DeeSpencer

Technically I believe that is a throw. But.... the game has evolved for better or worse to allow disposal like this to occur. Just look at all the overhead handballs now allowed and shovel motion throws that players do when tackled. Modern tacking and pressure has pretty much mandated that dropping and throwing of the ball is ok. In fact more Melbourne players need to learn how to pick it up and move it on in this manner.

Hawthorn are trying to avoid their big white patch on the back from obscuring predominantly white teams like Geelong and Collingwood. It's a nice theory, make subtle changes to then sell more jumpers in the shop. Oh and this is the 21st century, clearly defined jumpers are what is expected for the TV audience. Get over the whole white jumper thing its not a big deal. Quality teams win home or away and in whatever jumper they want and we need the dollars that come from away strips. Everyone listens to that Collingwood BS about not changing the jumper. It's because they are only black and white and can't come up with anything simple enough for their moronic crowd.

Bomber had made a prelim before he was reviewed. And they needed leading teams to change the culture. Mooney admitted before 07 they were loving life and on the [censored] a lot of the time. Then they got serious. Neeld may have improved training but I heard plenty of the lads were out and about last night....despite the fact through 3 rounds the average losing margin is over 100!

Boak (A grade), Hartlett (becoming A grade), Cornes (A grade), Ebert (B+ at least), Broadbent (experienced), Wines plus Wingard and Monfries from the forward line. Now that's what you call a young midfield, with some veteran help from a rejuvinated Cornes. Plus they play 2 rucks to give them a chance around the ground and at the hitouts. Compare to Melbourne: Jones, Viney...Matt Jones just starting his AFL career, Toumpas not ready, Sylvia not keen to be a midfielder, Trengove still finding his feet from injury, Michael Evans the same and the rest of the blokes are flankers. We need some cattle to come through in the midfield. We then need our new recruiter to strike it rich with proper pick ups as mentioned the likes of Heath and Stephenson. We are paying for the years of Barry Prendergast and even last year when we had Todd Viney do AFL recruiting on a one off basis.

Sorry Magner is a good depth player capable of coming in a doing a job in the AFL. He'd be a nice rotation through the midfield....BUT Couch isn't up to AFL and unless he starts truly dominating VFL I'm happy for us not to bother much with him. A game or two at the end of the season should be enough. No point continuing with the same players who aren't up to it when their are always others out there.

Who played under Sheedy (Premiership) and Williams (Premiership) then learnt to coach under Clarkson (Premiership). Simple isn't it. Richmond's recruiting of kids has been good. After spending on talls in Rance, Riewoldt and Vickery to get a spine they have drafter gun midfielders and topped up along the way nicely. Grigg was a clever trade. Houli was a reasonable price. Maric same. They are the important 3 who play consistently decent footy for them. But I'm not sure who was available for a trade at a decent price to come to us this year. Free agency means more players are signed up earlier. The secret to those 3 is they weren't getting games and left for opportunity then flourished when they got it. We took Gillies and Pedersen as similar types, both of who have plenty of years left in the game. They just haven't been up to scratch. Dawes is another example and we can't judge him yet. Adding Byrnes and Rodan shouldn't be treated the same. They were brought in to replace experience otherwise we would have a ridiculously young list full of blokes who weren't going to get a game anyway. If we had 2 more picks in the draft or kept Morton and Bennell or Cook what difference would it make?

Darling would of kicked 15. If he's going to play as a defender give him a match up he can work with. He has absolutely none of the physicality or defensive skill required for those blokes. I like the theory but Hill or LeCras yesterday or a medium forward from GWS would be a better starting point. We can dress it up all we want but Watts will never be a key position player so lets develop him on flanker types for now.

Davey was good when he got it, besides a missed shot for goal which he then made up for. And he even chased a bit. But his little girly arm tackles are almost cardinal sins. If he was to be dropped I wouldn't be disappointed. Playing Blease, Tapscott and Bail makes more sense at this stage of our development but I think Blease needs another week in the 2's.

Rodan and Spencer would of been fine to me. Spencer isn't going to improve with 1 more VFL match. We know what we are getting at VFL with him. Same with Rodan although I'd like to see him play at Casey. It's Watts that is the confusing one. They almost have to play him back in the seniors this week because otherwise its a waste of time dropping him.

I think the knock to the head obviously put a big concern over his day but before that (when the team was up and about) he was playing pretty good footy! Skills looked good for him as well.

Out: pedersen, Garland, toumpas, Davey/Byrnes In: gawn, Strauss, mckenzie, kent Time for 2 rucks instead of rubbish back ups. Time for Strauss instread of garland. Mckenzie is one of our more pure mids and needs to play if available. Time for dean kent to have a run.

seemed to kick a goal in the seniors, no?Not ready for afl but we need to have faith. Has pace and skill but clearly not ready

Anyone want to kill (sorry can't say that), shoot in the leg (probably not allowed), direct bad energy towards Ashton hams. What a disgrace of a footballer. West coast should be ashamed of his leg dropping rubbish. At least when rivers did it to him he let him know about it.

actually the sanfl and VFL are pretty similar but you are a fool. Both are miles away from afl and if you don't have the physicality to compete at afl level you will struggle.Our lack or development shouldnt reflect on toumpas' future. He's slow because he's searching for options in a team which has none. He's used to kicking to targets not randomly. Go watch his under 18 video and think what he could be in a good side. Then add some fitness and core strength to him. Look through Simpson from Carlton's first 10 or more AFL games. He was hopeless and now he's very good

Frawley, McDonald and Dunn OR Sellar, McDonald, frawley Any combination is reasonable enough to play good footy with some small players with class and a decent midfield. These aren't lose by 15 goal units. Frawley is way down on form and McDonald is starting late but key defense is not a list management concern. Now for all means I'd take another quality defender if available because I have little confidence in gillies or Davis. But when you can barely touch the ball for an entire quarter someone is going to kick a bag of goals.

