DirtyDees DDC

ATM we are VERY young and VERY inexperienced. This season is still about development of our team. As Bailey has expressed ad nauseum, we need our youngsters to play games and play games TOGETHER

For that reason, Grimes, Frawley, Garland, Morton, Watts, Bennel, McKenzie, Scully, Trengove, Bail etc should be played every single game they are available to play (i.e. properly fit to play). That should be the case, EVEN if guyz like Dunn, PJ, Daniel Bell, Miller or Newton would offer more onfield in the short time. The benefits of these guys allowing us to be more competitive are nothing to the benefits of getting games into our young guys.

We certainly have a young list. I just don't think we are picking a young side. Yesterday we had only 3 guys under 20yo; North had 4.

Scott's point after the match was that North had 10 guys who've played 25 games or less. If we used this measure to select the side, we could have also picked Watts, Cheney, Jetta, Spencer, and Strauss from the list of available players (to join Grimes, Garland, Bennell, Trengove, and Scully).

Let's say Watts and Co. replaced Petterd, Joelmac, Bruce, Martin and Rivers. Would this lineup give us a better chance against the Bulldogs on Friday night? Or would we increase the chance of getting hammered like richmond?

I'd currently prefer to see us go for youth. We also have another 5-6 players such as Gysberts, Wonna, Blease, Maric, and McNamara who all played for Casey this weekend, and are all under 25 games experience.

However, if we pick a team with 10 players under 25 games experience, and we lose the next 5 games by 50 points a game, i probably would wimp it and bring back the oldies.

Are we now a one-man team? No Jordie McKenzie - no Melbourne?

We lost our team balance yesterday when Jordie was replaced by a taller slower defender. They seemed to have more numbers at the ball and smothered our run up the corridor. We also missed his tackling pressure on guys like Wells who cut us to ribbons coming out of the centre.

I wasn't too disappointed in the loss. We should have been further behind at half time but at least we came back in the 3rd quarter. Better than leaving it till the end of the match.

Also, the side picked yesterday only had 3 guys under 20 and featured a number of players who may not be around in 2-3 years. There could be at least 7 changes to yesterday's line-up by the return match vs North in round 22. I'm glad we had a good run in the last 4 weeks, however we need to concentrate on developing Watts, Strauss, Gysberts, Blease, and other under 22s. Joelmac and Bruce picked up about 30 possessions each but they prevent Strauss and Gysberts from getting gametime.

The downside is we become less competitive (in the short term) by picking younger bodies with less experience. Currently I don't think we are trully committed to a full youth policy. Yesterday we had 3 guys who had played > 20 games. North had 9.

This friday night we play one of the hardest running teams in the league. I hope we can get back Jordie and Rohan Bail. To fit them in we we may drop one of the defenders - either Rivers, JoelMac, Garland or Warnock.

We lose Petterd, and Martin didn't do enough as a tall forward or second ruck, so they may replace both players with Johnson who could fill both roles and free-up Jamar to spend more time as a key forward.

50,000 Collingwood Fans meet at the MCG for a "Collingwood Fans Are Not Stupid" Convention.

Eddie says, "We are all here today to prove to the world that Collingwood Fans are not stupid. Can I have a volunteer."

Alan Didak gingerly works his way through the crowd and steps up to the stage.

Eddie asks him, "What is fifteen plus fifteen?"

After 15 or 20 seconds Didak says, "Eighteen!"

Obviously everyone is a little disappointed.

Then all 50,000 Collingwood Fans start chanting, "GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE! GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE!"

Eddie says, "Well since we've gone to the trouble of getting 50,000 of you in one place and we have the world wide press and global broadcast media here, I think we can give him other chance."

So he asks, "What is seven plus seven?"

After nearly 30 seconds Didak eventually says, "Ninety!"

Eddie is quite perplexed, looks down and just lets out a dejected sigh everyone is disheartened.

Didak starts crying and the 50,000 Collingwood Fans begin to yell and wave their hands shouting, "GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE! GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE!"

Eddie, unsure whether or not he is doing more harm than good, eventually says, "OK! OK! Just one more chance...What is two plus two?"

