DeeSpencer

Nothing like some quality simpsons. The issue will be finding enough quality replacements. Cutting 10 players is fine but maybe a couple of free agents, 4 rounds of draft picks, promote Georgiou and you are still left with more spots to fill. The best possible situation in salvaging some from the wreck. I mean who from today gets delisted this year anyway? Byrnes and that's about it. Everyone else is either contracted or required. There's little of value to trade away unless someone wants to take one of our project kids and give us a decent serviceable player in return. Given the history of Melbourne players I doubt that anyone wants to trade for any of our guys who played today yet alone those who weren't in the 22.

Backline: AFL standard Frawley, Garland, Dunn, Grimes Maybe: McDonald, Georgiou, Terlich, Clisby Possibly: The rest Midfield AFL standard: Jones, Tyson, Vince, Cross, Viney Maybe: Watts, Trengove Possibly: The rest Forwards AFL Standard: Clark (?return), Dawes, Hogan Maybe: Howe, Bail (makes errors but endurance and run is needed, think he's ok), JKH Possibly: The rest Rucks: Maybe: Gawn, Spencer. I think Spencer is horrendous but at the same time has now beaten Hickey and then not being destroyed by Cox and Nic Nat. He's a competitor and has a go. Along with Georgiou and maybe Bail are the competitor types we need to set standards for other better players. If everyone tried as hard as guys like that we might get somewhere. The thing the irks me is that we are still in such a bad health and fitness list wise that we play guys like Pedersen and Byrnes who provide nothing in terms of effort or skill.

The problem with slow outside players is you never get them the ball unless you move it quickly and precisely to take advantage of the gaps they run to. Trengove is a victim of the team the same way Watts is. Not excusing them for poor performances but unless we know how to use Trengove he may as well not be out there. The main disappointment I have with him is that he's ordinary as an inside midfielder and he's slow to get up and down and move around not just slow in a straight line. We have to perservere with Trengove as we don't have much else but I think we need the team to improve to see a spike in his performance.

I think throwing Dunn forward means we can drop one of Pedersen or Fitzpatrick. Either one of them plus the Dunn and Howe show might get us somewhere. GWS have only 1 true tall defender in Frost, the rest of their key defenders are the same height as Howe and Dunn.

There's a lot of bad in Grimes. But LeCras only kicked 2 and Grimes is always looking to work for his team mates. Watching Grimes is killing me right now but I think he's worth persisting with. I'm hoping when we get some back from injuries we can free Grimes up more to his high half back controlling job and that he starts to trust his skills and take the game on more. I'd rather see him turn it over than be so incredibly slow and painful to watch as he is now. Still think he needs weights and power training to get some spark in him. Thought Bail was ok, he's prepared to run to get the ball and run with the ball. Fitzy was Fitzy. It's out of him or Pedersen. I'd rather go with the kid who may give you something than the slow, short old hack who almost certainly wont.

FB: Georgiou Frawley Terlich HB: Clisby McDonald Grimes C: Vince Jones Watts HF: Bail Howe Trengove FF: JKH Dunn Kent Foll: Spencer Cross Tyson Int: Fitzpatrick Evans Viney S: Byrnes Out: Pedersen, Toumpas, Matt Jones, Michie In: Kent, Evans, Viney, Clisby Time to try and get a big more speed involved even if it means giving up endurance or height. We don't need so many tall defenders, so send Dunn forward and bring Clisby in at half back for some attacking run (or Jetta not fussed). Dunn forward means no more Pedersen or Fitzpatrick. As Fitzpatrick has shown something in the past he gets the job. Get Howe up the ground, he's a much better player in space and leading up the ground, he simply can not play deep forward in a bad side, he can't win one on ones against players like Yeo or Ellis and I've been saying this about him for 18 months. JKH must start. Byrnes save himself by the skin of his teeth but not fussed if he goes.

Started really slowly but showed some fight I think. Not going to crucify him over one lacklustre performance against some good players. Just as worried about his dumb mistakes as his effort. Not just his kicking but his lack of clean fast footy.

Cancer, cancer and now MND. Seriously this isn't the curse of Norm Smith this just plain ridiculous. Hopefully Neale can battle as hard to stop the progression and have quite a few years of good quality of life. Whilst his mind is healthy and body can function I'm sure he'll get the most out of himself. Testament to the guy that he's willing to keep working.

Yes, he was a great servant. No, he didn't nearly win a flag and no, I struggle to see how he was treated poorly. He coached for a decade and had some good results and his time ran out.

Jack Watts - 1 game against rubbish opponents. 0 tackles. He's a long long way from elite. He'll have to take his game to the next level just to back up his saints game against West Coast. So are Vince and Jones unless we are kidding ourselves. But North have won a lot of games the last few years with their best midfielders being Wells/Ziebell/Swallow. Hawthorn got the job done last night with no Mitchell and largely without Hodge. No reason we can't win games with Jones and Vince as our best 2. And I'm excited about Viney, Tyson, Watts and Trengove playing games together as a midfield unit. I don't think the Crows will lose sleep over Vince. They have Dangerfield, Sloane, Douglas, Van Berlo, Brad Couch, Mackay, Brodie Smith, Thompson, Kerridge, Grigg. Vince paid the price for their Tippett punishment. They made the deal knowing full well that Vince was likely to be a better player with the responsibility and opportunity at Melbourne than as a peripheral midfielder in a good side.

