Mad_Melbourne

the game will come down to tom mcdonalds start on nick riewoldt, if he can keep him out of the game early then i feel like we can be competitive with them for a majority of the game. hopefully clisby is able to help our disposal out of the back 50 and limit our turnovers, and we are able to actually rebound the ball out of our back 50 effectively, and not just offer the opposition goals. mcdonald will be good for 2-3 off his poor disposal, and terlcih will have 1-2 really poor turnovers in our back half, so if we can keep this number below 8-9 goals we will not lose by 10 goals! at the end of the day, they should win the midfield battle and i feel that spencer and fitzpatrick playing ruck and rotating ruck will be comprehensively beaten by mcevoy and kosi. but i dont think they have a forwardline that is capable of scoring a large score and i think our defense should be able to match up on them alright. also, my sneaky tip for this week is that fitzpatrick will chase down rhys stanley at one stage while the commentators talk about how fast stanley is as he trys to break the lines and that fitzy will kick 3 goals and play a solid game.

The game will come down to Tom McDonald's start on Nick Riewoldt, if he can keep him out of the game early then I feel like we can be competitive with them for a majority of the game. At the end of the day, they should win the midfield battle and I feel that Spencer and Fitzpatrick playing ruck and rotating ruck will be comprehensively beaten by McEvoy and Kosi but i dont think they have a forwardline that is capable of scoring a large score and i think our defense should be able to match up on them alright. Also, my sneaky tip for this week is that Fitzpatrick will chase down Rhys Stanley at one stage while the commentators talk about how fast Stanley is as he tries to break the lines and that Fitzy will kick 3 goals and play a solid game.

i do think the difference change in brisbanes logo is causing outrage due to the movement away from the past and this is frustating the old fitzroy supporters, from what i gather at least. i personally think the football jumper collar doesnt have a toff look to it, when compared to the blazers, but i still like the blazers, as i said i feel it is definitely a non issue and jumper design often changes every 4 or so years due to sponsorship deals anyway, so we might end up with a new one if we end up needing to find a new sponsor

this thread is very similar to the statements about how players must shave their beards in order to play well. if we were winning games, people would not care about jumpers, blazers or beards, but as we arent, in my opinion everything is seen as a bigger issue than it really is. i for one, like the jumpers, and i like the collar but at the end of the day i dont really see how it makes a difference, i think the collar adds to the appearance rather than takes anything away. i also dont mind the blazers, i like the unity and team feel they bring, much similar to how a team rule for the team i coach is that every player must own and wear a team polo on match day.

the trade was not meant to be accepted, and was rather a method of conversation with jcb about a possible trade that we could work out

already vetod it as i thought there was a mistake and was just about to personal message you on here! no worries

does anyone have a trade for dale thomas, if someone would be looking to take him as a keeper, but also for later in the season? looking for a midfielder in an attempt to make a really really late run at things haha

shane warne was the best bowler in the world at one stage, brent moloney is nothing but a bit part player who has mirror muscles and could kick the ball long. it seems to me that brent has spent to much time at the gym and it is now only muscle between his ears

this is driven by pressure on the mids, but the idea that if it is a contest then the person who is in front will be able to push the ball to the fall of the ground. we just dont get people there, chris dawes does it alot, he bring it to the foot of the contest which adds to the predictability of a the team. another factor is that mitch clark will mark those balls alot of the time, he has an uncanny wingspan and if it is high and in front it is nearly impossible to get spoiled but i agree there is nothing better than a lace out kick that i wish we did more often

our kicking is the problem, if the ball gets kicked to the advantage side of the defender then always its going to be hard for the kid to take a mark. although he got caught out by lynch a couple times running to the collingwood goal square when he played ruck, he gave a pretty decent effort! definitely improved from his first few, definitely showing positive signs

Athletic, competes well in the ruck, and almost always do inmates the vfl, he will get a go, and he has a bit of promise. His set shot in the first quarter that hit the post shows how far his skills have come on! Definitely needs more afl games, but put Clark in the fwd line with Dawes and the fitzy wold be more dangerous! Still has to work on his decision making but so does the whole team

Caro < Kelly underwood

He has still kicked 20 goals from 8 games.Although I feel he lacks penetration with his kicking, most of those ovals blow a gale, is it just the stutter you don't like? Or how he arcs out and uses more of a bit of a j curve while kicking? I think making him runner straighter at goal could give him more penetration, but I doubt mich will be done about it because overall he kicks the footy solidly

your logic of removing a coach to help a player how would that work? you cant automatically inject 100 games into midfielders, most of these players have been in the system before neeld anyway. and yes i do think we should keep neeld at least until the end of the year buddy. anywho flogs aside, good to see that the scorps played well again after last week. who played well through the middle? good to see that fitzy is stringing quality games together in the vfl, would want him to play soon, but playing against hawthorn and collingwood might be a bit rough for him, bring him in after the bye i think, if he can play one or two strong games. although bringing him in for gawn for next week also seems like the right idea.

