Jaded No More

Firstly, the changes were going to come POST round 7, you know, since we have a week off after this week's match. Secondly, the decisions the club were going to make post round 6 are more to do with players' future, who will remain on the list beyond 2008 and can therefore be signed on (if they are out of contract) etc... It is much more a list management thing as far as I understood it to be. On field changes are going to happen each week regardless, but you achieve nothing by dropping a whole host of players and rattling an already unsettled team. On form, Dunn deserves to be dropped. Yes it's disappointing for him, but he'll go back to the VFL for a couple of games and come back into the senior side when ready. We can't expect them to drop under-performing senior players, but keep playing kids who are struggling. Nobody deserves preferential treatment. Anyways, lets wait and see who else gets dropped. Bench should be: M.Bate, M.Jamar, B.Moloney, M.Warnock With a heavy heart I think Bell needs a week in the VFL just to get some of his touch back, and there is just no way Warnock deserves to be dropped after his game last week.

Except that Bruce averages 5.5 errors a match, and Sylvia's average is 5.8. They both average less than 2 contested possessions a game too. Give it a rest Yze_Magic, or it might fall off.

We absolutely need all the support we can get this week. It is essential that we break even in these matches because I personally don't want to have to sell anymore home games! So if you're free this Sunday and you wake up and think "too cold", "can't be bothered", "we'll probably lose", think how much worse it would be if you didn't have the choice of going to watch our beloved club play at the MCG anymore. Besides, as if you want to miss the lone-trumpeter show!

Sorry, I couldn't resist

I must say that I am no expert on this matter, and I do understand where you are coming from. Rich poses a far less risky choice, and when you have the number one pick, wasting it is an absolute disaster and will prove costly for years to come. My question regarding Natanui is whether he can be an effective marking midfielder (hard to see him outmarked given his leap) or alternatively can he become a forward in the mould of Franklin? At the moment we have players who can either ruck but have no influence around the ground, or players who can impact a game but can't really ruck. If he can do both, and this is where Cox and Ottens etc... become invaluable to their sides,then it will be hard to go past him. I have no doubt that Rich will end up as a very good/elite player, but can he ruck? can he play KP? can Natanui? Rich is the safer bet, Natanui is the unique one. Given that we are lacking in every area (apart from inside mids), you would welcome any good player into the mix. But it is very difficult not to get swayed by the unique proposition of Natanui's skills, his height and his athleticism. If he makes it, he'll not only be a great player, but he'll be the only player of his kind in the AFL and that's truly invaluable.

Ah, so this is where the other 6 supporters who come to games with me are!

No wonder the players made such soft selections when confronted with the task of choosing their leadership group. Can't see Robbo, Yze or Bruce having 'harsh words' to anyone. Loved seeing Frawley get angry and vocal at his teammates when nobody came to help him in a contest against Bradshaw. Good on him, he deserves support and when his lazy teammates are standing around fixing their hair, they should be made to feel guilty about leaving a young kid on his own. Rivers did the same thing a couple of weeks ago if memory serves me right. We need leaders who are hard on themselves and hard on their teammates. None of this "you are just lacking confidence" crap. Accountability on and off the field, it's such a foreign concept to most of our players.

Warnock most definitely deserves another game. Played probably his best match on Sunday. Whelan will obviously come in after serving his suspension, Valenti may get promoted and if Bate is fit we have to make room for him. As for omissions, throw a dart, whoever you hit is out with 'suspected eye injury following tragic dart-throwing incident'.

He is the sort of spineless loser who will go out and target Cale Morton. One less idiot to worry about.

Should beat Essendon, and could beat Carlton. Plus 2 wins against Melbourne. Beat Freo at Subi, so no reason they can't beat them at the G'.

You're kidding me aren't you? Our forward line is pathetic, with Neita all but gone, Robbo falling to the ground at every contest, and Davey gone missing, who the hell do we have in our forward line that demands long and direct kicks to them? Sydney have Hall, and a plethora of other gun forwards. West Coast have Lynch, a bit on the crap side, but he sure can take a mark. They also have an actual CHF. We don't. Our forwards are no longer great like they once were. They now need all the help they can get. Don't go kidding yourself that we are robbing our multi-faceted forward line of great service. Our forward line couldn't master a decent scoreline if you handed them the ball on a friggin silver platter. By the way, I think Bailey is hoping to make the transition to more of a Geelong game style. The problem is, that Geelong's backline is far better equipped to quickly rebound the ball.

Bate is recovering from injury, Newton was suspended last week in the VFL, and Buckley is learning how to hit targets.

