DemonWA

id say the team that will get us 4 points on sunday is; B: Bartram Warnock Garland HB: Grimes Rivers Davey C: Trengove Moloney Jetta HF:Green Watts Dunn F: Petterd, Jurrah, Maric R: Jamar Jones Sylvia I/C: Tapscott, McDonald, Bennell SUB:Bail Emerg: Bate, Gysberts, Martin

nice post deanox Time will tell how clubs use the sub, but for me its a really strage rule. IMO you either have an interchange or you have a substitues bench - why have a bit from column A and some from column B too? The answer is that the AFL enjoy tinkering with Rules too much. why not just continue with the rules the way they were? So what if occasionally a team has less fresh legs on the pine when a player goes down injured? Whats next? Yellow & Red Cards?

i think their midfield is only as good as our depleated one. Keiren Jack V Jones Hannebury V Trengove Kennedy V Beamer Jetta V Jetta McVeigh V Sylvia Jack has more tricks than jones, but i could see jones doing a servicable run with/tagging role on him. As for all the other potential matchups shown above i think we have them covered. Throw the likes of Davey, Tapscott, Bennell and Gysberts into the midfield mix and i still reckon we have enough depth to be serviable with out Scully & McKenzie (who are major losses, and 1st choice starting players). Regardless of who is playing in the guts we just need to show a bit of hunger to be the first to the ball. Thats where the game will be won or lost; intensity, disire and pressure

Yep, looking forward to seeing a strong debut game With the injuries we have he has a chance to really cement his place in the 22 if he takes this oppertunity

Nice review Jr and Bruce are gone for us too. I think Beamer can lead the way for us, and McVeigh will probably lead the way for the swannies?

Cook - Gym and pasta GOLD

yeah agree about this years stickers. I was also disappointed to see that they dotn have the usual "back of Gurnsey" sticker. Have a nice row of them on my bar fridge, but alas no 11 the whole membership pack in general was ratehr tacky IMO. I'd prefer a key ring o light up horns and the fabric used for the scarf isnt as good as usual either. I got the membership cap too - i have no problems with the quality of this one!

agreed, but Bailey seems to beck him every week to tag the guns, and every week its a blood bath!

Coming into the 2011 season Melbourne fans had every reason to salivating over a round one match against Sydney, a team we comfortably beat at home in 2010. Some ordinary NAB cup performances and some untimely injuries (Frawley, McKenzie & Morton) have probably tempered expectations a little since the day the fixtures were released. Still, the Dees are in decent enough shape with even the talented but injury prone Grimes and Jurrah both able to complete full preseasons, and key players like Jamar, Davey & Sylvia set to be certain starters for the round one clash. The exact make up of the round one team is still somewhat unclear, with the forward line especially seeming to have many options. Will Bailey and the footy dept have a place for all 3 smalls of Jetta, Maric & Bennell in the one side? Their preseason form suggest they deserve it. Could Wona find his way back in on the back of some decent preseason form for Casey? Will They opt for a taller forward set up on the back of the injury ravaged Sydney backline? Time will tell As usual both teams will be doing everything they can to take the points and set the tone for their respective seasons. Sydney have a new coach and often playing groups respond positively to a new man in the coaches box. This game is set to be a great contest. Can the Dee’s bounce back form a disappointing finish to their preseason campaign and give their talented forward line enough opportunities to kick a winning score? Can Duel Brownlow medalist Adam Goodes carry his team to victory? Who will win the battle of the midfields? I think the midfields will be matched quite evenly, but I’m backing the dees forwards to do more damage than the swans; too many key backmen out for Sydney. Dees by 17 points Key Matchups: Jamar V Mumford Jamar and Mumford were arguably the two best ruck men in the competition after Sandilands. With both backlines missing their key players the centre clearances will be all important. Goodes V ? I’m tipping Bailey to back Jones with the tagging role on the swans ace. Goodes will kick four goals and have 28 disposals. Jones will get 15 largely ineffective disposals and later tweet that it was a tough day at the office but how he learent so much from playing on a champion.

Karl Langdon does a heap of Sports/AFL talkback radio in Perth, and writes regular column in the Sunday Times - he also doe the vista blinds adds I dont rate his opinions generally, but in WA some people may consider him "reputable"

if Bailey can demonstrate that he can coach/develop the kids then keep him on. Id say 8 wins would be a minimum, but i'd judge him more on our game plan and style than purley win/loss ratio. My concern would be that if we dont win more games than we did last year, and we continue to over use the "getting experience into the team" mantra, then we might not be improving as much as we could under a different style of coach. We have some of the best young talent around, great facilities, and we need great coaches to get the best out of them. At the moment we seem to have a game plan that relys on rebounding from the backline. If we dont start to win more of the ball closer to our own goals then i'd start to get a little worried. i'd like to watch us play and feel like we have a game plan which doesnt rely on the back 1/3 of the field to beat their direct opponant to allow us to get possesion.