Didak closes his eyes, and after a whole minute eventually says, "Four!"

Throughout the stadium pandemonium breaks out as all 50,000 Collingwood Fans jump to their feet, wave their arms, stamp their feet and scream...

"GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE! GIVE HIM ANOTHER CHANCE!"

I watched Bucks on the ABC when they played their first VFL game v Williamstown and I thought he was quite good. Even his disposal was ok although I suppose the pressure of the game was nowhere near AFL standard. He was certainly not disinterested or lazy that day and the fact that he's pushed his way to the position of emergency in a top 4 side suggests the Collingwood selectors don't think so either.

I saw that match and also thought he was quite good in the second half. He broke the lines running through midfield and hit targets in the forward 50. Sorry we couldn't retain him for at least one more year due to our salary contracts with other listed players.

I wonder what type of player we will recuit at the end of the year? Jordie McKenzie is looking certain to be promoted from the rookie list, and Spencer is a good chance too.

Probably a tall forward, and guys with real pace.

I'll expand on a couple of things i saw yesterday.

The was a post from earlier this week saying that Sam Blease was limping (after his first match for Casey reserves) so it was terrific to see no sign of any limp. He took part in the full session that was shortened to kicking and some ball control work. He can kick with both feet but prefers his right.

I'm not a medico, but i thought it was interesting that Jurrah was taking marks above head height. It's a bit like changing a lightbulb; it's not a complicated or load bearing action but it does require some extra movement from the shoulder. Any medicos out there? Please comment.

Bell, Blease and Wonna were all selected for the scorpion reserves team so they joined in with the main session.

Fitzpatrick is not selected for Scorpions reserves but did some individual kicking practice. He looks fit so they may be giving him a break to manage his chronic fatigue syndrome. His kicking was ok, perhaps too much height and lacking a bit in distance. I wonder if they can improve someone's kicking style so they kick longer and lower? Jurrah was shooting from about 30 metres out and trying to get the ball to fly through at just under post height. The end result is that the ball lands about 20-30 metres past the posts. It seemed easy, but then Jurrah is Jurrah.

Obviously the players are in very good spirits after 3 wins in a row, yet they were still very keen to execute the skills correctly. There was an earlier post about Petterd pulling up sore after the brisbane match, but he looked ok and completed the session.

We appear to have 22 players who look fit and ready to reverse our poor recent form against North. We have no excuses today. GO DEES

In the meantime, he hasn't been selected to play anywhere this weekend after starring in the Casey reserves last week.

Anybody know why?

Don't know if he's injured or on a graduated RTW but he was only having goalkicking practice and missed the main training session this morning at the junction.

Short sharp skills session at the Junction oval this morning in cool drizzly conditions. 24 of the 25 selected players took part including Rivers and Spencer. I didn't see Rohan Bail on the ground or any of the Casey squad for the gold coast match, although Cheney and Johnson made a brief appearance near the stands. Tapscott and Gawn also spotted, but remained inside.

Great to see Morton, Blease, Wonna and Bell take part in the full training with no signs of any limp from Blease. Morton must be very close to a return.

Jurrah spent a fair amount of time on the ground before the main session practicing his goalkicking, plus a short kick to kick with one of the trainers. He took a few marks overhead with no signs of discomfort, and despite the weather, he didn't wear leg-ins!!!

Fitzpatrick also trained before the main group.

The session lasted an hour. No injuries and not many fumbles. They looked good.

He's something radical. Why don't we play on at all costs and kick the ball long into our forward line as quick as possible to a one on one or two on two contest.

Let's run hard, move the ball quickly and not give the opposition time to set up their zone behind the ball. If nothing else it will reduce the number of potential turnovers (as we will have less possesions) and increase the number of times we get the ball into our forward 50 therefore increasing our chances of scoring.

Sounds like a good summary of our current game plan.

So what will north Melbourne do to stop it? Will they go man-on-man to stop our run, or set up defensive zones in the middle of the ground? Or will they try to force a turnover and counter-attack from defence? Whatever they've done in their past 5 games verses the Dees, it's worked.

Definitely a danger game. It's at North's home ground at the docklands; they have a very good record against us (won the last 5) and they have their tails up after a win against the hawks.

