Jaded No More

I can't understand how anyone can be against giving Grimes 2 more games. What, will it stop our very realistic tilt at a premiership this year? Will it take precious games away from kids who just need 2 more games to become elite players? Our playing group is made up of humans, and even if not every player on the list is best friends with Grimes, they must all be acutely aware that they too might find themselves in his position one day. The way we deal with this situation will show our young playing list that we are a club that either cares and looks after its players, or a club that treats its players like property. It might be the difference between a player wanting to stay at the club or go elsewhere. A few weeks ago Jack Watts spoke about how important it was for his career to have a coach like Roos who understands that players are human. We completely underestimate how important it is for these guys to feel like they are in a supportive environment that values them. Just like every one of us wants to work somewhere that we hope will do the right thing by us, so do footballers. I hope we give Grimes 2 more games, and I believe we will.

I'm just glad I don't need to venture outside in this Antarctic weather to watch footy!

Hunch or sauce?

Goddamn VFL fixtures. Casey having a bye really stuffs us, as it doesn't give Brayshaw or Garlett a chance to push for selection.

My biggest worry, as this should have been monitored. Thyroid issues never "go away" so they can't just return. They are always there. It's like having type 1 diabetes, it has to be managed, it doesn't just go away. Salem should be having 6 monthly blood tests, maybe even quarterly given his profession, to check his thyroid levels and adjust his meds if required. Now maybe this was happening already, but such a drastic change in thyroid function which causes weight loss etc... seems odd and concerning. Hopefully a switch of meds will do the trick.

Jetta and Matt Jones were also "cooked" at Melbourne, as was Michie. All got another chance to redeem themselves. Grimes is doing everything he can at VFL level, yet isn't getting a game. I am not sure why, as he is better than Jones and Michie, and has as many credits as Jetta did when dropped to the rookie list. I guess as with everything in life, some people get multiple chances to prove themselves, and others don't. A real shame, as Grimesy probably deserves better.

Fair to say that Bernie is playing with fire, and it is getting too close for comfort. He needs to be careful, we can't afford to lose him from the side.

He had sooky tendencies last year. I pointed them out on this board and got shot down. I think he just feels more comfortable on the field now, so there is perhaps a sense of entitlement to complain more than he did last year. His body language has gotten better the longer the season has gone on, but he is not a perfect player and anyone who refuses to see that is just being blinded by the potential. Is he an amazing talent? Yes. Is he playing beyond his years and experience? Yes. Does he need to do better defensively and watch his body language? Yes.

Article needs less Mark Neeld

Hopefully Brayshaw is good to go.

Thyroid problems can't be cured. They can be well managed by medication. An overactive thyroid, which is what it sounds like he has, is harder to manage than an underactive one. We just need to hope they get the medication levels right. It's something you need to keep testing and adjusting as your thyroid functions are never really stable. I'm concerned that this isn't a new issue, but an issue that has resurfaced. Either it wasn't managed properly, or its gotten much worse really quickly.

It feels like we're progressing slower than any other developing team. I guess when you need to rebuild the rebuild of the rebuild, you get that. Maybe I'm just sick of waiting, but we make such tiny incremental inroads only to reverse back 600km every other week.

While selection and coaching isn't solely to blame, today was another example of both of these elements being very poor. We again went in unchanged instead of bringing in a couple of fresh legs. Sydney made a lot of changes, and actually some of their fresher legs had good games. From the get go they had McVeigh playing the sweeping role, and they put Kennedy on him which is a terrible match up! Why didn't they put Bugg up there to play a defensive forward role? Our setup in the centre bounces was atrocious, and did not make any use of having a serious advantage in the ruck with Gawn taking on a spud like Sinclair. Defensively again we tried that idiotic diamond defence, the worst possible day to stick with this structure as monsoonal rain calls for quick kicks up forward, putting our zoning defenders in bad positions. It wasn't under the third quarter that we smartened up, by which point it was too late. Our midfield had a stinker, we needed to tackle hard, and we didn't. We let too many Sydney players run free forward of the ball, and couldn't even win crucial centre clearances. I thought Dawes played good wet weather footy, but Hogan was atrocious. His second efforts were non existent. Only Vince, Petracca and Watts know how to play wet weather footy. The rest made mind boggling decisions with the ball, especially coming off half back. We tend to make dumb decisions even in the dry conditions, but in the wet those decisions were magnified and were super costly. Overall it's not disappointing to lose to Sydney, but it is disappointing to see us not learning from our Hawthorn game experience, and once again making easily rectifiable decisions at the selection table!

What an absolutely pathetic last quarter. Too many passengers today, not working hard enough off the ball, nobody wants to tackle, rubbish defensive efforts all over the ground. And Roos absolutely taking the [censored] not tagging McVeigh. Just goes to show that as a team we are still 10 goals behind decent teams. That is a gap that will take at least 3 years to breach, and lets hope other teams don't go past us like they have previously!

MelbourneFC- making spuds look like triple cooked chips since 2007!

Grimes deserved a game in these conditions. Him not getting a game this week to me says that he's done at Melbourne.

I think we've just had enough. We seem to be in Bye land already.

Must be happy to lose by 4-5 goals. Honorable loses are still some sort of win apparently.

We just don't want it enough. Simple. Too many players hand balling to nothing under pressure, scared to go hard at the contest and are nowhere near their opponent. Disappointing that we didn't take our chances.

Watching the McDonalds is like being on a drug trip. So many highs and lows. Like I said, we have no idea how to play in the wet. We learnt nothing from the Hawthorn game.

Game over.

Great start. Gees we are just so dumb!

I just can't see us being able to get back from this margin. Again we made critical selection mistakes. We are too tall in these conditions, we need bigger bodies around the ground too. Why Grimes didn't play I don't know. He is well suited to these conditions.

[censored] MORONS! Pathetic inability to man up. Basic mothereffing under 12s skills. Rubbish.

I hate to say it but Trenners is just so slow. I love him but his lack of pace is really concerning. Nearly game over in these conditions. And yet again a no name manages to kill us.