Jaded No More

Don't think so, unless I was in a rush and mixed the two up, because I think Bell's skills and decision making is alright, but his awareness is poor.

I am far from a Sylvia fan, but I have to admit that when he ran his guts out to try and spoil a mark inside the Roos' forward 50, I became a believer. It was the most unSylvia like thing I have ever seen him do, because it was 100% about doing the team thing. In all honestly he was probably never going to get a legal spoil, and get any praise for it, but he did it anyway and it showed me that the penny may have finally dropped. I just hope that his body and more importantly his mind remain healthy and he keeps going. There is still plenty more room for improvement, but he might finally be on the right track!

There is a reason why Bailey scored the job above other more experienced/ well-known candidates, and it wasn't because he looked good in red and blue. I'm not suggesting that anyone in his position would have gone and drafted 30 year olds to top up our list, but many wouldn't have done the hard thing in trading TJ, wouldn't have list managed for two years to ensure we get ourselves the best possible picks, and definitely wouldn't have played kids ahead of some of our senior players. I doubt Bennell and Jetta would have got this much game time under some other coaches who have Robbo and Whelan and Wheatley in reserve, and I doubt Morton would have played nearly two full seasons under many other coaches as well. You also need to give Bailey credit for the remarkable turnaround in one Colin Sylvia, for the great development of our backline and guys like Warnock, Garland and Frawley who at one point or another looked like they were on a journey to nowhere. I think Moloney has changed his game dramatically as well and of course Davey. As I've said twice already, Bailey might not be our next premiership coach, but he is most definitely going to help us on our way there. I'm glad Lyon put all this coaching nonsense to bed and that he is right behind Bailey, as we all should be. If we're still on the bottom of the ladder in 2 years time, then lets talk. But I am willing to bet good money that we'll be playing finals in 2012.

Jack Grimes is shattered. He really wanted a stalker!

I think this one works on a number of different levels...

If Dean Bailey was concerned about nothing more than his win/loss record, he would have topped up the list with mature, experienced players, traded away early picks, kept TJ, never would have dropped Robbo, Wheatley or Whelan, would not experiment with positional changes, and would not tank (see Essendon and Freo). If you can't see that, then I can't help you. I realise you've got it in for Bailey and his forward structure , but he has done more for the future of our club in 2 short years than many coaches have before him. He has done that because he is motivated by long term success, which he may well not get to be a part of, and not by his own short term success. Whether or not he coaches us to a premiership, is in no way a reflection of how influential he is in getting us there. I for one will be forever thankful to him for having the balls to put his own ego and reputation aside for the sake of my club's future, whether he coaches us for another year or another ten.

I'm still waiting for you to explain how Morton is a 'pretty bad kick' and why Grimes has a 'flawed kicking action'. Also, Miller has already achieved more than Newton ever will at AFL level. Besides, according to you Miller is a terrible footballer, so saying that Newton is better than him is like me saying that Buckley's skills are better than Godfrey's. Wow!

This should not concern Bailey at the slightest. He is contracted, and is there to do a job. He has a path and I hope he does not deviate from it because of any external pressure on his position. If we win anywhere between 6-8 games next year, and see some real improvement, he should get a new 2 year contract to continue the good work that he has started. And just remember, if Lyon takes over in the next few years and goes on to succeed, it's going to be on the back of the hard work that Bailey and his coaching team have put in, and the sacrifices they made to their own win/loss ratio in order to give us a brighter future.

To me that's confirmation that it is indeed Jeff White. Otherwise why would this fake identity bother to remain private?

Link Oh well, plenty of time for him to rest up and get ready for a big pre-season.

Your post is not complete without the old "a player who is 192cm tall won't make it, and Grimes and Morton can't kick". If it wasn't for the hilarious OP, I would be inclined to agree that Dunn has actually stepped up over the past 3 weeks. I never had any issues with his skills, but his lack of courage. However he has stood a lot taller in recent times and has not ducked his head when I was expecting him to. If he can learn to get his hands on the ball more often, he may have a future because his decision making and kicking skills are both very very good, and he sure loves a goal. That bit of anger that he showed yesterday when pinged for pushing his opponent in the back, and the fact that he's been willing to instigate physical contact (not something I would normally encourage), shows that perhaps the penny finally has dropped that you can't hide from your own shadow on a footy field. Of course because of how ludicrous that OP was, I'm just gonna laugh at the stupidity instead

We have to continue to experiment to a degree, otherwise what kind of confusing message is that sending to the playing list? At the moment the players, especially the young ones, seem to really be buying into the whole "trying things out for the good of our future". If you suddenly stop doing that, knowing those picks are ours, the players will realise very quickly that the last two weeks have been nothing but a calculated losing tactic. Having said that, I would like to see a better team this week and more plausible experimental positioning (ie- Sylvia in the backline was great, Ricky and Bate in the middle, Morton up forward).

They're sitting in the unemployment line at Centrelink Seriously though, I think people underestimate the value of an A grade midfield. Geelong's Mooney and Johnson duo was enough for them to win a premiership, on the back of a brilliant midfield. West Coast had Lynch and Hansen was it? Watts, Jurrah, Aussie, Bate and Martin (who just needs to improve those set shots) are more than enough of a force up forward, particularly if we can start getting goals from our mids (Jones, Sylvia, Scully). Also Morton is a strong chance of playing as a key forward in the future. You can have the greatest attack in the world but if your midfield is crap and you can't get enough inside 50s, you will never win much. Midfields and backlines win premierships. Our backline is looking good, our midfield not so much. I want clean, smart ball users with pace. We got Blease and Strauss, now lets top up with a couple more who can really win their own ball (Scully and possibly Trengove) and we might finally have a midfield with a hope in hell of getting us to a top 4 position.

