Jaded No More

Somehow, I don't feel bad for Nathan Buckley. I know I should, but.... nothing. Robert Harvey on the other hand, that poor bugger has had the misfortune of playing for probably the most unsuccessful team ever. How can such a winner get stuck with such a bunch of losers?

*cough* soft receiver *cough* :D

On Footy Classifides last night they highlighted the set play which allowed Swallow to get his goal. Firstly, Nathan Brown was on him, not James McDonland as stated elsewhere. Secondly, both Lyon and Carey said that it was basic football knowledge that the defender should always stand goal-side of the pack, so that his player can't run past him. They also noted that Bruce, who was playing as a 'stopper' was probably too far away from the action, despite being unmanned. Well if Lyon and Carey know this, why don't our players?

If Brock plays every game from now until the rest of the season, he'll win it, or at least come top 3. I would have given him votes this week if I was doing them. He has been out of the game for 7 weeks, and played just half the game and still picked up 22 possessions and 9 tackles. Amazing!

Brock McLean is back, therefore 11. Yes ok, I'll get help...

I think you'll find that Brock McLean did. He declared himself an option in the papers last year, and then went on to back it up every week on the field, and in the finals, and yesterday when he picked up 22 disposals in half a game. We do have leadership at the club, but it comes in the form of a few inexperienced kids.

Source? The soft tissue injuries are mounting...

And apart from injuries, we should be able to control and fix all of these 'indicators', instead of coming out every week with something new to add to our list of problems.

This is the current injury list, taken from the AFL site: Colin Sylvia - Hamstring - Test Matthew Bate - Hamstring - Test Adem Yze - Groin - 1-2 weeks Matthew Whelan - Foot - Test Clint Bartram - Knee - 2-3 weeks Ryan Ferguson - Thumb - 3-5 weeks Jared Rivers - Back - 1-2 weeks Brent Moloney - Groin - 1-2 weeks Isaac Weetra - Wrist - 1-2 weeks Hopefully we can get Whelan, Sylvia and Bate back, but it looks like Rivers, Moloney and Yze are no chance this week.

As per usual, the weekly Monday excuses and blame games have been rolled out. This week, Jeff White fronted the cameras to let us all know that the senior leaders of the club are to blame for our loss and indeed our poor form. So far this year we've had: -Injuries -Players letting the coach down -Not being ready to play -Having a losing mentality -Losing concentration -Over-possessing -Not running and carrying enough -Running and carrying too much -Senior players not putting in -Everyone not putting in That is an impressive list of excuses. Now, just back onto the leadership issue. This is hardly the first time we have had problems with a lack of leadership. We've had players like Yze and White leading our club for years, because they were good players, not because they were good leaders. Apart from Neitz who has been a consistently good captain, but who can only do so much from FF, we haven't had a really great leader at the MFC for a long long time. The fact that we have to consider Bruce for the role says it all. He might be a good player, but he does not have the sort of leadership traits that makes someone a great leader of the pack. He is also not a big-game player. It seems that the players in our side who show most leadership, are all 23 and under. McLean being the obvious one, but also Jones, Bell, Rivers and even Bartram have shown the determination that all leaders require. So maybe, just maybe, we are not destined for glory or success until these players mature and are given the responsibility of leading the club. Because as Jeff White said, our senior leaders are not pulling their weight, and that is hardly news.

Godfrey punched himself, twice Judd has been suspended for a week. Who is the new Brownlow favourite now?

Try 22, with 4 clearances and 9 tackles in only 56% game time, with about 60% fitness. I know that my obsession with him is bordering on unhealthy, but gees that is some good stats. He is a star in the making! He also makes Jones better.

Harsh? Try completely idiotic. I would have expected Daniher to have an opponent or at least some sort of a plan for him in mind, before he put him in the side. As it was, we went in with too many defenders and Frawley wasn't given a job or much of a run. Hopefully he gets a job next week and is played for most of the game. We can't judge him until we see him play his natural position, which is down back destroying forwards. The worse thing that can happen now, is for him to be dropped. He needs at least 2 or 3 more weeks just to get used to the pace and what is required of him.

Ok, he never lays a proper tackle, except for yesterday And being a poor defender and unaccountable, is not a sign that you are soft. Brown is both, is he soft? For what it's worth, Green should never have played on Grant to begin with. He is not a defender, at best he could play as a third man up. I also specifically said that neither Green nor Bruce are soft, so your argument about his tackle count is irrelevant.

You just made two mistakes 1) Saying that Bruce is our most damaging midfielder 2) Calling Green soft Both are just preconceived ideas that are mentioned on this board far too often. Bruce is a receiver 95% of the time, therefore he needs someone else to win the ball for him. That means that our most damaging midfielder is someone like McLean who goes in and gets the ball to Bruce in the first place. Also, Bruce will never be truly damaging until he learns to hit targets and take the right options. He panics under pressure. And Green is NOT soft. His great tackle yesterday in the last which got us on a roll is an example of this. You can't call Green soft and then bring up Bruce. Green puts his body on the line far more often than Bruce (and neither are soft). Nobody is advocating that we trade Bruce for a Kent Kingsley or another Ben Holland. But if someone like Judd or Pavlich were up for grabs at the end of the year, we would be foolish not to go after them, and to get quality, you must trade quality. Bruce doesn't reach the heights of Judd or Pavlich and never will, therefore trading him for one of these players will be beneficial to the side, which is why you trade to begin with.

