Jaded No More

Martin averages more marks, more kicks and more handballs than Jamar over his career. Now I'm not saying Martin is anywhere near the level of Mark Jamar, but two years ago was the first time in his career Russian broke through the 5 kicks a match barrier!

For the third week in a row, Martin was our second highest clearance winner, beaten only by Sylvia. He also had the third highest contested possession count behind Sylvia and Green. So unless you have some actual hard evidence to support your rubbishing of someone who is developing rapidly, I suggest you stop before you find yourself further up sh*t creek without a paddle.

I would like to see him dominate and play like a gun. Judd has no passion for anything but his own form and bank account. Doubt anyone at Carlton cares. In fact, I doubt Judd regularly hangs out with idiots like Betts, Russell and Robinson!

OMG Skullz is going to Richmond!!!!!!11 I guess Beamer and Rivers want to go to Carlton because they hang out with McLean so much. FFS people, get a grip!

Tomorrow's headline: "Bullied lonely Scully wants out- says wedgies from teammates have caused him severe knee pain" Is this seriously what this Scully situation has come to? Who the [censored] works with people and loves every single one of them? I sure as hell don't and just like Scully my priority at work is to excel and get ahead not to socialize with morons.

If Scully has no pain after playing on the weekend, then that is the most caution we can take. He realistically can break down and develop soreness again at any point in the future. It can happen next week in the VFL or in a month in the AFL, so if he is physically fit and pain free this week we should play him, even if we need to sub him off at 3/4 time. He is that good that 3 quarters from him, even at reduced fitness, would be better than what most others will give us for 4 quarters. At some point we will have to bite the bullet and play him and test out that knee.

I love that you post here mainly because you enjoy reading aloud your own thoughts once you have typed them out on the screen B) Very few poster here would be shocked/upset if Bailey wasn't with the club next year. But many also recognise, as you have, that a premature departure will do nothing but damage to the club. And at the same time, there is also a recognition that our leadership is shizen and we have been hit very hard by injuries. Malthouse couldn't win games with 8-10 of his best players missing either. Having said that, I think Bailey lacks a great tactical mind and I don't know if he can extract the best out of his players, and for those reasons I hope we change coaches at the end of the season.

Has been sensational under immense pressure. Highlight of the season for me

If this is how you want things to go down, then great. Here is a reminder of the Eade-Roos situation http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/25/1023864581312.html Now let us replicate that scenario in Victoria, where the footy media coverage is ten times that of Sydney, and also let us not forget that our next coach is probably not already on our coaching staff. That means 10 rounds or so of someone coaching who has no long term interests in the club. It is just a very messy situation that we need to try and avoid. Nothing monumental will happen with a mid year sacking and replacing of a coach with a short term caretaker. If you told me Roos was ready to step up and start next week, it would be a different story, but as the situation stands currently, we have to minimise the damage as much as we can if we decide to let Bailey go.

Nothing is ever achieved by sacking a coach mid season. Show me one good example where this has worked favorably for a club? If we keep losing we have to suck it up until Round 24 is over, and trust that the club is working behind the scenes to get us a new coach.

Look at that kid, sitting there with ice on his knee.... he is so obviously going to GWS. That ice bag is full of dirty GWS money too

The club would be stupid to cause this sort of upheaval, especially if they are trying to lure an experienced coach, and they know that. Bailey will coach the season out, and I fully support that move. We cannot keep destabilizing our club with internal upheaval. It's messy, it's unprofessional, and it makes us a very unattractive proposition for any perspective coach. Besides, Bailey has done a great deal right for our club and regardless of what happens at the end of the season we should be eternally greatful that he had the balls to turn our list over.

Good changes. They showed the injury list up on the big screen at the G last night and Bartram had 4 weeks next to his name I would drop Newton and keep Evans though. I think you need to get debutants at least 3 weeks to find their feet and I don't think we can carry Newton, Gawn and Howe in the same side. If Howe was to come in, I'd play him at FF and Watts at CHF, and they can rotate between themselves. Otherwise I'd keep Newton and Evans and Howe can come in next week. I think it's important right now to bring in some pace and foot skills, which is where I see Blease fitting in.

This is our golden opportunity to continue to develop some kids. Given many of our first choice players are out injured, we did the right thing in recent weeks playing our more mature depth players with very disappointing outcomes. It's fair to say that our more experienced depth players are poorly skilled, lack smarts and worse of all, have not given us a serious contest (apologies to Newton who has actually worked hard, but just isn't up to it). With all that in mind, now is the time to play some more kids who have shown some level of form with Casey. So going by half time reports from Casey, my changes would be: In: Trengove, SCULLY, Gawn, Blease, Howe The outs can really just pick themselves.

One positive- we are one game closer to getting our best players back/ the season ending

That is the biggest problem IMO. What is his position? We keep playing him in every position on the field, but never for long enough to allow him to get some consistency. His best games have been on the wing, where he is able to push forward. Why the f' are we then playing him in the backline? I wanted to see him take on Judd, but instead they threw him down back, where he actually didn't do a bad job defensively but was utterly useless offensively, which is where he excels. I understand that we need to teach him to go the other way, but he is such a unique player with a unique set of skills, and currently we are wasting him. Play him on the wing every week from now until season's end, then make a decision.

It seems that he doesn't have much upper body confidence right now, which is probably residual damage from his injury. He is a gun, and offensively he continues to get better, but he has had some average defensive performances this year, particularly in the air. That someone his size can take Betts out of the game is amazing though. And currently he and Rivers are the only two defenders we have left who actually deserve a game. He has no support whatsoever down there right now.

How so? Betts had no influence on the game until junk time late in the last. Frawley was one of our better users of the ball last night and at least provided some run and strength. He is an absolute gun.

Losing Barts for this game is a killer with Carlton's small forward line. I'm sensing a smashing! Rubbish side btw. Worse team we have fielded in a really long time. And just in time to take on my most loathed team. So much fail

I'm curious as to whether you have any sources close to Tom/GWS/MFC?

Agreed. I don't like it. Maybe for a quarter as an exercise in "this is what you have to replicate in your own career", but I actually would like to see Morton brought back in and given the task on Judd. Has elite endurance and it will be good for him to do a defensive job, given that he has been lacking in this area of his game. I think Judd is also an easier match up for him than Goodes.

Fair enough. I'm sick and tired of these idiotic Scully threads, which is why I try to steer clear of them. It's just that your reaction to this matter is quite interesting. I was just wondering if you knew something about the Scully issue that you can't let on.

You think the club didn't know early enough that GWS would be sniffing around? I'm curious to know whether you know more about this than you're letting on, because some of the comments you've made on the Scully issue have been a bit sus. Just wondering B)

Given Jones has had zero clearances and 2 tackles last week, I don't really see how he could line up on Judd and do a decent job.

Will probably miss a few targets by foot. I'm calling it now... dud.