Jaded No More

Gawn can't ruck 100% game time, but rather then resting on the bench, I hope he spend most of his "rest time" in the goal square. Btw, Geelong's weakness might be the ruck, but their midfielders are good enough to rove from opposition rucks, which is why winning taps to advantage will be key tomorrow.

I actually felt sorry for him watching that interview (the only bit I watched of that awful show). There's obviously stuff going on his life, and footy seems to be on the backburner. I'm not sure he'll have much more care at Geelong, if he ends up there next year. As for the criticism, I agree that his body language is poor at times, but gees it's been blown out of proportion. He's had 2 injury interrupted seasons, and frankly I don't think he ever asked or wanted to be the captain of that club. He is not a leader. That doesn't make him any less of a superstar player, and I bet he'll come out and make everyone eat their words this week. Just glad we aren't playing the Suns this week!

I'm less annoyed about the Cripps medical report, because I agree that he might have a small hairline fracture and still be playing. The Rowe one however is a joke. He was ok to play the game out with "concussion" because he wasn't actually concussed until "after the game"??? Yet he is fine to play this week? A late onset of concussion should be treated with great precaution. Seems odd that he's been deemed fit to play.

I expect Gawn to be rested up forward more this week to give us a target. Will be good for our small forwards to play at his feet. Edit: Brayshaw is an inexperienced kid who pretty much missed all of last year with injuries. I'm not at all worried about him.

Carlton have always been sore losers. Now they're not just sore losers, but frequent losers too. Feels great to see them struggle!

Not true. If Gawn was fighting instead of taking the centre bounce, during a close game when we are getting beaten in the midfield, I would have been just as annoyed. It's got nothing to do with Watts as a player. There is no doubt we let our emotions get the better of us last weekend. We gave away silly frees, we have two key players suspended, and we got distracted from the game at times. It's a good learning curve for a young team, and I hope we've learnt from it.

We have long memories in footy. I can't wait until we play Carlton again. If they even so much lift a finger on one of our players, I hope we put in a medical report to suggest that our player was severely concussed and has a broken bone, but is still such a machine they will play the following week.

Low risk, high reward strategy. Well done to him, hopefully the extension of contract softens the blow of having to sit on the sidelines for the next 4 months

It's irrelevant if the players liked Roos or not, Roos wasn't at Melbourne for a long time, he was at Melbourne to fix a broken club. He did that, and it took a whole lot of hard truth to get to where we are now. I'm sure lots of players weren't happy to be moved along, or told they weren't working hard enough. Goodwin has the pleasure of taking over from Roos, who laid the foundation and did the really tough work that only someone extremely tough and extremely experienced can do, without breaking the playing team apart. We should be forever greatful for the work Roos did, in setting a foundation for our club and rebuilding not just our list, but the entire level of professionalism of the playing list.

So we all agree Lever is a gun but then we don't want to give up a good player for him in return? Brayshaw for Lever is a fair trade until sentiments get involved

I have no issues with Watts fighting or standing up to teammates, I do have an issue when he does so and as a result misses his primary job which is to go up in the ruck contest. Oliver won the tap sure, but he could have just as easily not won it, or injured himself trying to battle an experienced ruck etc... It's just not the mature thing to do and I have no doubt Goodwin would have had a go at not just him, but everyone else, including Lewis, who got himself suspended for 3 weeks and Hogan for 2, because they can't control their emotions on the field.

Salem was always going to be an exceptional player once he got some consistency in his body. So tough to be battling multiple injuries plus a health condition, while trying to get some good consistent footy into you. He has all the hallmarks of a top player; deadly kick, smart decision making, good speed, physically pretty strong for his size, good level of courage. I love having him do the kick outs! Finally someone who doesn't give me small seizures!

I lost my sh*t as Watts was trying to rough up Silvagni LOL! He was so busy doing that, that he missed the centre bounce. What a joke. Hope he copped it! Fancy Watts trying to be tough by picking on a 2nd year player who weighs 3kgs wet, and completely missing the centre bounce.

2 forced changes, and the only other one I can see being dropped maybe is Hannan. Out: Lewis, Hogan, Hannan (?) In: Vince (certainty), Kent, Pedo if ready. If not maybe we play Spencer and Gawn spends more time forward?

At the end of the day Lewis should know better, he is a leader and has a terrible record. As for Hogan, good lesson to learn. Control your frustrations, or you'll miss games. Really bad timing as Geelong is a huge challenge this week, and Lewis missing the Richmond game isn't ideal. We know we can win without Hogan though.

Hogan 2 weeks?! Joke. He has no priors.

Most consistent player in Melbourne

Garlett probably won us the game in the end though. Best game he's played for Melbourne. This game was awful. I'm banking the points and the top 4 ladder position, and I'm erasing the rest.

I missed both incidents. Too busy losing my sh!t Hogan has a good record so you think he'll be fine. Lewis is in the same boat as Vince, could be suspended for anything.

Midfield is well down on output. Clearances are not of high quality. This was always gonna be won or lost in the middle and so far we are not exactly standing up against Carlton's mids.

We are badly over using the footy and butchering it. It's really embarrassing to be struggling so badly and nobody seems able to cut thru the Carlton defensive pressure.

I'm not gonna panic coz it's only the first quarter, but that was garbage of the highest order. Credit to Carlton for shutting things down.

I like the later start time. Giving me time to stress extra about a loss.

And Hogan But Predergast still needs to be hung

Do we tag Cripps? and if so, who goes to him?