Jaded No More

The only memo Jared Rivers needs to receive is the one about NOT GETTING INJURED. Rivers is the perfect example of how to be tough, not a thug. He displays courage each week, and stands up for his teammates without doing unnecessarily dumb things that will get him suspended. Thank god he actually retaliated after Junior had his head taken off. We need to show our opponent, and more importantly demonstrate to the youngsters in the team, that we will always protect one another. It gives a strong message of unity to the opposition, and lets the young players know that the older players are there to look after them.

There is still a lot of work to be done, not only to completely eliminate the debt, but to create revenue and above all else to ensure that we never EVER find ourselves in this position again. But to wake up in the morning and not be terrified of the fact that your club is on its death bed is a liberating feeling. To feel secure in the knowledge that our current crop of youngsters will be able to wear the red and blue long enough to bring us that damn 13th flag, and to live in the hope that our kids and grandkids will get to see many more flags beyond, is the best feeling I've had in the 10 years that I've been a member of this great club. GO DEES!

Just one more reason to get this done! Tassie deserves a team. Theirs will survive, but I predict GC and WS will be dead within 15 years (Just look at the membership and attendance numbers of the two very successful QLD and NSW teams which already exist. The AFL's desperation to beat NRL is going to end up in tears).

Well the MCC is giving us around a $1,000,000 this year, so perhaps this agreement means that the cash injection will be an ongoing thing. However, as this has already been agreed upon, it means that this deal will not change anything financially for us this year. At least that's how I understand it. Don't expect them to give us bucketloads of cash on a regular basis.

This does seem like excellent news, but the details are very iffy still. On SEN they said that financially, this announcement doesn't change anything.

That was Blease, his freckles are unmistakable! He has Junior Fanta Pants written all over him (note that Bate is Fanta Pants Snr, and Cheney is Ginger Ninja because he looks like a tough nut)

I've met her at a casting once and she was lovely (and much hotter in real life), so I approve :D

I was just going to say, next time you guys wanna give him [censored] for being an ordinary footballer, just remember that he goes home to that every night, and hence Miller >>> You

Those of us with reserved seating become very spoilt and picky I reckon. We form a 'relationship' with the people we sit around year after year, and you get used to having that atmosphere around you. Playing at the G' as the away team is a pain in the arse in that case, because if you want to stay on level 1 you have to settle for a crap view by sitting behind the goals, or you gotta go up to level 3. Unless of course you can now sit in the Southern Stand again when you're the away team...? (pre-renovations we'd sit there regardless of whether it was our home or away game, but during the renovations we were never let when it wasn't our home game??)

Jace Bode is such an obscure footballer, that it seems so strange that it was his name they mixed up. Also, I think they were referring to Ricky as 'Jace Bode', because surely everyone who has half an interest in footy would know Fanta Pants by now! :D

The husband > his wife

Damn straight you can't. He might be a slow midfielder but he's our slow midfielder and we love him. Bagging Brocky is sacreligious! As for Davey, he seems to have peaked and has now gone back into his shell. Needs to find the goals again by playing near the square. His basic skills are so good, but it all gets too complicated in the midfield.

Try using that as your pick-up line next time you're out and about... I'm sure it'll work a treat!

Another 530 joined up yesterday, which is apparently a club record, plus we beat Collingwood (which is always a handy bonus :D) We're now sitting on 27,128. Not long to go now! http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsart...05/default.aspx Also it was great to see players getting involved. Both Belly and Blease (who was busy sending a text ) were standing at the scarf table when we went up to collect our scarves, which I thought was a nice touch.

Indeed. And when those two forwards happen to be Bate and Miller (or worse, PJ), you're always going to struggle, as neither are good enough to be the main attraction. In the short term, Robbo will help this a fair bit, in the long term, it's Watts and Jurrah hopefully.

We've still got it High Tower, my comment was clearly intended as a joke, although it shocks me that people thought Frawley wasn't good. That they want him dropped is even more astonishing. But as you said, we're all entitled to our opinion.

