter time. Geelong tried experimenting once they'd got a desired lead. The only point we looked like getting back into the match was during the 2nd, when we kicked three in a row, but that was extinguished when Petterd kicked an up and under and as a result we turned it over. But ultimately, the Geelong supporters seemed more frustrated than anything. They wanted a 20 goal win, as you do.

Wow, list management eh? I'm actually travelling up to Canberra so would prefer if we left in Grimesy and LJ, but I suppose LJ would kick a bag against them, while Warnock would probably shut down Jesse White. I believe we must give Newton another chance to prove his worth, obviously he's contracted for next season, which is why we're probably not rushing him back in, but if he could work out his kicking and bulk up, I could see him playing a Kozi type role for us. His work rate, despite what some people think is actually quite solid, while his hands are usually pretty strong. It's not like Kozi doesn't lack a bit of coordination, in fact I'd probably call him the most 'un-co' player in the league. Yet, he is playing his role, structually for the Saints, in kicking his couple of goals each week. If Newton had converted his opportunities earlier in the year, he could have had a few bags. Particularly, against the likes of Adelaide at the G, a game we would have won, had he kicked straight. As for Cheney and Whealen...do we have a spot for both of them in our back half? Watching Cheney again last week, I don't think he's good enough. Perhaps, time will tell, but last week he was way too fancy with his disposal in blustery conditions and turned it over a couple of times. Unfortunately, I agree with YM on this one. Brock's disposal has always worried me and a number of times in the past few weeks, even when he's had good games, he has turned the ball over by foot, under little to no pressure. I'm still a little dumbfounded that people have not realised Brock is actually just slow and no matter how much pre season he gets, his speed will not improve. That said, I do have my foot in the camp of giving him a chance with good support players (like Scully) around him. Add another star in there (Trengove) and all of a sudden there will be competition in our midfield (Jones vs McLean vs Moloney) and hopefully that will be good for them. There's no doubt that both Jones and McLean are ball magnets, they just need to learn to make better decisions. Moloney is muscle and occasional ball winner. I'd keep him in the mix at this point in time too. As for Robbo, I have never got so close to actually hating one of our own in my entire life and that's going week in, week out for the past 16 to 17 years. It's like he's an opposition player, he does nothing to help the kids trying to learn around him. Strangely, he will win us the odd game against weak opposition (like Freo last year and the Eagles this year), but is that what we want at the moment? It doesn't really help anyone in the long term. There's no doubt Macca will retire at the end of the year, I wouldn't be surprised if he announces it after Round 20. As for Bruce, the last probably 4 or 5 seasons his disposal by foot has been one of the worst in our team. He's not a tough player, but he is a smart player. But as some have said, he is the sort of player we need to get tough on, in order to achieve premiership success.

I agree with Commetti and Grybas. Not Huddo though. I used to like him, but ever since Geelong have rocketed up the ladder he is too biased for my liking. I also really enjoy comments by Tim Lane and Robert Walls, while Richo is becoming a favourite of mine on Ten. Michael Christines is horrible (and terribly black and white biased) and Matthew Lloyd is equally pitiful. Lloyd seems to know very little outside his own club, while Richo is well informed on all the clubs it seems. Bruce is also good for a laugh occasionally and to be honest very un biased which is great.

The Bulldogs will not will a flag with their undersized team.

Perhaps, so, but taking Brendan Fevola off against the Pies, when he was smashing it up in the latter part of 2007 was certainly tanking.

Very good points, because teams like Adelaide had those champions still playing when the rebuild began (MacLeod, Goodwin, Edwards etc), as did Essendon (Lloyd, Lucas and Fletcher). We've had none of those, as we've lacked champions (besides perhaps Garry Lyon), certainly in my lifetime. I think people under estimate how important it is to have champion older players still on the list, with young players coming through. Lloyd would provide a blueprint for work rate and professionalism for any young Bomber forward coming through, just as Edwards would live up to similar standards for young Adelaide midfielders. What do we have? If it's not almost total youth (our backline), then it's a guy like Robbo, who spends more time on his hands and knees or taking dives, than he does standing on his feet and encouraging team mates. With this lack of champion leadership, we have no foundation and therefore must rely on having early draft picks. Even if they take a while to develop, hopefully the recruiters pick well and the young kids coming through bring their own professionalism to the table.

Yes, it is staggering to think he hasn't won the award. I'd like to see him put together 6 consistent weeks of football from here on, out and he might come back into contention for the captaincy, but he still goes missing too often for my liking. Yep, I agree with that. He's certainly playing the best footy of his MFC career. I hope he can begin to add a level consistency equalled to that of an AFL captain and then we'll have someone to build around. I've lost patience with McLean, whereas Bruce and Macca won't be part of our next finals bid, so Moloney would certainly be a choice that would reflect looking to the future.

