Jaded No More

There isn't a single good reason to drop Dunn. He is learning to play the wing, and doing a good job. If Robbo, McLean and Rivers are fit, they will come in for Miller, Brown and Ferguson who is injured. Frawley should debut in favour of Ward, or Rivers if he isn't fit. Newton won't play.

1) Absolutely. I hope they promote Neave at the end of the season, and try and grab another tall ruckman in the draft. Not sure I'd be keen to use a first round pick on a ruckman, not unless they are seriously special. And remember, being tall is not enough. They need to also be mobile and able to either play up forward, or make serious impact around the ground. 2) Bartram, Petterd, Bell, even Buckley can fill that role. Not crucial 3) Lets wait and see what we have with Frawley. I think that if he proves to be as good as we hope, that we'll be ok with Rivers and Carroll as well. Frawley should eventually play FB, with Carroll taking the third tall. 4) Don't let the Newton lovers hear you say that 5) Agreed. We need leg speed, and we need more quality midfielders. You can never have enough players in your side who can use the footy I would also add to this list, a small crumbing forward and another small defender.

Who said anything about getting McLean or Rivers back? Robbo is the only certainty for this week. We still don't know how severe Rivers' injury is, or what exactly is the problem.

I'd definitely play Bell and Dunn at opposite wings. CJ as a forward flanker. Frawley to FB, Rivers to CHB and Carroll as third tall. Matthew Bate to the centre square, alongside McLean and Jones. And for a really random one, Bartram up forward to crumb (leaving Davey to run off the half-back line). The kick-ins to be taken by Jared Rivers or Matthew Whelan ONLY. Nobody else is allowed to have a crack, and that includes TJ. And no more kicking inwards for the sake of kicking inwards, it is so bloody predictable. Also, I'd drag Miller everytime he handballed. He would be under strict instructions to back himself and kick the ball quickly to a leading forward. Who am I kidding, I'd just take all the boys on a bonding trip to the pub... they are more likely to score there, than if I coach them

Before the match they interviewed Daniher, who clearly said that Sylvia will not play midfield until he has plenty of game time in him, because of his history with OP. That seems fair enough to me, and completely justified. The last thing we need is to push the kid too hard and have him spend another 3 years recovering on the sidelines. As it is, he finishes games with his legs, and groins iced. Besides, I think that he is a unique CHF prospect who could really make our forward line dangerous and hard to match-up on. He just makes things happen up forward, much more so than when we saw him in the midfield.

I'm not against selecting Newton next week, in fact, I'm all for it, however... Robbo will play next week, as he should, which means that in the forward line we could potentially have Neita, Robbo, Sylvia and Bate. Assuming they drop Miller, which would be extremely harsh given our entire side has been terrible this year, you would have to play Bate or Sylvia at CHF, Neita and Robbo out of the square and Newton in a forward pocket. Dunn will need to play on the wing once again, which I'd be happy to see. My question is, will that make the forward line too crowded? Neita, Robbo and Newton are just forward, and we can't re-shuffle them. We could throw Bater into the midfield, and get Sylvia to play a more crumbing role, to allow for more space. I guess we could exploit the Roos by loading our forward line with a few talls, but it could easily back-fire. Still, we have nothing to lose at this stage and I'd like to see Newton get a game. Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen. Frawley will probably debut next week, and Daniher is unlikely to debut both.

Go you, fighting the good fight for our boy, and in under 10,000 words no less Is anyone going to mention his perfectly executed bump on a West Coast player to free Green? His great pin-point kick to Travis? Yes, he missed a tackle on Judd... like he is the first player in the AFL to struggle to get a hold of that man! He also got caught behind a massive opponent on a couple of occasions today, but Staker is 10cm taller than Belly. Talk about a stupid match-up! He also made a rare stuff-up when kicking across the goals. It was stupid, but he does not deserve to be classified as a shocking kick and a no-brainer because of it. Watch him go, watch him tackle and go in hard at every contest, then remember that he has only played 36 games (most of them under an injury cloud) and go criticise someone else.

