The Chazz

Very well said!

Chicken, do you have any idea about the game? Sorry buddy, I have to ask. I'm just frustrated with the opinion that you share with sooooo many other people on here. We had momentum, played a cracking 20 minutes, then the Hawks got it back. While we weren't in control of the game (that's for you HT), we were making them pay. we worked our ass off to get the lead, and a good lead too of 27 points, but when the Hawks started putting it together, Flash showed leadership by slowing the play down, so that we didn't go in to half time on level terms, which I think was more than likely going to happen with the way the Hawks were coming at us. Don't believe me? Lokk at what they did in 20 miutes in the 3rd quarter. Hawthorn were playing with the same intensity for most of the match, it's just in the 3rd quarter everything worked. Everything started to work for them with 5 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter, but becuase of Flash's smarts, he stopped a 5 minute avalanche. In that time they still managed to reduce our lead. I also challenge anyone that thinks our players went in defeated at hlaf time to have a look at the replay of our boys walking off. They walked off thinking they had won the game, high 5's everywhere, etc, etc. They thought they had weathered the storm, Bailey thought they had too, and so did I! At the time, I didn't see that 3rd quarter coming, kudos to those that went on record at half time and said they did. Now that I've had time to think about it, of course the potential was there for a big quarter, but even still, to have 19 scoring shots was amazing. When was the last time a team dominated a quarter like that? I'd be interested to know who it was, and who against. Please, for your own benefit, start believing that what Flash did was the best thing he could have done. He was on the field, and felt the Hawks pressure. I'm proud that he stood up and stopped it - it was the best 5 minutes he played all game. We are all entitled to an opinion, but I, and the minority that agree with me, are 100% correct in what I am saying. Until you, or anyone else that feels the same way, can prove with a decent case, that what Flash did cost us the game, I really feel sorry for our club that some of our supporters are criticising them for this. As I said in another post, when we are bigger, stronger, more mature, developed, call it what you will, put when we are seriously pushing for a flag, we will become the hunted (more so than now). Poorer sides than us will be out each week to knock us off with more determination (think us against Collingwood), so if a side does get a run on, we WILL need to be able to slow the play down. Think about it in this way, if that were a Grand Final, and that 2nd quarter was the last quarter, what would you wnat from our players? Protect the lead when it's obvious our opponents were coming hard and had the potential to kick 4 goals in 5 mnutes to get the lead back, or play our natural game, which wasn't working for the couple of minutes leading up to it? Even if it were the 3rd quarter of a GF, I'd want the same style introduced. Sorry guys, I know there is a thread on this, but where it relates to the OP, was that at times with Bailey down on ground level, he was able to scream at his players and tell them to flood back, and it come traight from his mouth, not via him calling a runner, then the runner coming out, etc. Nb. Not meant to be a personal attack on Chicken (PM me if I have upset you), just a passionate supporter that was as gutted as anyone last week but has had enough of the overreaction on parts of the game that are unwarranted. Cheers

Would've loved to see Tapy play in the midfield in the last quarter on the weekend. Does anyone know how quick he is? Factfully, not just an opinion? Who does he beat in the sprints at the club?

Regardless of priors, whether they made the All Aust team as a junior, or anything. The fact is that our recruiters saw more in Lucas Cook than they did in Jack Darling. The fact that Darling has played well in 2 games could be good - if the recruiters got it right, how good will Cook be? On the otherhand, they may have got it wrong. One thing is for sure, noone in here can honestly stand up and say that they have got it wrong in this selection...yet. Re-open this thred in 5 years, then we will know. Until then, this thread should be locked.

When has Newton showed he is capable of kicking goals in the seniors? Miller kicked 10 or something at Casey last year didn't he? Yeah, he kicked 5 against Port, but that was once. I still don't understand what Martin has done wrong to suggest he can't play Full Forward. Someone, please tell me because obviously I'm missing chunks of games. Would we be any worse off putting Martin there for the next month to see how he goes? He has shown he has gone to another level this year, let's see what he can do playing out of the goal square, or even at CHF.

