The Chazz

That's the joy of forums Nasher - sorry if you nearly choked on your cornflakes when you opened this thread and it didn't give you what you wanted. The jury is out whether he will play or not, they will return with their verdict at about 11:30am when the team sheet is lodged. But, at this stage, they have been given enough evidence to safely find him guilty of playing. Out of curiosity, would you really think I'd reveal my source on a forum just to keep you satisfied? Throwing it out there this early gives our fans time to prepare for the possibility that Garland is in.

OK Nasher, now that you're over your little Sunday morning rant, does this mean that Garland is not fit? If he was fit, but wasn't going to play today, wouldn't he benefit from having a run in the 2's, rather than keeping him on standby just in case one of our seniors doesn't get up? Wouldn't it have been better to leave out Spencer or Cheney and give Garland match time for Casey?

Only emergency not to play for Casey last night. I wouldn't read in to that normally, but it is following a Twitter message from Cam Schwab that reads "Really pleased for Col Garland. He has had a tough time since he last played just over 12 months ago. He is a very impressive young man." While this could mean well done on getting back on a field of any type, I am doubtful.

Col Garland POSSIBLY playing against the Crows today. The big question is at who's expense? Edit - Changed "is" to "POSSIBLY" reason: to satisfy Nasher so he can cool down a bit before the opening bounce.

Garland will play today, I can assure you of this.

Yeah, it was when he was playing for Sydney or Collingwood, can't remember which. The thing with Robbie Muir was that it was generally provoked. He didn't go out to hurt people, they got in his ear (which was his biggest weakness!) and then look out! I still debate that Grinter was a sniper. He was hard and tough, that's not dirty. The amount of times I saw Gary Hocking kick players was disgusting. Dustin Fletcher is not far different either. That's why I don't believe Byron was a dirty player, just a hard nut that loved the hip and shoulder. If you think big hip and shoulder's are dirty, you've obviously never played a game! I was at that St Kilda game too when Bazza went off. The incident that sent him in to that rage was when Bazza was at the bottom of a pack, and Steven Febey walked past him and "accidentally" kneed him in the head. There were other incidents before this, but this was the one when I jumped up and started throwing hay-makers! Now, Steven Febey was not a dirty player, but it was pretty clear what his intentions were when he was walking past.

Of course they can. Didn't you see Frawley line up on Medhurst last week, and defeat him? A couple of our defenders (ie Frawley and Macdonald) can play tall or short. Very solid backline without any superstars.

Dirtiest AFL player - easily Dustin Fletcher. Guerra = hard, tough. Stephen Baker = serial pest. I did once see Fraser Gherig kick Nathan Brown behind the goals one game, was never going to get caught on camera, but I saw it. Needless to say, a massive amount of abuse was thrown the G-Train's way! In my time (30 years), Buddah Hocking was a filthy [censored], and his teammate that wore number 5 wasn't the cleanest blokes going around. I rate those 2 milers ahead of Grinter. Grinter was far from dirty, and the sh!t that happened over the Wallace incident was a disgrace. I almost vomit when I see Wallace on TV, and if he ever coached Melbourne, I would not follow the Dees until he left. Worsfold wasn't dirty either, just hard. Will never forget the day that Jess Sinclair played his first game for the Dockers, and the first bloke he knocked out with a hip and shoulder, one Mr J Worsfold. Stupidity on Jess' behalf, but Woosha never hunted him down, he knew it was fair and got on with it. Chris Lewis was just a pig.

Nowhere near as good as his old man, never will be. not sure why there is so much discussion about it. In terms of players of the decade (2000-2009), would struggle to fit in to my top 10.

5 or so years ago now my family flew over to Moronville to watch teh Dees/Crows clash. We sat behind the goals with the cheer squad. The place was full, and I mean FULL of d!ckheads. Went down with my father at half time and had a beer in the zoo - that's where the animals are right? Didn't feel at all safe going to the toilets with my Melbourne jumper on. We got absolutely flogged that day, Birdman put on a real show from memory. The club organised a post-match function in a room on centre wing. The group of 100 or so Demons supporters received a police escort to the function. It was one of the most amazing things I've witnessed at a football match! For the record, Daniel Bell received our best on ground from that match!

Not sure what match you watched last Thursday night, but I was at the Gabba and thought McLean was woeful. He kicked one good goal, but the rest of his posessions were cheap or ineffective. He looked slow when tagging Black. Was more than happy boo-ing him all night - not one Brisbane or Carlton supporter could understand why! They didn't seem to care, until I started on the over-paid, overated Warnock!!!