It's true. In the last quarter, when the pressure was off, we were able to find space to carry the ball forward quickly, and we also got first possession in the middle, which allowed us to control the ball movement and tempo of the game. I don't think Bailey is necessarily instructing the players to handball at every opportunity, he simply wants them to move the ball forward as quickly as they possibly can, without actually bombing it to a 3-on-1 and hoping for a contested mark (contested marks? at Melbourne? good one!). The biggest challenge for our playing list is to be able to execute this style under the intense pressure of the game. It's no wonder that we've played a lot better in the last quarters of matches, when the game was beyond our reach and the pressure was lifted. It's a matter of changing the way the players think. After 10 years of being coached to kick, it is no wonder that their first instinct is to look for a target down field, and then they panic thinking they need to handball and they stuff it all up and we lose rhythm. Old habits die hard, especially bad habits. This is where chasing, accountability and pressure needs to become second nature to our player, because the way the game is evolving, nobody is going to let you get a cheap possession, especially not in finals.

Dean Bailey has had 6 rounds of AFL footy, FFS how the hell do you know that he won't adapt? He too is assessing the list, in the same way that Clarkson did. His conclusion? We're awful and no game plan is going to change that in a hurry. And we are not playing a game plan that is exclusive to Port Adelaide. Many teams have played similar styles of accountable, running football and won flags.... Sydney, Geelong, West Coast. Finals footy is based on getting contested possessions and pressuring the ball carrier. This explains why we made 3 finals in a row and won just one. We were living in fools paradise, now we and Bailey understand what the major flaws with our list are. Let's see what he does next.

West Coast Eagles team mascot > Melbourne Football Club Nothing to worry about as far as I'm concerned. They are still better than us, and they still have a far greater home ground advantage than we do. I'm worried about Carlton and Freo.

My biggest concern is that we have nobody who can step up and replace those who don't deserve to play in the seniors. That's what happens when you get rid of all of your depth players (and thank god we did, don't get me wrong). You are left with a top 22-25 and another 15 who are too young/raw to play league footy. So maybe you get rid of Robbo and hopefully Bate is fit and can replace him. Jamar, while he is probably the worst footballer ever, should play alongside PJ and/or Meesen for the rest of the season, because White is not going to be around next season. You can bring in Valenti and drop Moloney, but all you're really doing is shuffling deck-chairs on the Titanic. Of the other senior players, Junior and Bruce are going nowhere given they were made co-captains during the week, Green is actually playing well enough and Whelan is required when fit. Oh and get it through your head, Miller is not going to get dropped!

Hard to get worse when you've done nothing for 5 years. He is running harder and has a bit more speed, that's good. He still has minimal to no impact on games, that's nothing new.

6- Jones 5- Aussie 4- Green 3- Moloney (actually hit targets instead of bombing long all the time!) 2- Bruce (disposal still pathetic) 1- Warnock (encouragement award, plus everyone else had a shocker)

I'm sure they hit every target at training, because there is no pressure. So it's not as if they don't work on their skills at training. Playing one on one in the backline when Bradshaw has kicked 98 goals against us in the past, and Jonathan Brown is lurking, is crazy. Not many teams do it, let alone teams who are struggling as badly as we are. The whole game plan is built around accountability and pressure on the ball-carrier, that we can't execute it, is another story. Maybe Bailey is not getting the message across, maybe he didn't realise just how slow to adapt we'll be, maybe the players are not listening to him because they don't like the game plan. Who the hell knows. Whatever the case, Bailey deserves to show us what he can do over the next 3 seasons. That is the length of his contract, and that is the length of the opportunity that he deserves. And I'll say it again, I rather find players who can adapt to a game plan that will stand up in finals, than adapt the game plan to players who won't.

Exactly. Maybe it just takes us 3 quarters to switch on? We all now that as a team, we are not the most mentally stable one going around. Perhaps it's not until we are getting smashed that we realise, 'oh hang on, this is football, where the aim of the game is to score more than your opponent'

Demonland is awesome when the team is struggling

Warnock wasn't bad. His disposal was good, and he had some nice spoils. I've seen worse players in Melbourne's backline. We have to give him and Frawley a chance this year, unless we're happy to keep playing Carroll in the FB position and watch him get smashed each week.

Indeed. We should have lost by over 100 given how many times Brisbane had the ball in their forward 50. Pressure was off in the last quarter and hence we played a lot better. We cannot play football under pressure. I'm sure we hit targets at training too. Oh and the game plan is always going to change when you get first possession in the midfield, which we didn't do all day until the last quarter (and Belly finally played in the midfield... WOO! :D)

To pull off Bailey's game plan, you need to be exceptionally skilled, because once you turn it over, you are stuffed. We unfortunately turn it over again and again and again. When we get our hands on the footy and move the ball forward quickly with handballs and then a kick inside the forward 50, we score and we look fairly good. The problem is we are struggling to get and KEEP our hands on the ball. Turnovers galore. I've counted no more than 6 disposals in a row from Melbourne before we turn it over. That's woeful.

I don't think he could either, doubt he's trying to out-do himself each week... lets see how much worse we can get with each passing round <_< But what has happened to this team that they have lost all basic skills? How can professional players turn the ball over 9 out of 10 times?