Jaded No More

There is no point getting angry or throwing the towel in. We knew what this year was going to be like, and when you go into a game with 14 players yet to play 50 games, what the hell do you expect? I take heart watching Morton for example, Bennell's evasive skills give me hope and our backline is holding up under the greatest of pressures. And you know what, we were equally as bad last year, but the difference was we were equally as bad with an old team. I rather suck with a young team, than have to watch the same old faces making mistakes. No idea what is going on with McLean, but it's so depressing to see!

Spewing that I've got something on that day, but will be checking my iphone every two minutes for updates from Demonland. It'll probably be the best game of football Melbourne supporters are likely to see this year.

As per usual we let the opposition kick a mountain of goals in a very short period of time, and it all starts with our midfield going to sleep halfway through the quarter. We know our forward line is terrible, but if the boys in the middle cannot get their hands on the footy, that's when we get smashed. We can keep up with the opposition despite our non-existent attack, but when we let Port Adelaide dominate every single center clearance it's inevitable that we'll get our arses handed to us on a platter. Also, please please can someone put some firecrackers up Bate's arse.... his slowness makes him an actual liability, which is a shame because his skills are ok once he gets the ball. On a positive note, Meesen is actually doing ok in the centre, but on the downside he is losing his opponent far too easily around the ground. PJ needs a run at Casey and in fact should have been dropped instead of Spence. Jetta and Bennell having much better games, and finally Davey is having a real impact on a game of footy. But we need so much more from McLean, Moloney and Jones or else we will get smashed again. P.S.- Someone kill Chad Cornes!!!!

By far the best first quarter we've had in Adelaide in the last 10 years, which says a lot about our inability to play there. Sylvia has taken his idiocy to a whole new level, Bate is horrendously slow, and our forward line couldn't complete against the Sunshine Nursing Home, but somehow we're not getting flogged yet. Rivers, Martin, Morton and Jonesy playing well. McLean at least getting his hands on the ball. Umpires are killing us. Bring on the second quarter!

Great result. Was actively barracking for Essendon for the first time in my life, and while I feel very dirty and disgusted now, my hatred for all things Carlton just took over. CJ's stuff up in the goal square was the cherry on top of Carlton's misery cake.

Too early?

Jones is an obvious in, and it would be harsh to drop Spence for Meesen (should have dropped PJ!), plus you would think Cheney has done enough to get another game. That leaves one change, which IMO should be In: Dunn Out: Jetta

Not everyone received those PMs, however the poster's account has since been deleted.

The fact that he's a father means he deserves punishment for an even larger number of reasons. If he can set upon a completely innocent man he's never met before, imagine what he could do to his kid when the kid misbehaves or gets on his nerves! That every feral is allowed to breed is precisely the reason why we have so many mistreated and misguided children in the world, but that's a different story altogether :angry:

Precisely. Not every good player is a good leader, and vice versa. Rivers might be a good leader in the backline on gameday, but he might not be the type who can, or even wants to lead a team. That doesn't mean he is troubled, it just means he is not a natural leader and he doesn't aspire to learn how to be one. Besides, you don't have to be given the title of leader in order to be one.

The only things that disgusted me about that Carlton game was the fact that their supporters were cheering when they missed goals, that some of their players seemed to deliberately miss easy set shots, and that they left TJ on his own for the entire game (although that may have helped us trade him, so thanks Carlton :D). I would hate for us to do that, and if I ever went to a game where my own supporters were cheering AGAINST their team, I would be extremely upset. However, some of the list management suggestions I wrote earlier, are very different to actively trying to coach a loss on game day. At the end of the day I didn't care that they left out some of their better players and started sending them off for surgeries earlier than usual (we did and should do the same again if necessary!), that was simply good strategic management. But they could have beaten us that day, and the players themselves didn't try to do that. At the moment we are simply not good enough to beat most teams in the competition, but I would still like our players to play to the best of their ability every single week, regardless of how many wins we have on the board or who our opposition is. It's up to the match committee, list managers and coaching staff to decide how we can best utilise our list to reduce our chance of winning PRIOR TO THE MATCH! Of course given that we play Carlton and St Kilda in Round 21 and 22, it seems highly unlikely we'll have to come up with strategies to become more beatable

I haven't been to a game in Adelaide since high school... but I'm sure AAMI Stadium is as pleasant and as beautiful as ever Normally I never sit with the cheer squad, but do yourself a favour and find the biggest cluster of Melbourne supporters you can find, and stay there. Very very unpleasant sitting anywhere else. I will never forget the horrible experience of sitting with Port members during a night match many years ago, when we lost by only a few points (which for us is like a victory over there ). Thankfully my boyfriend at the time was there to protect me, or I may seriously have been beaten to death. Watch out for flying plastic cups, and drunk men who may or may not throw up in your general direction. It's a classy joint that AAMI stadium

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Imagine how much worse we'd be today had we lost that match... my god, we might even be sitting on zero wins right now

