pm24

I'm finding it hard to support Cheney's inclusion in the team for this week after his poor disposal and one particular passage of play early in the 3rd where i believe he was to blame for the Zaharakis goal.... I'll explain why. Early in the 3rd Quarter I believe that Cheney half talked Pears (correct me if i'm remembering the wrong Bummer player) right in front of the MCC Members stand, then after pears released the ball Cheney STOPPED, looked towards the umpire for the free kick (with none forthcoming) leave Pears to continue his run forward without pressure and continue Essendons thrust into the forward 50 with us now chasing from behind, rather than having Cheney sticking to the tackle, causing the turnover. The fact that he just played for the free kick and not the ball at this moment, really [censored] me off. The fact that it lead to a goal was just icing on the cake. The guy is great in a contest but I feel as nervous when he has the ball as i do when Rivers or Johnson do. Providing a contest is great, but if you then turnover the ball due to poor disposal that contest no longer means much. I'd like to see Cheney dropped for Bail.

WOW I actually got a prediction right. I suggested in the other thread that MacDonald could come back in given he wasn't sighted for Casey last weekend, and that Gysberts would be the one going out.

well we'll all know in about 30 minutes who's in and who's out. I still get the feeling Joel Mac will be back though.

Joel Mac was one of the best for Casey the week before so he may have been given the week off, and i'm suspecting he could be recalled for the game against Adelaide. As for Tommy Mac - i'm as puzzled as you.

So it sounds like both Junior and Sylvia will be given every opportunity to play on Sunday so i'm expecting both to be named in the initial squad, however i don't think that Junior will get up for the game as he appears to be more of a long shot according to some of the articles on the afl website and the Hun. So with that I reckon the changes will be: In: Junior (but won't play), Sylvia, MacDonald (i only suggest this because he didn't play for casey last week and there's no report of him being injured). Out: Gysberts, Jetta

I'm not sure how much influence the Casey selections from the weekend will have, but i found it interesting that Joel MacDonald didn't play against Williamstown yet he was one of the best on ground the previous week and I haven't seen anything suggesting he's injured. So could he be in line for a recall to the senior squad along with Sylvia and Junior (if healthy)? If so, then team selection just gets a whole lot more difficult. Who'd be dropped if MacDonald, McDonald and Sylvia all come back??? Gysberts could be rested in favour of playing Junior. Maybe rivers gets pulled to make way for MacDonald?? Then you potentially have someone like ..... hell i don't know who you'd drop. I don't want to see Dunn dropped and don't think he should have been earlier this season. Miller is playing an important role as well and performed well at the QB game. Jetta stays becasue we need a crumbing forward, so does Bate, Watts, Green (obviously).... so who get's dropped??? McKenzie, making way for Sylvia through the middle. Gee it's gotta be tough being in the footy department.

I reckon Stefan Martin will be shown the door before Spencer give he's already been in the system 3 years.

I can disprove your argument regarding Spencer in two words.... Mark Blake

If we were to use picks 54 and 83 to elevate McKenzie and Spencer and try to pick up some good prospects at 10 and 35 (of course this is if we have these picks) I would feel that Miller would be retained over the guys i've list above. As we need big strong forwards while Watts develops, and given Meesen and Newton are guaranteed de-listings, as are IMO PJ, Bell, Healey, along with guys who i consider to be on their last legs like Martin and Hughes. I consider Miller to be more valuable to this team than all 7 of these players so i highly doubt he'll be delisted, particularly given he appears to be highly regarded at the club.

I think we'll quite a few players delisted, but i don't think any of them will be from the players we've drafted the last 2-3 years. I reckon the following will be delisted next season: Bell PJ Martin Newton Meesen Hughes Healey. So that's 7 delistings, with 2 promotions in Spencer and McKenzie. That leaves us with an empty rookie list and also space left for draft picks. I wouldn't be surprised if a guy like Cheney or Maric are placed on the rookie list but i don't see us dropping any of those guys. They're more likely to be traded IMO than delisted. I reckon Miller earns one more contract until Watts is physically developed enough to handle a bigger workload - so i'd say Miller hangs around for 2 more years.

Looking at everyone's lists i'm very VERY surprised so many people have left Bate out of the side. I could rate him too highly, but i would say he is easily in our top 22 players now and i don't see that changing over the next couple years. I mean he's 192cm, a good leading mark, a great kick from goal (even from outside 50) and he's mobile. I would think he'd make a great 3rd tall in the forward line beside watts and probably fitzpatrick in a couple years time? Do many of you not rate him as a player. Also, i've noticed a few people have left Garland out of their team. Are you kidding me. This guy is so valuable to our team as a versatile backman in the ryan hargrave mold. He's quick enough to play on smalls, but tall enough to play on talls and being solid enough with his disposal that he can provide good support to our midfielders bringing the ball out of the backline. I'm not trying to criticise some of you guys, but just left puzzled by the ommission of these two from so many teams.

I guess my preference is this... we don't trade for any veteran key position players who have done little in their AFL career to date. The list that you have provided doesn't excite me much at all. Maybe i'm just weary of doing exactly what we tried to do after the 2000 grand final, that is trade away draft picks (regardless of which round they are) for veterans. It didn't work out last time, and i'm not sure it'd work out again. I'd rather pick them up through the rookie draft or pre-season draft just like how we got MacDonald. The fact that we managed to get lucky with guys like fitzpatrick and gawn late in the draft last makes me feel less inclined to trade late picks as there's obviously still opportunities to get quality players late in the draft.

