Deetective Sgt. Taggert

I only just had a chance to watch some of the reply of the Freo game last night. Watching the last shot at goal by Watts in the fourth, I would have backed him to kick that one from what I have seen so far, so it's a shame he couldn't slot it as it would have been a huge boost for himself and the team. He probably could have taken a little bit longer to settle and catch his breath before taking the shot, but its not like he kicked it out on the full so with time I'm sure the team would be able to rely on him to do a Michael Jordan and nail the last minute shots to win the game

It's official. Bail and Morton IN, Cheney OUT. Fairly predictable and common sense to include two runners for subiaco and omitting a slower defender. Don't think it should be seen as anything against Cheney, just picking to suit the conditions.

iiiiYeah I agree with you and think you probably correct, but still wondering what happened in the West Coast game...guess it doesn't always go to plan. I sure hope we don't dish up the same [censored] to Sydney.

Great call...gave me a good chuckle at work

Yeah fair call. But by the sounds of it, Col has been limited by the toe injury for most of the year, so that explains why he hasn't yet captured the form from 2009. Lets hope he can keep this up the rest of the year now...

Haha, brilliant. I think the more common term is wedge-shaped...

Great work. Thanks for that

Yeah shame about Bail but I'm sure he'll get another chance soon and he should probably string two games at Casey just to be sure, but as already alluded to they may make a last minute change...

Reading into this article surely Jurrah is a starter as long as he gets through the last training session

Great news to wake up to indeed! I also take heart in the players positive views on where the club is headed, which makes some of the negative viewpoints posted recently on the Dees current form seem overstated, at least we know the players aren't so pessimistic!

Yeah good point there, esp the Boxing Camp. I was just throwing out a different perspective but I doubt there's much evidence to support it

I agree with your sentiment here. I think as passionate Melbourne supporters its sometimes harder to see the bigger picture when your getting thrashed or to tolerate poor performances or a lack of intensity from the players when it seemed as though we were beginning to turn the corner at the beginning of the year (and when teams below us on the ladder have strung together some good performances of late). I can only think that the players are perhaps quitely discouraged from throwing themselves into every contest week after week and to rather focus on execution and learning the game plan. When we are not genuine contenders there does seem less reason to risk possible injuries to emerging players by focusing too much on intensity and ferocious attack on the ball. But at the same time you would want attack on the ball to become second nature so not sure if there's any truth at all in this perspective.

Love your signature.........

I think you have made a good assessment of the strategic approach of the MFC's football department under Bailey and I think you're probably correct regarding North Melbourne but not so sure about Richmond at this early stage. I guess we can only just sit back and hope Bailey's plan comes to fruition...or spend hours debating it every week on this site

What is worth noting from these comparisons with other high-drafted KPFs is that Koschitzke won the rising star but has since been gone on to become only a serviceable forward/ruck and been easily eclipsed by Riewoldt. Obviously injuries and other factors are involved but it does give me some heart that Watts will develop to at least become a solid if not a dominating forward in the future.

Yeah I remembered that was the reason for Knights appointment and made the point in another thread. Sounds like Hardwick was more honest in his interpretation of Essendon's list at the time while Knight said what the selection committee wanted to hear. It'll be interesting to see how Hardwick's Tigers fare in comparison to Essendon under Knights over the next couple years.

A few big calls there. I didn't see any of the Tigers games tonight but heard that although they did win, it wasn't a sparkling performance by either side. But I agree that Hardwick seems to be having an a somewhat more immediate impact on the tigers and I still can't believe Matthew Knights was chosen over Hardwick for the Essendon gig. But the team they beat tonight offers an interesting comparison given that Voss came in without the typical apprenticeship and last year it all seemed to be going great but the wheels have fallen off this year to date. So I think we'll have to wait till the years end at least before making such assessments but it certainly makes for our next game against Richmond to be a good litmus test.

Yeah fair points there, money is alsays going to be an issue. But I guees in terms of attendence when a team that isn't in contention is playing against someone who is currently, I woul assume those support of the team in contention would still be turning up whereas where both team are out of contention is would seem to be somewhat of a disincentive, but at the same time it might encourage teams in teh bottom 6 to to a lot of experimentation in those rounds which might generate some interest

I do like the sound of the top, middkle and bottom 6 playing off in the last 5 rounds in theory, but the idea of 5 dead rubber games concerns me especially in terms of crown attendances. It also means that injuries in the start of the year to key players would mean goodbye season for some teams and gives no chance of building late season momentum. To me it would also mean that the last 5 rounds would pretty much be like a final series anyway, which is goo in some regards, but puts in to question the purpose of playing beyond 17 rounds...

The part about Dunn only kicking one goal in the Collingwood match after kicking 8 in the VFL was also a joke given that he had a specific tagging role for the game and did it well.

Wasn't Bruce quoted in an article a few weeks back saying he was keen to play on for a couple of years? He started later as a rookie at arounf age 20 I think so he felt he had a few more seasons left in him. I haven't watched him very closely buy with a our youth focus it seems to make more sense to give gametime to the younger guys but he must be doing something right to keep getting a game.

It is still a long season ahead, but I agree that the Tigers are playing some good footy at the moment and will probably be a bigger challenge for us to beat next time around. However, just like us it's unlikely as a young side the Tigers will be unable to sustain their current form for the rest of the season and Reiwoldt will surely begin to get closer attention from now on.

Thanks for the report. It will be great to have Jurrah back in the side to deliver some more flash and unpredictability to our forward line, and more than anything to bring some more excitement in the second half of the season so the Dees can build some momentum to finish off the year well

Agree with your points regarding bigger crowds and bombers current performance being better than us, but I still take joy in watching the bombers get thumped (Still getting over the 2000 grand final pathetic I know). I think what I envy about the bombers is their ability to regularly win games they are expected to lose (more than us at least) and perform well in the so called blockbusters regardless of their position on the ladder. I was [censored] they beat the bulldogs last round when the Dees just got pipped at the line but they led from the start so got to hand it to them. It will be interesting to see how things pan out for the bombers compared to us and Richmond perhaps given than the reason why they chose Matthew Knights over Hardwick was supposedly because Hardwick predicted a longer period of restructuring before finals success would be achieved while we have bottomed out completely and gone the full turnover of player while they have held on to some for longer that surely won't be part of their next genuine flag tilt (e.g. Fletcher)

I guess it depends on how the coaching staff sees the future of the forward line and the future of forwards in general. Garry Lyon wrote an article a few weeks ago or longer about the changing nature of CHFs citing bate, dangerfield and someone else I think as examples of a new breed. Perhaps they don't see Dunn as fitting that mould but regardless I don't see why he shouldn't be played in the one position for a while to prove once and for all whether he's suited there or not.