yes, logic, lets remove a coach of a team in order to benefit one player. he is really playing so poorly under the current coaching staff, kicking 20 odd goals in 7 games? and from what i hear is loving being involved with the club and has a good relationship with neeld

i guess to get rid of him because our list is crap, and he is halfway through reforming doesnt make much sense either though? of the players he brought in terlich-looks good enough matt jones- our second best mid this year clark- clearly going to be a very helpful player dawes - same with clark byrnes and rodan-from all reports set the standard at training and show great leadership pederson-may not be up to scratch but does perform well at vfl level i dont think a coach can make a difference to the playing group immediately other than letting them get games into them, by giving him 3 years i have a feeling he will be able to at least build a hard working list that if is not performing then another coach can step in

i have a gut feeling we will get paul williams or ratten as midfield coach, and then after the 3 years of neeld if people are still sooking then possibly they will take over

how many times did we struggle to hit a target coming out of our backline on the weekend? this could be due to a midfield issue, but it is also due to players not having the kicking ability, get the ball in the hands of watts and he will hit targets, this is why the defensive forwards always get to him and have been limiting his output. i hope that watts will be a swing player because in our forward line he could play as a small forward due to his speed but at the moment play him down back and let him kick the ball as much as possible

for this year their list could be in better shape, but for a 2-3 year look i feel that our list is in better shape if we are able to keep our defenders and keep our forwards, having said that i would be very happy to have a liberatore or wallis in our midfield

i think there is a difference with being happy with the effort and being happy with the result. at the end of the day there were positivies through the clearances and defensive contests, which really did show (in my opinion) that the future is bright, the midfield faded as the game proceeded but that is mainly due to the number of preseasons in each of the teams i think. we were also able to stop the run on for the first time in a long time, and if we took full advantage of our oppourtunities could have been a completely different result (i guess the same could be said if they kicked straighter) but i was more thinking how they went coast to coast off 3-4 of our attempts which should have been goals

this is true, but i would almost suggest that their list is in a bit more trouble than ours, with players like boyd, cooney, murphy, giansiracusa being on their last legs and having no real key forward (liam jones) whereas we have potentially got 3 (dawes, clark, hogan, fitzy) i agree we havent played finals, but also fans were supporting the "tanking" we implemented in earlier years and even though neeld says we are in a rebuilding phase this doesnt stop supporters from having their expectations up. at the end of the day, over the past 30 odd matches the bulldogs have been just as poor as melbourne, recruiting wise melbourne have had a few wins with mitch clark and chris dawes, although they have two cornerstone midfielders in wallis and liberatore, it could be seen that we are slowly starting to get games into our mids aswell. the bottom line, my whole arguement is the fact that melbourne supporters, rightly or wrongly, arent patient, this is acceptable because we have been down the bottom for so long, but at the end of the day neeld is a new coach, transforming a list and developing young midfielders, i am not saying that we shouldnt be out weekly giving it a red hot crack, like we have against carlton, richmond, west coast for a half, but if the supporters actually supported the new system and the rebuild i think the media would ease up

they are under the radar as they as fans accept that they are in a rebuild phase and are willing for the long run. if the bulldogs supporters bood their team off the ground or sat at the runway and hurled abuse or waved a white flag during matches then they would be in the spotlight aswell. The media knows when they get a reaction they sell papers, and we as fans give a reaction, not all of us, just the "passionate" or "stupid" ones however you look at it

i think there is a difference between maintaing possesion and clearing the ball, i think we are generally good at clearing the ball to boundary outside of 50, but we are quite poor around the stoppages and therefore it comes back into our 50. we can normally get it up to about the wing before a midfield turnover, then the process begins although there is no doubt that our defence would be increased with a better midfield because that is the clear reason why the i50 counts are going crazy, if only we learnt to spread when we were out rather than when we won the hard ball.

for tom scully we got what geelong got for gary ablett, so i am pretty sure we did have the right idea. primus identified the rebuild and created the list for which hinkley took on, so personally i disagree that hinkley has come and made them play how they are playing. you are an absolute goon, although port have played well it in not due to one pre season, it is due to multiple pre seasons, a team is not built in a day, and at the end of the day, neeld made the hard calls which were needed to further the list, if melbourne continue to get beat by 100 points every week he will not stay, but at the end of the day, if melbournes list begins to play structured football and get games into the midfielders then how will he have been doing the wrong thing? sure, roos and malthouse have a name that neeld doesnt have, but at the end of the day rivers realised he had limited time left and wanted to play finals and knew melbourne would not be in the immediate future. moloney is the only one who has left who could have been of value to our team, but in reality he had a limited time frame at the club to with the need to get games into the younger mids.

Midfield: Kane Cornes: 253 games Dominic Cassisi : 207 games Travis Boak: 116 games Matthew Broadbent: 63 games Matt Thomas: 83 games Brad Ebert: 106 games Hamish Hartlett: 54 games add the first or second season players on top of that list and Angus Monfries, well that is a pretty good set up compare that to what we are working with? am i saying ken hinkley is not a good coach? no! the point is primus started the rebuild, primus built the list, he recruited the midfield stocks to be competitive and yes, now they have oliver wines who is playing well, but it is because of who he has around him that he can play. the point was he stated that port adelaide rebuilt in a year, but that is completely wrong, it takes a few years and this is what will happen. Melbournes midfield is 3-5 seasons, which is 3-5 preseasons, which is 60-100 games away from being a top line midfield. do i think if we had mick malthouse or paul roos coaching us right now we would be in the same position? absolutely, how anyone can say that a coach will make a 30 game midfielder play like a 120 game midfielder, get serious. in your opinion who is being played out of position? because i think everyone is playing where they should be played, we just need games experience and that takes time