John Crow Batty

Looks ready made. Looked a little lost previous games but showed a lot last night. Doesn’t blink and back his judgement to good effect.

I really liked his delicate tap work in the forward line. Almost better than Gawn in that respect. And he won’t be shoved out of the way as sometimes happens with Gawn against a beefy opponent in the forward or back line. I don’t believe though he will have the mobility to cover the entire ground on a consistent basis. He is handy around the goals and if he didnt hurt his shoulder he could easily have had a bag of 4 or more goals. His brute strength will be huge asset for us around the goals. His teammates have to find a way to exploit it. If we don’t expect him to be everyman in the game he will be a weapon.

Jones was good for the most part. His goal smarts are still there and he lifted admirably after the first quarter. Looks like the well deserved criticism stung and got him into action. Question is why wasn’t he showing this form from the beginning of the season? Now he has to keep it up for the remainder of the season. We are not going to make the finals with a captain showing his 1,2 and 3 form on a regular basis. I don’t want to see him like a cricketer who has bad form in a test series then just before he gets dropped scores a century and get to play another whole test series where he fails again.

The one positive that came out of last week was that we played one quarter of really good footy. More like what we should be playing. Fast dominating and high scoring. Before it was only 10 or 15 minutes here or there. If we can up that to at least 3 quarters we should have a real chance.

If Christian is smart he should give every suspended marque miscreant a minimum of two weeks. That way they can be downgraded to one. They get let off far too often. Leniency can be given but still punished. Should help shut up the Eddies of this world.

Make him captain.

Question is whether it’s more important to go full tilt to turn the season around or keep Jones playing. He is currently a passenger and liability at this watershed moment and the club seems keen to keep manufacturing a position for him every week. He cant be hidden anymore. I just wish he dropped himself, give himself a dignified exit and save all the awkwardness.

A bucket of KFC and a loss like the past two weeks might give you a dose of crippling indigestion. I suggest you buy some kaopectate and keep a spew bag handy or be sure to keep the empty bucket.

Freo did play their best game without him against North. Kicked their highest score in years. With him lost against GC and barely scraped in at fortress Optus against the Saints. Not convinced and still has a lot to prove.

I don’t read that poor substitute for toilet paper but I would be rapt if it is true. And a telling Freudian slip by Clark.

Yep, we made some big sacrifices to get to play good footy at Docklands.

I will hold judgement on May. No doubt there is a bit of rascal in him but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Just hope I don’t end up having some sort of sympathy for Campbell Brown in the future.

Franklin won’t need to ping them 55 out from the boundary. He will be gorging courtesy of Joe the Goose.

Jones might and should be dropped but the club don’t have guts to do it unless our season becomes an irrecoverable disaster. Of courses it will be too late then. If so he might then pick a farewell tribute game in round 23. Hibberd IMO is going through a bad patch and might be carrying some niggles and can turn it around.

The ones that apply forward pressure. The ones that work hard to get to the fall of the ball. The ones that don’t compete for the mark against the marking target. None of our small to medium forwards except Melksham to a degree aren’t doing it.

Can’t be any worse. Our forward pressure is a joke. At least he can put one or two defenders on their arses and make them pay. Stir the pot with a bit of beefy mongrel and create opportunities for crumbers as well as hopefully disorganise the defence.

Many complain about Lewis in his twilight but same posters mostly silent on Jones. Lewis is a far better leader and is still a better player. Ignoring the elephant in the room big time.

GC would have beaten us easily today. Our one paced wombats bloated with bathwater would have been left in the dust.

And off loaded a few prima donnas who didn’t want to play for their pay.

He should drop himself. Now that would be leadership. Is the game all about him or the future of the club?

During WW2 the RAF lost all its experienced career pilots and squadron leaders within weeks of hostilities. Later on there were squadron leaders that were only 18-19 years old running the show and doing a heroic job. However it is easier to replace leaders due to attrition. Difficult to shoe horn out current encumbents due to pecking order and political considerations even if they are totally ineffective and over the hill without pain. Takes courage to make the big call and we will never know who can truly lead when opportunities are denied. Successful clubs make the ruthless decisions when they have too. We are leaving it a little late.

A benefit of our finals charge last season has been prime time games. However bad losses have the effect of ruining most of ones weekend. 3 unwelcome miserable losses in a row and perhaps another coming next week. Starting to miss those late Sunday arvo games. At least we had the chance to enjoy most of our Saturday nights and the weekend. Thanks MFC.

After being their whipping boys for a decade beating Hawthorn in a final must have been the pinnacle of achievement for some. The bath water flowed copiously and into the players heads.The immediate backslide since has been spectacular. Can it be reversed?

ANB, Jones and Viney. A trio of wombats. Strong and good at rooting around the bottom of packs but slow in pace, execution and mind with limited skills. We can’t win with those three passengers the way they are playing. The others have more upside.

As I recall McCartney did not leave the Bulldogs under happy circumstances.