poita

Lumumba, Stretch, Newton, Neal-Bullen, Harmes, MIchie and a very tired Brayshaw = too many players who don't get enough football. That leaves a huge amount for Jones, Vince and Viney to do.

So Carlton reckon Henderson, Yarran and Menzel are all worth first round picks. They'd be lucky to get a first round pick for all three in a package deal, let alone individually. Yarran clearly has a bad attitude, Menzel is always injured and barely gets a touch anyway, and Henderson is probably best as a second or third forward / defender.

You can't honestly tell me that Lumumba has been better value than Matt Jones in recent weeks. A bench containing Bail, Newton, Riley and Jamar is as bad as anything we dealt with last year. Plus Brayshaw who should have been rested a month ago, and has struggled ever since. I can't see that Stretch's average 9.5 possessions a game warranted another opportunity this year either. A half decent side would beat Carlton by ten goals. We might get them by three if we're lucky.

Lumumba has a contested game? All I've seen is him trailing his opponent by 5 metres on every occasion, flailing his limbs about wildly. If he was anyone else he would have been at Casey for the past two months.

He wasn't in our best 22 when he left, so good luck to him for stretching his career for another four years or so. Ultimately he played his best football as third man up - when teams woke up to this and made him be accountable he was found out. Just an average - good player at the end of the day.

Fewer games on free to air TV, more games in rubbish time slots (eg Thursday nights) = win for football fans in the eyes of the AFL. They won't have any fans left by the end of the new deal at this rate. Apparently the networks have no control over the fixture, it is all in the hands of the AFL. If you believe that, you would believe that Vladimir Putin is Santa Claus in his spare time. I can't see why we can't have two games on Friday night, like the NRL do, instead of worrying about twilight games and Thursday nights.

This sort of attitude is exactly why this club has been pitiful for nine years. It doesn't matter whether the players try or not, it doesn't matter whether we win or lose, just pretend it didn't happen and move on to the next woeful performance. Forget trying to attract new members and new sponsors. Forget trying to build a product and a brand that is attractive to the AFL and its media outlets so that we get the TV coverage and publicity and favourable draw that people whinge about incessantly. All that matters is that the same old saps hand over their cash each year so that the club can continue to kid itself that it matters to anyone outside the diehards. Bad luck when the kids of the 1950s die out and our membership is cut in half. This is the first time I've been able to watch a game at home with my 5 year old son this year - he wanted to turn over to the netball by quarter time. And the club wonders why it can't attract junior members / supporters. Sorry to all the lovers and dreamers out there, but every game matters.

Feel sorry for the Ratten family, but any combination of speed, drugs, alcohol, an unlicensed driver, no seatbelts, bad weather and teenagers with death wishes is always going to end poorly. Just lucky they didn't take any innocent people out with them.

This is what happens when you have (a) a coach who has no investment in the club other than collecting a massive pay check each month and (b) a playing group that chooses if and when it will come to play because the majority have no fear of being dropped or otherwise held accountable for their dismal performances and pizzweak efforts (exhibit 1: Lumumba). As soon as we concede two or three early goals we collectively decide its all too hard and give up - won't tackle, won't shepherd, won't chase, won't present to the ball carrier, won't put our bodies on the line, etc, etc. And the coach has all the tactical nous and innovation of a jar of vegemite, so there is no chance of him changing things up to try and change the flow of the game. After conceding the first five goals we should have stacked the backline for ten minutes just to get our hands on the footy for a while, but no we let the Bulldogs run in another 7 goals unchecked. Roosy tells us there were plenty of positives last week, and I'm sure he found plenty of positives from yesterday as well. I'm sure the same old suspects (Bail, M.Jones, Grimes) will be dropped this week and Roosy's pets will live to see another day. PS. Whoever the moron is who lets Cross, McDonald and Lumumba get away with their ridiculous handballing inside defensive 50 on a weekly basis, he or she should be taken outside and beaten. If in doubt, just kick the ball as far away from the opposition goals as possible. Most of their first quarter goals were a direct result of our handling errors.

I still believe Watts will end up being the best player from that draft. He is arguably behind Sidebottom, Hurley, Ziebell and Naitanui at present, but he has made up a decent amount of ground this year. The others on the list are mostly just average (Vickery) to good (Hartlett) players.

It would be an expensive exercise to pay out all those players with contracts for next year.