Nah you got it all wrong, he was clearly too devestated to play well Now as I understand it, at the time of the Woewodin decision, it came down to him, or keep all of Leoncelli, Junior and Robbo. We had massive salary cap issues and something had to give. Given that Junior and Robbo both went on to win AA spots and B&Fs, and we also got Daniel Bell, I think we came out as clear winners in this one. And as many people already said, the Farmer decision came down to him. We did everything we could to keep him, but he wanted to go home.

Nobody cares what they think, they are offering an opinion which means squat in the big scheme of things. They won't be there to pick up the pieces after yet another bad year, and a loss of more members. And I promise you that eventually they will stop pitying us and start asking the hard questions. I assure you our board won't read what Mike Sheahan has to say before they decide Daniher's fate.

The media talks rubbish. If we lose another 3 or 4 in a row, you watch the vultures pounce. They are hardly a measure to live by. And we have been unsuccessful. After 10 years, you expect a coach to win you a premiership, not get you to finals every second year only for the side to capitulate in the first week. Daniher is one of the longest serving coaches without a premiership in the history of the game. That is 100 odd years. We can't isolate this season and say he should go based on where we currently are. We need to look at the big picture and realise that apart from 2000 we have never come close to winning a premiership, and the 2000 grand final was an embarrassment in itself.

No worries.

Boo hoo. This is football, not playtime at kinder. I doubt our players would be too devestated to get Chris Judd. I'm sure they are all smart enough to realise that this is the reality of football, players get traded and delisted. Should we not delist Bizzell or Ward or Brown because it would have a bad affect on our players? If they are really that precious, we are going nowhere fast and we might as well not bother with Judd. Besides, we were 100% correct in our decision to let both Woewodin and Farmer go. One is playing WAFL, the other has gone off the rails.

When did I put Judd and Bruce in the same class? I was simply saying that Bruce could fill a need for West Coast, and as others have said, if Judd says he wants out, West Coast can't be too fussy. They can't lose him via the PSD. And there was also no comparison between Judd and McLean, so don't twist my words. Go read what I said about losing one gun midfield for another, which defeats the purpose all together. We need another ball winner who can use the footy, like McLean and Jones. Get rid of either of those for Judd, and you are still left with the same problem, we are one ball winner down. Judd is Judd, he is the best, and he would finish off what is becoming a good on-ball division, as well as bring in sponsorship money, supporters and media attention. He could transform our football club off the field, as well as on it. But that doesn't mean we should trade our best 21 year old for him. Those two need to play together, not apart.

Right, so after 10 years in office, having had control of the entire list, he isn't a big factor in our lack of success? He is the only constant over the past 10 years. Our list has changed completely since he took over, we are now getting ourselves sorted off the field and are turmoil free, and still no success. Injuries haven't helped, but gees, he can't find 22 players who can play for 4 quarters or hit targets from a list of 40 players that HE put together? What does that tell us? I am not a Daniher basher, but you have to open your eyes and see his flaws and realise that after 10 years of minimal success (playing finals and bowing our first week is not considered success in my eyes... not anymore), his time is up. He is a great bloke, and has done well to promote our club, but either he did the wrong thing with our list, or his message is no longer getting through. Injuries are helping delay the inevitable...

Exactly. I imagine that if we, as spectators are frustrated by the crap that is being served up, the players must be just as, if not more frustrated. Especially our key forwards, who get disgusting delivery. Old, it's fine if he didn't think he could kick it. He should have gone back and kicked it to a leading forward or just bombed it long and someone could have maybe marked it on the line. Handballing to Petterd who had not one, but two opponents on his tail was a terrible decision and not one that is typical of our skipper.

No I wouldn't, because then we'd end up losing one gun midfielder for another, and we'll need to cover McLean's loss by getting another great on-baller. The idea is to add Judd to the midfield we already have. Green and Bruce are not really midfielders, they play there, but they also play in a lot of other positions. Bruce is turning 28 next year, so getting better he won't be. Green is one of my favourite players, but he is neither here nor there. A good player with excellent disposal, but one we can cover. Losing McLean would hurt us so much more than losing Green and Bruce, and the last 7 weeks are a testament of that. Besides, I guarantee you that there is not a club on this planet who could offer us an attractive enough deal to trade McLean. He is untouchable, pure and simple.

Which means we will never see Judd in a Melbourne jumper. Bruce + Green + a first round pick could do, especially if it's an early first round pick. With Bruce and Green, West Coast would finally have a forward line! Green would kick 100 a season at Subiaco. And with Judd, our midfield of dreams would be complete. Who wouldn't salivate over the thought of Brock, Jones and Judd in the same centre bounce!