DirtyDees DDC

Sam Blease was at training today - taking part in the kicking drills and the sprints. No signs of a limp but lots and LOTS of dry retching from Sam after the sprints. Looked like he was pushing himself to the max to get fit for some senior footy. I hope he reads the article on Jack Grimes in today's Sunday Age, where Jack talks about overcoming his own injuries. Jack said it can be counterproductive to always push his body past the limits.

Not only Liam Jurrah - Luke Tapscott also looked good and moved well. Very sound technique on his right foot and no slouch on the other peg. He didn't train with the main group but worked with Jurrah in sprint drills. They were doing this kicking drill where 3 players set up in a triangle. Tapscott and Jurrah were nailing passes and you felt sorry for Max Gawn who was the 3rd man up. According to the injury list Tapscott is 4 weeks away from resuming with Casey so hopefully he'll be back against Frankston on July 11. I hope he doesn't play for scorpions reserves - he's already built like Karmichael Hunt so he might kill someone in the minor league. If he can make a full recovery then he must be a chance to play a senior game this year.

It's certainly a marketing exercise but the right guy such a young Darren Lockyer could make the change. If the AFL are really serious about picking an NRL star to switch codes, then they should look at at rugby league players born in places like Wagga, where both codes are played with equal prominence. Greg Brentnall was born in Wagga and played Aussie Rules in the 60s as a teenager. He reportedly turned down an offer to play VFL and became became a star in NRL, winning the Dally M medal and representing Australia. His ability to continually catch the high ball changed the game.

Dunno about his chances. He's got to take at least 4 inches off those thighs! And what was he doing with the ball when he had that set shot in the first quarter, that went out of bounds on the full? Looked like he was changing his grip as he ran in. It's an interesting argument about the fitness of AFL verses NRL players. We tend to think AFL guys are fitter because of all the running (esp off the ball). However in the 90's there was a fitness competition b/w athletes from different sports. It wasn't like that mixed sport event that Billy Slater wins. It was simply a test of strength and aerobic capacity. AFL was represented by the former Blues player - Andrew McKay. The event was won by a NSW NRL player named Brett Rodwell. This doesn't mean that NRL players are fitter on average than AFL players, but a very fit guy in NRL should be able to reach the required level for AFL without too much difficulty. There is one guy currently playing NRL who could have been a star in Aussie Rules. - Darryn Lockyer for the Broncos. Fast - fearless and a terrific left foot kick. Sadly he's the wrong side of 30.

Can some confirm for me - was it the 5th or 6th Carlton goal of the first quarter where Sylvia lined up on Kruezer at the bounce? Carlton scored a goal within 30 seconds. Next bounce - back comes Jamar. The poor Russian. He's got no support; he knows he has to ruck all day. I thought he did well against 2 taller opponents and he took a few marks in the backline. He also gave away too many frees but that can happen with ruckwork and umpires interpretations. At the moment there is no-one who can fill that second ruck spot, with Spencer, Meesan and Gawn Injured, Martin and PJ out of form, and Fitzpatrick not ready. Maybe Miller is an option. Try something different with him instead of leaving him as a forward who gets 6 touches for the day.

Before we jump on the players for losing a key match, let's compare the result to round 21 last year when we were beaten by the Blues at Etihad stadium. From memory the difference in that match was 49 points compared to 41 today, so initially it looks like we haven't made much progress. We were never in the hunt in that match last year. Today, we got back to within 19 points after stupidly giving up a 5 goal start. Ratten read the riot act to Carlton at 3/4 time and they went flat out to finish us off in the last quarter. We ARE getting better, despite playing a bunch of 1st and 2nd year players who will get pushed out of the contest and make the usual mistakes that L plate players make. Carlton are about 2-3 years ahead of us at the moment, and it showed today.

we're probably lucky we only lost by 54 points. We were about 100 posessions down on our usual average. Clearly the Darwin trip affected their run. Someone mentioned that no club has ever played in Darwin and won the next week. Look at Port Adelaide. We we played the best team in the land on their home turf; they played at home to the bottom team and got done. The game is faster than ever; as soon as you mark the ball you gotta move it. Lots of favourites have gone down this year, indicating that it is very difficult for clubs to maintain that intensity week after week. More so for Melbourne with our batch of youngsters so i can live with yesterdays loss. Next week - that's different. A good result against Carlton means a big crowd on Queens birthday. The blues and Brock Mclean. This has to be our biggest game of the year.

