Jaded No More

Ahhh.... Y_M, whatever would I do without your optimism?

I knew it was a bad idea to check the injury news while I'm on holidays.... It's a really massive blow for us. In fact, I think the importance of McLean will become clearer now that he's not available for a month and a half. Terrible way to start the season!

He has to stay up forward, especially if our midfield continues to kick over the head of our forwards. The ball came out of attack last night far too easily. The Saints had all the time in the world to switch and run off. I'm worried that Davey is thinking that he's too good for the forward line, and he wants to venture into the middle. I hope Daniher doesn't make that mistake though, because Davey is no midfielder.

I sit near the bench, and I too saw a lot of rotations last night, moreso than usual. Perhaps because it's Round 1, or because a few of our players were coming back from injury (like Beamer). Interesting thing I noticed, is that this year, as soon as a player comes off, they are measured for heart rate. Wonder what thats all about.

7 changes? Gees, when was the last time Neale made 7 changes in one week?! Besides, it's just one loss, lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Out: McLean (inj.), Whelan (if inj.) In: Rivers, Buckley/Pickett Again Miller is the scapegoat, which is completely unjustified. Our forwards got shocking delivery all night, and Daniher admitted that our midfield just refused to go through Milsy, despite him presenting all night. He won't get dropped. Yze buys himself another week because he didn't shirk any contests.

Disagree wholeheartedly! Ferguson doesn't have the speed or smarts to play CHF. Miller leads to the right spots, which is a good start. If they kicked the ball onto his chest, he might get more than 1 or 2 marks a game. I like Ferguson and I appriciate his courage, but he is no CHF.

Speaking of the reaction of ND.... someone explain this one to me.... "We played very dumb football in those second and third quarters." Demons must rebound, says Daniher If we were playing dumb football, why didn't you do something about it?! Why didn't you change the game plan, stock up the forward line, instruct our players to play their natural game where kicking is not punishable by death? You could have saved the game at half time, instead you let your side, the one you've been teaching for 10 years now, go out on the field and handball to stationary players. Well, at least we didn't "run out of legs" again!

I'm hoping for some sort of small miracle, and hoping it's only a sprain. Having sprained my hand quite badly on Wednesday, it certainly feels like a break and is just as painful. I didn't see the accident, but if his foot slipped as you say, he may not have had enough force there to actually break it. I'm not a doctor though, and knowing our luck, he's probably smashed it to bits and will be out for 3 months. Heaven help us if it's as bad as they think.

His kicking is what really gets me. Elite players just don't fluff kicks that often! Still, he might get the job given Brock finds new and exciting ways of hurting himself in the contest

10 weeks.... great.... this night really couldn't get much worse Whelan came back on, then straight off again. Some sort of neck injury apperantly.

You got most of them spot on, but I can't agree about Miller and Jamar. Miller was average, and he did drop some sitters, but when everyone else stood and crapped themselves, Miller actually KICKED! He did some clever things, even when he couldn't hold the ball. The delivery to the forwards was so poor though, even Neita and Robbo couldn't hold their marks. Jamar's ruck work was good I thought. The thing is, he is hardly being utilised when he isn't rucking. Making him run and fill holes down back is not the way to use him IMO. Kudos to Dutchy, who while looking awfully awkward doing so, played the rebounding defender role to the best of his ability. But if I need to see him run and bounce ever again, I might cry.

One word for ya... Judd <_<

I thought we were only going to use the run and carry on long narrow grounds. Why the hell were we mucking around with the ball on OUR ground! *Sigh* <_<

Drove past the G' not long ago on my way home, and the sky was looking pretty gray and miserable. I don't think the rain will disadvantage us too much, but it may take a toll on the already under-done Saints. Having said that, the sun just came out in Bayside, so who knows.

Taking nothing away from Bruce, but how can you not love and respect that man?! He WANTS to be a leader, he craves that responsibility.... I can't wait for him to take over, be it next year, or in 3 years from now. Finally feeling confident that there is life after Neitz!

