Jaded No More

Read this thread: http://demonland.ugbox.net/forum/index.php...mp;#entry139372 I can't be bothered having the same argument over and over again. I appreciate that maybe you didn't read the other 58 threads we've had on the same topic since the start of the pre-season. Now is your chance.

Why am I getting singled out? Plenty other people gave him 6. Besides, if you think McLean got destroyed by Judd, you have obviously never seen Judd on fire. Faster, more experienced players have suffered much worse at the hands of Chris Judd. His 3 goals were very influential, as was some of his forward delivery, but he certainly didn't rip us apart like I have seen him rip us apart before. McLean had a huge job to do. To his credit he didn't go too defensive, and still got plenty of his own ball, while at the same time limiting Judd to the best of his ability. McLean more than held his own in the clearances, but obviously struggled for pace in the one on one situations. Very few, if any, can stop Judd, and not many find themselves amongst the top possession winners while playing against him.

I stopped reading when you said we should trade Brock McLean. Lets get rid of our best contested ball winner and become even more useless. Do you understand that once we get a decent team around him, McLean's ball-winning ability will become invaluable? Can you think of even one premiership side that had no contested ball winners and couldn't win the clearances? :rolleyes:

Amen! What a surprise, another loss resulting directly from our misuse of the footy, another 'hilarious' thread taking cheap shots at the game plan and Dean Bailey. Where were you all in the last 5 years when Daniher tried failed game plan after failed game plan, instead of realising that our players were not up to it and getting rid of them. But lets blame Bailey, it is totally his fault that Mark Jamar feels the need to trip over his own legs, Bruce and Green can't kick goals from short distances, Moloney decides to give away two idiotic 50m penalties and PJ and Bate are injured. Lets just burn down the MCG and be done with the overreaction.

Well he was a Melbourne supporter growing up

1) Let Fevola kick 14, sure, great idea. Besides, if Ratten dropped a loose man in defence, it's hardly a clever solution to crowd the forwardline even further by bringing another useless forward in there to man him up. 2) Melbourne players follow their opponent up the ground, if 5 forwards have 5 defenders who are running the other way, then the 5 forwards need to go with them, or the opposition will kick 100 unanswered goals. There was never a situation where 6 Carlton defenders stood in our forwardline with one of Robbo or Neita. Our forwards were trying to stop their opponent from getting a kick up the field and so they should. The same situation happened at the end of the last quarter, when Fevola and Carroll were the only two players in Carlton's attacking 50. It's a tactic, some teams play it well, we don't. 3) Robbo, Neita, Jamar, Dunn, Aussie, Green/Davey ... that's 5/6 not 3.

Oh god, where did I say that turning the ball over with silly handballs was better? But you realise that both options are as bad as each other. Just because Moloney bombs it long, does not mean it's ok for him to turn it over 98% of the time. Even though you love long kicking to leading forwards (who doesn't?), what Moloney does is neither effective nor helpful.

Yeah I love it when he bombs in into our forward line, and the opposition defenders clear the ball out with ease. FFS, long kicking is useless if you can't hit a target. To just bomb it without looking is dumb football. When Moloney actually kicked around the body and delivered the ball 30m to Robbo's chest, then he was useful. Not when he kicked it 100m in the air to nobody.

First of all, each team had an extra player in defence, so already you are more than likely going to have a 2-on-1 situation if you take twenty seven minutes to move the ball forward. There were a few frustrating moments when we really didn't have anyone to kick to, but do you understand that our forwards (everyone actually) are instructed to follow their opponent up the ground? It's a poor effort on our behalf that the forwards didn't work hard enough to run back into the forward line and provide an option when we won the ball. It's not as if we had a one man forwardline at the centre bounce. If the players are not willing to work hard going both ways, we won't kick goals. It's not that difficult to understand.

Delist/ Trade at year's end. He doesn't fit the game plan, he is very one-dimensional, he has injury problems and he lacks football smarts. His lack of discipline today completely robbed us of any momentum. While the first 50 he gave away was weak, he should have known better and just got on with it instead of giving Carlton an easy shot at goal.

