poita

I don't especially hate Carlton or their supporters (not relative to Essendon and Hawthorn anyway), but I hope we give them one almighty flogging this week. That effort last year was abysmal, and it would be nice to be able to remove it from the memory bank. A three week stretch of beating a top team, beating a decent (or at least not completely awful) team interstate and belting a poor team would be just about perfect. That fact that we might still be in finals contention by the end of the weekend is a bonus. Hopefully there is no resting of players, no farewell games for soon to be ex-players and no one getting ahead of themselves and thinking about finals or round 23. Just four quarters of committed, smart football.

Fantastic news on both counts. Tom will be a top 5 defender in the competition by the time his contract runs out, if he isn't already, and Oscar is coming along beautifully as well. The only negative is that we have to go through this with Tom again in two years, instead of signing him up for four years. I would have given him the money now, from the Lumumba Pension Fund if necessary.

Any chance we might play more than a quarter this time? Our work after quarter time against Port in the past two Alice Springs games has been woeful. It's all about keeping the ball out of the hands of Wingard, Gray and Neade. And finding an opponent for Westhoff. Hopefully Lobbe plays, as Max is much more suited to him than Trengove.

Suban & Rohan. Any overrated, overpaid former premiership player. The dregs from Essendon's list.

He has plenty of talent, but he also has a tendency to do the common things uncommonly poorly. I hope he can find some more consistency within the next 50 games.

That would be a handy looking side if a certain former premiership player would front up occasionally.

Dawes and Wagner rested? Give me a break. Both have played 3 games in the past 6 weeks. Both need to go back to Casey and work on their shortcomings, in Dawes' case permanently. I'll be ropeable if that bludger plays against Port given his lack of form and fitness. Our forward structure has not been working with Dawes, so glad to see a change. Would have preferred Pedersen to Weideman for this game, but hopefully Sam can get a few touches. Not sure why Bugg is back if he didn't play at Casey last week. Why do we no longer reward guys who play well at Casey? I've seen nothing to suggest that Bugg's kicking has improved since he was dropped. Good to see Oliver back - hopefully he can play at least 70% game time this week. I'm not a Matt Jones fan, but I would have dropped others before him. Harmes and Garlett both lucky. Garlett owes us a big time - he has had less than 10 possessions in six of his seven games since signing his contract.

Congratulations Sam. Now, hopefully you partner up Hogan, and not Dawes.

I don't believe for a second that concussion is the only thing keeping Lumumba out of the side at present. I hope he does the honourable thing and asks the club to come to an arrangement to pay out his contract at year end, as I have never felt that he has fully committed to us. The worst thing for all concerned would be for him to continue to go through the motions for the next two years, particularly with talented youngsters battling for his position.

Hibberd, Melksham, Lumumba, Wagner, White, Hunt, Salem, etc. I'm not sure we need another HBF. The only circumstances under which I would want Hibberd are (a) if Lumumba retires / is delisted at year end and (b) Hibberd comes as a free agent. Anything else would detract from our ability to add talent where we desperately need it, ie midfield and key position.

Yet another one who has signed a new contract and gone walkabout immediately thereafter. Surely it is not team rules to kick a 30 metre chip to a contest inside defensive 50 with seconds to go? What does Roos do to tell players, particularly senior players, that this is not acceptable? If you are not smart enough to kick 50 metres along the boundary to your ruckman in a pressure situation, you should not be playing at this level. Bernie was poor last week, and dreadful yesterday. I don't understand why he is not playing in the midfield where he has played all his best football for the club. If he is not fit, he shouldn't be playing.

I've said it constantly, Dawes and Hogan can't play in the same team. Hogan is getting frustrated because Dawes is camping out in his leading space, so Hogan ends up chasing kicks up the ground. That would be okay if Dawes would bother leading occasionally, but all he does is stand there and attract a crowd. If Dawes is going to play, he needs to play in the goal square and provide cover for Hogan as he leads out. Pedersen and Hogan are a much better combination, because Pedersen is not so reliant on leading into space. Garlett is another who benefits from this, because Pedersen will at least make a contest and bring the ball to ground, whereas Dawes just falls in big heap when the pack forms around him. As good as he has been inside 50, I think Watts' best role is starting at the 50 and leading up to the ball carrier. Being the best kick in the team, he is then more likely to hit Hogan or one of the smalls inside 50, rather than having blokes like Kent taking possession and kicking 50 metres sideways to a contest.

In: Grimes, Terlich, Pedersen, Trengove Out: Garlett, Dawes, Wagner, Harmes. I'd love to have Oliver in the side, but not until he can play 70% or more. Vince plays defensive midfield, not getting shitty, cheap kicks across half back. Kent very lucky - I'd play him just to run through Mitchell. The inability of Dawes and Garlett to provide a contest or be accountable for an opponent cost us in round 11, and neither has done anything useful since. Wagner and Harmes are both turnover merchants, plus Wagner needs to learn to stay down and not fly into every pack he comes near. We can give this game a real shake, but we need to play a million times better than we did yesterday.

I have never taken less joy out of a win that that - absolutely pathetic from start to finish. Thank god for Jack Watts, he and he alone won that game for us. There was absolutely no joy in the reaction of the players in the GC goalsquare after Lynch's kick went wide, not sure if they didn't care or if they didn't think they deserved to win. For as supposed leader Bernie Vince was rubbish all game, and almost capped it off by giving the game away at the end. The sooner we stop giving players, excluding our best 4 or 5, new contracts during the season, the better. Vince, Garlett, Kent - none of them have done anything since resigning. Why Roos has hitched his wagon to the likes of Wagner, M.Jones, Kent and Harmes is beyond me. These guys consistently make bad decisions and skill errors, even under the bare minimum of pressure, let alone when the heat is on. As for Chris Dawes, he doesn't even deserve a spot at Casey, let alone in an AFL side. Won't lead, won't run, won't put his hands down to pick up the footy. Just go away. If Roos reckons that result might be more important long term than a 10 goal win, he should go away now too. That brand of football got us nowhere in 2014, so I'm not sure why it has resurfaced in late 2016. We will lose by 10 goals plus if we play like that in any of our remaining matches.

