John Crow Batty

The biggest difference with Collingwood this year is that they have brought their "A" mental game against allcommers this year. On paper they don't appear too remarkable. Their game plan is old fashioned and predictable. They don't have any forward of note except Didak. Nine of their premiership players have played 60 or less games. A lot of their younger players seem to be developing much faster than ours. 90% of the game is played upstairs which they have done this year and thats an area Melbourne still fails badly and all the prime draft picks in the world wont help. Melbourne matched outstandingly well against them this year when switched on. To bad we still cherry pick when we want to be on. 8/22 for us this season is less than par. Should have been minimum 11/11 with the talent and depht at the club. If we didn't tank last year we would have likely won the same. Thats my big jealousy gripe.

Further I would like to add that Nathan Buckley's ego might still be suffering from hemorrhoids because he is still only a humble assistant this season whilst it appears the Pies are having their strongest chance for a flag in many years. When he does become "THE COACH" their window of opportunity for flags may have evaporated and he could be presiding over a team on the way down. He was the guy who abandoned struggling Brisbane and refuted strong overtures from impoverished North to play with them because he wanted to play with a club that had a REAL chance for the premiership and big money do doubt. Bad decision for him. He missed out on at least two if not three premierships and with the right moves ala Martin Pike he could have bagged 5. Another great player with all the lesser decorations that football can provide except the ultimate one.

I would say the DOC is the real brains and general behind the scenes. The nominated coach (Hird, Buckley type) is just the ornamental poster boy with the toothy smile and coiffured hair. A prerequisite for clubs that value image over substance. The DOC also hides behind the sponsors advertising backdrop at press conferences and whispers in the coaches ears to what to say. The DOC is unfit for the coaches gig because of too many grey hairs(or lack of hair) and wrinkles. Doesn't look so good in front of sponsor logos.

A lot of interesting thoughts. But I still think extra time is the solution. The players who gave it their all in the GF deserve better than to do it all again. But I'd prefer first goal wins it with no time limit. And behinds don't count. I'd hate to see a mad scrambles to rush a behind at every forward thrust .

I admire Aaron and have said that he would make a good captain but I agree that he's a little light in the body. I admired Neitz but thought that a player who spent around 80% of game where the ball wasn't as not ideal captain material for that reason alone. McDonald seemed too much of an all round nice guy. I now believe that a tough nut type midfielder like Moloney may be the guy for the job.

I think Aaron would make a fine captain. Has done everything right by the club since he joined. I'd prefer him as leader because of his midfield role. Brad Green I feel is going to spend most of his career in the forward line in the future. I think an on field leader should have a more central role on the field.

I read that Gary Lyon said that if you are 99% certain that you want to coach AFL then thats no where near good enough attitude to coach. And credit to him for looking beyond his own ego. Once good coaches were self made and worked hard to obtain their credentials from the bottom up. Some former champions and others ex hacks or in-between. These days we have the likes of Buckley, Voss and now it appears James Hird who have been bludging in the media and now expect to walk into the top job as a natural right because of their past deeds without any proof that they are competent to do the job. If these guys were fair dinkum about being coaches they would have stuck their necks out and made it known as soon as they retired that they wanted to coach and done the hard yards to be true 100 percenters.

What happened in 88 and 2000 was that we were outclassed and really had no chance. Hawthorn and Essendon played like true premiers. I was at 88 and the power of Hawthorn was awesome. When one side is not up to it then the inevitable blowout occurs. We are talking about two evenly matched teams here. Should be straight forward for the emergencies. Have the emergencies kitted up and doing their preparations during the game. The coaches can have a few minutes to address the players and make the required changes.

My main reason with being disappointed with the 1977 GF replay was that it was not played to the standard of what was expected for a GF. Both teams were more or less knackered from the week before and lacked intensity. It was just a matter of who was going to wilt first. Everyone raves about Phil Manassa's famous run but IMO the reason he got away with it was due to the lack of pressure and intensity around the ground. He just basically strolled around the members wing with no North opponent chasing hard. By then North already had a comfortable winning lead. It was kind of a loose game and not fit for a GF. I would be glad to see emergencies played, perhaps up to four of them for each team if extra time was adopted.

According to the papers, Mark Williams, uberthug Dean Wallis and Simon Goodwin may be the ones.

Yes, an unexperienced Timmy failed badly at St Kilda and eventually but honourably fell on his sword. James Hird is taking a huge risk in coaching. But at least he will have a few high profile assistants to take the rap for him for a few seasons at least if he starts failing.

Difficult to understand why this is not so. In the regular season as well as finals there are too many variables. That includes form, injuries, ground advantage, weather, rivalries and just about any other factor imaginable. But weak and flawed sides are usually culled quickly in the initial stages of the finals. Nearly always the two best teams make it through to challenge for the premiership. Melbourne's performances this season against Collingwood was on par with the best of the competition against them whilst our performance against St Kilda was more or less what was expected.

In 1977 the grand final replay was a boring fizzer. Al the life and energy was sucked out the week before. Not like a grand final should be. But that was a long time ago. If this replay ends the same way then it would be a compelling case for an extra time decider. As to why draws may be more likely during the grand final I would suggest that it is more likely to happen because of the ultra competative nature of the GF. If teams are evenly matched the scores would tend to be much closer than during a regular game where not as much is at stake IMO. Recent GF history has shown that scores will be very close if both teams fight it out to the finish. If one team drops off then we get a blow out. There does not seem to be many results that fall in between.

