Jaded No More

Are you serious? Christ, the man threw a ball at his mate's head. I'd have punched him too. As for Fraser Gehrig, the man is an animal, and I've seen him behave like an idiot with my own eyes. Voss looked pretty restrained to me. It was a stupid thing to do, no doubt, but given they were probably all drunk and provoked, he could have done much worse. Besides, I couldn't care less what he does outside of football. He has been nothing but outstanding as a leader of his football club and this competition for many years.

I should have said he was struggling at Sandy, not in the reserves. Sorry.

Exactly right, and we need both of them to develop and mature into very good players (stars?) if we are to be successful. We've invested heavily in both. McLean has more than returned the investment, while Sylvia is finally starting to show glimpses of brilliance. McLean will always be the more reliable work-horse, and his leadership will always shine both on and off the field. He might not be the most talented, but he will always run the hardest, tackle the most, bleed when we lose etc... Sylvia is more talented, and is more capable of producing the sublime. Consistency is what he really needs to achieve, and it is a big ask when he is yet to complete a pre-season in AFL. If he can get his body (and to a lesser extent his head) right, he can be anything. Our under 23's are not the problem, our core senior players is who we really need to worry about.

Yes, that is exactly what I said! The search for KPP's will continue in the draft, this year and for years to come. It would be like saying "we have McLean and Jones, we don't need anymore inside midfielders". With each draft, we add to the pool of talls, smalls, defenders, midfielders and forwards, because as players retire or leave, we need replacements for them. So we will continue to search for the best KPP's we can find. If we find someone who is better than Bate or Newton, brilliant, if we don't, it's not a reason to slash our wrists. Going forward, if Newton and Bate can continue to develop, than I'm confident we can cover the loss of Neita. This weekend we scored our highest score for the year, and Neita wasn't playing. Sure, we played a rabble of a team who has no backline, but the point remains that we do have avenues for goal besides Neitz. Perhaps you should read between the lines a little.

Frawley will keep growing and putting on weight. And that is not the only reason Frawley is ahead of Bizzell. Defensive ability and potential have a lot to do with it too. Any way you cut it, Bizzell is depth. There is no way you can actually tell me that he should be getting a game ahead of Frawley, be it this year, or next. I understand that he's a favourite of yours, and he has played up to his normal standards this year, but as many have already said, he does his best work as a third man-up. Rivers can do what he does better, take on a key forward, and has better disposal and decision making skills. With Bizzell and Rivers in the same side, the defence is not entirely balanced. I feel we'll be much better going forward with Frawley and Rivers in key positions, Carroll as third tall, Bell and Petterd as medium defenders and Whelan as a small defender. But hey, agree to disagree it is. As long as our coach next year agrees with me, I'm happy

Bizzell is not the future if he's only going to be around for another year, if that. Not putting Frawley in the backline, at the expense of Bizz, is going backwards, and is unrealistic. Frawley will definitely be in our starting 22 next season. FB: Whelan Frawley Carroll HB: Bell Rivers Petterd C: Johnstone Jones Bartram HF: Sylvia Bate Davey FF: Newton Neitz Robertson Foll: White McDonald McLean Int: P Johnson Bruce Green Moloney/Wheatley/Dunn/Buckley/CJ The last spot on the bench is clearly not set in stone. Moloney probably won't play a full season again, and obviously injuries will play a part. I like that backline, especially if Carroll can become a third tall and Frawley take the FB position.

This is exactly the problem. You've kept Bizzell in there at the expense of our future. Frawley will and should be in our starting 22 next season. He was rushed into the side having missed a good 6 weeks with stress fractures. If that doesn't tell you how highly the club rates him, I don't know what will. Wheatley gives us a better attacking option. His accountability is on par with Bizzell's, but his kicking and ability to push forward makes him a better asset to the team. Also, that backline is far too small. Even if Bizzell gets a one year contract, he will be pure depth going forward, as he has been this year. If he plays, it means we have terrible injuries, and so yes, I do hope he doesn't play after this season finishes. There is a reason he didn't get a game until we exhausted every other defensive option we had. Even Warnock got a game before him. In 2008 I rather have Frawley, Miller, Wheatley and Warnock in the team ahead of Bizzell. Not because they are necessarily better defensive options, but because they have a future at Melbourne, and Bizzell's will end in 2008 at the latest.

Am I happy that he bended the club backwards and did his negotiations through the media? No I'm not. Does that influence my thoughts that he is very close to the end, and gives us nothing others won't? No. Again, show me your best 22 and I'm sure we can work out exactly why Bizzell doesn't fit in there. If he did, he'd have played in Round 1.

You really think that skill is the only thing that comes under consideration? There are so many different components that come under the definition of 'being ready'. Garland was not expected to come in and dominate. The plan for him was probably to be given a taste, and be set a motivating target to move forward and work on his deficiencies. The idea with Newton, was to get him ready enough to come into the side and stay. He had attitude problems, and his head was not always where it should have been. He worked on it, and has been rewarded accordingly. I find it hilarious that you sit on the sidelines and bask in the glory of Newton's excellent debut, saying he should have been played earlier because he's been playing so well. What would you have said if we debuted him against Sydney, he had a horrible game, sulked his way back to Sandy never to regain form again? That was a realistic risk, and I'm glad that unlike you, our club has a long-term vision not a short-sighted one. Almost every footballer to have debuted for this club under Neale Daniher and his team, has gone on to make it, often playing a long string of games following their debut. McLean, Rivers, Miller, Sylvia, Jones, Petterd, Bartram, Bate, Dunn... you could not have asked for a better transition into senior footy from those guys.

