Jaded No More

I know it is. I'm hoping like hell that as he matures, so does his body. The foot injury was just a stupid freak accident. The soft tissue injuries on the other hand... But lets not talk about that. He's the only hope I got left

Which is further proof that none of our senior players are capable of taking over the captaincy from Neita. A sad and worrying sign, but one we've known about for a long time. I remember people complaining about a lack of leadership in 03 as well. Thank god for Brock McLean!

It's not just about kicking goals, it's about presenting and giving us a target up forward. Otherwise our players will have even less options to kick to. However, if Dunn is fit and selected, than yes it would be an option. But we need a marking target up forward regardless. In a perfect world, Rivers plays next week and dominates Pavlich, while Miller, Green and Dunn dominate up forward.... *nods off to la la land*

There are two separate issues here: The first is that yes, we are seriously lacking in skills. Kicking is awful, as is handballing to stationary players. The other issue is that nobody, with the exception of Miller, presents or makes the hard lead. A lot of the time, players will stand there and have no clear winner to kick to. So we kick to a one-on-one contest (at the best of times, sometimes three-on-one), and we lose most of those because a lot of our players can't take a contested mark. So that's three issues really, which are further accentuated by this game-plan, that I cannot for the life of me work out. Are we running and carrying? are we kicking long? or are we flooding and playing tempo footy? It's all very confusing and mysterious.

6- Bell (accountable while providing solid drive. Keeps on keeping on) 5- Jones (needs help!) 4- Moloney (he goes and goes, despite being clearly limited by fitness and groin issues) 3- Green (good forward target, the only one) 2- Bruce (his disposal is painful, but at least he gets his hands on the ball) 1- Miller (poor goal kicking lets him down, but not as much as teammates kicking over his head all the time)

I think RR is just being cruel Miller is the only tall marking forward we have left. No way is he playing on Pavlich. I can feel a 10 goal burst coming up from the Pav. Thank god Farmer is still suspended!!!

Yep, but he came back on (despite not looking 100%). I hope he didn't cause further damage. It's not as if we were a chance to win and we needed him out there! :angry:

If Rivers is not right for next week, who lines up on Pavlich? Bruce?

Make that two. I like to suffer. <_<

Ward has something that we desperately need, which is pace. I'm not a fan, and his kicking is woeful, but until Bartram is fit and playing, Ward will get a game. That's just how it is. Yze should have come out breathing fire today. He layed one big tackle, which resulted in a free to Geelong. He used to be a leader, and in the absence of so many leaders, he should have been out there putting his hand up and giving us something. He didn't. RR, I don't care whether Dunn or Pickett were named in the best. I just care that they are fit enough to come back into the side and give us some class and hardness. I assume that Dunn played a full game, given he could still keep up his fitness with the sort of injury he had. As for Bryon, Daniher said during the week he'll get another game for Sandy this week and play seniors in Round 4. I'm just hoping that he's right, because we could use Pickett. CJ was wrongly picked on last week. In a team that had 18 odd passengers, he was the one that paid the price. We could have used his running and his skills today, especially on the wing or up forward (as he is not a defender).

At half time we were doubling them, and I thought that they wrote the stats down wrong. I don't know how many of these so called clearances were actually to advantage. We didn't seem to move the ball anywhere but sideways, or into the hands of Geelong players. It's like saying that Jeff White won the ruck...

Please, they are not China-dolls! Buckley was good in the NAB cup, he showed a hell of a lot more than some senior players who continue to get a game based on reputation, rather than form. Newton has been in the system for 3 years, Buckley for 2. It's not as if we're throwing them into the complete unknown. Bartram had no physical development when he debuted last year, and it never stopped him going hard for the ball. Jones should have debuted much earlier, and is now single-handedly winning the clearances for us. How bad could Newton have done at FF? Worse than PJ? Worse than Holland? Worse than White? Unlikely. BTW, while we're talking about unfit players getting a game, did you see Wheatley coming off the ground in the first quarter? He could barely master a breathe. At the end of the day, playing Buckley instead of Godfrey or Newton instead of Ferguson would have made zero difference to the results. I'm not naive enough to think that we have kids at Sandringham who could be the solution to all of our problems. Not even close.

Correct. He's a ruckman who can't ruck, and a forward or can't mark. The backline was the only position in which he didn't look completely terrible. His endavour is good, and he has pace for such a big bloke, but that's about it. Mooney kicked 4 posters in the second half, so it's not as if PJ completely nullified him. We need Rivers back like I need my arm. He is absolutely crucial in holding the backline together. And I agree with whoever said that Frawley is a must when fit.

With the exception of Bell, Jones, Moloney and possibly Miller, nobody deserves a score above 4. Put it this way, if they were being tested today on their skills, heart and determination, would any of them have passed? If not, they don't deserve to get 5 or above.

