bing181

Wish we had a few more players inept enough to get 23 disposals at 87% DE and take 8 marks.

Losing Dawes hurt us, just destroyed what little forward structure we have. Pedersen played his best game for us: 23 disposals, 8 marks. Garland battled well on Cloke, especially given the way the ball was coming in. But ... poor skills, poor decisions, poor execution = turnovers, and it just comes back to punish us big time, especially as so many of the turnovers happen when we're on the attack and out of position defensively.

Bye next week, that's got to be a positive.

When he feels like it. Playing Blease is a bit like giving the opposition an extra man.

Watch the match, it might be a bit clearer why that is.

Pity it's taken him 3 quarters of football and any number of dropped marks and turnovers for us to see it.

Having Jade Rawlings as head coach provides hope?

Demonland is a broad church WWS.

Fair enough, though just in the interests of accuracy, Evans and Taggert were signed on Prendergast's watch, as was Jack Viney. The other side of the Prendergast coin is Howe, McDonald, Gawn - and as you mentioned, Evans. BP seems to have done decently with the later picks, it's those round 1 and 2 picks that we've lost out on, in particular Gysberts and Cook.

A few of these players were onboard back in 2009 in the TAC cup, and more came onboard when they started in the VFL in 2010 - and all that time with the same coach. Unity, consistency, familiarity.

Yes but scouts are just that. It's the heads of recruiting, overseen by the head of FD and in consultation (one would presume) with the coach and board, that determine what the scouts are looking for. It's not the scouts who decided on Lucas Cook.

You're wrong there for starters. He's had a couple of flash games - alongside a few stinkers. Last game he played in the firsts, he was subbed out after hardly getting a touch. Hope he does well, really, but he's been a) too inconsistent and b) too unaccountable. Kent earned his game last week on the back of (apparently) a strong showing in the VFL - and strong in all facets, not just at generating a few highlights. If the penny is finally starting to drop for Sam, great for him, but until then ...

Yes and no. Given that confidence and self-belief is behind so many of our current woes, I didn't think it was a bad move to bring in a player who would obviously be "up". Be good to see Blease given a run, though it seems it'll happen sooner rather than later in any case. Sylvia to come in (I presume ... unless there's a club penalty as well?), and there was also mention of Byrnes, so not sure how many of that type we can squeeze in.

Well, I call BS on that. You only have to go back to the Mifsud affair, which was all about the fact that Neeld met all the players individually, but met the aboriginal players as a group. "Jason Mifsud told Grant Thomas that Neeld was alleged to have held individual pre-season meetings with all non-indigenous players ...."

In the post-match discussions on here, there are always a fair number of posters decrying the likes of Nicholson, Bail, Sellar etc., as not being AFL standard. Yet, in these discussions, somehow the fact that they're not performing to an AFL standard is because Neeld has communication issues?

GWS, maybe but for GC, considerably longer? From your list, Howe and Tapscott have same as/less games than the likes of Bennell and Zac Smith, while Trengove, Grimes and Watts only have 20 or so games more which I would hardly class as "considerably". The fact remains that our list is more inexperienced than theirs, and certainly has less experience together - many of their players have been playing together under the same coach since 2010 or even 2009. (Not to mention, they also have Ablett, which is about where all comparisons start and end when it comes to getting results).

And you started off so well. Baseless assumptions and hyperbole.

I know we all want an experienced A grade (or perhaps even B grade) midfielder, but don't think we should be holding our breath. The decent players who change clubs are generally KP players or talls (Dawes, Hale, Lynch, Pedersen) where there are only 2 or 3 in a team, so it's easy enough to find yourself with reduced opportunities. On the other hand, clubs can easily fit half a dozen or more mids into a team, so being 3rd or 4th pick will still get you regular game time. I don't know that the likes of Farren Ray would have made all that much difference to us this year, not on the field anyway, but he's the type of mid that is and will be available. Hope I'm wrong, but based on previous years' trading and availabilities, don't really see it. Goddard was an exception.

Not sure there'll be wholesale changes, would be good for a bit of stability to stick fat, as far as possible. Sylvia in for ... Tapscott or Bail, Tom MacD in for Frawley. Not sure having both Sellar and Pedersen in is a great idea, and feel that Pedersen has earned a bit of a run at it after a few more than decent performances at Casey. Blease I think they'll give another week at Casey - though he may well be named on the extended list.

Amongst all the journalistic dross, another nicely balanced article from Peter Ryan. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-06-03/why-the-dees-didnt-sack-neeld.workstation

Reports also to the contrary, that they'll leave if Neeld is sacked. You don't know any more than I do, or any of us do. Conjecture.

PJ! Got our man! The rest will fall into place. Well, hopefully ...

SEN are just quoting ABC who are quoting ... well, they don't say.

Good analysis of the situation from Peter Ryan. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-06-02/five-big-questions-for-the-melbourne-board

"You can expect to hear (about) the first steps in that process over the next couple of weeks." Wouldn't hold my breath for anything Monday, and even much at all in the shorter term.