3183 Dee

I would love Jamie Elliott, if he can stay fit. Can’t see him leaving the Pies, tho’.

I’d probably be more keen to give Varcoe a year. Not convinced yet about Tomlinson.

I agree - this time last year, everyone was clamouring to get on board. Obviously, big changes need to be made after such an appalling year, but et’s see where we are, at the end of next year.

Wow - thanks for that. Sounds like we could do with both of them - Ash for the attitude and Young for the silk! This year has really shown our deficiencies: firstly with smart leaders and secondly skills.

What type of players are they, Daz?

I think they have to trade Pick 2, which would mean that it’s open slather as to who ends up with that pick. Do we still get pick 20?

I would say it was Last Chance Saloon tonight for most of the inclusions: Stretch, ANB, Spargo JKH, Wagner - the latter two put the effort in, but aren’t quite up to it.

I have heard this, but not sure how reliable the source is.

Is this a Viney/Jones thing? Just nod, if yes ?

Just so many crap plodders.

Yep - I agree. Something seriously wrong.

Spargo, Stretch, ANB out. Wagner and JKH try, but not up to it.

Just walked out early for the first time. That was Neeld like in its incompetence.

Bump - this is very much the reality. No point in filling all those gaps with JKH, ANB, Stretch etc. We need to add legitimate skilled players - it may take a couple of years.

Bit quick to be calling out the Lever trade. Apart from some shonky disposal, he was very good yesterday.

Yes - not sure if Melksham was rusty yesterday, but that was the worst game I’ve seen him play for us - usually a great user of the ball.

I also thought OMac didn’t do too badly yesterday - he looked more comfortable in that position. I think you’d leave him there, at least over pre-season: his field kicking was actually pretty good and he didn’t do a bad job as 2nd ruck. As someone has already pointed out, what is killing us, is getting too many drawn into the contest. We desperately need the outside run that can have the ball fed to them and then link up to the forwards. We also need some speedy defensive cover on the outside. Positives for me was that the controlled game of the 1Q was working well, also the F50 entries were much improved - how good is it to see Fritta clunking those contested marks?

I just don’t understand why people keep harping in about this. Fritsch was put back out of necessity! No Lever, May, Jetta in the backline for the majority of the season meant that Goodwin had to put someone back who could at least jump at a contest and is a reasonably reliable kick out of defence. That is why Fritsch was played back - not because of any stubborn, misguided Goodwin decision. Who else could he have put there? It’s no surprise that, now he’s able to revert to the forward line, we are starting to see why we recruited him.

Earlier this season, Jordan Lewis was asked, on the Inside Melbourne podcast, who were the potential leaders amongst the younger players. He said Oliver, but only if he wants to be.

Also Rod Grinter was on the same show - Demonland podcast again scooping the big boys!

Well, in terms of running through brick walls for the MFC, I would say he does. In terms of representing our club à la Cotchin, Pendles etc, I would say not.

Agreed - I chanced to speak to somebody on the weekend, who claimed to have a bit of contact within the club (not players). He hears that Viney and Jones don’t particularly get on and there are two camps within the squad. This is all hearsay, of course, but might go some way into explaining part of the dysfunction. It will be a brave decision to get rid of Viney as captain, but probably the correct one. He certainly flies the flag for our club, but that doesn’t automatically make captain material. Funnily enough, Jones is probably similar in that he was the only one willing to fly the flag during the Neeld times, so was the automatic choice. When you look at the likes of Cotchin, Pendles and Selwood, you see the attributes required. Other than Maxy, May and Lever, I don’t see anyone else banging down the door.

Not bad ??

I think this is the game plan that we are trying to emulate. I went to the Richmond v Port game last round and the Richmond style was similar to our best footy last year. The main differences were that the Richmond mids ran hard both ways and spread so well. No stupid hand balls to stationary targets and aimless punts up the field. It’s chaos ball without the chaos. Also - having two quality talls to hit up definitely helps, as do the legitimate pressure forwards and crumbers.

I think that you’ve nailed it regarding the trust - of course, part of that can be put down to this year’s team being so disjointed through injuries, so there has been very little consistency in the team personnel. It’s not necessarily injuries to key players that have hurt us the most this year, more that most weeks there have been enforced changes which have disrupted the flow.