14 goals would be a massive result. I'd be pretty happy with 12. My advice in this game is use Howe up the ground as well as Fitzy/Pedo plus Watts for short periods when he's not in the midfield and focus on attacking the game and getting the ball as quickly as we can to half forward. If we then stall and go sideways or bomb it in to no one then so be it. But my aim for the day is quick ball movement to half forward and maybe if we do that we might find some open little guys in the forward 50. Using the width of the MCG would be my game plan to try and break the Eagles press. Lots of wide switches then kicks back in to the corridor. Exciting times for Vince, Michie, Cross, Tyson, JKH and Georgiou to wear the red and blue for the first time at the G.

Evans with the MFC team or Casey and vice versa for Blease/Kent? I would have thought with doubt still on Fitzy and Tommy Mc that all the emergencies would be kept fresh. Sounds to me like they have a bit more confidence with the big guys and it might be either no change or just Evans in once final teams are named. I wonder about the actual protocol for concussions. There's the cognitive test and things like head aches but if Fitzy was fine after the game he might be right to play already, let's hope so. I feel for Tommy Mc, it's amazing once you get one corkie how it seems that you keep getting hit in the same spot.

Give it a rest old man. Every positive comment doesn't have to be jumped on

Anyway back on topic. No Gawn!!! WTF Really hope Fitzy and McDonald play. As for the bench - Matt Jones, Evans, Blease, Kent, JHK, Michie and Byrnes it's take your pic. Really would like Byrnes not to play but if they pick him I'm really over it too much to care. Think Matt Jones did enough to keep his spot and whilst he wasn't great I'd be keen for Michie to stay in the side. Blease was apparently the best at Casey. And I'd probably like to see Kent play as the sub but wouldn't mind Evans or JKH either.

Wasn't a chest mark Was a reaching overhead mark because Bail's looping left foot kick let the ball hang in the air so to avoid to spoiler Petterd extended to reach for it.

Carlton were awful and they nearly won. Which means what of Richmond? Maybe both sides are on par with North on the road leading nowhere near the top 4.

Cheney actually gets more games for Hawthorn because they can keep him in the team and play to his positives. I doubt we could. He's a similar player to Georgiou anyway and you'd only want one of them. If we could get the luxury of playing guys like Cheney without fear we'd be a great team like Hawthorn are. Petterd's different because his positional flexibility has been really important just when the game changed like that. But he's also a liability with ball in hand. Still he's hard as nails. Glad he's having some success at Richmond.

Yeah lets go without current players. It only seems to jinx them.

I think Gysberts just didn't have AFL in him. That he has gone back to local footy instead of sticking it out in the VFL for another shot tells me he really didn't want it bad enough. Those who didn't like Neeld could still train hard and produce something even if it's in defiance to Neeld. Petterd is another limited footballer but still better than some of the slop on our list. He would be pretty handy this week as a running player capable of kicking a couple of goals. Much like MItch Morton becoming the grand final hero at the Swans I think Petterd would've been handy under Roos. If Roos can sort out Dunn (and it's early days) he can sort out Petterd who was capable of similar strange decisions in games.

Nothing to do with other sports. All to do with TV. TV audiences especially casual ones won't stand for jumper clashes in this day and age of trying to maximise audiences. Almost all AFL decisions are made with TV in mind. It's not an evil conspiracy it's just about maximizing profits. I don't blame the CEO, it's his job. I blame the commission for not giving extra guidance to the executive about keeping traditions and where to draw the line in not selling out for the dollar

If we wore a red jumper it would have to be with dark numbers as the saints like most teams have white numbers. Personally I don't see any problem with wearing the white away jumper. It's still red and blue just a large patch now has white over it like an extension of the white shorts. I think I prefer it to any overly creative red numbers. Only thing that can annoy me is when we wear it at away games that don't clash as an away jumper

By that I presume you mean the lazy party boy background that likely comes from an unstable home and issues in his background. I don't see it as an indigenous thing. JKH is probably the most professional kid we've drafted in years. The main thing that needs to happen is for state league clubs to develop these kids who aren't ready for AFL, they can then get drafted way down the line. 3 dominant years at WAFL level and sorting out all the other crap Garlett could still be worth another shot. I don't think there's any other team sport in the world who spits 19 and 20 year olds out so early without chances to make it back at lower levels.

Bennells first year he showed speed, poise with the ball and decent defensive attributes. A few bad games and we start trying to make him a forward and messing with him. I don't believe I was the only one who rated his talent. Sure we have Terlich and Clisby now who are similar talents but we could've been developing Bennell positively for years and used the picks of Terlich and Clisby on some other talents. How Nicholson was still contracted all this time when we let guys who can actually give something at AFL level go is anyone's guess