6- McLean 5- Green 4- Rivers 3- Sylvia 2- Whelan 1- McDonald

McLean was very good today against a much faster opponent, but to expect a 21 year old and a 19 year old to hold their own at every single bounce against bigger and more exprienced players is just crazy. Three weeks ago supporters were calling for McLean to be traded, because oh no he can't win every single clearance on his own. Our ruckmen don't even use their big bodies to sheppard the other players off the ball (mostly because our ruckmen are terrible). Eventually both McLean and Jones will get sick of being on the bottom of every single pack. Even one big strong body in there would help. Junior tries hard but he's on his last leg. The rest of the midfielders are simply not contested ball winners.

Frawley did some nice things and HE CAN HIT A TARGET OMG! I felt so sorry for him when he outplayed Fevola only for Fevola to kick a miracle goal off the ground. Poor kid. He has to stay in the side without a doubt. Reminds me a bit of Rivers with some of his spoils. Assuming that come Round 7 we drop Robbo & Neita, and bring in a wooden log to replace Mark Jamar, which other senior player would you get rid of in order to play the likes of Buckley and Maric? All that's left is Junior, Bruce, Green and Wheatley. Maybe White, but only if PJ and Meesen are both fit. We pretty much are playing a large chuck of young players, some are struggling (Moloney comes to mind), other need more time (Morton), while the rest just really need some help from the senior players (McLean and Jones getting polaxed at every centre bounce).

Yeah, but how good was our backline with 15 Melbourne players trying to block Fevola? The problem is that we are really struggling to deliver the ball to our forwards, and the opposition rebounds so quickly that half the forward line ends up chasing their opponent into the backline (at least they are sort of chasing now... small victory?). When we do finally deliver the ball with purpose, our forwards can't mark, or worse still, can't kick from 10m out (Jamar, Bruce, Green, Robbo). And laugh at me all you want, but we missed Miller today. At least he provides a lead between midfield and the forward line. Half the time players would just stand there, instead of providing a real lead. With no CHF, our FF alternating between slow (Neita), crap (Jamar) or both (Robbo?), and Davey playing up the field, we really have no forwards left to experiment with. At a stretch we could get Green as a permanent forward pocket, Bate to CHF and play White/PJ at FF with Aussie/Davey/Maric as their shadow.

ARGHHHHHHHHHH! Bate is a must inclusion, and Miller will be back next week too (get over it ). Time for Green to stand up and deliver. He was good up forward today and this is where he must stay. It seems that for the first time in many years, our forward line is our biggest weakness. Sadly, we have nobody waiting in the wings to fill Neita's shoes at FF. A smaller forward line could work if, like Bailey wants us to, we move the ball quickly (quickly does not equal "round and around until we see an opponent and [censored] ourselves).

Jamar- GET RID OF IT! Missed a goal from 10m out, tripped over his own feet and fluffed the simplest of kicks, failed to sheppard against Betts (smallest man on the ground). Holland > Jamar McLean & Rivers- saving graces.

True or False Supporters who are sticking the knives into Dean Bailey have not been paying attention for the last 5 years.

Whelan doesn't have the fitness to play in the middle. A role reversal between him and Sylvia is a good idea. Sylvia is much better in the backline, he actually gets his hands on the pill for a change. Didn't see the incident as I was on the other side of the ground. Hopefully he doesn't get suspended, but even if he does, who cares... at least he is one of a handful of players who shows some anger and some heart while out on the field. Pity Mark Jamar didn't whack Judd like I hoped... I guess falling over ones own feet and missing a goal from 10m out is all he's ever going to be known for

Bate? Please tell me Bate is playing. We NEED another forward target in the senior desperately.

Frawley could probably take Brad Fisher. Fisher: 192cm 86kg Frawley: 193cm 88kg Both have reasonable foot speed, so it could be a really good match-up for him.

Anyone who doesn't think Paul Gardner is passionate about this club clearly knows nothing about him. The man has sacrificed everything for our club, donated his time and money to help us despite having no support from his family. Unless you actually know him personally I doubt you can judge his passion or dedication to this club.

Far far away. Mind you, I live 10 minutes from Sandy and I never have the time to go watch training, so it makes no different to me where we train. As long as we keep playing at the MCG, and the Casey Fields deal brings us more members.

Well 10,000 didn't sign-up after last season apperantly, so I'm wondering the same thing.

Same here. Am on a tight budget right now as I'm going to Europe in September, so no dinner for me either

Congratulations to Belly! Here's to 150 more (in the midfield )