They are stats from this year. Same game plan, same midfield feeding them. Last weekend was a prime example of how our forward line doesn't work with Dawes in the side. 67 inside 50s for 8 goals is appalling by any standards. It is not how many goals Pedersen kicks versus how many Dawes kicks. It is how the forwards complement each other. If having Pedersen in the side brings out the best in Hogan and Watts, which I believe it does, then it doesn't matter what Pedersen contributes. The fact that he takes more marks and kicks more goals than Dawes is a bonus.

On paper we should win this easily, but it all depends on which Melbourne turns up. We score over 21 points a game (71) less with Dawes in the team than without him (92) , and over 31 points a game (102) less than with Pedersen in the team. We have to get our forward line setup right this week, and in my mind that means no Dawes.

How old do you think Martin Pike is? He started at Melbourne at least five years after Robbie retired.

With this many players available it is only a matter of time before we give Casey our annual rogering and send everyone in for early surgery. Prove me wrong please MFC.

We'll never be a decent side whilst we have certain players who are not subject to the same rules as the rest of the team. Dawes was dropped for his woeful performance against Adelaide. Had the next week off because Casey had the bye, and then got a note from his mummy so he didn't have to play last week. Then he comes straight back into the senior side with less match fitness and no form. He is a forward who can't take a mark and can't kick a goal, won't play in the ruck even though it suits our structure better and he won't play at Casey. What message does this send to the young forwards on our list? Otherwise the changes seem pretty reasonable, although I thought Grimes did enough against Freo to warrant a second chance. I hope Vandenberg's injury doesn't preclude him from playing his next match at Casey.

I'd really like to see us picking sides on the basis of the opposition and the venue, rather than just playing the same old favourites each week. Kennedy, White and Vandenberg are all as slow as treacle, and none should travel to Perth, or play seniors again for some time. Pedersen should come in regardless of form, as our forward line has been far worse since he disappeared. Frost is the next best defender, although I doubt he is strong enough for either Kennedy or Darling. We need another midfielder, preferably one with speed, so Stretch is in. Spencer and Oliver unlucky, but neither is suited to the venue. Both are better options against Gold Coast. Grimes, M.Jones, Wagner and Garlett are extremely lucky to stay in. Not convinced about O.McDonald yet, but every game he plays brings him closer to where he needs to be, whereas Dunn and Garland seem unlikely to improve from their recent poor showings.

Two points: (1) we are meant to be improving the team, not making it worse, at this stage of our development, and (2) it is not the number of goals, it is the manner in which they are conceded. As we saw yesterday, you have players like Viney and Watts busting their backsides to keep us in the game, and then you have soft goals conceded down the other end. It absolutely kills the confidence and any momentum we were building..

Average player playing below average football. I don't hate him as a half forward, but he is definitely not a midfielder. He doesn't get enough football, doesn't use it well enough and is seemingly not capable of playing as a defensive midfielder.

Neal-Bullen needs to develop some serious tricks to make it AFL level. At the moment he is just a mid-sized plodder with average skills and and average level of competitiveness. If he can't become a Viney / Oliver-style animal at the contest, he is going to have to improve his skills by both hand and foot by 100%. If he starts hitting the scoreboard at Casey you could potentially see him taking Kennedy's role, but that would be it.

Just a pathetic effort all round really. Bad selection, awful coaching, and a collection of untalented, uncommitted footballers going about their business in a half hearted manner. Everything about that game reminded me of 2014 - couldn't score, couldn't stop the opposition scoring and players generally racking up cheap, pointless possessions whilst going nowhere near their opponents (exhibit A: Bernie Vince; exhibit B: Neville Jetta). The scoreboard seriously flattered us - we deserved to lose by ten goals plus, and would have if St Kilda had taken their chances. Yet again Gawn gets beaten and the rest of the team (excluding Viney) fall in a big heap. I haven't seen N.Jones play a worse game, Vince was useless and Hogan had his mind elsewhere, even before getting injured. Why we play a team full of flankers each week is beyond me - we need midfielders who can pinch hit forward or back, not half baked players like Kennedy and Wagner who do their main job poorly, and who have no fall back position. White has probably played his last game, Garlett was disinterested again, and guys like Vandenberg and M.Jones aren't up to the task. I'm Jack Grimes' biggest fan, but he was terrible today, and we all know that Roos doesn't give him the latitude of certain others. I said on Friday we were short a marking forward and a genuine midfielder, and I stand by that. Add the withdrawal of Frost, and we were down a key defender as well. Roos was horribly outcoached yet again. He is extraordinarily overrated, both here and by the football community in general. Where is the plan B? Where are the moves to change things up, or to stop the opposition's momentum? No, lets stick to the same old players, doing the same dumb things, and hope for the best. I'd love to know how much of a say he has at selection, because this is quite clearly a group of players who is not up to the task. We are currently ranked 11th, will probably be lower after the weekend, and have not beaten a team above us since round 1. If we have improved from last year, it has been by a miniscule amount.

Pretty ordinary bench this week. A few blokes out of form, a couple who will be underdone, and a few who are just depth players. I think we are a short a genuine midfielder and a marking forward, and oversupplied for flankers.