Pates

Bloody close but yeah it looked in. Chip should've nailed his shot outside 50, been an average day for him. Beamers last effort was terrible, MUST make amends start of the last. Fight dees!!!!

I've been watching bits and pieces, this is what I gleamed. Apart from the first half of the second quarter we've been fighting for every ball, in Greens case this has sent him to hospital. Blease has been excellent with his dash. Watts is looking very prominent in the back line and has done very good hard things. A few soft goals and opportunities gone begging, but plenty to like atm, can we sustain it?

I'm not happy about Bennell being the sub again, if he was getting a game it should be full game to allow himself to get into the pace of it. Shame Barty's missing, been a consistent contributer all year and there's no shirking the contest from him.

Is he a poor kick at training as well? I do remember last year him being a pretty good set shot, so it surely must be a confidence thing.

I agree, this upcoming draft is just about the most important draft for our club ever. We'll have the 2nd highest first round picks and we need to make sure each one of them is a gem. Look at the Geelong side, their core is made up of two excellent drafts and the rest fill in around them. I don't care if Eddie sues us, we should get the best person we can regardless of the consequences.

You were making some kind of sense until that comment, it is the total opposite. The short sighted move would've been to appoint Moloney as captain and Green as VC with Davey and Rivers in the LG. Empowering the younger players is a clear indication of where he thinks the team will be lead from in 3 years time. The names I have mentioned have had their go and look where it lead us, 186. I think what drew the club to Neeld (and Neeld to us) was the fact that he wanted to change the club, not fit in with what has been the status quo for so bloody long. As the Mark said, if you can't motivate yourself to play your best at AFL level then you're probably in the wrong profession.

It's a tie for Collingwood and Carlton. But for some reason I think I'd get slightly more enjoyment out of beating the Blues the last time we beat them they were no good at all, they took some games off us when we were last in finals contention that cost us, I'd love us to repay the favour.

Going by Neeld's lack of putting debutants in I think he really wants the players to ear their stripes before coming in, something that I feel has been a massive issue for us in recent years. We play the kids after they put in one or two good games at Casey, they come in and are lambs to the slaughter. I'm not saying that Couch doesn't deserve a call up, but I'm glad he's taking Neeld's taking his time with these guys. My bench: McKenzie, Magner, Bennell Sub Tapscott If we're playing Bennell he needs a full game, he was terrible last week but when he gets the ball I think he just needs to back himself and his greatest asset, his pace. Tappy comes in as the sub because he's just the better player of the others left over. Jordie and Magner pick themselves IMO. Sellar needs to show more worth than just being a big body that brings the ball to ground, use J-Pod as an inspiration work hard for the footy. Surely we are his last chance, he should be playing every week like its his last. Looking for big games from: Sellar Green Trengove Moloney Bennell (if he plays)

Like him or not, you have to admit he's much improved in his rendition. Every time he played it last year I was worried about him stuffing it up, I don't think he's got a note wrong this year

For some reason I think back to the Richmond team of 2010, people couldn't believe how bad they were for the first half of the season (so bad in fact I think one betting agency paid out on them winning the wooden spoon) but they rallied to win 4 on the trot at one stage and end up with 6 wins. Now I know it's not the greatest thing to look at but by the end of the season most "experts" were saying stuff like, "wow this Richmond team is amazing." My point is we're enduring a very tough first half of the year but we may be surprised at where we end up at years end.

A very simple and intelligent point. Like a lot of Melbourne fans the media is looking at the here and now, yes Trengove is struggling, but I think Grimes is actually starting to look more like his old self. The point is it's an education where these two are learning on the job with help from blokes like Jones and Clarke. Love his season so far, will never doubt his efforts.

I've always looked at Jolly and Simmonds with a lot of frustration directed at Daniher. I'm a fan of Neales, we enjoyed some great times with him and for a period we were the most successful and best Victorian clubs in the league when the interstate clubs were "taking over". But Jolly was never given a go, forget about rucking, the guy was tall had good hands and a good kick for a ruckman. He should've been playing mostly forward with ruck relief. But Daniher loved White, I don't blame him for that he was one of the best rucks the club has seen, but his lack of management with Jolly and Simmonds has [censored] me off ever since they left. I can't speak to his style of coaching, as I said, we enjoyed some good times. A pretty incredible article to come out from a current player though. I thought the same thing. Given Marks apprenticeship has been under Malthouse you would think he's taken his style of coaching with him.

