Jaded No More

I thought both Dunn and Petterd spent time on Le Cras, who got a couple of easy goals when left unattended. I only remember Grimes giving up 1 goal from a direct one-on-one battle with him?? Although it was hard to tell, because the defence became a bit of a mess once Frawley and Rivers finished up.

Agreed. I know you're not a Dunn fan, but in the absence of our 3 best tall defenders, I'd like to see what he can do in defence. He was thrown in there yesterday and did a reasonable job, let's see if he can develop that. Wouldn't even mind giving Bate a game down back, given he played a defensive position as a junior. Cheney deserves a call up, and McNamara should debut (perfect timing).

Thought he was in the bottom 6 players for us. Finally got some glue on his hands in the second half, but he is so so bad below his knees it's painful to watch. I know we can't blame a player for a physical inability, but the game is way too quick for someone like Bate to spend 5 minutes fumbling the ball at ground level. Stef Martin and PJ can pick balls up cleanly off the deck. That Bate can't is a massive worry. He is pretty much a half-a-body player.

I never suggested Bruce had a poor game. But Grimes' disposal efficiency was also 82% yesterday, so why does one get judged for his mistakes (in what is his SECOND game), while the other doesn't? We want to see the club develop kids, but as with Maric last week, or Bennell a few weeks back, we'll have a crack when they stuff up. I thought Grimes was great in just his second game. Calm, collected and poised he stood tall in a very undermanned defence. To not praise him for his efforts, but instead pick on the two solitary mistakes he made by foot, just seems so unfair to me.

Agree with most of the above, but... I'm wondering what optimism you saw from Bate today, and how Bruce is a true leader despite turning the ball over constantly, but Grimes (in his second game) gets a bit of a serve for a couple of turnovers? Grimes looks like he's played 100 games already.

Bate??? what the hell? He'd be competing for WOG, not BOG!

He's more a medium sized defender, and I'd say he'd replace Frawley in taking the best mid-sized forward. Will be interesting to see if he gets a game, and if he does, how he'll play. Probably a perfect week for him to play, given the Dogs have a wide range of medium forwards.

McNamara!

I'm a bit worried that you misread my comments to the point of thinking I was actually defending him. I'm not. I think it's a well known fact that Sylvia struggles to get involved, but when he does get the ball, he can use it. If he didn't have the talent, do you think he'd still be on our list, given his history with off field issues and injuries? And BRFE might enjoy having a crack, but I doubt he disagrees too much with my views on Sylvia, Newton or Bate.

While he is a great defender, which young player would you drop to fit him into the backline (assuming he was fit)? It will only hurt us in the long run if we send Bennell back to the VFL when Whelan clearly hasn't got a lot of time left.

Your men crushes are cursed! If Grimesy gets injured again I'm hunting you down and killing you. :angry:

The game hasn't gotten twice as quick in one season Rhino! Plus McLean can still read the play better than most and find a lot of space, even though he is primarily an inside midfielder. He is getting better each game, but obviously the wide spaces of Subiaco just don't agree with him, because he looked spent after the game. By the way, talent (i.e.- ability to mark and kick) is not impacted by an ability to get involved. Some players are low possession getters by nature, but are highly skilled. Sylvia knows what to do with the ball once he gets it, or once it is kicked to him, the problem is, he doesn't know how to get it or demand it. In his junior years, he was the star and the game plan revolved around him. He didn't need to work hard to win the ball. AFL doesn't work like that, especially when you're trying to become a midfielder. Sylvia obviously hasn't been able to adjust to not being the centre of the universe, and that is a real shame.

His leg is likely to snap in half and fall off if he tries to kick the ball any harder. The ball weighs about the same as he does! Morton's disposal is risky, not poor. Like TJ (and Davey!) he tries a lot of low percentage kicks, and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't (sometimes they don't work because the player on the receiving end is horrible). I'm happy for him to keep taking risks, because as we get better, his risks will pay off big time, especially since he keeps on winning that ball. I like that he's creative enough to think through situations, instead of just bombing long or going for stupid little chip kicks that end up nowhere. Bailey too, is obviously happy to keep letting him play his natural game. If you start limiting his creativity, you'll ruin him. Most geniuses are flawed

We're taking a temporary break. We'll resume our services shortly... hopefully...

There is definitely something going on with McLean. He is either lacking fitness due to an incomplete pre-season, or is carrying an injury. It's not possible that at his age, he has gotten suddenly really slow and really poor at kicking the ball. I wish Sylvia would get more involved in the game, because he will do a couple of brilliant things and then disappear for minutes on end. It's a shame because the talent is not lacking, but he just gets lost out there.

Took a couple of great, brave marks in the backline too. While he looks like a terminally ill patient (he is all skin and bones, it's frightening), he sure as hell doesn't play like one. Keeps on improving and is a real chance to become elite in a couple of years. Ugh, no! Bowden is the most useless possession gatherer going around. Half of his possessions are the result of Richmond [censored] farting around with the ball in the back-half.

6- Jones (superb) 5- Morton (ball magnet) 4- Davey (the spark) 3- Miller (our best forward) 2- PJ (did extremely well against the best in the business) 1- Grimes (encouragement votes) Apologies to pretty much everyone else who worked really hard. A special mention to Warnock and Marin who, in the absence of Rivers and Frawley, stood tall and kept to their task. Another special mention to Bartram for shutting down Kerr (who admittedly is injured).

Not even close. McLean was good in the trenches and worked extremely hard to get into space. His disposal was hit and miss, but at least he got the ball. Sylvia had 4 touches at half time. There is no comparison between the two. One has plenty of runs on the board, the other takes a couple of good marks a game and then falls asleep.

I was jumping around like a maniac in the living room, yelling at the TV, because while the game was on, all I wanted us to do was win. But as soon as the siren went, I was happy with the result. In better years, with better teams, we were regularly smashed over there. To walk away with a narrow margin, having just 20 fit players for over half a game, is a great result... and we're one game closer to adding two of the best kids in the country to our developing list. Oh and Bate needs to go far far away. He is having a terrible season and is lucky that his only replacement at this stage is Newton, who is even worse. Thank god Green is not far away.

You can't say he lost us the game, but he certainly didn't help us win it I'll thank him at the end of the year if this loss brings us Butcher and Scully :D

Best possible result. Fought hard, and those priority picks are still looking good. It'll all be worth it at the end of the year. Well done boys, a massively hard-fought game. Bate had a stinker, and Robbo did very little, but everyone else contributed really well and given we were two players down for more than half a match, we did extremely well to nearly steal the win.

Yes, which gives them two weeks to rest up and get themselves right.

I was ready to praise Grimes again, then he fluffed that kick and cost us a goal... still having a good game though! :D And Bennell, that boy has class written all over him. He's the second coming of Davey. Let's hope Rivers and Frawley are good to go against Hawthorn, or that will turn into one ugly game.

ARGH!!!!!!! Stop controlling the game and then giving away easy goals Melbourne... please. FFS!

Robbo is keeping Glass out of the action, and leaving Miller to play on a lesser defender. That's already a big win for us.