monoccular

I wonder if there is any chance whatsoever that some day the AFL will invest just a few dollars in a roving mic so that we can actually hear the questions that the coaches are answering? It is bloody annoying, and frankly unprofessional.

Unfortunately from our very backward starting point it is going to take more than on preseason to get them up to AFL standard. Can't be done in 6 months. Sad but true.

PS: Was Jack Grimes injured?

You sum up my thoughts beautifully. I wasn't going to go today but thought that we surely would at least have a red hot go v the Toiges. The third quarter left me even more disillusioned than the recent weeks or recent seasons. There was just so little apparent effort, and no cohesion. The Toiges basically ran it out of the HB line and through the centre at will. I cringe to imagine what a team like Hawthorn, Carlton, Geelong would do to us if our defensive pressure remains so awful. Perish the thought. And I just can't see anything happening in the immediate future to reverse this, which is even more depressing.

They may have trouble finding the heart to have the heart to heart. Once again totally out-thought, out ran, out smarted and out of heart. Even in the dark depths of the 1970s and the 2007-10 era have I actually felt so absolutely sad about where our club is heading. So very few to actually appear want to play for the club. Far too many seem to just want to run around and get a kick if it is easy, but to never lend a hand or offer an option.

For someone for whom it is said his only attributes are his "silky skills" he demonstrated today that he is entirely devoid of any football attributes whatsoever. Even when not under pressure, unless perchance the mere fact of being on the MCG in front of nigh 50k fans is sufficient pressure to put him off his game (whatever game that may be) , he failed to demonstrate to me and many others any sign of silk, silk being renowned for its incredible strength and tenacity on an ounce for ounce basis. And the one mark under any pressure ---- pfffffffh IT'S TIME, CALE. G'NIGHT. Later in the game I watched him carefully when he was on the wing at centre bounces: all others outside the square would run in to join in - he would just walk in. Shocking body language and just not good enough.

Tuck and Fletcher never hesitated to get in and put their head over the ball! Cale has been offered another opportunity - he had better take it and do the heard work. He will, rightly, be under intense scrutiny today and must deliver something special!

Tanking plus development plus leadership = success. We are only two steps away from the solution.

"Just do it"!

I would be absolutely fascinated to know the truth as to whether Brad Green is actually truly out of form or whether he has a bad case of the sulks as regards the tough new coaching standards. I guess we will probably never know.

So, you "treat him differently" because........he has 5 kids?

I must say I totally agree with this and the originator of this thread. IF you drop a player for poor form, you don't put him back without proving he has regained it. If it was for a stress related issue he needs to demonstrate that he is over that. Has anyone heard of this sort of thing happening before. Surely Neeld wouldn't be treating him differently because.......................

Unfortunately having a gun footballer for a dad doesn't guarantee a player. The great RDB has at least one son as far as I remember - never mentioned as a potential footballer, other than in the press release the day he was born!! Robble Flower's son was mentioned, seriously by some, a few years back but amounted to nothing. Gazza'z boys - who knows? And we all know about Alan Johnson's lad.......... I think it is the exception rather than the rule, but unless you are Geelong, who seem to have some sort of knack (Ablett, Scarlett, Hawking, etc) , it is probably largely pot luck.

Geez.....in retrospect he showed a lot of common sense and at least survived to,play out the game. The head wasn't sacrosanct then as it is now. Dipper would have gone for ten these days had he connected, or one could justifiably say if SS was not so aware and evasive!,

run run run tackle run run run lead run run run tackle run run give options run run run shepherd & block Get off your backside and lets see some movement

If players are "lost" it is because they had it so easy in the (NB)/ND/DB years and don't actually know what hard work is all about. Don't know what match hardness is all about. Don't know what gut running is all about. Don't know what team work and sacrifice of one's own game is all about. If ANY player doesn't like the new regime, they know where the door is. IF we had appointed another "players mate" our doom would be sealed. I am glad some players may not like him - if they have the fortitude to stick around, work hard and honour their teammates, they will I am sure also enjoy the success that will follow.

Bailey - Thompson !!!! I know many Cat fans were getting inpatient with Thompson, but he didn't have anything even remotely like the 186, did he? You could see that our players didn't want to play that day (and one shouldn't have but that has been covered elsewhere); i didn't see enough of the Cats before their amazing resurgence, but I doubt if they could possibly have shown as little interest as ours did that day and after.

Vlad continually refers to the integrity of the game and the competition, but really, where is it? http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-news/calls-for-drastic-draw-reforms-as-bookmakers-ban-bets-on-greater-western-sydney/story-e6frf9jf-1226323306206 I was thinking about this on Sunday as I watched the scores come in (couldn't bring myself to watch the games) from the Vlad franchise teams' games. Now it won't effect us this year but in terms of teams playing for top 8 or top 4 the number of times you play these teams will make a huge difference in terms of points and percentage.....there will be no "integrity" unless or until the FIXture becomes a draw, or each club plays each other twice. Poor planning on the part of AFL.

Can someone explain simply what is the difference between restricted and unrestricted free agency?

DemonWA - I appreciate your first hand observations. You were there: most of us were not. From watching on TV I thought that most of the WCE frees were there, but many we deserved didn't come - that from an umpiring point of view was all I shall say. Our mids do look all at sea, though they do seem to get their hands on it better than last year. One cannot appreciate the dynamics of the game on TV with those bloody zoom-in head and shoulder portraits especially on the player after a mark or free so we can't see the options available: are they spreading and running or what I see too often at the G just standing, maybe waving their arms about but rarely making a genuine lead into space? Same goes for the defenders - they often look slow and stupid on TV but they just don't have options because those ahead and laterally are either just plain lazy and / or too dumb to make a move, even if just to drag an opponent and free up space ahead. Live viewing just lets one see so much more.

Maybe ask him over "for a look around", and get Jack Trengove to throw him to the ground so he can't leave :-)

Play him off half forward with stints in the guts. A bit like Sylvia - maybe even rotate them.. Next year, hopefully with a genuine Missen preseason he may be ready for more time in the midfield.

I think they have all been used up at the soccer

...and no flair either

It is multifactorial. Recruiting? Development? Fitness? Game plan? Teamwork? Skills? If a player is really fit so he is not gasping his last breath by the time that he is about to dispose of the ball he will deliver the ball better. If he knows that a teammate will shepherd for him he will have time to deliver the ball better. If he knows that teammates will run, spread and give him multiple options, he will deliver the ball better, and usually sooner. If he knows the game plan, and he knows that the players down field and behind him know the game plan, he will deliver the ball better. It is going to take time.