GAME DAY THREAD

It's raining. Heavy conditions. More good reasons to rest 3 teenagers after a tough road trip. We did the same with Benny and the Jet last year, and resting 1/2 their side against Brisbane didn't prevent Geelong from winning the flag. We have a very tough draw with 3 top opponents in a row followed by 4 road trips in 9 weeks. Give them a full pre-season before asking them to play 22 games and 4 NAB matches. Bailey said that Tom and Jack were never going to play all 22 games, so if they don't get injured then they have to be 'de-selected'. Maybe the club could have chosen it's word better. Instead of 'rested' they could have used 'general soreness' (warnock) or the old favourite 'back injury'. It works for Spencer.

Great article and totally agree. We paid the price for being successful just before the advent of TV. We don't even have the TV replay of our last grand final. There is a copy of every grand final telecast since 1963 except ours. How many times have they shown St Kilda's 66 GF win? All we have is a grainy movietone newsreel with a tony charlton voiceover. Richmond has their period in the '60s and '70s and Francis Bourke. Carlton followed with Bruce Doull. Don Williams was a star too and should get recognised for his efforts. I like the other names mentioned too, Mcmahon and Spencer and the rest, but there is one glaring omission. Where's Bernie Massey? No 37 and full back in the '64 premiership side. Bernie - come on down!

Miller and Watts give us 2 tall mobile forwards and Miller provides good protection for Watts from loonies like NMs Scott Thompson. They can line up in the key positions and move Bate to the flank. The three can then mix and match during the game. They will also push Jurrah out to another flank when he returns. Watts may be a blessing in disguise for MIller , whose career was looking grim after round one. Watts needs a mentor and protector for the next 2-3 years while he builds up his body and engine. Miller could be our best option.

Terrific support shown at the Bentleigh club, despite the funny screen. it was v difficult to read the players names, and the timeclock was all over the place. Next week - Geelong at skilled. EASY!!! got 'em where we want 'em!

Is it now two down and one to go? Or does the darwin game not count as an interstate game because it was our home game?

Warnock has to come back, for either rivers or garland. i'd say Rivers. We need someone to support Jamar (great effort tonight). Lets try Spencer in the ruck and Jamar up forward, same as the Carlton match last year. It's only the Cats at Geelong, lets try it. If Bate is fit we also can bring him back, possibly for wonna. They may also drop Garland for a ruckman, but Garland will be a long term player. It's very hard to reach top form without a decent pre-season. Maybe Gysberts in to give McKenzie or Scully a rest, however i think Gysberts will play his 1st game against either Carlton or Collingwood, as both games are at the G.

Are you referring to Wonna. I thought he was underdone, but great goal in the 3rd. All the brothers played well, esp Benny and the Jet. so close ...so stuffed.

Aussie was clearly picked because of the Darwin-Tiwi Islands connection. I hope this isn't a case of the marketing department influencing the coaching department. Jetta and Maric are fitter; they have better recent form in Casey and can fill that small forward role for the side. I'm glad Aussie's back but bring him back when he's ready, not because he grew up near Darwin oval. Spencer? Can't mark can't kick. Maybe he's there because Jamar needs a break. MacDonald played well last week but he's keeping Strauss out of the team. To the MFC - be prepared to make changes to suit the conditions, unlike the footscray match where we left PJ in the team. Go Dees!

A lot of our angst is about our perceptions of the opposition. We don't rate West Coast as a side so we get angry when they beat us. They probably are a crappy team; just as crappy as Essendon, North, the Swans, and all the other teams that will make up the middle of the ladder this year. Doesn't mean they are easybeats. They are a wealthy professional club with some very good players We had the same number of critical errors yesterday as Geelong but they seem to cover their mistakes. We play a free flowing high possession game that looks great when it comes off and looks worse than dreadful when it fails. We will have days when we take it to the top sides, then struggle to beat the other crappy teams in the comp. I prefer to see these peaks and troughs because it shows we can play good football at times, and we can remove the inconsistency with experience. We picked 5 guys yesterday with < 10 games and we were unbalanced with injuries during the match. I thought the backline was OK yesterday when defending the west coast attacks. True they should have kicked more, Kennedy was injured and La Cras is a handful for any side, however holding a side to 10 goals from 59 forward entries is not a bad effort. But our kickouts!! Oh god do we have a plan here? Contrast with West Coast who waited...and waited... and still found a target. Our tackle count (51) was also well down on the good weeks. If yesterday was bad, think back to 2008 when we lost 7 games by > 75 points.