Haven't seen anything of him live or on TV - am going by match reports on this forum and what the coaches say in their weekly report. To me it sounds like he is improving each week, and if he can continue to do so over the next month or so, might be a chance to crack the big time. While they play slightly different roles, there doesn't seem to be the same gradual improvement from Strauss (again, going by what the reports say). This is why I'm fearing for him - if Blease, who started from a lot further back, is making ground on Strauss already, does Strauss have the belief that he can take a person's spot in the seniors? He's not in our best 22 yet, and the more games some of our other young guys play at Casey, the harder it will be to get in that best 22 group.

It's ironic isn't it. The AFL are happy to support gambling addicts, and try to get them on the straight and narrow again, but are happy to take money from betting agencies (via TV rights). Good luck Daniel. No doubt you will have people whinging that you opened up like that, I think it takes a lot of guts.

I booed Andy Lovell when he played for West Coast. Wasn't an attack on him personally, was just disappointed that he was in a different colour jumper. I also booed Cameron Bruce all day sunday, from the comfort of my Man Cave. It felt bloody good too. It was a little bit more personal with Bruce (as opposed to Chopper), he did give us 10 years of service, thanks. He also shafted us and we got nothing in return. Did we shaft him first? I don't think we did. I can't see how some of his performances last year were worthy of a 2 year contract. I still believe he had 1 year (at the most) of AFL standard footy left in him, so if a team offered him 2, I'm happy for him to clog up someone elses list for 12 months, suits me just fine. Time will tell if I'm right or not, but apart from that one passage in the third quarter, he was pretty bloody ordinary for the 2nd week in a row. I think he is actuall slower this year, but is in a good enough team to be able to get away with it. Anyone that disagrees with my thoughts on just how well Bruce was going, sit down and watch the replay of Round 22 last year against North. This will start a war, but I have no doubt his performance influenced the result, so I'm glad he's gone. Anyone on this site complaining about our treatment of Bruce on Sunday need to really harden up. It's any wonder that opposition supporters treat us like crap.

I have no doubt that while the playing group is maturing, he will spend more time down stairs. I'd expect that mid next year he will spend more time in the coaches box. There's not many coaches that sit up top these days, with most of those coaches coming from teams that are serious contenders.

HT - I apologise if you and another poster read words in my posts that aren't there. Some things I can control, some things I can't. As usual, what you read in to posts is accurate, regardless of what is actually written. Your concerns with our performance are the same that I had for the GC on Saturday night, none of their senior players stood up and took the game on. I will watch them again this weekend, just like I'll be watching our boys, to see just which leaders stand up. While everyone is entitled to voice disappointment after 1 poor performance, not many are coming up with a solution. Maybe it's becuase there isn't one until we see if this is an ongoing issue, or just a one off.

Interesting. I thought our attitude against the Swans was pretty bloody good. The fact that we didn't win by 10 goals means they had a bad attitude? Maybe it's the supporters that need to change their attitudes becuase it's quite pathetic how many are sooking after 1 bad loss. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that we were 0-16 going by some of the posts on this site this week.

The positive sign though was the fact that even in the other 3 quarters, we were still totally outclassed (all bar 20 minutes in the 2nd quarter), but managed to keep scoreboard pressure on. Regardless of how inaccurate they kicked, that's a massive step forward in terms of where we have come from. Like the Sydney game, we showed we have matured as a group, but there is still a long way to go, and justifiably so. I would love someone to tell us how many of Hawthorn's points were rushed, how many were from set shots on an angle of 45 degrees or tighter, and how many were from stoppages that saw the kicker under pressure. I know they missed a handful of easy shots, but there were a lot that weren't gimmies.

Absolutely agree that Robbo and Bruce would be on that list. Bruce was no good after he broke his collar-bone, and the fact that he finished in those spots in the B&F that he did just highlights how crap our list was. Anyway, it is a fantastic post. It also got me thinking about what players you want with you when you're down, and 2 names that spring to my mind that would surprise a number of people would be Rivers and Jones, and I think that's why they continually get a spot in the team. Neither are front runners, they work as hard if they are 10 goals down as they do if they are 10 goals up. yeah, Jones' 2nd half last week wasn't flash according to the stats, but as we keep saying, he wasn't on his own. Where Jones and Riv are a bit unlucky, they aren't always the standout performers in good wins, so they tend to get criticised. I have great concern that Petterd is going to be on that initial list. Someone/Ricky, please prove me wrong!