read this in the sunday times yesterday. its a joke. Its like he was taking it seriously for the first 20 or so and then couldnt be bothered doing it anymore so did the next 30 players that came to mind. I couldnt believe Cox made the top 50 after a poor 2010, yet Jamar, Jolly & Mumford were left out. And LeCras infront of Goodes, J Browen and Boomer? I liked seeing Grimes & Beemer in the list, but Grimes probably proven himself over enough games of footy to be a Top 50, and Beemer's disposals probably arent classy enough. Maybe Beemer's short comings arent as prominant when you dont follow the dees as passionatley as we do?!

reading these lists really does highlight the loss of Bruce & Jr, not many players in each list that you can really say are proven over a reasonable period of time Green Davey Frawley Jamar Sylvia Grimes Jurrah Trengove Scully Garland

Sweet! I ordered one on the day that Scully did his presser. #31 on the back!

B Rivers Warnock Bartram HB Grimes Garland Bennell C Jetta Scully Davey HF Sylvia Dunn Watts F Green Jurrah Maric Fol- Jamar, Trengove, Moloney Int- Jones, Bate, Bail Sub- Tapscott This is a mix of what i'd like to see and what i think i'll see. Bails doesnt seem to omit Bennell or Jones too often so i think they'll both be in the side. Sylvia is most damaging on a HF flank IMO Jetta and Maric should play based on form - whilst both are small and mobile, they offer us different things (pressure vrs goals) Key match ups: Mumford / Jamar Goodes / Grimes

nope the hoff is a crab, but he's a tall KPF who doesnt play the traditional pack crashing role - he takes some nice marks and has a decent set shot. It pains me to say it but he's the style of player i think Watts will be. Watts will obviously be more versitile and much better, but i doubt whether time and size will give us a different style player to what we have currently with watts.

do you honestly think Watts will end up being the same type of player as Daws? Justin Westhoff maybe..... Even if he puts on the Muscle i doubt he'll play the same style. I bet Daws was a bigger bodied youngster too....

Chris Dawes? give me a break, he's a bloody gorilla. Absolutley nothing like Watts.

Sorry everyone i should have known better than to have a more sceptical opinion on one player than the rest of you... and sorry for not being 100% sure that watts will develop exactly like Goddard. After all they are both number 1 picks who were drafted young so history will repeat itself without doubt... Gotta love the high and mighty attitude of those that know better than everyone else. too add more fuel to the fire, Andrew McDougall was a tall early draft pick too

havent seen enough of strauss to really comment. but has plenty of blokes ahead of him so will stuggle to get a game. Having a good kick doesnt count for much if you dont get your hands on the ball, which sounds like is his problem

no one forgets this fact. Some people just wonder why a #1 pick was used on a project/development player not a ready made star (which is the usual route). I dont have a problem with having to wait for him to come good becasue we're still a way off as an entire team anyway, but I can also sympathise with those who cant see why the bloke gets talked up or defended as much as he does. If he was taken at pick 25 he wouldnt be getting a regular game IMO

yeah thats what im hoping for too!

haha i was planning to do this too. Its a long shot, but the bloke is a freak and has proven that he'll kick ~3 per game even without getting alot of chances. Wonder what he'd be payign for most goals at MFC? that would almost be a sure thing if he can stay injury free?

thats the fun of venting your thoughts online though isnt it?! If we all agreed 100 of the time then discussion boards would be boring places! I'm sure Jack Watts will come good. He's starting to show a bit. But i also agree with C&B that Wattsy gets an easy ride from the supporters these days for no other reason that he was a #1 pick and that he has started to show small glimpes of what we he'll be able to achieve. No one gives Morton, Maric, Jetta,Bennell much slack and they are only a year older....and most of them have showed just as much as Watts, not in terms of promise/future worth, but in terms of actual good signs on the field some of them have showed more IMO

I'm looking forward to seeing Watts improve, im sure he will BUT im going to back what curry and beer said in principle. Everyone talks about how Watts is a great mark, great set shot, has great agility, great footy IQ, great passing skills etc BUT really from what we've seen over the last few years, has he really shown us that? Or is that just what the club say and what his draft profile said? For every good mark he takes he also drops a sitter. His goal kicking is nothing amazing really (or is it just me?) Every time he passes the ball to another player people say "wow what vision, great pass" but if Jones did the same pass we'd say "about time he hit up a target and just didnt bomb it long". Every time he makes a second effort we're all pleased and prasie him for doing the 1%ers, but we expect that type of aplication from every other player without exeption. I thin kwhat C&B is really saying is that we cut him more slack than most other players becasue he is likley to become a great player. We dont cut other players slack whilst they are finding their feet so why do we do it for Wattsy? Guess its the upside of being a #1 pick?