Jaded No More

To be fair all AFL players in Melbourne go to the same place to get scanned. I assume the gutter journalists just sit there all day every day waiting to catch someone.

Gawn had scans today apparently No idea for what. Anyone??

And with Moore maybe touch and go.

What a difference a week makes. Things going against us at every turn this week.

His ball use is horrible.

If anything, last night would be a good wake up call especially to our mids who were poor under pressure early. I am not worried about that loss one little bit. I’m incredibly worried about our forwardline however.

Not to mention Dunstan burning players in better positions and not dishing off. He and Harmes are not getting a game anytime soon. Tomlinson needs to play in defense and I guess Smith up forward for now. Sadly the Petty injury could just about be the thing that kills our shot at a flag this year.

McDonald looks ok to me. Maybe another week at Casey. But I would play him in round 24.

A moment of appreciation for Clarry who missed 10 weeks of footy and had 27 touches, 13 tackles and TEN clearances last night. To put in perspective, Cripps had 5 clearances, Hewett 8, Gus 6 and Viney 5. The man is a freak.

So Petty, JVR and Jefferson are not AFL standard? Ok Jason Taylor tell me more

Verrell isn’t terrible in the ruck for a kid who missed half a season. Grundy is a perfect Gawn backup, but at $800k a season he can’t just be a backup for injury. And he doesn’t want to be either, which is fair enough.

Schache has no mongrel. You can’t play a key position role at AFL if you don’t have the physical desperation. I think Grundy is a little bit the same. Too much of a nice guy. Needs a lot more agro!

JJ. We don’t need an extra mid now Clarry is back.

Adams will be a player. Could be another JT special.

McDonald still with ok touch and desperation for the footy. I guess we need to see how he runs out the second half

Look it’s been a bad week for Melbourne.

The Carlton free ride from the umps continues. How is that a free against Tomlinson? Trash

Looks terrible. And just lacking hunger. Adams looks good. Tomlinson solid.

Spargo will play next week. Playing well.

Come on Tommy! Golden ticket to the finals for you if you can show us you’re not dead yet!

Smith is not reliable enough in the backline. He causes panic. We look way better when Hibbo was in there. He totally blanketed Martin. Smith is a high impact low possession player with versatility. He’s a perfect sub.

Did a sensational job did JVR. He’s a kid being asked to play the main key forward role. He kicks those two goals and he has as good a game at Curnow. He’s really impressing me. His attack on the ball and follow up work at ground level is fantastic. An absolute star in the making.

I agree re Grundy JVR is a fine second ruck. Problem is, that without a second tall forward, when he goes in the ruck Max has to rest forward or we have to play a forwardline of smalls. It’s not going to work. We have to bring in a second tall. Shache is awfully soft but maybe he comes in and plays the second ruck role? I dunno anymore.

He doesn’t need to be the Tmac of old. If he can run a game out and compete in the air, that’ll do. He understands forward patterns and leading. Assuming his foot injury hasn’t impacted his ability to take a mark or halve an aerial contest. That’s all he needs to do. Much like BBB, we just need one of them to find enough juice to play 6 games at ok pace for 120 minutes.

We were so terrible we technically won