The fact of the matter is, Daniher got us over the line in nearly all of our close games last year. I remember we had a run of 3 or 4 matches where we won by under a goal. This year however, we lost a number of games in the dying minutes because of a number of things: 1- Unwillingness to push players back (especially against the Bulldogs) 2- Unwillingness to move the ball forward quickly when we have possession 3- Poor execution of 'possession footy', especially given our distinct lack of skills across half-back. Riley took a risk on Sunday and it payed off. We played as if we had another quarter to go, instead of 'icing the clock' and inevitably turning the ball over as we always do.

Bate and Newton not good enough for you? Bate is a modern-day CHF. His hands are as good as you're likely to find, he can run all day, he has a huge kick, and he can push into the middle. He is far more versatile and far harder to stop than your traditional, big, one-paced CHF. Have a look at how many opponents he had on Sunday. If the opposition haven't got a player who is comfortable pushing into the midfield, and can't run all day, they'll struggle to shut down Bater. I'm happy with the following forward set-up going forward: Davey Newton Robbo Sylvia Bate Green I would love to see the return of Brad Green to the forward line. As a midfielder, he is average at best, and I'd rather Dunn or Wheatley or Buckley or CJ be given the chance to play on the wing. The forward line I suggested is not the tallest going around, however, if PJ can continue to work on his over-head marking, he could be rotated through there as well.

Newton may have been played one week too late. What difference does it make in the big scheme of things? We've done a good job developing our kids, and they get a good education playing for a very successful VFL side while they're learning. Unless you work at the club, you would not have a clue what sort of developmental programs we have in place, or what is Newton's long-term plan. The fact of the matter is, he was struggling in Sandy reserves until this year, and only lately started to come good in the seniors. There would have been no justification playing him earlier, and it would have made no difference to our team. Better safe than sorry when it comes to dealing with the individual.

He didn't at the time I posted the reply, he went and edited the post. Besides, I'm more interested in a full 22, as I'm convinced that if he has Bizzell in his backline, it means someone important misses out.

Exactly. I was far more interested in point number one than point number two. Clearly Mark Riley's idea of winning close games involves attacking at all costs. Daniher had a different method, which we simply could not implement this season. As for Carlton, their coach might be trying to tank, but his players are bad enough not to have to. Carlton is woeful.

Nathan Jones is awesome! :D

So you don't rate Jones, Bartram or Moloney's ability to win the contested ball in close? I don't think our midfield is in any sort of trouble, the only thing we do need is an injection of speed through there. Bartram's return will help, and Buckley can hopefully make it at this level too.

Poor Ricky is all over the news, as every media outlet feels the need to remind us all how close he came to dying. If he wants to take the rest of the year off, he should. However, Chris Fagan and our club doctors have said that he could be back this season. Get the feeling Bruce will probably play and Carroll should be alright. So changes should be simple this week. Out: Ricky, In: Bruce.

Nope. CJ was definitely involved. It was a quick handball from Buckley to CJ to Bate.

I think it was Dunn to Buckley to CJ to Bate to Juice.... At least some of them can execute the run and carry properly

I'd rather they all went, but Ward and Jamar have more value than Bizzell. As much as it kills me, we haven't got a replacement for Ward in terms of pace down back, not unless we play Bartram down there, in which case we're robbing our midfield of a quality tagger.

It's a disgrace that the kid hasn't won a Brownlow in his 17 matches!

This was CJ's 4th game for the season, and 17th career game. How much more can we expect from him? He had an off day with his kicking, probably nerves more than anything. How many players in our side have played over 100 games and still can't hit a target?

Carlton and Richmond are just two clubs desperate for ruckmen. Whether they use their early picks to get a ruckman, or whether they opt to trade for a developing one, I'm not sure. Jamar, for all of his downfalls, is actually a very solid tap ruckman. He would be a good fit at Carlton, and I'd take a third round pick if it was offered (we won't be so lucky to get pick 14 for an ordinary player again).

The comparison with Buckley and McLean goes to show that we see what we want to see. CJ was on par with both of these for possession, but he gets flamed. His disposal yesterday was ordinary, which was disappointing because he is generally a very good kick. I'd like to see what he can produce with more game time and some confidence under his belt because I join the bashing

So every other footballer on the list gets weeks, months, years to prove themselves, but CJ doesn't? I wonder what people would say about Buckley if his stats read 11 kicks, 2 handballs, 3 marks and 2 tackles? He actually had as much of the ball as McLean! If he is still doing very little by the end of the season, then we can talk about trading/delisting him. Until then, why don't we just wait and see what he can produce with a meaningful stretch of games under his belt.