The had 58 fewer possessions than Hawthorn and 30 more tackles. They won because they soaked up the pressure on their backline and hit Hawthorn on the rebound, so watch out for a a lot of pressure on our running game. They don't have great stars but they are good enough punish our mistakes. It will be interesting to see if they are affected by the 6 day turnaround.

Crawford mentioned on the footy show that Melbourne scored 11 goals from outside 40 metres, but he thought the Melbourne forward coach would not be happy with this statistic. I thought it was great and reminded me of the Queens birthday match against Collingwood in 2006(?) when we kicked 7 goals from outside 50. We have a number of guys who can kick long so we can leave the forward line open and have shots on the run from 60+ mtrs, (I think it was Bate and Moloney in the last quarter). And how about Jordie's goal? Another kick from outside the 50.

He reminds me of a great Fitzroy player of the 70's and 80's in Gary Wilson. Similar build, endurance, and footy skills. I also reckon he may become as good or better than Joel Selwood once he puts on 7kg of muscle over the next 2 years.

Did Mcgrath have a blatant dig at Bennell during the match? Didn't see it, but SEN this morning reported that Ashleigh McGrath had a go at Bennell for Bennys' effort in the 3rd Q against Collingwood when he supposedly wimped out of a contested mark.

SEN indicated that McGrath walked up to Bennell and pretended to cower in front of him. Anyone pick it up?

McGrath should be more concerned with his own performance. Brisbane fans at the ground were giving it to him for turning the ball over several times.

We know the draw for 2010, and we have nearly finalised our player list. Assuming we don't have another horrible year for injuries like 2009, what will be some reasonable and achievable goals for the club in 2010?

The criteria is that the goals can't be too low, otherwise the are worthless. They must stretch the players and the club.

They can't be too high and unattainable. I think a top 2 finish in 2010 might be out of our league.

Here's 3 for starters.

1. I reckon we can win 8 games in 2010. We have averaged only 4 wins a year for the last 3 years. I look at our current list and i think it's good enough to double our average next year. I base this prediction on the impovement in players like Davey, Sylvia, Warnock, Frawley, Jamar, Jurrah and Grimes in 2009, and i'm not expecting any massive contribution from this years' 6 new draft picks. I chose 8 wins rather than finishing 12th or 10th, because our final position on the ladder will largely depend on the performance of other clubs, and that's outside our control. I do not believe that 4 wins is acceptable to the club and supporters.

2. Win ONE match interstate. We have not won a single interstate match in the last 3 years. We better learn fast with 2 new clubs by 2012. I don't think we should count our 'home' match in Darwin verses Port as an interstate win.

3. We beat a side that is in the top 8. I'm not counting a win in round 2 against a side that eventually finishes in the bottom 4. I'd like to see us beat a side that has genuine finals aspirations. A good example could be a win in round 11 against a Carlton team that is 7th on the ladder with 6 wins, or beating an 8th placed Essendon in round 15.

I'll add a goal that would be an exceptional performance. Winning 3 games in a row. We may have a window of opportunity in the first half of the year. It would show everyone that the players got a taste of winning and they liked it and they want more.

To quote Vince Lombardi- 'Winning isn't everything, but making the effort to win is!"

One down (Brisbane)..Two to go. And we achieved our goal for exceptional performance after only 5 games!!!

Very proud. a great team effort, as proved by the multiple goal scorers. What a pressure goal from Junior in the last quarter.

And that was a tough match against a team that plays like Michael Voss. I'm not sure i read it right, but i think Brisbane lead us in clearances and tackles at 3/4 time. It was a war out there. Terrific work in the clinches from the guys, and hats off to the Jones boy. He is starting to make the right decisions and not overdo it. Did anyone see the smile on his face when he ran around the boundary after the match? He was beaming.

3 highlights - the defence holding brisbane to 7 goals.

The running - OMG the work on and off the ball was 1st class.

The kickouts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally.

Deleting Melbourne Storm's points for 2010 is a decision in stupidity rivalling the secret deals which got them in this mess. the nrl are pointing a gun at their own head.

if the big picture is a national competition then storm should have been given some small chance of continuing on in the current season. as things stand they have been gunned down like ned kelly.

