poita

Forgive me for this, but what's so good about Goodwin anyway? Yes, we've put 9 months of development in to him and it would set us back a little if he left, but what has he done to date to suggest he is worthy of two years of hand holding plus a three year senior coach's contract? Particularly by way of comparison to Luke Beveridge who was available at the same time, has a much better coaching pedigree and has been super impressive to date.

The only decent thing about selection this week is Grimes - hopefully he plays, as we desperately need to match up Brisbane's medium forwards. I would have replaced Stretch, but presumably Harmes or JKH will miss if Grimes plays. Jamar anywhere near the senior team is a major step backwards. He offers nothing up forward, and his presence can only disturb the progress Gawn is making in the ruck. Fitzpatrick and Spencer are both much better options. Riley is not an AFL footballer - much rather Toumpas in the squad. Like most others I cannot see what Dawes is offering. Howe and Lumumba are lucky also.

We would need Brisbane to kick 7.18 for us to be a decent chance. We will get smashed in the middle, and they have some awkward forwards for us to match up on. If our forwards decide to put in this week we could cause them some problems, but I can't see us getting enough inside 50s to win.

Two days later I still find it amazing that we were so awful for so much of Saturday's game in so many respects, yet we still had ample chances to win and couldn't get the job done against such poor opposition. Yet again Nathan Jones cops a heavy tag, and nobody stood up to help him out. If he is not in our top 3-4 players on the day, we cannot win and every team in the competition knows that. Nothing against Jones, I thought his effort was as good as anyone's, but every thing he did was under significant pressure. A decent team would have been into Howlett all day, but we let him shadow Jones all day. Viney's game was about as bad as I have ever seen from a capable AFL player. Couldn't find the footy, made horrible skill errors when he did, and gave away dumb free kicks at crucial times. He owes us next week. Hogan had a shocker as well, and I can live with that - he has played twelve games. But the instruction should have been in the third quarter for him to sacrifice his game and take Hurley out of the game. We could have isolated Garlett or Howe or Watts or McDonald inside 50. Dawes was as useless as always. I'm just not sure what he contributes, but it is just pathetic when a player of Gwilt's meagre talents takes you to the cleaners. At the very least he needed to be crashing packs and preventing Hurley and co from taking uncontested marks. Even if gives away 50 by crashing in after the mark is taken, at least they'll think twice next time. McDonald needs to decide whether he wants to be a full back or something else, and I'm not sure that his skills are good enough to be anything other than a full back. His general approach to playing on Daniher was poor, as it was against Cloke. You can't play from behind against opponents who are stronger or taller or faster. Gawn was our best player, but he beat next to nothing and we couldn't find a way to exploit his dominance. I suspect he may struggle against Martin and we need to play Spencer as well. We can't keep playing all of Stretch, Neal-Bullen and Harmes together, and Brayshaw was poor as well. It worries me that the coach and his million assistants don't have the sense for when our side doesn't feel right, or when players are not right to go. It sounds like Hogan has pulled himself out twice this year, rather than the club giving him a rest. The saddest thing about this was that it was so predictable. I agree with jnrmac, the club can't continue to serve up this kind of rubbish and expect that a supporter base will always be there to chip in money at the start of each season. There is clearly a tipping point, and it is rapidly approaching. My son is off to school next year, and I doubt that he will be interested in following a rabble like this if he cops too much of a hard time from his friends.

I thought we were a much better chance to beat Essendon than we were to beat Brisbane. I just don't think we match up well against the Lions, notwithstanding their lack of key position players. I would play Spencer over Dawes - at least he will make a contest and crash some packs. Grimes surely has to play, most likely ahead of Stretch. I'd be happy to drop Lumumba too. I'm sick of him trailing his opponent in by 5 metres, and sending out wild hospital handpasses every time he gets the ball. I would bring in Fitzpatrick to play on McStay, which would free McDonald up to do what he wants. Harmes would need to do much better to survive another week.

They need to decide whether they want to be a Geelong team or a Melbourne team. You can't have half your home games in Geelong and expect Melbourne based fans to attend, and vice versa. I'm not surprised that people are dropping back to lower levels of memberships when it is likely that they will only attend 5-6 games a year.