Best available is always the best policy, and with picks 1 and 2 those two picks will be midfielders. Butcher may have been highly rated in the past, but has not done anything this year to justify being picked at number 2. That is a risk that we simply cannot take. If he is still around at pick 17, of course we'll consider him, but drafting for needs with early picks has always proven to be a disastrous policy for us. It worked out well last year that who we thought was best available at pick 1, was a KPF, and we then landed another future star forward with pick one in the PSD. This year is about midfielders, and thank god for that, because our midfield is complete garbage.

Oh my god he is 8 years old! With every passing draft I feel like I've aged 10 years. Happy to hear Trengove say that he just wants to be drafted and doesn't care where. Pack your bags son, because you ain't staying in S.A., that's for sure.

McNamara was far better up forward and on the wing, than he was deep in defense where he lost his man on the lead every single time. That he went to sleep after he was out-marked at one stage and let the North player just run into the goals, was also pretty inexcusable. On the positive side, his disposal was top notch, and I remember how bloody hopeless Frawley was as a defender for 3 whole years. Poor Bail, had a hard few weeks, finally gets to debut, has one really good kick and gets injured. Will definitely play next week if fit to go. And as I mentioned on another thread, I love Spencer, and I hope he puts that attempt at goal kicking behind him. Yes it was terrible, but he played well and has a big future ahead of him. I felt gutted when you could clearly hear the crowd laughing at him. Imagine what he must have felt, in just his 4th match... probably wanted to bury himself alive. And the worst thing is, he is ten times better than some of the other talls we had running around out there today, but you wouldn't know it by the crowd's reaction.

He showed me that I'm capable of reaching levels of rage that I never thought possible. The desperate tanking period of the season is now over, and I hope that with it goes Michael Newton. He can take PJ with him. Without a shadow of a doubt Matty Whelan deserves 150 games to his name, and Robbo a big farewell match. Same goes for Wheatley. If Junior is planning on calling it a day, I hope he makes that decision public this week too. I'm a huge tanking advocate, but we've got the breathing space now to go all out and try and score ourselves one more win before the year is out, and next week is the week to do it (we are no chance of beating Carlton or St Kilda, lets face it). So on that note... Out: PJ, Newton, Miller, Bartram, Cheney (or Bail if he's not right). In: Whelan, Jurrah, Robbo, Rivers, Watts Grimes and McLean are too injury prone to risk, and should sit out the year. Watts deserves to enjoy a win (assuming he is over the hand injury) and Jurrah and Rivers are obvious ins. Would be great to actually enjoy a win next week, knowing that picks 1 & 2 are safe!

You're right, a forwardline made up of PJ, Newton, Miller, Bartram and Martin is not going to ever win us a game of football. A forwardline made up of Watts, Jurrah, Aussie and Bate will. Today's forwardline was proudly brought to you by the letters T, A, N and K and sponsored by Tom Scully.

On the back of how many spoons and priority picks? I rest my case.

Thought his disposal and decision making was pretty bad, but as per usual he runs himself into the ground. Much respect to him 6. Bate (are we making a mistake by forcing him to play as a key forward?) 5. Sylvia (loved him off the half back line) 4. Jones (great kicking today. Lowered his eyes and hit players on the chest) 3. Valenti (fantastic ball winning in the first half. Disposal very ordinary) 2. Petterd (disposal still killing him) 1. Frawley (keeps on impressing) Negative votes to PJ, Newton and Miller. I have a lot of time for Miller but his kicking is below average and it's hurting the team. PJ and Newton are great tanking weapons, but I think I speak for us all when I say, we've suffered enough! Edit: I forgot to add something that I feel very strongly about... encouragement votes for Spencer. I know his attempt at goal went horribly wrong, and I felt horrible for him because he did quite well in the ruck all day. There is little doubt in my mind that he'll get a permanent place on our senior list next year and will develop into a very handy ruckman for us. Hopefully he won't feel too dejected after that shot on goal!

What rubbish. You can be upset that we lost, but don't come on here and have a cry and tell us there is no future, when we have been very very clear about the path we're taking for 2 years now. If you speak crap you'll get crap spoken back at you. I think all of us are sick and tired of losing, make no mistake about that, but the majority of us can see the absolute value embedded in losing, and are not so shortsighted as to count this loss as anything more than the insignificant event that it was. So many people were happy to have miraculously lost last week, but now they are upset because we lost by too much? We played a VFL side with a few good players thrown into the mix (who were played mostly out of position) and we got done, oh no, who would have thought. Success to me is not beating a rubbish team in a meaningless game. That is all.

What were the ramifications of that? Everyone ran the game out well, except for Bail who was out within the first few minutes. You wouldn't do it every week, but there was no physical harm done. Give Didak and Thomas back or [censored] off.

So many pressing the panic button... Hilarious! We were in full tank mode today and the players who are part of the future all had decent games today despite of circumstances. Time to take a deep breath and relax. The plan is coming together beautifully.

Stop your whinging for god's sake, this is the best thing for the long tern future of our club And believe me when I say that no player enjoys sitting on the bench. None of them would complain about extra game time. Welcome to Melbourne Mr Scully!

Oh god this is a boring game. Not sure what I'm doing here to be honest.