Do you understand though, that this tactic is only effective when you are winning the ball cleanly and moving it through the centre quickly? If the ball has come out of our forward line, moved back up the ground and is now coming back, you are not going to have 6 forwards standing around looking pretty while all that is going on. No team plays with 6 or even 5 permanent forwards anymore. Everyone has to push up the ground to provide support or alternative to block their man from winning the ball. I don't remember who, but one of Carlton's defenders (Waite?) kicked 2 or 3 goals on Thursday night. If ANY of our forwards ever allowed their man to kick even one goal, they should be dragged and banished. The trick is to know when to get back into your forward spot once you win possession (and we're talking winning possession in general play, not out of the centre). Obviously, our forwards haven't really worked that out yet, and moreover, some of them (especially Bate), are just not quick enough to suit this style IMO.

At least we're hitting our OWN targets this year! I'm a cup one-quarter full type of girl :D

Seriously, Frawley is not going to get dropped and anyone who suggests otherwise should ease up on the drugs. If neither Maric nor Aussie are fit (I also heard on radio that Aussie should be right to go this week), the team should stay the same. There is a lot to be said for consistency in a team's make-up. Too many changes, too early on, especially when our performance was not completely horrible, might do more harm than good, especially when you're not going to vastly improve the team by making those changes. The only players who are currently not in the team, who deserve to push out players who are currently in the team, are Maric, Aussie, Robbo, Grimes and Whelan. When those 5 are fit, the selection becomes more about match-ups and balance, as opposed to "oh my god Sylvia will rescue our forward line, bring him in". P.S.- Newton will be as useful to our already incompetent forward line as he would be to the NASA team.

A lot of the rotations which happened yesterday through the midfield and forwardline, were instigated by the players. I sit right near the bench and saw a number of times players put their hand up and request to come off. Not sure if it's a fitness issue or a management issue. You don't adapt your game plan to suit crap players who can't hit a target. You find players who can hit a target!

Old, Ordinary, The reincarnation of Christ himself

Two words: JACK WATTS

That's because our forwards don't run back to position quick enough once we win the contest. Every single time the Roos kicked out, their defenders were nicely spread out and kept pushing up the ground as they cleared the 50m arc. Our forwards ran with them, as they should. When a turnover did occur, and we won possession, our forwards were trying to call for the ball 70m from goal instead of running back into the forward 50 and letting the midfielders do the linking. This means that either our forwards aren't fit enough or fast enough to get back into position (hello Aaron Davey back into the damn forward line!), or they are just really dumb. Perhaps it is a combination of both. Bailey does not tell his players to stay away from the forward line. However if you understood the idea of zones and fast possession-oriented football, you would realise that in order to execute this, you need to have players who are fast, smart and can read the play. Or alternatively a forward who is so good, that you can leave him one on one and trust that he'll kick goals for you (i.e.- Fev, Buddy, Brown, Pavlich). Bailey can only work with what he has, which at the moment is not much. On the odd chance that we did win a clean clearance and got the ball into our forwards quickly, there were often enough of them in there to compete (we were winning the clearances up to half time, which is why we remained competitive*). That they are all fairly average and struggle to win a contest is another matter all together. I think at half time the Roos had 8 contested marks and we had 1. That is not a structural problem, it's a crapness problem. *Note also that a classy midfield which gets first use of the ball is always going to make your forwards look better. We do not have a classy midfield, which in my opinion is a much bigger issue than our current forward line. Edit: I also wanted to add that, when you have ordinary forwards who can't take contested marks (and funny that someone just started a thread to tell us that we took just 1 contested mark today), the best way to combat this is to have your forwards move up with the game, and then be clever enough to push back when we win possession. This is meant to create a situation where they end up free in the forward line, or alternatively lose their direct opponent and end up in a one-on-one contest with a mismatched defender, where they have a better chance of taking the mark. Of course this plan fails when our forwards are too unfit/slow/dumb to push back hard enough to create this situation.

Yeah, don't tell that to your kids folks

I'm still recovering from that comment. Care to tell us why the hell you think he was WOG? For me it's quite simple, are Maric and Aussie fit? If the answer is yes, I would take out Buckley (go learn to be accountable at Casey!) and probably Jetta (thought Bennell coped with the intensity and pace a lot better than Jetta did, even though he is less physically developed). You could argue that these two boys need to develop a bit more at Casey, or you could argue that they'll never learn at VFL level what is truly required of them, and that AFL game time is the best way to fast track their development (given that we're pretty ordinary anyway, and you may as well develop them now). Would love to bring in Martin as well, but maybe a few weeks learning the game as a forward at Casey will help us more in the long term. Sylvia needs to dominate at VFL level. He does NOT deserve an automatic start.