Little Richard

Thanks, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it to be honest so I just assumed it was something along the lines of stress fractures.

Do you have some inside information on the Hawkins injury Machsy or was this written somewhere? I also thought it was stress fractures that were plaguing him last season.

Pederson really played an outstanding game, especially considering what we've come to expect from him. Effort and he actually was strong in the air - he really knows how to throw his weight around. If he can keep playing like this, he'll be handy in the swing man role. Matt Jones' development has been awesome so far. If he stays on this trajectory he'll go from bit part player to an essential part of the midfield. It's great to see.

That was great. His evasion in that piece of play was top notch, too.

I'm liking our ranking for effective disposals. 8th for clangers is a huge improvement on last season, I'd accepts. But still rubbish.

Haha probably! Salem as sub may well happen, I'd just like to see him play a full game to get a good gauge as to where he is at. PS I'm expecting 30 touches, 3 goals and him to be stiffed on rising star by a young no namer from GWS.

I hope Salem is not the sub.

I still remember people referring to him as 'The Cookie Monster' after we drafted him. He and Watts were going to be our twin towers, a coupling of beastly forwards better than Franklin and Roughead.

Josh Fraser might not have been a great ruckman but he still played 218 games. Hardly a failure. Kruezer has been good and may come good yet.

Surely Lucas Cook would have to go down as one of the worst picks ever? Pick 12 and never played a single game. And in this day and age of drafting...

Where did I say I don't care if he doesn't get any kicks? If you read more closely, you'll see that I think if he put in more effort and his disposal count and other stats didn't lift from where they are at the moment (which are too low anyway), I wouldn't be so annoyed with him as I am when he doesn't try at all. Anyway, more effort is what I want and more involvement in the game will come from that.

No, it doesn't. IF he can do these things, I'd be all for keeping him in the side but he doesn't. I think he should be dropped and told to work on it OR as I said earlier, do whatever he can with Roos and the rest of the coaching team to improve the way he goes about it.

I'm expecting him to lift his work rate and application, as I mentioned earlier so it's not all about statistics. If he works harder in the contest, runs harder, presents harder, it is more likely that he will get more of the ball, take more marks and therefore have more disposals. You can see when watching him that he doesn't run hard enough, doesn't attack the contest and definitely plays well within himself. If he changes this and plays like a maniac this week and his disposal count doesn't lift, I won't mind because at least I can then see that he is playing with some kind of effort.

Of course it's my opinion but there are statistics that back up my opinion that he has been in steady decline. His other games have not been good. We've all seen what Watts can do when he applies himself, which is why it makes me so disappointed seeing him play laconically and with no real hunger. I don't want to accept mediocrity from him, which you seem to be fine with, because he can do so much better. He needs to lift and Roos needs to send him a message, whether by dropping him or by some other means.

If I drew you a graph for his season so far, it may spike at the GWS game but the clear trend would be that he has been in decline since the start of the year. I was really impressed with his game in round 1 but should have suspected that he would not hold that sort of form.

If you look at his stats from each game - http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pg-melbourne-demons--jack-watts, he has clearly been going backwards every week. Not only statistically but in his application and hardness at the ball, which was clear watching the game on Sunday. He needs to bloody lift or go back to Casey.

I believe the word you are looking for is 'liability' and he is often that when he's completely fit. We need Jamar or even Gawn fit and ready to come in as soon as possible.

I would actually add Essendon to the (possible) winnable column. They've begun to drop off a bit and if they continue this form we may be able to give them a serious run in round 13. However the psychological scars of last seasons loss might be too much.

Your display picture is therefore, rather ironic!

I would be ecstatic if we were able to land Goldstein via free agency. He'd be a huge addition going by our current ruck stocks and he'd be valuable in allowing time for Gawn and maybe Spencer to develop. It's a pity that Jamar is contracted for another year.

Well deserved by all three. I personally think it's fantastic to see Dunn there. He's clearly worked hard over the last 12 months and it is really paying off. He is exactly the kind of player who hasn't been doing this in the past, who we really need doing this in order to set the tone for the younger players coming through. It's a pity that there is a real generation gap around his and Jones' age group as they'd be the ones sheltering the kids at this point.

But the fact that effort and work rate were up in the other 3 quarters, when we didn't show it at all last season, is not a positive?

No Maxy? Be great to see him tear it up at Casey this week and get himself back into the ones ASAP.

I don't believe his kicking is as good as it is supposed to be and if it is, we're yet to see it. Jetta dominated the reserves for the first couple of games. If Strauss can do that for a few weeks, then I'd consider him but he should be delisted as soon as possible, for me.

But he shouldn't come in as he is not up to AFL standard, as has been proven time and time again. He is exactly the kind of player with whom we should bite the bullet and delist, and try our luck elsewhere. There are a number on the list at the moment.