Yes, bad bad call. The NRL were so afraid that the Storm could still win this years premiership, even with the loss of their current points, they removed any possibility of Storm making the final 1n 2010. And David Gallup says it will work because they still have their professional pride to play for! What crap. What a stupid scenario for the rest of the year. Every time they take the field, they play with the knowledge that whatever happens, they'll walk off the ground as losers.

In their footy show, Gus Gould said that the Storm had been the best team for the past 4 years and played the best brand of Rugby League, but now we know that it costs money to put together that level of skill. He blamed that salary cap for being too small, and that the NRL had to decide if they want the quality of rugby league played by Storm, or they want the second tier skills of Cronulla (second bottom with 2 points). You pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Interesting to compare Gus's level of concern with the future of the Storm, with the blatant bias that marred their commentary during the grand final last year. I suspect there are an overwhelming percentage of rugby supporters up north who are watching the Storm go down, and loving it.

I don't know how they will pay their way now, esp if their owner New limited has second thoughts. They've lost good sponsors in Hostplus and Members Equity. Maybe the Dees should make a move to sign them up as sponsors. But not straight away!!! The last thing ME bank and Hostplus will consider at the moment is sponsoring a football team of any code.

With just one ruckman, for the most part, we have won every fourth quarter. We play a very hard running style of game, but it appears that we are also forcing the opposition to play a hard running style of game to combat us. Eventually we get over the top of them because we have superior endurance running ability. And the extra rotation is very important for us in this context, because we rely heavily on running.

My theory on ruckmen is that as the game speeds up and teams use defensive zones, the 'running ruckman' will have less influence around the ground. This is because the focus in beating zones is moving the ball super quickly so that the opposition can't move the zone. Once you break the zone there is plenty of space behind to allow free scoring. But slow movement means the zone can reset and it's hard to break through. Ruckmen don't move the ball quickly. Even Dean Cox, who gets the ball 20+ times a game, slows the ball down when he gets it. The ball is far better off in the hands of a hard running midfielder than a ruckman.

The role of the ruckman is still important, but it is mainly in the context of using their body to create space (and time) for the midfielders in congested situations (ie, stoppages). Ben Hudson is no world beater, but he is very good at creating space. That's what Jamar is doing really well now, even though he only gets the ball 10 times a game.

We got badly beaten at the clearances last Sunday in the last quarter - lost them 5 to 13. Perhaps because Jamar tired. I'd prefer to see another option to Dunn as the 2nd ruck. Martin has kicked 3 goal in the last 2 matches for Casey. He's very mobile and should be a better second ruckman than anyone else in the firsts.

His speed could break some of the defensive zones and his height will drag a tall defender onto him. Could be a show this weekend.

Interesting that Richmond tagged Scully with Cochin in the 4th quarter. Waste of a good player but shows other sides are taking notice of major Tom.

They also took him out early in the 4th and gave away the free. Scully was knocked to the ground after disposing the ball. He was hurt but didn't show it. Got up (richmond forgot to put someone on the mark) and ran thru the centre to deliver a pass to Duun who goaled.

This kid is something special.

Joel Macdonald is fitting in beautifully ATM. I can see him taking that defensive role that Bruce sometimes plays.

Thought he payed a great game today.

Agree. He continually selected the right options and hit the targets. Loved his work.

i said that this year would be his last, but the old bugger just keeps getting the ball, and he tackles the life out of the opposition.

If he's good enough to get 25 - 30 posessions a game then someone will have to get 30+ to kick him out. Great work junior.

20 months is a long time in football. Flashback to round 22 2008.

Final score Richmond 18.13 - 121. Melbourne 6.5 - 41. They laughed at us. We were totally terrible and they thought they were destined for the finals in 2009. It was also Jack Grimes' first game. Thank goodness he barracked for the Dees as a kid, otherwise he might have applied for a spot with the Gold Coast.

Flash forward to round 4 2010. Ironically both sides only have 11 players from the lineups who are part of todays team. Missing players are in CAPs.