I sort of expected bad behaviour after previous Collingwood grand finals but the magpie fans were particulary bad yesterday evening at least in my area in Richmond. Bad tempered drunks were everywhere last night. My wife was verbally abused and threatened when walking home at about 6pm by a deranged Collingwood supporter. Later in the evening we were menaced by another Collingwood drunk whilst waiting to cross Victoria Street. There was a drunken brawl around the corner from my house with associated screaming yelling and several police cars in attendance. There were many parties throughout the night and associated loud music and shouting and loud noises. This morning there were still people drinking in the streets and had to dodge several spots of chunder during my morning walk. I did not notice any St Kilda supporters in the mix.

Great game. To me it was almost a replay of the Collingwood/Melbourne draw earlier this year but with more pressure. In both games Collingwood powered out and looked to dominate with a big early lead. Both Melbourne and St Kilda managed to eke their way back into the game on limited forays inside 50. Collingwood were very wasteful in both games. Both Melbourne and St Kilda had the final chance to pinch the game at the death. As to the draw, I would prefer extra time. I remember 1977. There was a lot of disruption for everyone and the replay was an anticlimax with everyone glad to get it out of the way.

Congrats to Judd. He is a great player in an average team. Not surprising he hogged the majority of Carlton votes. Why others at Carlton didn't get many votes I"m not sure. Perhaps because they are all ugly. My wife says Carlton is the ugliest looking team in the comp. Agree the Pavlich incident was only a "love tap". Nothing much in it and more accidental IMO. I found his speech very interesting. Very reflective and had little to say about Carlton in general and vague as to why he joined them. The way he spoke about Melb, Stynes and Lyon I got the impression that there was a touch of regret in his voice. I suspect deep inside he may be rueing his decision to play with Carlton. Though it would have been a tough and perhaps unwise decision for him to come to Melb at that time.

Is this a discussion board or what? Whats wrong with discussing issues and tactics about the way the club is playing? Some poster seem to prefer this forum to be a "love in" only.

Thanks. It was funny.

I agree. One thing that has irked me this year is how how our game plan is likened to Geelong's. When they are switched on they have the talent, strength and experience to shake constant pressue off on most occasions. Tactics that have been developed to try to counter the cats seem to be far more effective when applied to us. We just seem to wilt. What concerns me is that our current game plane might become passe when we eventually are good enough to implement it. Football is evolving so fast. At this stage I believe our game plan is still immature and not flexible enough to counter negative tactics. One of the most telling games IMO this year was the last game against Richmond. Despite the huge incentive we had to beat them. I thought we would crack several times during the game. They tried to suffocate us and it was their inexperience and tiring in the final quarter that allowed us to beat them. This shook my confidence that we could ever beat Hawthorn the next week if they applied similar tactics.

Going by the selections I think Melbourne wan't to finish the season strongly. I don't think Warnock would be surprised he was dropped. He looked very frustrated and disapointed in himself at times last week.

Nice summation. Interestingly you note by omission that he is not blaming his friends. I didn't watch the show on principle.

Yes I agree with you. The two two suspects you mention tend to stand out but I think it was a broader comp wide problem with few clubs left untouched. Going back to drugs. Its just not drugs. Footballers are human and susceptable to all the usual and perhaps unusual human vices. Perhaps more so because of the attention they receive and youth. Over the years I've heard of unusual and bizzare stories regarding footballer behaviour as many others have too. And I've seen it at my local clubs. The most strange and shocking story I've heard involved an almost All Australian quality nuggety midfielder who during an interstate fixture was caught "In Flagrante Delicto" in a hotel room with his twin brother. Was caught by a team mate who is a former Melbourne player but not playing for us at the time. True or not I don't know. But he did disappear from the football world quickly and quietly and I never heard of him again.

I suggest you also look further than WC and Hawthorn.

Yes he was. The consensus at the time was that he was more of an idiot for getting caught than for taking the PE drugs. At that time too there were a few tall skinny players around that all of a sudden developed into big power forward gorillas from the end of one season to the other. I'm sure most posters who have been following footy in the 90's to early 2000's know who they are. Theres also a certain player from an even earlier era noted for his swagger and hairstyle who raised a few eyebrows. Another example from further back was Fred Cook, the Port Melbourne VFA "living legend". Also played for and was sacked by both Carlton and Footscray for non football related issues. In the 60's/70's there was less of a tolerance for these kind of behaviours in the VFL and otherwise good players with "issues" ended up playing in the VFA. Port Mebourne was noted as much for its rogues gallery as its success on the field. He had a viable media career until his recreational drug taking became public knowledge and he ended up as the public image of the fallen sporting hero wasted by drugs. Ended up in court on a series of crimes related to his addiction. Don't know what he's up to now.

Off field I agree an outstanding outcome. Could not hope for better. The positive admin was already there last year and delivering. A successful administration has to follow up with a successful team. But onfield is where our productivity is. We have a great business now but are only selling an average product at the moment. Next year I am full of anticipation.