I used to work for a company doing sales, selling something that I sawa lot of benefit in. I had monthly targets, in the first month, I reached my target, in the 2nd month, I didn't. At the end of the 2nd month, my manager ripped me a new one about not achieving, blah blah. I knew I wasn't achiving, and the last thing I needed was someone telling me. I also thought that it was pathetic of anyone to judge me after 2 months of a new job. History shows, that in the coming months, I was regularly the top salesman, and consistently smashed targets, not just reached them. The foot up the ass I got at the end of my 2nd month, while I thought was unfair, made me more determined to show my manager that I was the right person for the job. In some ways I should've thanked her, but even when I was easily reaching my targets I was still being driven, so I cracked the sh!ts and left! My point is, let's just wait for a few more games before we start putting Bailey's KPI's under the microscope. So far, we have won 37.5% of the quarters played. Importantly, there has only been 8 quarters played so far this year. There is a long way to go.

It took him 4 drafts to get a team that he wanted. No new coach will walk in and have everything that they expect, they will make thir own changes. it's just some coaches are lucky enough to be in a position to be able to make those changes in 12 months. Bailey had to wait 4 years.

It took me 5 minutes trying to work out how to type it!

Again, I didn't say we were in control. I can tell you how I would be feeling if the score was 26.16, I'd feel exactly the same way. Hawthorn were bloody good, we were bloody terrible. Hawthorn are a far better side than us, and I think it was credit to our players that they actually played some pretty damn good footy in that 2nd quarter. I know where we are at, I have realistic expectations, and unlike some, I know the ability of our senior players. The sooner that our supporters sit down and have a decent look at our playing list, be honest about our senior players, and understand where they list is at in terms of personnel changes and games played, the better off this forum will be. To give you some idea, since 2007, we have had approx 20 players play their first game for the MFC, and 7 still yet to debut. Massive personnel change.

I strongly believe that Hawthorn forced us to play to the boundary line, and even Green said that we went back to the way we used to play. The 2nd quarter showed what happends when the players play to the game plan that Bailey wants them to play to. What Bailey stands for is what he believes in. He believes his game plan will win us a premiership. when it is executed perfectly, not many can challenge it. when it is not executed perfectly, we look terrible. I admire Bailey's guts not to change becuase of external pressures. Geelong in the powerful years never changed their game plan, it's just that their players got to the stage where they mastered it on a regular basis, and it was dominant. If we can do what we did against Sydney last year, Brisbane last year, or even Hawthorn in that 2nd quarter last week, when a majority of players have the bodies that have experienced 3 or 4 tough AFL preseasons and seasons, I, like Bailey, have no doubt we will be a force. I realise the frustration that Sunday brought, I hurt as much as the next supporter, but guys, can you not see these points that a select few of us are raising? We can clearly see yours, and agree to some degree.

I don't mind Stynes coming out. One thing our club has lacked in recent times is an identity, someone who represents our club in all areas. McGuire did it for a while until he got Malthouse, Kennett is it for the Hawks, Sheedy was it for Essendon, elliott for Carlotn way back when, and so on. It's the person that when they talk about their club, people stop and listen. It can be a coach, player or president, doesn't matter, as long as we've got one. Ok, some of the stuff that he said, yeah, maybe Bailey should be saying it at a press conference, but until proven otherwise, I'm 100% sure it gets said with passion behind the scenes. We finally have an identity in Stynes, and he played his part with the press release this morning.

Just Kidding!

Jack Watts

No Joel Macdonald on the report? Is he this weeks mystery injury?

It's a tough one isn't it. Probably shows just how much of a step up it is to that big level, even from the VFL. I still want to see Juice perform at that level on a regular basis, but while Martin continues to improve, it's hard to see him getting a game.

Cheers mate. I'm concerned about Strauss. Maybe he'd be better having a run on the wing? I know it's harsh, but I haven't seen anything in his 2 games that would suggest he can make it. And, while they are playing Tappy at HBF, and if Blease continues to play well, he may miss his opportunity.

Ok, last year we had a draw and lost by 1 point. In 2009 we lost by 53 points and 66 points.