3 Bartram, Clint

21 BELL, Daniel

32 Bruce, Cameron

1 BUCKLEY, Simon

41 CARROLL, Nathan

8 Frawley, James

20 Garland, Colin

18 Green, Brad

16 Grimes, Jack

4 HOLLAND, Ben

2 Jones, Nathan

19 MARIC, Addam

23 McDonald, James

7 MILLER, Brad

10 MORTON, Cale

15 Petterd, Ricky

12 Sylvia, Colin

37 Warnock, Matthew

31 WHEATLEY, Paul

45 WHELAN, Matthew

34 WHITE, Jeff

13 YZE, Adem

Richmond (finished 9th 2008 haha)

11 BOWDEN, Joel

39 CONNORS, Daniel

9 Cotchin, Trent

3 Deledio, Brett

10 Edwards, Shane

41 FOLEY, Nathan

23 Jackson, Daniel

17 JOHNSON, Kane

16 McGUANE, Luke

13 McMAHON, Jordan

40 Moore, Kelvin

20 Morton, Mitch

1 NEWMAN, Chris

12 RICHARDSON, Matthew

8 Riewoldt, Jack

25 SCHULZ, Jay

5 Simmonds, Troy

30 Tambling, Richard

2 THURSFIELD, Will

32 TIVENDALE, Greg

21 Tuck, Shane

35 White, Matt

They humiliated us in August 2008. Surely todays clash is a revenge match for the club, for the 11 remaining Demons,and especially for Grimes. No further motivation required. GO DEES!!

So who will relieve Jamar in the ruck if Newton is dropped?

When you look at Richmond's list, they don't really have a second ruckman either. Do we go for Dunn?

We were about 9000 up on the same game last year, so people are are coming back to our matches - and not just Melbourne supporters. If we are the only team playing at the 'G' during the day then we can attract uncommitted fans, provided we can promise them a red hot go each week.

I thought we were loud and proud yesterday. About 4 weeks ago on SEN we copped a bagging from a listener after the NAB challenge match against the Eagles. He said we were passive, too quiet, and we didn't get stuck into Josh Kennedy when he ironed out Sylvia.

Yesterday there was a terrific response when Trengove put us in front with a goal in the 3rd. We had our first win in 3 AFL games and 4 NAB cup games and it sounded like it.

I know they had 4 injured players to add to their long injury list. I know we won the free kicks 20 - 12. And yes we had trouble putting them away in the last. But everyone needed that win yesterday - supporters, club and players.

Imagine if we'd lost?

Watts ain't far away from what I saw at Casey and he is quality. He isn't ready to be our KPF but he will be useful in a few weeks. Chill out everyone and enjoy the win.

I get the impression that Watts will pay with the seniors this year, but he may not play as a KPP on a regular basis. He could end up on the HFF or the wing. Imagine him on one wing and morton on the other. Land of the giants.

We need him as a KPP, but we may have to be patient.

Watts is still -very much a baby but I agree we need to find 3 good talls- A tall Forward and another utility tall.However when we can get players back a forward line with Watts, Jurrah, Morton, Wonaeamirri and possibly Gawn -WOW.Watched Gawn kicking goals from 50 metres out yesterday at the Junction oval- very impressive.

Is that true? mmmm. So we have a guy who is 6'10" tall, who can kick from 50, and was also a very good mid distance runner.

What other training was he doing Jayceebee31? Was he kicking on the same knee that had the reconstruction. He is still on the 'indefinite' injury list and i don't expect him to play senior footy this year but it sounds like the rehab is going OK.

Plugger said once that the only person he was ever afraid of on the football field was Dermot.

That makes me think - how long will Green play for then? He's only 29 but he could potentially play until our premiership (if we win one, which we will :D). He did mention he wanted to play to his mid-30s.

And I reckon Junior this year, Bruce in 2012.

The difference between Bruce, Junior and Green is that Green is an excellent left foot kick. Look at the kicking for goal in the AFL this year. Not brilliant. Anyone who can get a bit of the ball and kick it straight is worth their weight in Sherrins.

What price Green for captain when Junior retires? He leads by example (that effort to come back against the hawks); he can hold his position in the side, and he's spoken passionately about the club. Not many other options either, other than perhaps Davey.