Jaded No More

I'm going to say Miller. I know he isn't in the leadership group anymore, but he is still a leader. So he won't be breaking through the banner, or tossing the coin, but he will still lead. It is the only bit of hope I have left for the season... Miller proving everyone wrong. In an official capacity, they will most likely give it to Bruce, which will further highlight why McLean is our next captain.

Hand over those happy pills already! No Neita, Robbo, McLean or Pickett... if we get within 45 point of Geelong it will be a mighty effort.

Robbo and Neita both had knee scans, but no results yet. Apperantly both are likely to miss up to a month according to Ch. 9. Neita seemed to be walking ok, but Robbo was on crutches. On the bright side, only 20 more rounds of this crap

I'd like to see him go with Chapman, be it up forward or in the middle. He always tears us apart, but I think Belly can match him in toughness and speed, plus we'll get to see a bit of Belly in the midfield that way.

So what you're saying is, that Travis is scared when he doesn't have his buddies to protect him? God help us if that's true! He struggles with a tag, we know that. But the bigger issue IMO, is that he has a very limited attention span. He is the kid in class who knows all the answers, but never bothers listening to the questions. A very very flawed genius is our Travis. When his kicking and brain are switched off, he may as well stay at home and play PS3.

I don't see why, 10 minutes into a quarter, our entire midfield gets rotated. What happpened to starting each quarter with your best players at the bounce of the ball, and letting them run for 20 minutes? Maybe I notice it more because I sit near the bench now and all I ever see is player A coming on, player B coming off, then player A coming on again 5 minutes later. How is anyone supposed to get a feel for the footy, especially at the crucial centre bounces, when they are constantly running on and off the ground? Also, was his hamstring soreness the reason Rivers kept coming off the ground yesterday? He never spends time on the bench usually.

Way ahead of you!

Agree wholeheartedly with Neitz, Brock and Rivers. Jonesy could be on his way. Dunn is a very left-field choice. Obviously you're rating him based on his apperant potential, because he hasn't exactly blown us away in senior level yet. For what it's worth, mine are Neitz, Brock, Rivers, Johnstone (when he feels like playing) and Carroll. Carroll is not necessarily the best player we've got, but in terms of structure he's one of the most important. I'm hoping that next year, the list will include Sylvia and Frawley instead of TJ and Carroll (and further down the track, Newton instead of Neitz).

Agreed. Two soft tissue injuries. One of which is no doubt related to weight. The 3 knee injuries are just bad luck. Thankfully none appear to be long-term, season-ending stuff. Davey's ankle has been suspect since he hurt it at pre-season training. Frawley is in his first year and obviously pushed his body too much too quickly. The only question mark I have over Bodhan, is whether he has any influence over the way we're rotating our midfielders. We're doing it far too often IMO, and it's hurting our midfield rhythm.

Can we have your top 5? Neitz, Brock....?

If that's the case, it will be far too late. From round 11 onwards we: - Play at TD 3 times - Have 4 interstate games - Play Freo, Doggies and Sydney... all top 4 contenders. If we're 2-6 at Round 8, we can absolutely kiss our season goodbye. Watch us crumble like we always do, with the negative defeatist mid-set setting in, and Daniher's career as coach well and truly over. If we're 2-6 at Round 8, we may as well go all out to try and score a good draft pick and maybe secure a top ruckman/ defender/ FF. Afterall, the aim of this year was to finish top 4 and have a real go at winning a premiership. Scraping into the 8 again is about as useful as [censored] on a bull. But for the love of all that is red and blue, I desperately hope that you're wrong and that we'll start coming alive next week.

Seems that Bartram's knee injury sustained at training is rather serious. According to Daniher in today's Herald Sun: "We think Clint (Bartram) might have nicked a cartilage. We'll get him scanned and he may need some operation to clean it up" You can read the rest of this depressing article here

You can criticize anyone you like, just make sure you do so tactfully, and with due respect. The reason I locked the David Neitz thread last night, was because everyone was upset, and it showed in their replies. It serves no purpose to have posters abusing one another. I really didn't feel like having to edit every second reply, especially when there were so many other posts that needed editing. If you have issues with the way I moderated, I guess you can take it up with the other moderators. If they deem it appropriate, they will reopen the thread.

Whelan was woeful. One of his worst performances in a long time. Maybe he's still suffering the affects from last week's injury. I guess we let him off the hook for once, because he's always been a sensational, hard-working player. But he was terrible yesterday, Williams made a meal of him, and he got frustrated and gave away silly free kicks. Bell should have been given the role on Williams a lot sooner. Sadly, the coaches box has the reaction time of a senior centre.

Bless your cotton socks Dan! Sometimes I think I'm the only one around here who actually sees Belly for what he truely is, a great player with loads of potential. Rock on Belly! P.S.- midfield for me too, just as long as Wheels finds some form.

Whether you are new to Demonland, or whether you've been posting here for a while, you no doubt realise that after every loss comes a big explosion of anger, disgust and accusation. This is why this site exists, so that frustrated Melbourne supporters can come and express their opinions. However, please make yourselves familiar with our code of conduct (found at the top of the boards), which states clearly that we do not accept meaningless player abuse, and we will not tolerate posters abusing one another. I seem to be the only active moderator right now, and I'm trying my best to let everyone express themselves, but be warned, if you cross the line I will not hesitate to delete your post and issue you with a warning. As a general rule, it might be best to think and breath before you post. Cheers!

I'm locking this thread on grounds of stupidity and also because I cannot be bothered editing every second abusive reply, which will inevitably come after these comments.

Dutchy will come in to cover Ottens or King. Ferguson is not a forward, he doesn't have the smarts to know where to lead and he isn't very strong one-on-one. If that's the options we have, I rather we bring in someone raw like Newton, who may end up doing nothing in the short term, but who at least will give us some insight into our future. If Dunn has recovered from the operation, bring him back too. If he's not 100% match fit, play him out of the square all game where he doesn't have to do a lot of running. PJ should not be given a role as a forward until he learns to mark overhead. It's a pretty basic skill for a guy his height playing football.

I want some of what you've taken tonight! Miller, Bell and Jones are the only real positives in my mind, but it's very hard to remain upbeat after not only losing the game, but also suffering injuries to key players. Hopefully the inclusion of some young players next week will bring about more reasons to be optimistic.

How long is this rebuilding process going to continue? Our club may not survive through another sustained period of crap.

Bell deserves votes. Nullified Dixon, then went on to shut down a red-hot Williams. He also showed good pace and composure with his disposal. Made one stupid mistake, giving away the 50m penalty, but overall was our best defender along with Rivers. Small comfort, having two of our more maligned players play good games.

He did fluff a few kicks, and drop a few sitters, but overall he was good, especially in the last quarter. I agree that we cannot point the finger at guys who have barely played 10 games. Their job is to learn from their mistakes, not take the blame for the mistakes of our senior players and leaders. He and Jones are the least of our worries.

Not bad. If Pickett is fit, he gets the nod ahead of Buckley. Not sure giving Yze one week in the VFL is going to change the way he goes about his game, but given our injury woes, we are not left with much choice.

Ch. 7 news just said Robbo couldn't walk into the rooms, he was in that much pain. He was running up and down the boundry trying to recover, why the hell did they bring him on with 5 minutes to go, when the game was gone anyways? He hurt it again as soon as he came on. Stupidty from everyone involved!

Newsflash, PJ cannot ruck. I find it extremely worrying that Melbourne supporters are pinning all of their hopes on an extremely mediocre player who is yet to do anything at senior level.