Eth

B: James Frawley, Jared Rivers, Joel Macdonald

HB: Tom Scully, Jack Watts, James Strauss

C: Jordan Gysberts, Brent Moloney, Jack Trengove

HF: Cale Morton, Colin Sylvia, Jeremy Howe

F: Max Gawn, Brad Green, Jamie Bennell

Foll: Stefan Martin, Nathan Jones, Jordie McKenzie

I/C: Neville Jetta, Liam Jurrah, Daniel Nicholson, Michael Evans

Emg: Matthew Bate, Sam Blease, Tom McDonald

In: James Strauss, Tom Scully, Jack Trengove, Max Gawn, Jeremy Howe

Out: Matthew Bate, Michael Newton (Foot), Matthew Warnock, Ricky Petterd, Addam Maric

New: Max Gawn (Sandringham Dragons), Jeremy Howe (Hobart)

Swan is not much of a loss. I think Pendlebury's a far better player and should be the one we're concerned about.

In saying that the margin will be under two goals.

Edit: Nice sig, Pates. Brilliant song, Uprising.

Sure he hasn't been playing well, but maybe some of those who poured %#$#$ on him, even suggesting his injury was a fake 'injury', might apologise now that he is out for 6-8 weeks - a little long for nothing wrong with him

He was playing horrible footy, and I see why people assumed it was a fake injury.

Six to eight weeks is a long time for something that was seemingly minor, though.

I'm a bit at a loss to understand what he had done in the weeks prior to his suspension to automatically get a recall.

He, in my opinion, was on the brink of being dropped and probably should have been dropped already.

Petterd has been routinely criticised here (not wrongly) for his form and attitude, but Dunns was no better, maybe worse, and yet he walks back in?

Now I realise we're down on cattle but IMO there are more than a couple well ahead of him.

Was curious about this myself.

What has Dunn done (haha) that Petterd hasn't?

Petterd averages more kicks, handballs, tackles, goals and frees for. They are equal on average marks (4.7 each) and Dunn averages more hitouts and frees against.

With Gawn a certainty to come in, most likely for Newton I would think, Dunn offers little as a forward and as a ruckman. Why is he an auto selection?

Come to think of it, why is anyone an auto selection? I wish the selectors had the balls to drop Davey before his injury.

Don't personally think Petterd was that bad on Friday night.

Sure, he wasn't one of the best, but he did more than Juice, Bennell and Bate IMO.

It's always tough for forwards when your midfield and backs keep turning it over. Howe and Dunn wouldn't have kicked multiple goals.

Trengove in second after missing three games, not bad.

Also Evans ahead of Green

Wouldnt ya just love to see some "hard at it, take no prisoners, take no backward steps " type of forward footy at Melbourne ?

Firstly , like him or loathe him one thng for suyre the word SOFT just isnt in his vocabulary.

Secondly, he has a pretty good footy brain. I rate him highly.

Bring it Dermie

Definitely agree with both of those points.

Get him in, Cam.

I was at the game today and Tom played well be I was watching him like a hawk and did notice he only very slightly favoured his knee. I was able to take this photo at the 10 minute mark of the last quarter.

There you go.

Yes let's bring in Todd Viney, no coaching exeperience, but has won a premiership as an assistant so he must be good right..............

Hey, James Hird coached under 9s, and now look at Essendon...

Possibly he does, but due to the height of Essendon we can't drop Newton or any other tall player. And as the sub he was supposed to have an impact but had little. This is probably not his fault because the team around him were average, but he is the best out for Trengove.

.

He was far from our worst.

It's hard to impact a game when it's pretty much over.

Howe for Bate. Newton sucks but Martin has to get relief eventually.

One DEFINITE inclusion is Trengove. Hopefully the Sculldog also.

Blease for Bennell?

It's been three rounds already?

In: Howe, Trengove

Out: Bate, Morton

I hope Trenners, Scully, Jamar, Bail etc... can put some ooomph into our game when they return.

That's probably our biggest problem - our injured/suspended players (Grimes, Scully, Trengove, Bail, Jamar, Tapscott, Davey) are, excluding Jamar who is our most important, our classiest.

The way Bennell and Jones got around a couple of players on separate occasions tonight is what these guys do every week. Well, in Davey's case, when he's not being tagged. That's why we looked so sloppy and indecisive.

In saying that players like Frawley, Green and Morton weren't good tonight.

I'm still perplexed as to why you would start a first gamer as a sub. Should have got him into the game earlier, give him a chance to show what he's got at this level, which appears might be quite a bit. Another ordinary decision match committee.

See Andrew Gaff

Rage away.

In: Howe

Out: Newton

Agree, no votes for Green.

6 - Colin Sylvia

5 - Jared Rivers

4 - Nathan Jones

3 - Jack Watts

2 - Stefan Martin

1 - Joel Macdonald

Firstly, your language is offensive.

Secondly, 8 of our 22 out is absolutely a fact. It may b an excuse, but it is definitely a fact. No tea, performs as well with 8 key blokes out, let alone a young team like ours against a top 4 side.

