rjay

Gaff at pick 4 ensured they managed the list...pick 4 in a compromised draft is a pretty good reward. The rubbish defence doesn't stand up as we know. We can only wish we were as rubbish as WC were... ...their list was streets ahead of ours. Put their 2010 list up against our list of the same year and any of the lists where we had bottomed out (nice way of say we were s...) ...it's embarrassing to compare the lists side by side.

What a lot of people don't understand is that Hawthorn built their membership base from the 70's...kicked off in the 60's with Kennedy's commandos... It was when they started to really win flags, the kids that jumped on board the Hawks then are the backbone of their current membership. They had a latent supporter base to tap into. Conversely we were on the opposite trajectory and have been dying a slow death since the'60's. Our supporter base is ageing and has been dwindling... Now, I'm not being negative as I like the goal of 70k + members. With the population growth in Melbourne I would think we are being conservative and will probably need 100k+ members in the future to be a viable club. Good to know Pert is on to it. He doesn't have a large latent supporter base to tap into and will need to be very creative to grow the club. ...and of course the FD will need to back him up with Premierships and sustained success. New arrivals in Melbourne will be looking to get on board a successful club with plenty on offer.

I don't think we've had speculative picks or trades that I can think of... Clarrie was probably the only one to come close as being speculative, would you rather we played safe and went for a solid player like Parish?

...and we never will be unless we take the opportunities that present. It's a good idea to have a look at what strong organisations do and emulate them.

Like Hawthorn??? Forget Burgoyne...O'Meara Geelong??? Selwood or Stevie J.... We can't play it totally safe 'Febes' or we get nowhere... I do understand the frustration though. May & Lever would be handy on the park now.

I think we will smack them this week...

At the moment Tommy Mac couldn't catch a cold & Maxy is not much better. Those 2 get their mojo back & our contested figures come up dramatically. ...but as 'team' says a lot of general around the ground marking is about game plan. We're not a tempo team, we're more ballistic...

Garlett for Spargo... Spargo had some nice little cameos but can't lay a solid tackle and opposition players know & expose him.... If he can't tackle then he needs to get a lot more possession & hit the scoreboard regularly, neither of which he does. Oscar probably rested with concussion.

I think ANB will show where our depth sits at the moment. Expect he will get 30+ touches. We don't have others getting that amount of ball at Casey and it's a concern to me... We need players to step up and rip the game apart at that level to put pressure on the senior team.

Naughton looked good in the 3rd Q...

Do you reckon the dogs could lend us Macrae for 5 or 6 years????

Eddie...I shake my head. Were the spin doctors at work with the coin toss??????

On another note...I thought Phil Davis was good last night. I generally don't like current players commenting on the game but he gave some good insights. Also, we could do with him at FB...

Agree 'Hillary', got to keep it simple for Frosty... No short kicks, no switching the play, just long down the line please. I think he also really struggles with the zone concept, needs a player to watch and that's it. Anything more and he's done...

He's so close to really imposing himself on a game...played well last night. Was a very important part of the win.

Well, that's what Brian & Bruce we're saying... ...but looked more like he got the wind knocked out of him if I was to guess.

He is a smart footballer and used it well but he didn't get much of it & is a liability as a pressure forward. He just can't stick a tackle, the oppo run through him & off him too easily.

Tmac - Lost his touch... Tommy is really struggling with his marking at the mo...has lost all confidence. He even 2 touched a simple gimme. Some of it is positioning but a lot of it is touch. Tommy gets his touch back and it makes us a much more dangerous team.

I think that was 'Pennants' point 'Gonzo'. Adding class/pace is the final piece of the rebuild that started with Roos.

No he's not 'SWYL'...a wingman is never the root problem. Our problems start in the guts...ably assisted by our KPF & KPD. Jones is a long way down the list.

Combined with a lack of organisation around the stoppages from our middle 4 (plus Harmes and the cameo players)...is causing a lot of problems.

I would think they do... Say's it all really...

Well written article by Ryan I would have thought. Our midfield for whatever reason have become lazy, they are downhill skiers at the moment. The other big problem and probably the main reason we are getting scored against so much from stoppages is that they are not playing as a unit. I include Max in this, he's a key part of that unit. It's every man for himself... Viney is always problematic, it's his nature to see ball get ball and then try and break tackles. It's not always (most often) the best option...he needs to be a team player and hopefully this was pointed out to him in the "circle of truth"... Harmes can be a bit selfish with the ball particularly around goal... So currently we have a lazy, selfish and disorganised midfield, a virtually non existent forward line and a VFL level defence. It's no wonder we a 0-3. Turning around the midfield will go a long way to making that 1-4...

Speaking of tanking, was someone putting on a little bit of a Willesee performance on 360 tonight?