If we lose to Essendon this week it will be the lowest point in my 30+ years of being a member of this club, lower than the 2000 GF, lower than the final in which we gave up an 8 goal lead at 3/4 time, and lower than the 150 point flogging we copped two years ago. Please don't let me down. PS. I don't see the point to Michie or Newton coming back in when they have done nothing in the VFL to suggest their recent dreadful AFL form is behind them. Are Bail and Jones any better? Perhaps not, but at least they performed in the VFL so have some form to speak of.

2015 draft: Phantom form guide There is an article on the AFL site listing the top 20 prospects after the carnival. 2 of the top 5, and 5 of the top 15 have ties to an academy - so much for a fair and transparent national draft.

Yep, I have been to all our home games this year, and have not once seen the team on free to air telly. We have six weeks of away games and no free to air coverage in that time.

Our membership numbers are incredible given how pathetic we have been for a decade. What is a concern is how few junior supporters we have. Go to any school or Auskick session and you would be lucky to have in 1 in 100 following us. Hawthorn were dominant in the 1980s but it took another 20 years before the kids of that era started having families and taking their kids to the footy each week, and their membership numbers soared. It is going to take a sustained period of success, and then a further generation before our numbers start to rise significantly. Even if that happens, by then we will have lost the large chunk of our membership that jumped on through the 1950s and 1960s through natural attrition.

I don't see why people are so adverse to the idea of going hard at Dangerfield. We pay $1m a year combined for Lumumba & Dawes to do sweet FA. Much better to throw that money at a genuine star like Dangerfield and bring in a hungry rookie in the vandenBerg mould to top up the list. Add the almost certain departures of Jamar and McKenzie at year end, and possibly Howe as well, and we have oodles of salary cap space.

I'd love to see the club justify why Fitzpatrick has not been selected in the absence of Pedersen and now Hogan. Either he is fit enough to play this week or he isn't. I can't see the value to playing him at Casey when he provides the tall forward / backup ruck we desperately need. What do we do when Gawn runs out of puff in the third quarter - put McDonald in the ruck? If we get within 15 goals this week it will be a miracle.

We will always be cellar dwellers until we learn to win any time, anywhere. If we want to be a decent team we need to play to our full potential at Geelong, interstate and most particularly at Etihad. There is no point sooking about having no crowd support, or having to travel, or the shape and size of various grounds. We just need to get on with the business of playing decent football and winning football matches. Teams like Hawthorn used to play at Geelong regularly, but since they started playing good football and drawing big crowds, they haven't been back. We will be in the same position if we start performing.

I'm not sure why some people think that certain players should be gifted games "just cos". Michie was good for a half against Richmond, and was okay at best against Freo (no tackles in that game). His performance against Hawthorn was pathetic and it sounds like he carried on with that form against St Kilda. He'll probably be around next year because he has a contract, but I can't imagine why he would be given games if he doesn't perform. Until he learns to work hard defensively, he will never be a decent player. I think Fitzpatrick and Dawes will both play this week, with Pedersen and either Michie or Riley to miss. I don't think either Stretch or Neal-Bullen would be playing in an ideal world, but how many times can we keep cycling through the same old suspects?

It amazes me that so many of the people who make big declarations on Friday about how we are going to beat / smash a team, are back on Monday armed with a bunch of lame excuses for why we couldn't get the job done. Ultimately they played mediocre football for 99% of the game and were so startled to be in a winning position with a minute ago, that they collectively crapped themselves in the final minute. St Kilda are overall a younger and less experienced side, and we should have beaten them. There is no excusing or sugar coating any of that.

I said it on the other thread, but the security guards come in and circle the ground with five minutes to go. There is no excuse for the players not having some idea of how much time is remaining.

Everybody knows that the security guards come out and circle the boundary with five minutes to go. For the players and / or coaches to say that they didn't how much time was remaining is bullsiht, or a sad indictment on their collective lack of awareness. How we manage to so comprehensively lose the centre clearance when a 208cm ruckman is opposed to a 196cm forward is beyond me. Even if Gawn grabbed the ball out of the ruck and laid on top of it, we would have taken a decent amount of time off the clock. Instead he taps into open space, nowhere near our players. We are the most boring, predictable, defensive side in the competition; yet the one time we need to throw players into defence and force stoppages, our players are nowhere to be seen. Every time you start to think the club might be starting to turn things around and that there is a brighter future ahead, they manage to kick you in the nuts with a loss such as that.