I say we just draft one of the strong group of key position forwards coming through the draft this year rather than pick up someone who hasn't reached great heights at their current team. We've already got forwards at the 192/193cm range in bate and dunn anyway.

It's worth remembering that warnock is already 26 years old and will be 29 by the time 2013 comes around. Who knows if he'll still be performing at his current level in 3 years time. If he is, then i'd say he's got to still be in the back line to give us 3 tall backmen. I'm going to assume that Warnock remains in our top 22 in my team: B: Bartram Warnock Garland HB: Strauss Frawley Grimes C: Moloney Morton Trengove HF: Davey Watts Sylvia F: Petterd Bate Jurrah Fol: Jamar Gysberts Scully Int: Fitzpatrick, Tapscott, Blease, Green Players i want to include, but not sure where they fit: McKenzie, Gawn, Jetta, Bail, Aussie, Bennell, Jones. Some of the guys i hope will be in our top 22 by then are Fitzpatrick (to provide the 2nd tall marking forward), Aussie (he provides us with so much spark and forward pressure when healthy), McKenzie (he's fantastic but where do you fit him in). The thing i found with this exercise is that its so bloody hard because i could also think of lineups where half the guys i metioned who wouldn't be in the top 22 could equally be in the team. Talk about have plenty of riches in terms of talent. Then we add Jack Viney, and potentially some more key position prospects from this draft (there's quite a few good forwards this year) and the dilemma gets even tougher. Edit: added fitzpatrick into the top 22 as the 2nd ruck man.

Hmmm i like your idea but i wouldn't want to go in without Frawley and Garland in the back-line. They're still young enough to be counted as part of the youth movement.

It's also worth remembering that when the did match up Frawley was very unwell and could have been rested if he had not be so determined to play.

I'm going to go against the trend here and name a player not on the list, and another who is yet to get much of a run in the seniors. The player I would select is Luke Tapscott. Why, because the guy can kick the ball a bloody mile, and looking at his video highlights he can deliver it like a bullet to a guy on the chest. I reckon we go for guys who can at least kick over the zones that opposition defences set up. I went to the Bulldogs v Lions game on the weekend with my Father in law (dogs supporter) and it was invaluable for them having a guy like Lindsay Gilbee who could just kick it over the zone brisbane set up. I'm not sure if anyone else remembers Paul Wheatley bombing the ball into the centre square from a kick in at Etihad against the Dogs, but it was a sight to behold. If not strauss, then i say Tapscott.

I noticed the banners also and thought it could be the new emblem, but was actually left a bit disappointed at the same time. It just didn't seem as revolutionary as some others on here had describe. However, we'll find out soon enough.

haven't read all the posts on the thread yet, however i think it is worth noting how well dunn played. His chase of Heath Shaw out of 50 was fantastic and really should have resulted in a deliberate out of bounds call and a free to us. In addition to that, his pressure and tackling in the forward line was good, and created a number of contests in the forward 50 and kicked a goal (should've had 2). He never should have been dropped in the first place and should remain in the forward line permanently. With he, bate and green we have 3 decent marking options up forward. Then with jurrah to come back it just gets better.

wow just realised that theres a few of us here that view the sequence of events with Watts and Miller exactly the same way. Could it be that Watts was actually just a smarter thinker in football terms than Miller??

I agree with Sue regarding the play where watts ran straight towards the collingwood players only to get tackled while miller stood still. After watching the replay you could see him look at miller to run off his man to either create space for Watts or so Watts could draw Millers man (leigh brown) and give off the hand ball to miller who could then have sufficient space to move the ball on. As watts moved closer to miller and miller stayed stagnant you could almost see Watts starting to panic. Ultimately this is where experience makes the difference. The option he thought he had, didn't work out and he didn't know how to get out of the situation. Thats normal for any experienced player. That mistake did cost us a goal, but aside from that i thought he played a reasonable game once again showing his cleanness at ground level, and quality disposal and accurate goal kicking. He's so multi-skilled i can't see any situation where he can't succeed for us. Lets just give the guy some time.

I'm surprised by frawley being ruled out so early when there's meant to be another training session on Sunday. I think i remember Bailey referring to us having the session today and sunday when talking about Sylvia's chances of playing. Is it possible that the comments you heard on SEN weren't Bailey referring to the fine we copped for having Frawley withdraw late last week??? I guess part of me is hoping that was the case because Frawley is really becoming the defender that this team cannot do without.

I can really understand Cheney being frustrated now. To be named as an emergency in the backline, then get overlooked because you're essentially not tall enough to cover the guy that got injured would just suck. I think the club saying that we didn't have an appropriate replacement is a weak argument. We had another defender who could've filled in the gap and his name is Cheney. It would have meant only having Rivers and Garland as tall defenders but that's the luck of the draw.

The report i heard is that o'bree has done is ankle at traing and dick is definately coming in for him. Not sure if that helps us or not to be honest. Could help us win the contested possessions though.

Hasn't anyone else considered that the reason our forwards aren't performing is because our ball movement into the forward 50 for the last two weeks has been pathetic. We've been smashed through the middle in our last two games and i can recall numerous entries into our forward 50 where our midfielders have just bombed it long to a 3 (opposition) on 1 (demon) contest and rarely has the kick been to our advantage. We keep blaming our forwards, but even in our West Coast loss weeks ago Bailey pointed out that our entry into the forward 50 needs to improve. Not other position on the ground is more heavily influenced by good ball usage as the forward line. If a ball isn't weighted correctly it can make the difference between hitting our forward on the chest in space, and the defender having enough time to get a fist in. We shouldn't be purely blaming our forwards for the poor scoring output. We need to look at the midfield to.