Jaded No More

It is utterly pathetic that the MCG will allow Fremantle to train on the MCG, and not us... The original tenants of the ground! I hope the club takes this to the AFL, who while they don't have control of the MCG, should still raise the issue with the MCC. Why are we always the ones who get screwed over?

Of course he doesn't, but they still do it, and they never have before. This is a completely different style that we're playing, and it is the run-and-carry style... only a more crap, less skilled, utterly stupid version of it. Why we haven't stopped playing it all together I don't know, why we've started playing it at the MCG to begin with I don't know. We're 0-9, clearly a premiership is not going to be won using this game plan. The point is, the players hate the way we are moving the ball forward, but they still come out every week and do it, and every week they get progressively more pathetic at it. So the question has to be asked, WHY do it?

Something is clearly not right. On one hand we have players saying that Daniher is not to blame, it is all the players' fault. On the other hand, we've had about 5 or so players publicly state that the reason we are losing is because of our game-plan (over-possessing and over-handballing). Now correct me if I'm wrong, but these two are not mutually exclusive. Daniher is in charge of the style of play, and the way we move the ball forward. The players are not happy with the way we are playing. What has gone wrong? Either Daniher has finally conceded defeat on the run-and-carry game plan in the last quarter of Round 9, or the playing group decided that they've had enough and took the game into their own hands.

That is a disgrace!!!

He is a champion. You can't be an AFL champion if you're soft. No mean streak = no stardom. But he is not a dirty player, and man what I wouldn't give to see him being no so squeaky clean at Melbourne!!!

Herald Sun says 9, ProStats say 12. I'm going with ProStats Those two literally made me laugh out loud. Also, DD36, I'm the only one who should be entitled to make outrageous claims such as 'I want to have sex with him'.... not that there's anything wrong with that

Haha, YES! Do I really sound like a man? Edit: Thanks. I knew you'd look after me!

'She'? I think I need to start gushing about how good looking our players are, maybe then people will stop talking to me like I'm a guy! :D

Pffft, get it right... It was 4 clearances and 12 tackles! :D He is incredible.

Ummm yeah, I used to date a Port Adelaide supporter... *hangs head in shame* Maybe because he believes that it's easier to turn athletes into footballer, than footballers into athletes? He does come from a sports science background though, so he probably sees things very differently to most AFL coaches. The funny thing is, his background hasn't helped his list to stay injury-free, but on the other hand, it hasn't stopped it from winning games either.

If I change it to 85% would that make you happier? As for the skills and smarts you talk about, I haven't seen a lot of that from Bruce for quite a while. His disposal is about equal to that of McDonland at the moment, and he makes a lot of iffy decisions. Do we have an overall team stat that shows us where we are on the contested possessions ladder?

I did not say he was just a receiver, but he is one most of the time. Of course when you are in the forward line, you are by nature a receiver. Bruce doesn't find himself in the centre square every round these days, when he does, I agree that he can and often does win his own ball. Besides, the argument is that he is not our most important and best player, and often being on the end of receives is just one of the many reasons why he is not. His disposal and decision making is a far far bigger issue. TJ is also mainly a receiver, but when he is switched on, he can have as much influence as anyone in the AFL, because his kicking and vision is first rate. People are blinded by stats a lot. More often than not Bruce is our leading possession winner and everyone gushes. On Sunday for example, I watched the game live and I did not find that Bruce had more influence on the game than someone like Jones or even Brown. Both he and Brown got loads of possessions, both of them did not do a lot with the ball. In fact, Nathan Carroll who took something like 4 contested marks in a row, had more of an influence on the match and indeed the side not being 80 points down at three quarter time. I doubt he had more than 15 possessions for the entire match though. Again, nobody is suggesting we trade Bruce for some hack. But you need to give quality to get quality, and with all due respect, there is no higher quality than Judd. If anyone can actually make a case as to why we shouldn't offer a 28 year old for the best player in the land who also happens to be a lot younger, I'd be surprised.

Being a receiver is hardly a crime, and that is the point. It doesn't detract from your value as a player, but it does mean that you need to have support around you to be successful. And I agree completely on Green. People who think he is soft are clearly still watching tapes from 2000.