I must be the only one on this board who likes Terlich as a player. I hope he plays, and plays well. It amazes me that so many paid up members of the Lumumba fan club are so anti-Terlich. Their strengths and weaknesses are very similar, the main difference is that Lumumba has played 200+ games and gets paid a fortune, whilst Terlich has played about 30 games and gets paid peanuts. I'm hoping for a bench of Grimes, Terlich, Neal-Bullen and Riley (sub).

Do we care? He has had a 14 year AFL career in which he has given 8 years of unfulfilled promise, 1 year of excellent service, and 5 years of diminishing returns. A stronger club would have made the call on Jamar at the end of 2012, instead of giving him a three year deal on big money - we owe him nothing at this point. Gawn needs to be given every chance to make his case over the next 12 games. If he needs a week off every now and then, so be it, but he is by far the most natural and talented ruckman on the list. He just needs to develop the confidence, concentration and tank required to make it at this level.

I can't believe how many people are still holding a grudge against Judd because he didn't come to Melbourne SEVEN YEARS ago. In case anybody has forgotten we were an absolute basket case on and off the field at the time, and couldn't attract players of any quality to the club, let alone (arguably) the best player in the game. We couldn't have afforded his salary either legitimately or illegitimately, and certainly couldn't have given West Coast appropriate compensation. No decent player in their right mind would have wanted to come to a club with third world facilities, a divided board and conflicted football department. He was never coming to us, and I never understood why people were getting their panties in a bunch at the prospect. I doubt we will ever see him have a meaningful role in the AFL, perhaps outside the AFL commission, as he has well and truly set himself up for life after football. That said, if he did express interest in a coaching / mentoring role, we would be stupid not to consider him for a position.

It's hard to believe that only 14 months ago we put out a side with Byrnes, Georgiou and Trengove in it. It feels like several years since Jack played, and the other two have been long banished from my memory. We should win this, but it all depends on whether we decide to play for four quarters or two.

Our forward line and defence have stood up pretty well so far this year, but both were well beaten yesterday. In contrast our midfield, which is usually weak point, was pretty impressive for the most part. We gave up some of the dumbest goals I have ever seen and our inability to defend Cloke was costly. He is too big to play from behind - you have to play the ball. Dunn & McDonald were both awfully out of sorts. Not manning up Oxley was unforgiveable and Roos needs to some take responsibility for this, instead of dribbling about our forwards not making a contest. I can only assume our extra man was on ball, but he certainly didn't have anything like Oxley's impact. Hogan looked a beaten man early, and Pedersen had little impact as well. Thankfully we got goals from the midfield this week. Grimes and Tyson should have played, and I simply refuse to believe that the likes of Newton, Riley & M.Jones could be considered better options in any scenario. Hopefully this is rectified for Sunday. I'm not sold on Gawn, mainly because he doesn't have a natural football brain. As soon as switches off for a half second you end up with the monumental skill errors such as his miskick on the HBF. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't back up this week, but hopefully he gets a chance against a team like Geelong without a recognised ruckman. And finally, how long are we going to put up with Lumumba running around in circles like a show pony and delivering miskicks and hospital handpasses? The guy needs a spell at Casey with his mate Dawes.

Not playing both Grimes and Tyson was a HUGE mistake by Roos. One day we will get our team selection right, but I doubt it will be this week. FItzy did a decent job on White, but should only be played when there is a matchup for him. Newton is not up to it and needs at least a month at Casey to practice chasing and tackling. Dropping him and then making him 23rd man is not good enough. I'm afraid Riley isn't up to it either. M.Jones was okay the last two weeks, but didn't give much yesterday. In: Tyson, Grimes, Neal-Bullen Out: Vandeberg, Fitzpatrick, Newton.

Watching him yesterday, I think his body works ten times quicker than his brain. He takes five steps and runs himself into trouble before his brain kicks in and he offloads to an unsuspecting teammate. Either that or he craps his dacks every time he takes possession.

We've been competitive in the three games we've won, and for a quarter or so in the three losses to Adelaide, Port & GWS, none of which is better than a middle of the ladder side at present. We were close enough to totally uncompetitive in the losses to the three elite sides, but for a few cheap goals late against Sydney. I don't see how anyone can justify what was served up for two and half quarters against GWS & Port, particularly given that we were well in front in both games. I agree with Stuie - any improvement has come from players we have bought into the club. There has been very little, if any, improvement from players who were here already. I'm yet to be convinced that Mark Neeld wouldn't have coached this team to a 7 - 24 record with the same players, and he was an epic failure.