I like a lot of what I see from him, but he is frustrating the crap out of me with his set shots of late. He has missed some very simple shots recently, and our rot on Saturday started with the first shot of the game being from him. Given our lack of opportunity, we need to make sure we take every chance we get. Plenty to like about him, but a long way to go.

A sad reflection that the stat leaders are all defenders.

Schwartz touched on a point that really cuts at me in our situation. The players CBA forces us to pay 92% (or whatever it is) of the cap, but our players don't deserve it, they are on extremely good coin doing the job they dreamed of as kids, but they are doing it half assed. Good points raised in a very passionate way, would expect nothing less from The Ox.

I find the criticisms of Neil Craig to be incredibly unfair. He is the sports performance coach, not a director of coaching, not a tactical coach, he is in charge of making sure the players are at their best to perform each match. Now if the criticisms had been in that ball park I would understand but this one from Thomas is just stupid. Other points not as insane. It will not happen as I'm sure he's enjoying being able to watch and analyse is a commentary box, but it would be sensational if Neeld could convince Mick to come on board in an advisory capacity. He makes a lot of points when talking about Melbourne that makes me think he'd like to get in here and help Neeld out (not so much us).

I thought it was going to be a link to a HS article on Melbourne fans calling for it! Please do Carlton, we'll gladly have him back as our midfield coach.

Don't disagree, but respecting is different from backing someone when they're in a difficult situation. For the record, most of those players have had 4+ seasons it earn my respect, very few have it. At this point backing and supporting him does a lot more for the club than burning him. He knows the score, a lot better than we do. We should at least be allowing the same amount of time we gave Bailey IMO.

I'm not one for knee jerk reactions, but is it an idea to sack him? It is the ultimate hard line and statement, his current form gives him very little trade value, and for me we'll be ridding ourselves of this will he won't he limbo that we've been going through since the beginning once and for all. Perhaps not at this stage, but if this form continues show him what he's worth to us out on the field at this time, nothing. Just a thought.

It's a simple thing that happened right in front of me but it tipifies why I think it's the players that need to look at themselves and hold each other accountable. There was a contest which we won right in front of the members in the last quarter, we had numbers and Garland put out his arm to "shepard". It was weak and pointless, it left our player completely vulnerable to tackle and the ball went out of play. I like Garland for the most part but it was disgusting, there is no intent to play for each other, the players have no pride in the jumper or care for their teammates. What I want from the LEADERship group is to drag everyone on the list together, highlight that and say "never again". You do this and WE (the entire list) will hold you accountable and take action. This should be an escalating thing where it starts out as doing volunteer stuff for the club, paying for a membship or getting friends/family members of the club, and end with simply not letting them play seniors until they trust them it protect their mate. And for the record the leaders haven't been doing it either, they must take it as a minimum requirement as being part of the group.

When he went off clutching his wrist I thought, "how much more bad luck can he (and us) have?" The answer is much more. Really hope it turns out to be a lucky break, definitely no pun intended, and he'll be back in less time than currently predicted. It was pointed out that he may not have been fully fit, I disagree that it was a mistake to play him. But why did we put him back on after he came off with the wrist injury? Game was done, why risk him if he's re-injured the thing that's been keeping him out all this time?

Both good little funnies. The second one perhaps a little too close to the truth for my liking!

As far as I know Casey have a bye, happy to be proved wrong though. I remember hearing something about Casey and Melbourne playing an intraclub match to give players match fit. It was quite funny where I was watching Fox League Teams, Stefs name got mentioned with him waving to the camera last Friday. Someone asked where he'd been, pretty much all of them said, "oh he can't seem to break into the team". Not one of them actually thought he'd been injured. I'm going to Sydney for this game, looking forward to seeing LJ out there. I envisage him being the super sub.

Not that I particularly want to think about it, I imagine there would be an out clause for conviction of breaking a serious law. Initially when I heard about the date I was thinking it was the beggining of the trail (I was one that didn't think he'd play a game) but having read these articles this is all preliminary stuff, the trial might not even happen till after the season (if there is one). I'm also it sure about him playing in the Darwin game, surely his head wouldn't be right if he's just coming up to the hearing. Let alone the issues around him staying in the NT.

He's been injured hasn't he? I've been looking for his name just about every week at Casey and never seen it. He gets back in the side all of a sudden we've got a top ruckman and one that last year showed he could more than hold his own. He can take a mark, the biggest issue for me is he thinks he can go for a run and deliver the ball well. Keep it simple and I think he'll be ok.