I want to know what you think will happen if he resigns this week? Who comes in and coaches... Paul Williams? Please! I rather Daniher sees out the year, than get some clueless caretaker who will only do more damage to the club.

How is that any different to the way Gasper was pushed out? If some of our older players decide to retire, they should make the decision themselves, or we should not renew their contract at the end of the season. Making a special game where they can all play for the last time, is pushy and insulting. And besides, I don't want another Ferguson situation, where someone like Warnock, who did little wrong in the last few weeks, is dumped in favour of a 26 year old who struggles at AFL level and won't be on our list next year. Play the kids, and if the older players deserve a game, they will get it just like Brown, Ward, Yze etc... all have. If Bizzell starts to show something again at either level, he'll get a game. As for Holland... over Ferguson any-day of the week thanks.

More to the point, why didn't Daniher put him in the backline, when Ferguson was off and Carroll was getting his arse handed to him on a platter? He was finally moved into defence with 10 minutes left in the match, and did a couple of pro-active things.

Each to their own. Belly over-cooked one kick which cost us the turnover, but apart from that, all his passes were fairly spot on. He had some horrible match-ups, like Staker, but he kept his head and worked his guts out. He has been our best defender in 2007, and you can't really fault him. His opponent is yet to kick a bag.

In the rooms after the game he looked ok. He removed the ice pack and was stretching. He did however have an awkwardly placed ice-pack on his groin, but I'm sure that that's just a standard post-game recovery thing.

It will give me some much needed pleasure to talk about these 3. Sylvia was very good. Of course, some people who don't understand the game will look at this stats and say he was ordinary. But he kicked 3 goals, from the most limited of opportunities. Everytime the ball came his way, he made something happen. Marked strongly, and kicked truly. A great game from him. Went off in the last and had his hammy iced, but they showed him later on in the rooms and he looked fine. Jones was also good. Ran with Kerr for a little while and I thought did a good job. He is a goer, and he is incredibly strong. The benefit of having McLean by his side will be huge. Belly was good as well. Played on a number of players, including Staker, who was far too tall for him, but did a good job regardless. Yet again, he was accountable, strong, gave good drive and made just one blooper from what I can remember. Also, TJ was excellent.

For anyone who has Foxtel active, they may have caught the close up of Jeff White after the game. He bleeds for this club, and he looked very hurt and sat there for a good 5 minutes just reflecting. He isn't a top ruckman anymore, but he has carried us for years and I'm sure it hurts him to realise that he'll most likely retire without a premiership. Every good career comes to an end at some stage. We can't expect him to keep going forever.

We can only dream of 2 more Brock McLeans. You having a dig at arguably our best player, just undermines your opinion.

Sylvia has his thigh iced and is limping... I don't think I should say anymore or I might have to ban myself for swearing. :angry:

Chris Judd... well done son for ripping your beloved Melbourne apart. Dear god he is unbelievable!

CJ in for Brown, who has done nothing today.

Cameron Bruce is having a filthy game. Absolutely filthy.

TJ is having a good game, so is Sylvia, Bell and Jonesy is doing reasonably well on Kerr. That's something I guess. P.S.- Lynch, yet another dud forward who enjoys ripping Melbourne a new one.

Jones doing an admirable job on Kerr. Am I clutching at straws here?

Frawley to debut next week. No Rivers, no backline. Put Miller in defence! He's had 4 touches so far up forward.

Welcome to AFL footy Colin Sylvia!

I agree that one of those have to go. Green won't have much value in the market, so he may as well stay. Which leaves Bruce, who is overrated by the whole competition and will therefore attract a very good price, and TJ who we know is hot and cold and brilliant in flashes. Someone will have to go, and we must chase one of the big names coming out of contract, with Judd being our main priority.

Bit harsh there. But here is the problem, Daniher is giving him jobs that just don't suit him, especially when the rest of the side is getting smashed. I want to see something different, and the best Daniher can do, is put Whelan in the midfield, where he will no doubt pull a hamstring again. There better be a serious re-shuffle of positions at half time. The lack of vision from the coaching staff never stops astounding me.