What were the stats of Michie & Newton in their state league comps? There tends to be a reason some of these guys can't get a game at AFL level.

Trade for Lumumba?

Isn't that how much we are paying Lumumba? I'd take Howe five times over at that price before Lumumba.

I have no interest in Yarran, but if Carlton are so desperate to offload him that they accept a Garlett style deal, I can't see the harm. Anything more than that, no thanks. As long as Roos is prepared to play him at Casey as required to give him a rocket, which he won't do with several high profile players. I'm more worried about us trading out quality players and people (eg Grimes) for next to nothing.

Only six months to resolve an issue with positive tests and admissions by the players? Glad we didn't let that one fester for too long.

Surely we can find something better for Robbo to do than spruik for our sponsors in each break. Howie's Hangers is okay, but the other rubbish is just embarrassing. Were there actually any Melbourne supporters sitting in the bay that won the Demon Shop vouchers?

Out: Michie & Lumumba, hopefully both to spend the rest of the year at Casey. In: Don't really care. Salem and VDB if fit.

Another game lost by a playing group that chooses if and when it will come to play, and to a lesser extent inept coaching and selection. Can anybody name one thing that Roos did yesterday to change things up? Viney, Hogan, Dawes (!) and Tyson can hold their heads high. Not too many others. Gawn was well beaten by Goldstein when it mattered. No disgrace in that, but a second ruckman would have been handy. Dawes did okay in support, but we robbed the forward line to play him in the ruck. We got slaughtered in the centre, particularly in the first quarter, and that was probably the reason we lost the game. Jones had a bloke hanging off him all day, and Vince and Viney play from behind at centre bounces too often. Lumumba was worst on ground and needs to play the next month at Casey. Aside from one decent run and pass inside 50, he looked totally disinterested. I'm sick of his pea-heartedness. Garlett was a very close second. I'm a big Watts fan, but he was very poor yesterday. Michie is not an AFL player, and hopefully we don't see him again. Jetta was well beaten all day. Brayshaw looks cooked to me. The rest came and went as it suited them.

Jesse has been extraordinarily good this year and nobody is saying otherwise, but he turned 20 before the start of the season. The extra two years in the gym makes this a completely different scenario to Franklin or Roughead coming in and playing at 18. Franklin kicked 73.62 in the year he turned 20 by way of comparison.

I had visions of us copping the 4.40pm Sunday timeslot. 1.10pm is a much better outcome, even if that is Father's Day. Even with the early start, playing the Giants at Etihad in round 23 on Fathers Day could still set a record low attendance. At least the weather won't be an excuse. Friday, September 4 Richmond v North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium, 7.50pm AEST (Channel 7) Saturday, September 5 Geelong v Adelaide at Simonds Stadium, 1.05pm AEST (Fox Sports) Brisbane Lions v Western Bulldogs at the Gabba, 1.45pm AEST (Channel 7) Port Adelaide v Fremantle at Adelaide Oval, 3.20pm ACST (Fox Sports) Hawthorn v Carlton at the MCG, 4.40pm AEST (Fox Sports) West Coast v St Kilda at Domain Stadium, 5.40pm AWST (Channel 7) Sydney Swans v Gold Coast at the SCG, 7.20pm AEST (Fox Sports) Sunday, September 6 Melbourne v GWS at Etihad Stadium, 1.10pm AEST (Fox Sports) Collingwood v Essendon at the MCG, 3.20pm AEST (Channel 7)

McKenzie, Bail, Riley, M.Jones, Michie, Barry, Jamar - no wonder we got flogged. It would be nice if Goldstein is feeling sore this week too.

Given that we have a report on the VFL players each week, it would be interesting to read the equivalent report on the AFL side. Perhaps one of the assistant coaches could clarify the contributions being made each week by Dawes and Lumumba that are clearly too subtle for the supporters to notice. I assume the team selection meeting went for about three seconds this week: Neal-Bullen in, Stretch out - that'll fix all our problems. See you next week.

I reckon it's more likely someone like Fasolo will kick 5. We'll probably put Howe on him and he'll spend the entire day playing 30 metres away from him.

How many times do you see a Melbourne player standing behind their opponent at a stoppage, particularly at a centre bounce? Probably 95 times out of 100. It doesn't really matter where Max hits the ball if our players won't play in front.