West coast did their homework. the clogged us up the middle and locked us in at the kickout. Can anyone remember one instance where we cleared the ball from the kickout to the forward zone in one passage of play? They did it 3-4 times. This is not a call for the coach or coaching staff to be sacked, but we were outcoached today.

Garland will be a much better player when he gets a full pre-season behind him. He missed far too much football in the last 13 months, but he wasn't the worst today. A special mention to Jordie, who kept up his tackling average. At least HE didn't turn the ball over. And Jamar took on both Cox and NNN all day, never stopped trying. Will someone tell me why we stopped running? Our work rate off the ball was terrible.

Bate was injured too . did ankle in the first quarter. Davey had concussion in the second. Casey had a big win so there could be some changes...hopefully Gysberts. Wonna kicked a couple and they me pick him for his 'home town' match in Darwin.

This is a big match for the Dees. We lose today, and we face 4 tough teams in a row...it's possible we could be in the middle of a 7 match losing streak. We need a win to show we are still improving from the last 3 years and we play a team that flew from Perth to thrash us at Casey in March. Davey, Bruce and Bate where underdone in that match, and we lost Sylvia in the first Q (sunstroke). One of the better players for the Wiggles that day was Ashley Hansen. He's picked as an emergency and is very good form in the WAFL. He could front up at the expense of Lynch or McKinley, otherwise their forward line could be too top heavy with these 3 guys plus Josh Kennedy and the two ruckmen. I think we're a good chance providing we stop allowing the opposition to score the first goal in each quarter! Go Dees.

This is ironic. If we had won that round 19 match last year against the tigers, and all the other results stayed the same, they would have finished on 4 1/2 games; we would have won 5 for the season, and they would have picked Scully as No 1 draft pick.

I count 16 Melbourne list players. And we still have Jurrah, Blease, Tapscott, Petterd, Fitzpatrick and Gawn to return from injury. As Morton found out this week, it's very tough to get into the senior team at the moment. The exception might be Garland. He had a very interrupted 2009 and pre season and missed all the NAB matches, yet he jumped into the firsts after a couple of practice matches with Casey. The club must have a very high opinion of him.

Looks like we've kept the team balance by replacing a tallish forward with a tall forward, and retained PJ to support Jamar. Sorry that Gysberts wasn't selected for his first match, But that would gives us 6 players with < 8 games each. He must be on track for a game in the next 2-3 weeks. Not a bad idea to keep Rivers for this week. I suspect that the wiggles will pull a late change on Saturday afternoon, bringing in Ashley Hansen. He did very well against us in the NAB challenge match at Casey, and has good form with 14 goals in his last 2 games at the WAFL. Glass is carrying an injury and may be the guy that pulls out, so the wiggles may have to reshuffle their defence. Kerr, Embley and Masten are injured or suspended and missing from their midfield. This could be their weakness on Saturday. Jordie Mac - have a blinder and pick up another NAB rising star nomination for the Dees!!

Years ago the Hawthorn recuiting manager came up to coach John Kennedy and said "John, we've got this great kid. He 18yo, 6 ft 4, he's fast and he can jump a mile". And Kennedy replied "great, but can he play football?". Watts can certainly play football. He is quick, has good hands, good vision, and can kick a ball. He scored with a set shot from outside 50 (light cross winds) and in the 4th quarter he ran out from the casey goal, gathered the ball in a contest, and had the smarts to handball to a player running past him in a better position, setting up another goal. He probably needs to work on the defensive part of his game, esp the chasing and tackling. He let his opponent run loose for an uncontested possession in the last quarter. At other times he was bottom of the pack working hard to hit a target. He might not be a lead and mark forward like Dunstall or Plugger, and he may not have the aggression of Carey or Dermott. He's a different type, and could be the new model for forwards in the next 10 years - smooth and mobile, sitting up as many goals as he scores. No need to rush him.