You might remember this team I hear is going around in the West, they call themselves the Eagles? Apperantly they have an ordinary forward line where someone called Lynch is kicking bags of goals, when in fact, if he played for any other club he'd be delisted within 5 rounds. A gun midfield makes a team. Adelaide's forward line is a disgrace, but it doesn't stop them from finishing top 4. St.Kilda's forward line is excellent, and they can't buy success despite spending a lot of time on the bottom of the ladder. I also think you over-estimate the importance of some of our players. Jeff White is no longer the ruckman he used to be. When PJ was on the ground on Sunday, we won just as many clearances. In fact, when Jones and McLean were in there, we were winning the ball, period. Ruckmen are overrated, because if they are surrounded by a great on-ball division, they are made to look better. As long as a ruckman breaks even, and the on-ballers are good enough to win the ball by reading the taps of the opposition ruckman, that's all that matter. Sydney nearly won a premiership last year with Jolly as their number one ruckman, Jolly FFS! As for James McDonald, he is nothing that Bartram isn't, except that he's been doing it for years. He brings a lot of heart and hard work to the club, but he isn't a vital part of a premiership side. Neita is of course going to be a massive loss, not just for his goal kicking but obviously his leadership too, but you forget that Robbo is only 28... he is just a year older than Bruce. He can play for at least another 4 years, and we know that he thrives when he is our number one target, which he will become when Neita retires. Robbo at FF is a headache for most coaches. He is much harder to stop than Neita when he is on fire. Anyways, you are being overly negative... even too negative for me, and that says something :D

Hoorah! I should probably spare all of you my Brock McLean dribble... But I will say this, in his short career, he has managed to transform the way a lot of Melbourne supporters think about leadership and success. Before he came along, we only had our senior players to look at for inspiration and guidance, now we need not look further than #5 to realise what this club needs in order to finally bring us that long awaited premiership. Even if he never improves, he will still be one of our best each and every week. Go Brocky! :D

I'm sure the peanuts on this board will moan and [censored] about what a traitor he is, but I would be absolutely thrilled to see him win the medal, or at least get close. Am genuinely looking forward to this week's game against Adelaide for two reasons: Brock McLean slightly fitter and the opportunity of seeing Scott Thompson at the MCG again.

Judd is above the law, there is no doubt about it. He is protected by the umpires, the media, and the entire AFL community. That is the benefit of being the best player in the AFL. But lets face it, he is hardly a dirty snipper, and to sit through a Brownlow night where, in all likelihood, the top 2 vote-getters are ineligible to win the medal will be farcical.

I think you are being FAR too negative. Even with all of our deficiencies, an injury-free list would get us into the top 8 for the next 4 years at least. Whether we go any further is another issue, and one that I believe needs to be solved through list management, delistings, drafting, as well as a face change(s) in the coaching box. But to say that we'll spend at least 2 more years in the bottom 4, or that we need to do that in order to fix our problems, is madness. We have a lot of natural improvement to come, when you consider that most of our ball winners are under 23 years of age and still developing. Our spine needs a bit of work, with the ruck and FF positions soon to become vacant, but if we just get ourselves right mentally and become a bit smarter with the way we use the ball, we will play finals for quite a few years yet. I certainly believe that our list is better than the Kangaroos, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon (who rely on a lot of older players) and at least on par with St.Kilda's. I agree that we can't afford to bottom out, at least not for a sustained period of time, but then again, we are hardly alone. There are plenty of Victorian clubs who wouldn't survive a long stint at the wrong end of the ladder.

Just like they learnt from their game against the Dogs and Port. I don't disagree with what Jeff White said, and that is exactly the problem. We lack leadership, and our senior players consistently go missing. They don't lead the team like they should, and yet we see the same type of players in the leadership group every season. Why?

That's as far as my computer knowledge goes... that and 'throw the computer out the window' trick I used to have the AFL Melbourne site as my home page, but it now takes so long to download, I don't bother.

As far as I'm concerned, we shouldn't be hearing the same reasons week after week, season after season. How many years have we had to put up with non-performing leaders? Why are we still over-possessing and over-handballing at Round 9? Why did we not learn from our mistakes in Round 6 & 7, and hold onto our lead on Sunday? What have we been doing at training if we still don't have a decent kick-in strategy? There are just so many questions that keep coming up every single year, leadership being one of the main ones. No club can win a premiership without solid leadership. You can win a flag with strong bodies, or with flooding, or with running and carrying, but show me one premiership side without a strong, committed, and disciplined leadership group. Like I said in the original post, maybe we are not meant to see success until our young brigade take over and change the attitude and mentality of the group.

Yes, yes... absolutely! I've been on his bandwagon for years. He has always had the right skill-set to make it, and the only thing holding him back was his body.

Try doing a hard refresh.... Ctrl + F5 That seems to work for me.

As I've already said (but I guess you don't bother to read past the first post), our coach should be able to control all of these factors (injuries aside). There is obviously nothing that can be done about players going down with injuries, but why do we recycle the same excuses (especially the one about the leadership, which has been floating around for something like 5 seasons), instead of fixing them? All I ask for is a little bit of originality. Just something to spice up the monotony of mediocrity.

Don't worry, I'm sure we'll lose all these guys to injury at some stage It is getting beyond a joke, and while we can't convincingly blame the new fitness regime, surely the club will have to look at it closely come the end of the season. In all my time supporting this club, I don't ever remember having so many injuries.