La Dee-vina Comedia

How will his fitness be? Does anyone know what fractured vertebrae do in terms of limiting fitness work? I presume he won't be 100% so he might need to spend more time forward and less time in the middle than Neeld might ideally want. I expect he will spend more time up at the full forward line this Saturday than he might in subsequent weeks while he gets his fitness and touch back.

Because they're nasal or some other reason?

Can someone with a better memory than me recall whether Dunn's selection in whatever year he was drafted was considered at the time to be a surprise, a stroke of genius or par for the course? I wonder what was the thinking at the time. That he'd be a key position player? A forward? Defender? For some strange reason I can recall that Bate was considered to have "slipped" through to us (but I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong). But I have no memory of what the consensus view of Dunn was. And I know it's all academic now. I'm just curious. PS. I wouldn't pick Dunn this week or perhaps ever again given the number of chances he's had and his inability to deliver.

Those non-incandescent light bulbs. Or maybe it's the other way round given that 40 watts now only equals 8 watts.

I'm surprised at the expectations of many that the only place to satisfy selectors of fitness, form, skill and attitude is via playing a game either with Melbourne or Casey. What do you think happens on the other six days of the week?

This is where the "Like This" button is unhelpful. I need an "I agree, but I don't have to Like It" button because your point is well made. To say I "Like This" may give the wrong impression.

Just want to mention one Good: Rohan Bail - not a perfect game, by any means, but much of our attack in the first half came from his endeavour, pace and forward movement. I'm not convinced he's a forward or defensive forward (or whatever he's playing), but he definitely adds zip. And one bad and ugly combined: Lynden Dunn's game, particularly in the first half when he didn't seem to know what his job was. He's a very good pointer, pointing to everyone else where to stand, but he doesn't seem to know where to position himself when the ball is in the hands of the Bulldog defenders. He seemed to get caught in no-man's land many times.

Didn't notice this at the ground but a friend watching on TV suggested that it was being taken very seriously by the medical staff on the boundary. So, I reiterate above..."Any word on that?" Or do we assume no news is good news?

I'd be wary of using the kicking efficiency figures for individual players. According to the figures for all teams, forwards have poorer kicking efficiency than defenders. I suspect this is because a shot for goal that scores anything other than a goal is deemed to be ineffective, and, I suspect, it does not take into account from where the kick is taken. Nevertheless, even without using statistical measures it's plain to the eye that disposal for our team is a significant problem. As mentioned above, some of this is likely to be due to pressure being placed on the player kicking because he's often not in open space, but there is no denying we have more poor kicks on the list than desirable.

Is JT carrying an injury? Osteitis pubis, perhaps? There's no run, no lift when he tries to jump off the ground and no power in his kicking. Looks a lot like Luke Ball when he had OP - all guts, but unable to deliver the quality we are used to.

6. Bate 5. Bail 4. Rivers 3. McKenzie 2. Morton 1. Jones And Magner's game was interesting. Form ball hunter in Rounds 1 and 2 to stopper in Round 4. Neeld doesn't swing many changes during a game but he's clearly making modifications between matches.

While I don't know the value or length of this sponsorship deal, basic economic theory is that the car industry doesn't work on short term plans. Or to put it another way, big companies don't do small things well. So, OPEL would likely have a long term strategy - meaning at least 10 years - to try to crack the Australian market. Hopefully they'll be very long term sponsors of the club. But we will need to work hard to maintain and strengthen this relationship.

Not a great performance but much, much better than all our previous games this year. More effort shown and really only skill deficiencies let us down. So wholesale changes shouldn't be made. My changes would be: Dunn (so what if he held Murphy to 6 possessions - he has no idea where to position himself when the opportunity arises). Replace with Sylvia, if he's ready (which I doubt), otherwise Petterd. Joel MacDonald can't be retained, His skill errors are woeful and he has the fumbles at the moment so he goes out for Grimes. I know Tom McDonald also disposed poorly, but I'd keep him in to get more experience and to match Stanley's height and pace which none of our other defenders, bar Frawley, who's needed elsewhere, will be able to do. Martin (if fit) to come in for Clark (if he doesn't play); otherwise he comes in for Sellar who tries hard but is just too slow.

