Radar Detector

It baffles me that even in a season when he would definitely be top 5 in the B&F and is 23yo, people still don't acknowledge Jones as part of the future. No idea what the man has to do to earn some love.

Indeed RR. In fact, the Demons team this week will be younger and less experienced than the team fielded by the Gold Coast. At least RPFC's flag core numbers should be up this week!

I think you're letting past misgivings cloud your judgment OD. Bennell was lucky to get a run last week on his prior form but he was far from our worst playing as a small defender on a dangerous forward in Garlett. He is likely to get a similar job this week on Jetta or Zaharakis. Maric is stiff but Bennell doesn't deserve your ire on last week's performance IMO.

I agree. I'm looking forward to the fact that we will at least know two of our players will be prepared to gut-run and make options. Welcome back boys.

I agree. As I said, it doesn't paint the whole picture - for example if this analysis was done in round three, we'd have been looking much better. I saw someone (maybe Jay Clark?) write that the average for all clubs over the last few years is 8 out with injury per week. I'd suggest that over the season thus far we'd be pretty close to that. Not sure how we go in recent seasons past. Quite frankly, it does feel to me like a bit of bad luck given the nature of the injuries and we are just feeling it more because of the quality of players missing. That said, I agree prima facie with C&B's assessment that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Anyone with access to more info able to shed anything further?

Not knowing any information about the competence of the medical staff (or their remuneration) I thought it would be interesting to see how our injury list compares to others in the competition. The average number of players on an injury list is 8 (both mean and median) for each club. Most clubs have between 7 and 9. Melbourne is equal second on the list with 11 (St Kilda are also on 11 and Freo is on 15). At the other end of the spectrum, WCE have the lowest injuries with 4 and Port and Richmond each have 5. So this seems (albeit weakly) to debunk a couple of things. Firstly, we are not enormously over the odds with our injury list. We have three more than the average, but is this enough to call the credibility of the medical team into account? This and the types of injuries don't seem to suggest so, although who would know? Secondly, the funding of the medical departments seems to bear no correlation to the injury lists of the various clubs. WCE and Freo respectively would surely have two of the best funded medical departments in the AFL. They sit first and last respectively. Likewise Port and the Demons would surely have two of the worst funded. They sit second and second last respectively. Collingwood is bang on the average with 8. I know that this is only at a point in time and so doesn't paint the whole picture, however to me it is an interesting insight. I think our angst is more particularly due to the nature of players being injured (and compounded by suspensions etc.) with the vast majority being "best 22". This isn't necessarily the case with other clubs. One thing that does appear to be important is the impact of injuries on performance. ST Kilda, Melbourne and Freo have largely been seen as disappointing this year and Richmond and WCE have outperformed (and Port are just rubbish). For those of you that keep saying injuries are irrelevant, it's hard to defend when you look at these stats.

+1. I also hold out hope of seeing good signs from Blease and Strauss. I think Strauss could be a really damaging player for us if he gets a bit of confidence. And people forget he has had a fairly bad run with injuries too.

I agree with a lot of what you say here. The only problem is that the contested part of the game (i.e. winning the ball) is the part of the game where size differences are most critical. We only have a couple of genuine big-bodied midfielders and they are simply not as good as those at other clubs. Moloney and Sylvia are decent but Moloney in particular can go missing. Jones plays more outside for someone of his size. Unfortunately we will have to wait for the likes of Gysberts and Scully to physically mature. Can't argue with the structures, although the FD have said this is not their main focus right now.

6. Jared Rivers 5. Colin Sylvia 4. Stefan Martin 3. Jordie McKenzie 2. James Frawley 1. Joel MacDonald Jones and Watts would have squeezed in but turned it over by foot. Liked their endeavour though. My god we are crying out for some skills.

1. I don't disagree completely, merely pointing out that each affects the other. Our midfield is nowhere near as good as you seem to think and we rarely get qualiy ball into the f50 in the first place. Fact. 2. The premiers are almost always at the forefront of modern trends and creating them, not copying others who are pioneering them first. Original. 3. Not my problem if your comprehension is a bit lacking.

Flash is top 5 easily, just not playing like it atm. Some ridiculous comments flying around.

I agree with the sentiment from many on here that they may have been brought back too early. But have been thinking that it could be an interesting move as they may both get big defensive jobs. Bennell would be a leading candidate to take Betts or Garlett especially with Bartram out. And Morton may be the perfect guy to tag Judd. He has gone with Goodes before and was really only beaten when isolated in the defensive 50 in one-on-one marking contests. He won't have that issue with Judd. Alternatively, he could get a defensive role on Gibbs. Thoughts?

