nutbean

They look like the whole underbelly crew at a police line up.

Go down the "conservative" path and take who was considered the best credentialled player - if that doesn't work - recruiters get hammered. ( Morton, Toumpas, Scully, Trengove) Go down the "speculative" path and take for needs or a possible smokey - if that doesn't work - recruiters get hammered. (Cook, Strauss, Gysberts) Years after the draft - if pick 80 turned out better than our pick 20 ( geez - we could have had (insert any player that is going well in a good side) instead of (insert our player who has been playing crap football in a crap side)- recruiters get hammered. (why did take Marric at pick 21 - we could have Chris Mayne at pick 40) Wouldn't you hate to be a recruiter.

I don't have a problem with Robbo - he is a bit of a buffoon but I sense he doesn't take himself too seriously. Dwayne on the other hand.........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

In mine the ex Minister for Police and Riots barracks for Carlton. When one of mine was 8 she said she wanted to switch to mums team - Carlton. I said to the wife - " I can happily accept having two daughters and no boy to carry on my name. I can't accept living with a Carlton supporter". So the wife switched to Melbourne and we all lived miserably ever after.

I found it a little frustrating that our starting positions on opposition players was good but our reading of the play was so poor that the opponent would end up 5 metres clear. Giorgiou actually reads the game well and could influence a contest by being close when the ball arrived - I thought that Grimes was two steps behind all day.

No Byrnes No Melbourne

And when a player of Frawleys quality comes up you will find that most clubs will talk to his management. What about clubs giving their older players until right before the end of the season to decide whether or not they will go on ? How does that affect recruiters. And how about undetermined leg problem candidates like Dawes ? Would you suggest he let them know how he is going to be by year end and how he will be going forward so the recruiters can plan around him ? The Lake/Frawley scenario is a nonsense argument - Hawthorn have one weakness in their list - it is a key back. The same as Roo's was always going to be in the ear of every single midfielder because it was apparent what we needed. You suggest that recruiters need to know if our most expensive ruckman/forward will play next season - I agree - but 2 matches into this season ? If he lets them know mid year it won't make a lick of difference.

To suggest that Clark's future being in limbo at this point of the season is a hinderance to the recruiting team is a nonsense. The recruiters would already be factoring in the possibility of no Clark, Dawes Jamar and Gawns injuries not allowing them to play again and Frawley leaving. It's called contingencies. Where it becomes an issue in when players futures are not known post season and very close to draft time ( or even post draft - as Cam Bruce going disadvantaged us). Do you think that Hawthorn recruiters didn't factor in the possibility of Buddy leaving even though he kept them guessing for so long ?

Harry O'Brien

You mean having someone over 180cm to kick to is a bad thing ? Our skill level is down but don't tell me a fit Dawes, Clark and a young Hogan wouldn't make some difference. Contested marks in the forward 50 - Shannon Bynes - 1

Stupid new game plan ? As opposed to last years stupid game plan where we were constantly crushed in the possession count My only slight glimmer of hope is that we are getting more than our fair share of ball. We butcher it, we send it backwards., we miss targets and we are slow to move it. However you can't even consider winning a game if you don't get the ball in your hands. We are not going to be world beaters when we get a few forwards back, but we can't underestimate our injuries - even one injury decimates us because we are so light on for talent. As horrific as yesterdays loss the small plus is that we have the first step in place - thats getting hold of the pill - we haven't done that for two years. Postscript - until we can rid ourselves of ball butcherers either through their improved use of the ball or their removal from the team we will always struggle. The major talent required for AFL is not to be the best mark, best tackler, best runner - it is to be a good user of the ball.

I had a look at Hawthorns injuries and they have some guns out too - the difference being that our talent pool is so thin that we cannot cover one good player being out let alone 4-5 - we just need our best availables out on the ground or we will see what we saw yesterday.

6. N. Jones 5. D. Tyson 4. D. Cross 3. L. Dunn 2. S. Byrnes - ( not that got many possessions - but he played in front - lead to good spots. and worked his backside off 1. B. Vince. On Frawley - some very good interlaced with some pretty poor

Can we get Andy to move us all back to 1964 ?

Everything I have heard about the boy is that he loves his football and only knows one way - flat out - so he was tearing it up at Casey last year knowing he was good enough to play MFC seniors and now that he is eligible he gets an injury preventing him playing - full understand him being dejected.

Do you remember Brett Lovetts - short steps ? Not to be confused with shirking an issue as he was as brave as brave but he had such fat little sausage legs that he ran like Fred Flintstone bowls. I have never felt so calm as when he had ball in hand. Efficiency and decision making = 100%

They do in Australia too but they are struggling for members

virgin on the ridiculous

55 years old and I still get out and bounce to the hilltop hoods, bliss n eso , pez and illy...go figure.

Not sure where you plucked this from ? From this statement I can only deduce that we have been worse hit than any other team over the past 3 years - any evidence you wish to produce for this ? Look at Adelaides injury list ...whooaa ! Collingwood lost their two key forwards for round one. I will agree that we have a much lesser talent pool than other clubs so when we lose Clark, Dawes and Garland it is much worse for us than the Swans losing Tippet and Goodes. Injuries to any MFC player with a touch of talent affects us greatly because we dont have that much talent.

How's the knee ? Will you be up and running in 2 4 6 8 weeks ?

old old dee ?

I just sampled "Achy breaky heart" and made a really good hip hop tune.

I asked a couple of professionals in the sports medicine field. Bottom line is - what you see is a best guess. Highly tuned athletes can have wildly fluctuating and different healing rates. Again, I point to Chris Judd who is now on his 2nd revision of his return date from surgery. "The injury is not making as quick as progress as hoped". Remember Junior ? He had a 2 week soft tissue injury that just refused to get better and it was some 8 weeks before he took the field again. Some here are expecting exactness in a very inexact Science. Edit - the only spin I think they put on it is they give an estimate based on what is an expected as a normal recovery. In a lot of instances it just doesnt happen that way and rarely does an injury heal quicker than anticipated.

Doc Roet.