GWS are younger and more inexperienced than us but don't get blown out of the water as much as we have the last 3 weeks. How long do we keep blaming tactics and youth and modern footy? I'm not sure losing to GWS makes things worse or makes us less honest

I'm thinking a bit differently why not play jamar and gawn so at least our midfield gets first use at some time and drop pedersen. Forward pressure means little if the ball is there. If it doesn't work at least Gawn has had an easier return to afl and then can ruck alone the week after. Certainly think Jamar was better in the ruck today but awful around the ground

Multiple times he got or could of got the ball and gets ignored, it's crazy. Drop him now. He'll dominate Casey. Then when he's stronger he'll work out AFL. He's smart, creative and skilled. Just needs some strength. I'd love to see him getting a go at half back later in the year. He'll surprise some

Was playing ok on reasonable opponents and then they put him on Kennedy. Maybe they were working out if he can play as a tall defender but having not done it for 3 years the answer is he can't. Should of put Sellar on one of those guys when frawley started to struggle. Of course constant inside 50's hurt. I'm more concerned that he's no good with the ball in hand any more. Has no attacking instinct. I'd probably give him a run in the 2's and trial Strauss instead.

Name 1 melbourne player getting a kick in the forward line or outside midfield! Let's get Blease back at Casey, he should be in form early and go from there. He's a vital player if he can play to his potential.

As for positions I'd take the following setup. When the ball is in dispute and you are defensive side of the ball find your opponent. If you are on the attacking side work into a position to receive the ball. If you are around the ball then go hard at it. When the opposition has the ball - find your opponent. If you are in the forward line or midfield stick defensive and corridor side of said opponent to form a type of zone formation that makes the opposition attempt dangerous kicks or play wide. But above all find your opponent to slow down play. When in defense move quickly with confidence if the target is open. Otherwise use patience to hold play. Switch if available otherwise long down the line is reasonable. Don''t overthink it and trust your instincts and skills when a target is open. When we have the ball run hard and lead for the ball. If a player is leading to open space you should double back and lead on a different angle to protect that space. Particularly on the MCG with wide and deep wings their is plenty of room to get the ball up the line. So work hard and get open. If you watch finals for most of the last decade they are rarely influenced by a particular game plan. Obviously skill and ball winning go a very long way but in sense of game plan. Both teams usually do the same thing. They man up like crazy putting pressure on the opposition. Good teams have the ability to provide pressure forward whilst also stopping outlets. Right now I'd gladly just be able to stop a team scoring at will. Then they back their instincts and skill and kick and handball to whatever option they can find. So its time for a simple game plan and for focus to be diverted to the basics of football. Ball winning, application of pressure and skill.

Our board is stacked with top quality successful people. I don't see how replacing McLardy with someone similar makes no difference to me. I see McLardy only growing with the tribulations we are suffering as long as he gets united support. What we need is consistent and quality football advice to the board. If we can combine that with continued financial success and growth of the club we will get somewhere. Pretty much the role of the board should be to keep making money and learn to spend it wisely. Our board can do the first of that, I'm not sure they can do the second part.

Willing to bite in order to change from the all the other tactics. Yes. Why not. What harm does it achieve. But I certainly agree there has to be standards on the gloves. Wearing NFL receiver gloves is not acceptable. Gloves that provide comfort/structure for injuries but not an unfair advantage I'm find with.

I hope at the end of the day that the resolve he makes is to continue to support the current football department and board and to empower the other ex players to do the same. If that's not the case then I'd like to see him run for a spot on the board. At the moment our entire board is commercial people with the exception of Greg Healy who is both a commercial and football mind. To me it makes sense to have an expanded football presence on the board. That way instead of Gary in one second out the next Lyon we have a sustained football presence. I want to current coach to be supported by the board and if it does come to the case we need a new coach I want that person to be chosen by the board. I look at Jason Dunstall at Hawthorn who appointed Clarkson then defended him against criticism and continued to support him. We talk about unity at this club as the underlying problem. No unity, no trust, no culture. So I'm all for Ox helping to rally the troops behind the current football department or getting on the board and therefore presenting a united group to shape the changes to the department.

We can attempt to get the AFL to campaign for Brian Cook but I don't see it happening. We need to look at whoever is number 2 at Geelong/Hawthorn/West Coast/Sydney. Even a club like Richmond have made terrific strides in the last few years and I don't think Brendan Gale has done it all by himself. Someone at a less successful club could actually have more understanding of our challenges. No more big names from strange places. We need people involved in successful football or football related areas with strong commercial backgrounds. Adrian Anderson is an interesting name and with pull at the AFL office could be handy. Except I doubt he was exactly best mates with Gil McLaughlin who will be running the game pretty soon. We could even appoint a woman. Geelong's current temporary CEO whilst Cook is away is a woman. That would shake up the boys club image a bit.