I'll take on board everything, except the stats at the end. Where Aaron is being played is not necessarily his fault and does have a baring on the amount of possessions he gets. That said, if played dangerous positions, Aaron only needs 10 touches to have a major impact. Earlier in the season, when we needed a solid head, with good foot skills, we had to play Aaron down back. But now Grimes has added some poise off half back, it releases Davey into the midfield and possibly forward. Whilst, Aaron may never lay the big bump, he's the only guy I would put my life on, to be chasing week in, week out. Nobody else does it as consistently as he does and has done. That's leadership too. He does need to learn how to shrug a tag and cope with the niggle, without his constant chasing and offensive and defensive pressure we would be far worse off. The tackle comparison between he and Moloney is rather misleading, as Moloney is playing in a tight, in close position, whereas Aaron is having to do more chasing and arugably applying far more pressure than someone from our midfield. Particularly, one that gets regularly beaten in the clearances. I suppose I wouldn't mind Moloney being captain for a couple of years, but I'd replace him when a few of the younger guys mature (ie Grimes, Watts etc).

Yeah, my mum and sister went, so that makes six at least. They had members tickets from one of our family members (who is Geelong), because that bloody ground barely gives up any tickets for opposition supporters. The seating arrangements are a disgrace. Get another 5,000 seats in there or fix up opposition supporters tickets.

That, however I do agree on. Sadly, true.

Moloney is a little too inconsistent for my liking. Even though Flash had one of his quieter matches yesterday, he's still head a shoulders above the rest in tersm of leadership. His tackling and chasing every week is miles above anyone else. Moloney played well yesterday, but he doesn't do it reguarly enough and I'm not sure whether it was just a matter of coming up against his old team or a sign of consistent things to come. He's not talented enough to be captain though. Flash is. As for Brock, if he is captain next year it'll be more of a joke than Macca this year. I love Macca, but I'm not convinced he should have gone around again this year. McLean showed absolutely no leadership yesterday and I can kick a football better than him. It's disappointing, because he has the ability to win a lot of in and under ball. As for Greeny, I don't really feel like talking about him at the moment, considering I can't recall him playing a worse game than yesterday. Some of his decision making, under little pressure was very poor and quite un-Green-like.

She also noted that we apparently had 'three supporters' at yesterday's game. Her voice was the most annoying thing I've ever heard on television. I hope she gets the flick. A number of times she would make a comment that moments later would be denied by the play going on. I'd said she was pretty ordinary to be honest. As for Richo, I always enjoy his comments. As for Hudson, he was at his most annoying yesterday. Oh and those wankers being sexest, go and jump off a cliff or come and join the twenty first century.

As wild as that may seem, I wouldn't disagree. Once he starts putting together 4 quarters he could easily bag 10. He breased to three goals after one quarter the other day. I'm not saying he went out of the game entirely, because he still set up just about all our goals, but given four quarters from full forward or the forward pocket and he could very well grab quite a few bags. It was disappointing he missed that sitter from 15 out the other day, particularly when he'd been so accurate from directly in front. He'll be a gem this bloke though.

It totally depends on what the instructions are to the caretakers. If the instructions are get their club a high pick, then naturally the caretakers are going to tank. There are quite a few of our guys playing for their careers as well. I'm not necessarily one for going along with Herald Sun articles, but there was one today discussing the fact that there's no doubt 5 or 6 clubs will think about tanking over the last few rounds.

Agreed. There's no way we'll lose to either Freo or Richmond, then there's the Kangaroos, who we'll probably beat and we're a show against Sydney. It'll be interesting to see how we play against the Swannies, because we'll give it our all this week and it's highly unlikely we'll win, whereas if things stay the same as the last two weeks against Sydney, we'll probably beat them, because they're hopeless. That said, the Eagles have put themselves in an extremely difficult position (thanks to a 10 minute burst from Nik Nat against the Hawks) and one which I don't think they can get out of, considering the teams they have to play. If Cox plays (and add Kerr to that), the Eagles will definitely win at least one more. Freo will probably beat the Eagles in the derby though, but the Eagles will probably pick up another somewhere along the line. At this stage, it looks like there won't be a priority pick. Furthermore, I'd expect Freo, the Eagles and us to all win at least 5 games. We all play each other, there has to be losers.

I love our Jack, but the same could be said for him on Queen's Birthday.

There were at least two times yesterday where he went to ground, so he didn't have to chase. He did however put on a couple of good chases. But there was also a moment, where Jetta was in space to his right and should and could have easily given the handball off to him, who would have had an easy shot from 30-35 out directly in front, but instead Robbo tried a snap from 40 and it ended up going 20 metres and closer to the right forward pocket boundary line. That was one of the most damning moments of his game for me, yesterday.

I get the feeling, as long as he keeps kicking bags of 3 or 4, he'll stay on the list.

I didn't actually (clap that is). I realised today how much I dislike Robbo. I love my club, but we've put up with his attitude for long enough. He spoke well at the end of the game though.

Rivers was great. As was our entire back half. Frawley, Warnock. Great games. I can't say the same for Robbo though. A few more selfish efforts from him. The majority of the side was fantastic though. Some skills errors, but they're to be expected. The young kids in particular were just brilliantly exciting to watch. When Jurrah runs at a pack he's more exciting than anything I've seen for a long time. Jetta's tackling and defensive pressure was fantastic all day as well. Bennell played an extremely encouraging game as well. Not all of his disposals were 100% effective, but he seemed to cover a lot more ground than usual and it almost seemed as though he felt he belonged today. Then Jackie Grimes. Wow, what a game he played. Another draft of more young talent and in three or four years we'll definitely be contenders.