What I am saying is that the issue of our forward pressure is, I repeat, overplayed because of our low forward entries. Surely you can see that there is some cross-correlation between these stats. For example, we were roundly criticised after the WCE game due to the fact that we had no tackles inside f50 in the first quarter. Shocking, I know. But in that same quarter, we had only three i50s, of which one was a backwards kick from the opposition to a loose defender. Pretty hard to apply forward pressure that quarter. All I am pointing out is that, while you need defensive pressure to maximise your forward entries, by definition you actually need forward entries to be able to apply defensive pressure in the first place. Otherwise it's just pressure. Make sense? Several games this year (the WCE and Hawks games spring to mind) we were smashed at centre clearances and had far fewer initial i50 entries meaning our forward pressure stats are naturally skewed. No, I don't think they invented zoning. However if you look at the defensive structures of each of the last four premiership teams, theay have each had very different game plans. Swans and WCE each employed a similar defensive flood. Geelong played a far less structured defensive zone and backed their individual defenders to win one-on-one (e.g. Scarlett, Egan, Taylor) or zone off (e.g. Milburn, Mackie) where required. Hawthorn employed a more extreme variation of the traditional zone with the "cluster". Collingwood has gone even further with the "forward press". All I am saying is that the next premier rarely (if ever) topples the incumbent using the same game plan. A modified variation maybe, but I hazard a guess that the premier won't be playing the forward press as we know it in three years time. Ah, the old mis-quote the poster and hope he doesn't notice trick! I never said we had to stick with our current game plan, nor implied it. I merely suggested that we should be building a game pland for tomorrow, not today. I do not know what that is or should be but I would hope that the guys in charge have their eyes on the road ahead, not the current surroundings. Original? Yes, I would think that is a pre-requisite for success. I trust this satisfies your curiosity.

Am I the only one that thinks Gysberts would get absolutely buried in a tagging role on Judd? Not only do we potentially sacrifice one of our best clearance mids, but Gys has nothing like the pace required to run with him I don't think. I would think Jordie will have first crack, but given the discussion around Nicholson, what about Evans being rotated also? Is quicker than Gys and we wouldn't be losing out as much in the clinches.

This is far too sensible an approach to reside on this thread...

Great to see some pace, footskills and hardness coming in over the last couple of weeks. Well done Dan.

Spot on. My greatest fear in relation to our rebuild, is that the peanut gallery pull the trigger on Dean Bailey too early and compromise what has been started. I don't want to go down the quick fix road. I want our coach to play the young players who our premiership tilt will live or die by.

Great post Why do people keep saying this as if doing so removes it as a consideration? Perhaps if the so-called "Bailey apologists/fanatics" started every post with "Forget about our win-loss record for the last four years" others will begin to see some sense... This issue is overplayed because of our low forward entries in the games where we lose. And the more relevant question is - is this the game style we want to be playing anyway? Or do we want to be innovating and creating a game style that when the team is ready will take us to a flag? If you look at all of the recent premiers, none of them have won their flag by copying the previous winner, which is a favoured tactic of the laggards. Geelong, Hawthorn and Collingwood have all brought their own unique game plan to the table. Copying generally doesn't quite get the job done.

I hope you see the irony in this. Signing for a year settles nothing... In any event, if Scully is going to leave (not that I'm sure he will) I'd rather he do it this year and allow us the chance to address his loss as early as possible. FWIW, Davey, Sylvia, Green etc. have all negotiated their contracts over trade week in recent years and despite a mountain of speculation (Green to Sydney, Hawthorn; Davey to Essendon, Freo etc.) they all stayed.

Was going to ask precisely that question. We can't be expecting the club to maintain universal standards with Jurrah as an exception. Seems we're very happy to hang certain players for their "softness" but not him. I agree he is showing signs of being new to the game being played in such an intense physical manner. Like with Morton and Bennell, I expect this trait will improve over time.

All of these may be true, but in a physically and mentally developed team, it is easier for isolated examples like these to provide the exception. Melbourne don't have Swan, Pendlebury, Maxwell, Shaw, Didak, Tarrant, O'Brien, Cloke, Dawes, Davis, Ball, Jolly etc. which is the point. Almost all of our genuine talent is young and not physically developed. When they are, we will be a good side. Probably not before.

I agree. I was saying that the "we didn't pick him because he's not a choirboy" line is a load of crap.

I love the rationality that you, Snoopy, RPFC and a few others bring to this forum. If only this concept could be more universally understood we would be a lot happier group. No matter how hard you try, or how much you might want to, you just can't speed up time. Patience, as they say, is a virtue.

Does anybody that spouts this as the reason we didn't draft Darling actually know why we didn't pick him? Couldn it be because we have a wealth of mid-size forwards and were all crying out for a genuine tall forward? Could it be that Cook, like Watts, was viewed by the FD to be a better long-term prospect? The 'choir boy" comment is a very easy throw-away line with no basis in fact. Plenty of our more recent draftees are tough as nails. In any event, time and again we see physically mature 18yo footballers look a cut above their peers for one or two seasons but often there is less improvement. Tom Hawkins springs to mind. Rich may be another. Tapscott may even be another. They're bankable because they're ready to go straight away so you know won't get a dud but you often won't get the superstar either. Let's revisit this in a few years when we have a clue if Cook is any good.

Stats won't tell you that he also made two absolue howlers in the defensive fifty that directly cost us goals. And Milne kicked three more on him. Stats don't lie but don't always tell the whole trth either. PS I agree he is an important player and should be in the side every week. Always has a dip and plays his role.