Just for sh!ts and giggles - the AFL website has a ladder predictor. I tried to be as fair, honest and as harsh as I could be, and I'm the first to admit, I don't pick Melbourne every week in footy tipping comps where there is cash on the line (head beats heart everytime!). I was quite surprised when I got to the end of round 22 and had the Dee's finishing 10th, with a total of 11 wins. Now, before everyone rips me a new one, I am not getting carried away at last Saturday's game. What I did do was pick us to win in games that I believe are winnable. For example, providing we don't have a week where we played like we did against the Hawks, we wont always need to play at the level we did against the Magpies to beat teams like Essendon, Carlton and even Brisbane at the G. Given our draw, I think we are a realistic chance of winning probably more games than I expected (my preseason estimate was 6-8). I did have St Kilda finishing on top without losing a game, and Richmond on the bottom without winning one. For what it's worth, this is what my predicted ladder looked like at the end of round 22; St Kilda (88) Geelong (72) Bulldogs (56) Hawthorn (56) Lions (56) Swans (52) Freo (52) Pies (48) ------------- Port (48) Melbourne (44) West Coast (36) Adelaide (36) Carlton (28) Essendon (24) North (8) Richmond (0) Give it a go, good for those of us that have too much time on our hands! I'm pretty satisfied with my top 8, even this far out (without taking all the circumstances in to consideration - injuries, suspensions, tanking, etc!).

Pretty confident we will keep Ricky. I think if he can maintain consistency, I am expecting a call up to the leadership group next year. He has a great bond with all players, especially those his age and younger. I'm not saying that because of 1 game - he was playing very well early days before that injury, and think he took the next step last year in games. Looks like he can possibly take another step this year. Besides, why would he want to go anywhere else??!!!

Not sure if this needs a thread of its own, but I think it's pretty big news if he misses. He normally kills Melbourne when we play them. Also noted of the Adelaide website that Neil Craig isn't expecting the Crows to show form until Round 4+. Would be nice to get a win against them just before they hit their peak. Edit: Crows calling it a corked knee.

Here it is all... http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/video.aspx?tab=2&videoid=AE8A7868-33C8-432D-BA7D-E518D1475588 Spoke very well.

Amazing what a week can do in football. Last week we copped a hiding, and most on here were suicidal, calling for Bailey's blood. Fast forward 1 week and guess what, WE STILL LOST!!! We are now 0-2, and have Adelaide - a team considered by most as a potential top 4 side at the start of the season. Big chance we will be 0-3 at the end of next week. However, credit has to go to our coach, regardless of your opinion of him. When he first took the job, he had a lot of work to do. Our list looks totally different than when he first started, while he has won 2 wooden spoons in a row, it has also given us the opportunity to draft Watts, Scully and Trengove. If Bail's gave in to the demand of the members, chances are we could take Trengove off that list - I for one would hate to see that. Now, as he promised, he is putting games in to these kids, and the result, as he predicted, was for a roller-coaster ride over this season. People of Demonland, let's face reality, the results over the last 2 weeks are going to happen over 22 weeks. If you take a hiding personally, then ban yourself from AFL for the next 12 months. There WILL be more of them, but then there will be more performances like yesterday - where we play so well for 4 quarters but still lose. The big concern is that we will play teams like Richmond, Freo, West Coast at the MCG, and everyone on here will EXPECT to win. God help us if we drop one of these "winnable" games. I for one however would not be concerned if we did. All I know is what I saw yesterday from our kids and our kid coach is that as this team gets bigger, stronger, more developed and more settled, we will have an exciting era coming up. Will this means premierships? Who knows, they are bloody hard to win. We need to realise that while we are playing these kids, there is no such thing as a certain victory - even if we are playing Richmond. If they turn up to play like they did yesterday, they will win their fair share of games regardless of the opposition. But, we CAN'T expect that performance week in week out. These kids are still learning and growing in maturity. Regardless of our position at the end of this season, this will be a great year at the MFC in terms of learing and developing. If we lose to Richmond, I'm sure it will be a very valuable lesson, and I'm sure that it will make them better players. If we end up with 6-8 wins, it too will be a valuable learning experience. Let's stand by this team people, and when I say team, I mean coach as well. The last 3 years will make him a better coach, so by the time our players are starting to win regular games, he will have learnt more than anyone through this time.

More than happy (man enough) to stand up and say I wanted him at the Club. After watching yesterday's game, I'm glad we didn't get him. A highlight for mine was when the ball went out of bounds in front of Ball, and Trengove went up and chested him. Goes to show that most times, regardless of our beliefs and opinions, the Club generally know best.

Finally someone who understands!!! Thanks LH, I needed that!

or does it mean he is 2nd to the ball?

What about Grimes in the 2nd quarter when Pendlebury walked in to goal? As long as these kids learn by it, and make sure they change, that's all I ask for this season. Nb - This is Benny's 2nd season, he is still in development mode and I can assure you, Bailey wont accept consistent softness in our side.

I have never said that.

Reality check needed. Scully/Trengove will be superstars, Bail could be a very handy player for us.

Champion/Premiership sides have bigger, stronger Full Forwards than Ricky Petterd. Let him play the role he should - forward pocket/forward flank. He is our best FF at the moment, but we wont win a flag with him staying at FF - look at Brad Johnson/Bulldogs.

To think someone partly blamed him for today's loss because he passed that last kick instead of having a shot. Petterd was alone in the square - Bail did the team thing, and THAT is what our club needs. Well done Rohan. Your hard work starts now.

For the purpose of this thread, please refrain from Miller bashing. Stick to your opinions of Newton. Thanks.