Bingo.

Of course we were going to lose tonight.

Not Bailey's fault we have injuries and not Bailey's fault Carlton are a top 4 side.

Good work Eth.

I must have about 7 players left from my original side!

Six, actually

Apparently Heath Scotland might be a late withdrawal. Hasn't trained much this week, due to sore hammies, from what I heard.

ROUND 7

Results

Trengove (1253) def by Roger Mellie (1635)

E25 (1149) def by Deez Nutz (1495)

Deestroy All (1131) def by Eth38 (1177)

The Master (1246) def Ox_5 (1237)

Range Rover (1101) def by High Tower (1496)

Ladder

By wins:

High Tower 6-1 9675 8193 118.09% 24

Roger Mellie 6-1 9270 8141 113.87% 24

The Master 6-1 9088 8324 109.18% 24

Deestroy All 4-3 8280 8073 102.56% 16

Deez Nutz 3-4 8784 8712 100.83% 12

E25 3-4 8961 9008 99.48% 12

Eth38 3-4 7886 8280 95.24% 12

Ox_5 3-4 7443 8141 91.43% 12

Range Rover 1-6 7619 8370 91.03% 4

Trengove 0-7 7555 9319 81.07% 4

By average points:

High Tower 1382

Roger Mellie 1324

The Master 1298

E25 1280

Deez Nutz 1255

Deestroy All 1183

Eth38 1127

Range Rover 1088

Trengove 1079

Ox_5 1063

The week ahead

Deez Nutz vs Trengove

Eth38 vs Roger Mellie

Ox_5 vs E25

High Tower vs Deestroy All

Range Rover vs The Master

I'm so lazy.

ROUND 6

Results

E25 (1150) def Trengove (944)

Roger Mellie (1087) def Deestroy All (954)

Deez Nutz (1043) def by The Master (1167)

Eth38 (1108) def Range Rover (854)

Ox_5 (684) def by High Tower (1115)

Ladder

By wins:

High Tower 5-1 8179 7092 115.33% 20

Roger Mellie 5-1 7635 6888 110.84% 20

The Master 5-1 7842 7087 110.65% 20

Deestroy All 4-2 7149 6896 103.67% 16

E25 3-3 7812 7513 103.98% 12

Ox_5 3-3 6206 6895 90.01% 12

Deez Nutz 2-4 7289 7563 96.38% 8

Eth38 2-4 6709 7149 93.85% 8

Range Rover 1-5 6518 6874 94.82% 4

Trengove 0-6 6302 7684 82.01% 4

By average points:

High Tower 1363

The Master 1307

E25 1302

Roger Mellie 1273

Deez Nutz 1215

Deestroy All 1192

Eth38 1118

Range Rover 1086

Trengove 1050

Ox_5 1034

The week ahead

Trengove vs Roger Mellie

E25 vs Deez Nutz

Deestroy All vs Eth38

The Master vs Ox_5

Range Rover vs High Tower

I can vote for both Yes and No...*cheeky evil laugh*

i believe there is minimum required involvement in the National Draft, where clubs are required to take a minimum of 4 players, so we need to lose four players from the senior list, excluding rookies, this may also mean that it is difficult to upgrade rookies onto the senior list as it would require more spots?

Don't you use draft picks to upgrade your rookies? IIRC we had six picks last year, used on Cook, Howe, Davis and McDonald, and then to upgrade McKenzie and Spencer.

MELBOURNE

Backs James Frawley Matthew Warnock Joel Macdonald

Half backs Cale Morton Jared Rivers Neville Jetta

Centreline Jack Watts Brent Moloney Matthew Bate

Half forwards Addam Maric Michael Newton Liam Jurrah

Forwards Brad Green Colin Sylvia Jamie Bennell

Followers Stef Martin Nathan Jones Jordie McKenzie

Interchange Michael Evans Jordan Gysberts Daniel Nicholson Ricky Petterd

Emergencies Max Gawn Jeremy Howe Austin Wonaeamirri

In Jamie Bennell Cale Morton Daniel Nicholson

Out Clint Bartram (hip) Aaron Davey (knee) Luke Tapscott (hamstring)

The Burgatron's team chat is live here.

I've a strong feeling Howes in for Petterd...

Juice. Petterd at least applies a bit of pressure. He's been inconsistent but his two good games (Adelaide, Sydney) would be right up there in terms of best performances by a Melbourne forward this season.

Guess we'll find out in 15 minutes though.

Green, Maric, Martin, Newton, Scully, Sylvia and Aussie are all out of contract at the end of the year

Hurts but I have a feeling Wonaeamirri might be cut. Maric will stay as he is a top 25 pick in his third year of AFL and is showing promise.

Also, people seem to forget - Newton is still a rookie, but for this season he has senior status because we only have one veteran in Green. So Newton can't be included in the players cut.

And also, hurry up with Sylvia's next deal. Hasn't been mentioned anywhere at all but I'm sure over the next few weeks and months that will change.

Edit: Oh, and welcome to Demonland, Newcomer.