Red Sox

LeCras would smash Bartram. Luckily he wont be there. Darling would be less of a concern if he was wearing red & blue. Sadly he isn't and will be a danger in this game. (Yes, I'm aware of the long term view with Cook etc). It would have to be Garland on Darling IMO as he plays further up field Darling and seeing Chip is still lacking a run he will likely go to Lynch with Rivers on Kennedy.

That and the minority routinely dismissing the majority with a clever sentence. This one ran it's it race after # 1.

Clever

Ah dear Jon.... The day a Dees player dances on the back of a tilt tray (flat bed in the USA) truck through the middle of the city to celebrate a flag (Championship) is the day I'll be happy that dear Jon was mentioned here. "I'm shipping up to Boston"...Go Sox, Go Dropkicks, Dear Jon, Go DEES!! Sorry, just lost myself in that Red Sox euphoria for a moment. Caro is an awesome journo by the way! B)

Ideally we will have enough amo from the result last year at the 'G. We owe them for that but I'm not sure we are a hardened enough side to beat a below average interstate team away let alone a decent one. The WC forwards have had a much better start to the season than some of our defenders, an area I thought we would never go backwards in but at this stage we have. Chips injury, Grimes a bit dicey with the ball and Garland, although pretty solid, has looked a little less unsure than what I've seen over the past 12 mths or so. (I'm not concerned about this and have absolute faith in the guys like Chip, Garland, Grimes with the addition of Tapscott, to sort this area out quickly. It would be nice if it clicks against an in form group on Thurs) I'll be pleasantly surprised if we win this game, somewhat happy if it is a good contest.

Hardly. A fair assumption made from what was offered by the 3 mentioned in the OP. Assuming that is all the majority of us 'punters' can make from the stands.

No. The win over Brisbane when they were going ok but more importantly our pressure across the ground was obvious. As it was in the two games against Collingwood. As it was against Essendon (until the last 15 minutes). As it was in the endeavour against the Dogs on that wet Friday night. As it was against Sydney when we demolished them.

Love the passion. Go Dees

Go for it. It seems to be missed, the detail in the article that "club insiders 'insist' that Connolly's role has largely been centered on exterior issues such as fan engagement and the club's relationship with Casey". As the article points out previous to this, "Football boss Chris Connolly and his role has been the subject of much speculation, with suggestions that the relationship between Connolly and Bailey was not ideal". This 'suggestion' has floated around for a while and I'm not sure what purpose a football boss is serving if he is administering such duties as outlined. There is clearly much work to be done by the current coaching group. The article on St.Kilda in the same paper sat well next to this one today and MFC would do well to learn from those mistakes.

Happy days!

Poor pinkus, poor little pinkus.

Like the Seinfeld episode where the cashier dumps Jerry after seeing his act, 'he just doesn't do it for me, it's just a lot of fluff'. No I'm not talking the fluff around his face, his game is a whole lot of fluff and not much else. Acts the enforcer but is far from that when it's time to go. Ricky Petterd offers much more IMO, especially as an attacking threat. If Dunn's best ability is to keep a tight rein on an opponent, I'd suggest that Ricky Bobby being a continual threat (which Dunn is not) more than occupies his opponents time. You could see a mile away that he was going straight at Karmichael when given that 50 mtr penalty on Sunday, it's how he operates. I can't stand that false bravado.

I'd noted this also quite early on. But watching further it seems this is just the tact Roos takes when discussing any game. He looks at it as a coach would which may come out as him having some further interest. I wouldn't be against Roos at all, at the very least he instilled a great culture at Sydney and I wouldn't mind some of that rubbing off on to our boys. But, I think it is just Roos way.

Red Sox always!!

6. Moloney 5. Trengove 4. Jamar 3. Bail 2. Sylvia 1. Tapscott

This is not great innuendo. Or at least I hope it is mainly that as I wouldn't know otherwise. Geelong and Collingwood have had similar concerns over the journey and come out ok, have they not? I'm not really sure this speculation would be far removed from the goings on at other clubs?

Further, Dunn is always the first to be in the face of a defender when scored against. Gives me the sh!ts. Dunn and Hodge don't even belong in the same sentence.

Disappointing that I can watch Orlando/Atlanta live from the other side of the world but not the Dees from Brisbane. Watching on delay.

Agree. I think Strauss would want 6 games at AFL level with some impact in those games this year, let alone 2012, as he has not suffered as Blease has. I'm not sure of all this concern I hear about application with Blease. The approach he is taking coming back from such an horrific injury requires vigilance in his rehabilitation. If we see him at AFL level toward the latter parts of this year I think we will see some good things from him in 2012. His impacts on VFL games are becoming more spread across a game. The other bloke, well, I'm not going there in this thread.

Well said. Jordie I'm not knocking Cook in anyway and the few bits that I have seen I am impressed with his talent. Darling led straight at the ball all day yesterday. A true CHF's game he played. This allowed Kennedy to stay closer to goal and Lynch to be that 'flanker' role. His second and third efforts, one with a few minutes left on the clock were outstanding. Range Rovers comment about 'two' developing forwards is the opinion I share on this as we could have used someone to make a similar impact now.

Hurley and Darling. Watts and Cook. While any club would have taken Watts with a # 1 pick, I believe we should have taken Darling over Cook. We don't need two developing key forwards do we? Darling was always going to be ready to play senior footy. I'm not saying Cook won't be good and from what I have seen he looks a good type but certainly one that will take more time than Darling. That's my only criticism from a drafting perspective. Would like to see Watts have some of that appetite that Hurley possesses. Hurley, although he did drift out of the game today was very good early.

On a day Darling played another excellent game, great to hear Cook doing well. Blease and Strauss' games and reports are very encouraging. Blease may well take half the season to come through but he is coming along at a nice rate from the broken leg. He will certainly make a claim and will be playing permanent football for MFC in 2012.

1.09. Line at 46.5 and we should cover that as a minimum.

Enjoy some frivolity from the boys over at Betstar, parts below taken from todays edition of the Betstar Blast. Welcome to this week’s Betstar Blast where something stinks at the Dees. The Melbourne Football Club have stripped Brent Moloney of the team’s Vice Captaincy and stood him down from his position in the leadership group, all supposedly because he went out and had a few on Sunday night. The thing is, if you follow the order of events chronologically you can’t help but see some gaps in the story. The tale that’s being told is that Moloney went out, didn’t urinate on a bar and was then stripped of his position. It would be like me telling you I went out, didn’t pick up a fat prostitute but am going to the doc for an STD test and a hip replacement. Something stinks, as the punishment just doesn’t seem to fit the crime. Either more went on that evening than the club want us to know, or something has gone on in the past to make this a final strike for Moloney. Either way, Moloney’s been demoted back to the rank and file and will probably come out this week even angrier than before. I’ve always thought that if there was a “Third Man In” award for the fella who always seems to be first on the scene of a fight he has no business in, it would go to Moloney. With a chip on his shoulder and a point to prove, there’s a good chance he’ll be Fourth, Fifth and Sixth man in this week against the Gold Coast.

I'm going to give him some more credit than that. He is passionate about the game as a whole. Anyone sought for this role would be. Custodians of the game WA.