Not really. Grimes has to be replaced as a defender. Joel Mac wouldn't have been my selection, but I think I see where the match committee is coming from. Who else would take Grimes' spot? Tapscott, maybe - but Neeld seems to want him to play midfield/forward. Bail? Again, Neeld is playing him as defensive forward. As it happens, I would have moved Bail back for Grimes and played Couch in stead of Joel Mac. But I understand the selection...just don't agree with it.

Not quite. MFC confirms bench as Dunn, Morton, Sellar and MacDonald with Emergencies being Petterd, Couch and Fitzpatrick.

I think Dunn positions OK when the ball is coming into the forward 50. But he appears to me to have no idea where to go when the ball is on its way out. Once again, a player who doesn't read defence. Whether it's his own deficiency or that of his coaches I remain unsure but I think it's the latter, because he's not alone in that regard.

Should have put this in the positivity thread

Has anyone at the club ever confirmed Caroline Wilson's ongoing assertion that Camerson Schwab was to be ousted just before Bailey was instead. She's written about it and talked about it many times and I honestly believe she believes it to be true. But is it? But has anyone else ever confirmed it to be the case?

Being a professional footballer has a number of responsibilities beyond playing the game. The club seeks exposure in as many forms and as often as possible to satisfy the expectations of sponsors who want their brand exposed widely and frequently. Hence the club will push players forward. That they speak like robots is hardly surprising given the rapidity with which any journo or blogger will jump on anything even mildly controversial. And not all players have the ability to sound interesting - we recruit them to play football, not to lead the debating team. In summary, if we want good paying sponsors, we need to ensure our footballers are front and centre in the media whether we win or lose and irrespective of how they sound. PS: I'd much rather a robot than a Jason Akermanis (with respect to media comments)

I think the Herald Sun is tanking so as to get a better choice for Chief Football writer to replace Mike Sheahan. Jay Clark's ridiculous (almost/actual) defamatory comments about Luke Ball last Saturday night and now the cowardly approach of raising tanking but then declaring "it would be ridiculous" to suggest it bring the Herald Sun to a new low.

They're probably thinking US dollars

And for something else to do, I can identify Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush (second from right). I assume Eddie McGuire must be just out of shot.

Interesting tweet from Melbourne FC this morning (18 April): "The Demon Shop has lots of new casual wear available. Guernseys will be for sale when 2nd major sponsor is signed" I'd like to think they know something about an imminent sponsor signing...but I suspect they don't.

Jurrah's fitness and availability to play is a completely separate issue from his court case. There is far too much uninformed comment about the legal matter which leads to misunderstandings. I don't know the situation and I certainly don't know how the legal system in NT works, but as I've posted elsewhere, if his Court appearance in May is to be by video link (as has been reported in the media), I suspect it will be nothing more than a mention to set a date for the hearing. But I don't know. And until someone does know, we should stop speculating about what impact the May appearance may have.

One of the reasons we look slow and are slow is the structure of the team. We went in to the Richmond game with a big side. That could work if the tall timber were also as quick as midfielders (such as Watts). But Jamar, Sellar, Martin, Rivers and Bate are not which leaves too much running to too few. Perhaps the grand plan is to have the talls dominating in possession by kick and mark footy - and we certainly had a large differential in our favour in contested marks. But when foot disposal is as poor as ours it won't allow a game style such as this to be successful. I suspect if we replaced a couple of the slower talls with relatively standard smalls whether they are particularly fast or not (such as Couch, Bennell, Petterd, Green, Blease, Sylvia, Gysberts, Jetta) we would be better balanced and neither look as slow or be as slow with the run-and-spread workload more evenly spread. Of course, many of those players are not available right now, but a shift of perhaps two talls out and two smalls in (plus a small for a small in the case of Grimes) might be sufficient to redress this imbalance.