Jaded No More

I recognise the fantastic contribution Jeff White has made to the Melbourne Football Club over a long period of time, but last night he just did not care to be out there. Watching it on TV, as I assume you were, you wouldn't have seen what he was doing off the ball, or rather, what he wasn't doing. Didn't bother chasing, didn't go in hard enough, just did the bare minimum required. He knows he's gone in 3 rounds, and so I can kind of understand why he wouldn't have enjoyed being out there in the rain getting smashed. Still would have been nice for him to show a bit more urgency, given this may well have been his last game. He also had just 11 hitouts, 0% to advantage. PJ has 10 hitouts, 50% to advantage. Bring back Jamar!

Thanks. Still suffering the affects of a concussion, which probably explains why I wrote Sunday instead of Friday. Too bad the concussion won't make me forget the way we played tonight

Say what you like about Jamar, at least he can actually win a ruck contest! White is no longer interested.

Whelan can hold his head up high. Junior tries as always, but he is just not that good. Maric and Martin are the only two reasons why I stuck it out till three quarter time despite being extremely sick (wasn't gonna miss two games in a row, despite spending last Friday afternoon in hospital). Carroll is terrible, and White played like he couldn't care less. Bruce's first half was poor as well, but at least he got better in the third.

Well that just saved me 10 seconds of wasting time abusing someone who has absolutely no idea what the hell he's talking about. Thank you Brocky, your passion will go a long way to helping our club survive. What a complete champ!!!

His experience is invaluable, but I hope he only gets a 1 year deal given he is very injury prone. Great news nevertheless.

I would take a 6 goal or less loss as a victory. Seriously, we can't win.

Coming up after yet another Ramsay show in a few minutes...

I missed Saturday's game (first Victorian match I've missed in about 6 years I think) because I was really sick and I have a very important presentation coming up so didn't want to risk getting worse. However, nothing will keep me away from this match. In fact, if the Essendon match was our home game I would have dragged myself out of bed, because I know how desperate we are for numbers. Already notified work I'm leaving an hour early this Friday

Junior pretty much won all of our clearances. He had a massive influence on the match, but as usually Junior goes unheralded.

What now? He did a good job on McPhee, and from memory had one really poor kick. Layed some fantastic tackles too. What is the deal with people hating Daniel Bell all of a sudden?

I just think that calling someone who is clearly working hard and improving "one of the dumbest players this decade" is completely unnecessary. And I never ever said that handballing to stationary players is not stupid, I was just pointing out that this is an issue with a lot of our players (probably as they are still adapting to Bailey's game plan), and we shouldn't hang some for it but not others.

Both did their hamstrings apperantly, although it looked to me like Davey had his ankle iced, so who knows. Foxtel commentary is useless, they couldn't even tell who Maric was, they still thought Bartram wore the #19 jumper

Yeah, because he's the only players in the team that handballs to stationary players. Have you met our captain? Look Jamar is an ordinary player, but he makes the most of what he has. He plays within his limitations, he certainly uses his body well and at the moment he is significantly helping our midfield win the clearances, which is a ruckman's first and most important job. That he stuffed up a couple of handballs is hardly a massive issue. Morton's disposal wasn't great either, but people are still giving him votes.

There really is no love for Jamar on Demonland, is there. Seriously, he was the best ruckman on the ground today by a fair margin. He did stuff up in the goal square, but he works hard and IMO has a very good understanding of where to tap the ball, and how to help out his midfielders. We had a lot more tap-outs to advantage than Essendon did, and it was all thanks to Jamar. He definitely deserves at least 2 votes. I respect players who are not naturally gifted but work their backside off to help out the team. Jamar has really grown since White was sent to Sandy, and that's a credit to him.

For the first time in a long long time I had to stay home and watch the game on TV as I'm sick. I therefore had the great pleasure of listening to the Foxtel commentary (do these people ever just shut up? and can Shaw PLEASE learn how to properly pronounce players' names?!). Even the commentators were appalled at the disgraceful display of umpiring, that's how terrible they were. The inconsistencies and the fact that half the time they miss obvious things but pick up on a player sneezing 100 meters away on the opposite side just blows me away.

Jamar was simply outstanding in the middle. That fluffed kick at goal in the square broke my heart, because he so deserved to kick that goal. He is quite an ordinary footballer, but he works so hard and he really does know how to help the little blokes under him. His rucking today was superb and he took some good marks up forward. Sylvia's lazy attempt at stepping around 3 Essendon players in the first quarter instead of going in to lay the tackle ruined his day for me, but to his credit he did improve. I can't stand him when he plays like a millionaire and his brain fades and arrogance are costly, but he is talented and he can play and that can never be disputed. Garland was good again, Martin had a great last quarter and Bell kept McPhee quiet after he was on fire early against Garland.

And after all that I'm really sick and can't go. Stupid Saturday game!

CJ signed a new 2-year deal last year. Not sure about PJ. By the way, there is nothing stopping us from trading Newton (he has to agree of course, but he'd be an idiot to stay if we offered him up for trade). In fact, him being contracted is better for us as it means he can't leave for nothing. Very happy about the other signings. Anyone know the contract status of Moloney?

Completely throws my routine out to the window. Work has to change, meetings have to be re-organised. I didn't even realise it was a Saturday game until Tuesday afternoon when I had to book a meeting with a client. P.S.- Olympic ceremonies are a disgrace to sport. Who wants to watch 786 nations walking into a stadium with a flag, wearing some idiotic uniform? The MFC > Namibia's squash team!

He's struggling, and he needs a chance to work on his disposal minus the pressure of AFL. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being dropped in your second year of football. He is 19 and has taken on a massive workload and it's not helping him IMO. A break will be good for him.

Co-captains: Miller & McLean

Sure I'd trade CJ, for a second round pick. Who the hell will give us a second round pick for him? Nobody. Given that we've put 5 years into him, and picked him up with a third round pick, trading him for his current market value seems like a completely futile exercise. The likelihood of getting someone better than CJ with a third/fourth round pick (what he is roughly worth), is slim. There was a heated debate last year when CJ was put on the table during trade week. I argued that I do not want to get rid of him for the rumoured deal (late third round pick from memory), and I'm glad the club agreed. What we have in CJ may not be perfect, but the value he represents within the MFC far exceeds the value he represents in the open market, and hence he should and will stay.

If Schwab wants it, it's hard to see how he won't get it. IMO Fox is better suited for the job. Lets hope it's not mates-rates hour at the MFC.

Pashmina is fine hand-woven cashmere wool, or at least it used to be before every vendor in China discovered they can make 'pashmina' from man-made fibres (viscose) and now we've adopted the word to describe anything that has a soft, lightweight hand and looks like a shawl (you didn't really want to know, did you? :D)