Jeff White was shocking today, absolutely shocking. He is a ruckman, and should therefore be judged on his rucking, which today was pathetic (he can't hit the damn thing to advantage!). He got beaten by a nobody. His disposal around the ground was also ordinary. He made some huge errors with the ball, and dropped some seaters. One of his worst performances. Whelan was Whelan. Davey needs to be dropped. Chasing from behind is just not enough. Bell, Moloney and Jones... all under 23, and all full of heart. The rest were on the wrong side of rubbish. Be it in their disposal, their hardness, or their willingness to chase.

Would they have made a difference to the outcome? Nope, and I never said they would. Would they at least given us an insight into their capabilities? Yes. I know what I'm going to get from Wheatley, Ferguson, Brown, Holland, Godfrey... I don't know what Buckely can do at senior level. Who knows, maybe Newton would have done well. How much form has Hawkins shown prior to his selection? How about the kids at Collingwood? It's not as if the players who were brought in were absolutely dominating at VFL level. Buckley has had a very good pre-season and deserves a go. The other two may not be setting the world on fire, but these are desperate times. At the end of the day, not only do we walk away with a humiliating loss, we are also more aware of just how shallow our experienced depth is. Just great!

Dunn, CJ and Pickett better play next week. Dropping CJ was a complete disgrace to begin with. Ferguson, YZE and Wheatley can go back where they came from.

There is no talk out on the field. Players handball to stationary teammates, who go for a run and get caught from behind. Why don't they talk to one another? Jones would put himself in a winning position, but would get attacked by 3 Geelong players with absolutely no teammates in sight to land a hand. It's just so disappointing, because these are very basic things that every coach should insist upon. Chasing, shepparding, talking to your teammates. Nobody can expect us to win with such a large injury list, but for god sake, there is a profound lack of intensity and hunger that has nothing to do with the fact that we're missing key players... or is it that Neita, Robbo, McLean, Bartram and Rivers are the only players who give a damn about winning and about the jumper?!

Yep, listening to that while driving home nearly made me crash the car. He was pleased with our second half because we kicked 5 goals, and so did Geelong. How about the amount of behinds Geelong kicked, or the ease with which they moved the ball, or the fact that our players can't man-up, can't kick, and have absolutely no desire to go at the man with the ball? How about dropping CJ to bring back Yze, who did absolutely nothing? How about Jeff White's diminishing ability as a ruckman? How about Wheatley and Ward playing miles away from their direct opponents? What about your midfield kicking over the head of Miller 10 times in a row? How about leaving Jones on the bench at the start of every quarter, when he is the only player with a half a chance of getting an effective clearance? Nope, we kicked as many goals as Geelong did, so all is peachy at the MFC! :angry:

Yep, it would have been nice to see someone like Newton or Buckley or Petterd show something, instead of a whole collection of hacks show nothing. For some reason, Daniher thinks that playing the kids is a sign of giving up. What he doesn't realise, is that his depth is completely ordinary. We can't do anything about the injury list. It's shocking, and it's growing by the minute. What we can do, is make some use of this time to try and unearth new players. It's not as if playing these has-been players is going to get us the win. PJ at CHB... well at least it's something different, and he didn't do too badly. Would have been great to see some more positive moves like that, instead of the same old "White to FF", "Godfrey on the wing" etc etc.

Moloney looked to have pinched something late in the third quarter, and yet they sent him back on. WHY? It's not as if we were actually a chance FFS! Terrible management of the bench, and even worse, the selection coming into the game was woeful. We dropped a runner in CJ, only to have tall timber wasting away on the bench. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The disposal is getting worse each week. It's primary school stuff when players can't hit a target 10m out. Utterly embarrassing! No accountability, and absolutely no visible game plan. We bottled it up in the second half, as if we were protecting a 70 point lead. What a joke! Green, Belly, Beamer and Jones can hold their head up. Bruce needs to learn to kick (I will keep saying it every week), picking up possessions as a loose man in the defense is not exactly rocket- science. Still, according to Bruce on MMM, Daniher was very pleased with our second half...

The fact that Freo is 0-3, when everyone has them in the top 4, just goes to show you that we are not the only unstable, unpredictable, prone-to-dropping-our-bundle, side in the competition. The difference is, Freo has a great home ground advantage, and no key injuries. At least they'll take some heat off us.

Exactly, and it's good for our young kids to come through such a successful and strong club. I know a lot of the players are very proud of pulling on the Sandy jumper and of having won the 3 premierships.

That's not such bad news. Neita, Brock and Bartram should all return around the same time, which will be great.

Are you sure you're not talking about Melbourne here? <_< Daniher wants to win and is doing whatever he can to make that happen. His faith in our depth never ceases to amaze, and I just hope he's right. Maybe as more injured players return, we'll see the inclusion of a few more new faces to excite us. Certainly Dunn and Sylvia (both not fit this week), but maybe also Buckley, Frawley and Newton.