Developing a winning culture is great... when the team is not rubbish and is actually capable of winning games. At this stage of the year, we can only continue to do what we're doing so far. That is, play the kids, stick to the game plan, experiment (Petterd as a forward, Davey playing out of the backline etc...) and place the greatest emphasis on competing for 4 quarters. That is not tanking, but it won't get us wins either, which is simply the reality of the situation. IMO the issue comes later in the year, where one of two things will happen. Either our young bodies will tire and we'll start seeing less and less competitive quarters, or the players will become more and more comfortable with the game plan and we'll string some good games together and possibly even a few wins. If it's round 18 and we're on 3 wins, I would be extremely disappointed if some clever 'list management' wasn't applied to enable us to lose the last 4 rounds of the year. That's not to say that I want our players to display the sort of Round 21-22 rubbish we saw last year, but it would be wise to maybe rest Rivers and McLean (if they even make it to round 18 :D), maybe some of our better kids have 'general soreness', maybe a couple of players who are struggling to stay on the list all of a sudden are given some game time (hello Newton). This is the sort of stuff I would like to see the club implement if it looks likely that we can snap up two first round priority picks. Short term pain for long term gain. We need to look beyond this year, and beyond our selfish desires to go to the G' and see our team pull a couple of wins out of their behind. Afterall, does anyone give a [censored] that we beat the Dogs in 2007? Wouldn't it have been nice to get Watts AND Niknat/Rich/etc... last year instead of just Watts? If we're not going to even come close to playing finals, than the biggest reward we can get out of 2009 is having the two best kids in the country join our club.

While I like the idea in general, because it eliminates the need to have a useless second ruckman who can't go forward and kick goals, or go back and defend (sorry PJ), rucking is a very specialised position that requires a lot of training. Martin's very limited knowledge of the position worries me at this stage, because ruck injuries are common and often serious and we don't need Martin's inexperience causing him unnecessary injuries. The other issue of course is, long term are we really going to use him as a ruck? If the answer is no (and IMO it is, given that we do need to develop Spencer and either use him with Jamar or find us a better back-up) then what's the point of confusing the poor kid and making him learn a new position for no reason? Martin is so new to the game as it is, and while he has picked up the skills and ball-reading ability remarkably quick, we shouldn't be messing him around. A future move into the forward line however could be something to think about, and I would say Bailey and Co were considering it prior to Garland's injury (which is why Martin played forward with Casey). Until Garland is back, Martin stays a defender. Beyond that, where and how we use Martin will depend entirely on the level of crapness of our forwards.

If you're referring to the channel 7 interview, than it looked to me like it was a 'Today Tonight' invasion-style interview. The poor guy clearly didn't know he was going to be interviewed, and the reporter was literally standing outside the door just questioning him (their TV was on too, which kind of distracted from the whole thing, and clearly demonstrates how stupid channel 7 really is :D). Had the club known that an interview was going to take place I'm sure the right polo would have been organised, however I doubt the club said to Jonesy "sorry your old man had his nose and ribs broken, please give him a new top to wear in case some [censored] reporter feels like knocking on his door for an unannounced interview, thanks" Professionalism is having Jim Stynes and Nathan Jones front up the media and discuss the issue in a calm manner. Giving the guy who was bashed up a new polo so he can plug our sponsor is just a tad self-serving, and would seem as if we are trying to make a profit out of someone's misfortune. I know you're not the club's greatest advocate at the moment DeeBest, but boy you seem to be clutching at straws right now.

When playing alongside Robbo, Neita and Miller?

Every tiny detail is planned in AFL these days. That's the way the game is going. You have to be a thinking footballer to be an elite player. That we didn't have any set plans under Daniher would go a long way towards explaining why we were up and down like a smack addict every year. It would also explain why mediocre players made it to 100 games under Daniher. They all played to their strengths and natural abilities... it's just such a shame that they didn't have much of either.

When was the last time Newton kicked 2 or 3 goals at AFL level? You can play him, but you run the risk of having another useless tall clogging up the bench as we once again run out of legs mid-way through the second quarter. I'd rather play someone like Maric who can mark and kick a goal, or crumb goals off Miller/PJ/Spence/Bate/*insert name of makeshift forward*, or even push up the ground and play in the middle. That's versatility that we can use no matter which way the game is going. Newton is one-dimensional, and his one dimension has proved rather disappointing thus far.

God we miss Robbo in the team! Miller, Bate and Petterd will have a much easier time when he's there.

If you build a game plan around average players, you will always get average results. Please refer to seasons 2001-2007. Never ever compromise your plan to succeed around unsuccessful players. Bailey has a vision of how he wants us to play, that vision may be tweaked over the years, but the fundamentals of quick precise ball movements will not. Those who can't adapt shall find the nearest exist and get on the next plan to the Gold Coast.

Martin had 4 contested marks yesterday (Warnock 2). That's 3 more than our entire team took last week. Gun!

He's been ordinary since 2007? My my what short memory we have. He was excellent last year until injured, and cast your mind back to Jones not getting a touch last year when McLean was out of the team and all the attention was on him. He has plenty of runs of the board, and is by far our best midfielder when up and running. You can't drop PJ and let Gigantisorous play on his own. If you drop PJ and don't play Meesen you need to let Martin contest in the ruck, which could work, but knowing our luck Brogan will run into him at the bounce, he'll do a knee and never play again. I'd rather Meesen embarrasing us, than Martin injured.

Come on then Rhino, who do you have replacing McLean in next week's team?... yeah I didn't think so. I think you'll find that I'm very much aware of how poorly McLean is performing at the moment, but the fact remains that he still demands the opposition's best tagger and it's been 2 games and we're getting comprehensively smashed in the ruck which is not helping. I'd drop PJ not because Meesen is likely to be any better, but because PJ need a good kick up the arse. He has become lazy, which is unacceptable.