You're right, the use of some illicit drugs can lead to the development of bi-polar disorder, which is Hay's condition. At the same time though, I would be very surprised if any doctor would give his patient anti-depressents without finding out the patient's drug history. Mixing illicit and anti-depresent drugs, is just not on. Maybe it explains why Hay couldn't put hand to foot and kick a ball. At the end of the day, the cause of the illness is not all that relevant. Just like with Cousins, I wish Hay the best of luck in trying to recover from what is a really difficult situation. Whether he got paid for the interview or not makes no difference. He didn't make this stuff up, and the pain he was feeling was very evident. On a side note, I think he should have disclosed his issues to the Roos before they paid up big to get him. If he knew that his mental illness could affect his playing at some point, than he should have made it very clear to his new club. Without this knowledge, North Melbourne end up looking stupid and waste a lot of money that they don't really have, and Hay doesn't get the help he needs. A real shame for both parties.

Not so much a kid anymore, but your heart has to go out to him. Mental illness is still a very taboo subject, although it is rife in our society. He looked so defeated, as if life has completely beaten him down. People who suffer from a mental condition have nothing to be ashamed of. They have no more control of the situation than a cancer patient. I wish him all the best. It's not easy to come out on national TV and air your dirty laundry. He's a brave man for doing it, and hopefully now he can move forward and get on with his life.

Very very surprised to see Bartram. He played just 5 days ago! Good line up, except the backline could rival an Alzheimer's clinic in terms of brain-fades potential. Not sure where the drive will come from, given that Ward and Miller can't kick, and Holland can't run. I'm guessing a late change if the weather turns particularly nasty, that is Holland out and possibly Godfrey (hopefully Buckley) in.

A 10 goal win will do me fine (and no injuries)... the rest is details.

I realised that what I wrote was confusing, and made it sound as if the AFL pays the salaries, and not the club. What I meant by the cap being handed out by the AFL, is that they set the top amount clubs can pay their players, a percentage of which has to be used. The point I was making is that our membership money is needed for extra things, not player payments. We can afford to pay the salaries, and probably the minimum amount of staff and equipment. If we couldn't, than no amount of memberships sold could help us. Basically our money is not needed to help fund player's mortgages, recreational habits and so on... I just made it sound very confusing. Should teach me not to post when I'm tired and out of it Seekers, if you have a personal issue, send a PM. I assure you, nobody cares!

Justice served. The AFL could learn a lot from the VFL tribunal. They always seem to hand out much fairer sentences.

Every AFL club has the same salary cap (more or less, some interstate clubs get concessions, but that's a whole other issue <_< ). This is basically a bank of money from which clubs can pay their players. Some clubs choose, or can't afford, to pay 100% of that money, but all clubs must spend a minimum of I think 95% (not sure about this figure) of that cap on player payments. I don't think a club would ever get to a point where it couldn't afford to pay its players. But a lot of clubs are left with pretty much nothing once their players are paid. The reason the salary cap exists is to ensure that richer clubs don't poach players from poorer clubs by paying them more. So yes, it is the club's own money, but a lot of that money is given to the clubs by the AFL through things like TV rights. This is where players negotiated a pay rise when the new deal was made. No amount of memberships sold is going to cover the salaries of 44 players, but it could help fund the salary of another specialist coach, or better training gear, or wireless helmets or whatever

Not really. Player payments come from the salary cap which is handed out by the AFL. Whether a club had 100 member or 100,000, the set amount they can pay their players would remain the same. Membership money goes towards things like facilities, extra staff, training equipment, etc etc.. We need people to sign up because we need to try and catch up to the big clubs who can afford to hire 20 extra staff, have state of the art facilities and equipment, and therefore have an unfair advantage over us. Everyone should buy a membership IF they can afford it. It's not exactly the same as giving money to a charity, but it's certainly the most significant (and easy) way you can help support something you love. And given our financial position, I'd say we're bordering on becoming a charity!

The best thing about the 3 word anaylsis, is that it generates discussion, which is the reason why we're all here. As long as we all stay friendly and calm.... which I know won't happen the moment we lose a game <_<

That's terrible news. Condolences to all of his family and friends, and hopefully the boys have a big win for him this Friday night!