Cranky Franky

It seems to me that both coaches and players are drilled to the extent that they have become robots & can't think outside the square. I remember a time during games when full back Danny Hughes was thrown into the ruck & went on to win a B&F ditto Alan Johnson from wing to back pocket. Rod Grinter going from half back to FF & won a game for us. Tony Campbell from FF to FB. These days if plan A doesn't work you do nothing.

I'm not going to criticise Paul Roos because overall he has been wonderful for the Club but the match day coaching yesterday was terrible & arguably cost us any chance of a win. Selections were poor. With Garlett out the obvious move was to bring in Kennedy Harris or Ben Kennedy for their crumbing ability & I thought Salem was the obvious replacement for Harmes. Also why on earth drop Pedersen who has been handy & is a strong body in wet conditions. To the game - Carlton have 3 dangerous players Cripps & Gibbs on the ball & Simpson in defence who sets them up. None of these 3 had a hard tag. Vince who was scratchy in defence should have gone on to Cripps. As is was we were beaten in the clearances & centre bounces. The team failed to adapt to wet weather & continued to overuse handball usually until they turned over the ball. Melbourne allowed Carlton to have a spare defender most of the day which resulted in them taking lots of uncontested marks. Dumb, dumb, dumb match day coaching. And seriously in this day & age why do our players have the wrong boots on & keep falling over.

The point is that unlike most players on the list who have had to show their wares at Casey Oscar virtually came straight into the team. In his last couple of games he has probably played to the level that Dunn has shown although Oscar has arguably cost us a couple of games in the process. Why they rushed him & also persisted with Frost up forward still has me scratching my head.

Yes Footy Records. To Django thanks for your interest. I'll give it a couple of days & respond on Monday.

Hi people I was cleaning out my shed & came across about 30 of these programs from that era. I'm happy to give them away to a Melbourne supporter who collects this stuff but please not to someone who will then sell them on Ebay.

I'm sure Oscar has been put on this earth to annoy Melbourne supporters. Last week he looked like he was injured & would miss a couple of games then he makes a miraculous recovery & plays anyway.

Coaches are only s good as the cattle they have. The more pertinent question is which recruiting team has done the best job since Jimmy Cardwell.

Only about 6 weeks late. Its a worry when supporters are ahead of the Brains Trust.

Most posters on this site have totally missed the point. This was about payback from Eddie after Caro suggested in an article that after 20years he should have a succession plan in place. Whenever Eddie or Collingwood are criticised instead of addressing the issue Eddie always goes the man (or woman). Caro is generally a good journo but she has sold out to the AFL by being their mouthpiece at times. She also goes pretty soft on Richmond. In any case there seem to be very short memories here on Demonland because there were dreadful things said about her in the past when she has criticised the MFC.

Jack Trengove I mean. We are all wrapt to see that he has made a successful comeback & we all wish him well because he is a great bloke & fantastic club man however on the basis of 2 games back is there a spot for him on the list next year ? He still looks pretty slow and if he's only going to pick up 20 odd touches a week he is going to struggle. Remember Brayshaw, Salem & probably HL and ANB will come into the team at some stage. He looks too slow to play in defence or up forward

Fully agree. Paul Roos has done a fantastic job but him & the Brains Trust have made some dreadful selection blunders in the past 2 years. A couple of big bodied experienced players should have been brought in for todays game and Grimes should be in for sure. Lets hope we don't have a repeat of the Port game where Roos admits afterwards that they lost the match at the selection table.

Who are the flankers ?? You are kidding me. The current ones are Hunt & Wagner. Then at Casey you have Grimes who can't get a look in despite outstanding form. Then Garland and Mitchie who has done ok. Then White who is also playing well. Then Lumumba and Salem who are out injured. Plus Bernie Vince & Jones who Roos has been playing at half back during games. That makes 8 decent HBF. And lets not forget Milkshake. Midfielders & HBF are the 2 areas we have well & truly covered. Frost, Tom & Oscar are a long way from being able to deal with quality tall forwards that's why Riewoldt & Daniher & Pavlich chop us up every time we play them. We couldn't handle Jack Redpath, or Justin Westhoff or Darling or Kennedy The Club should be chasing 1. Key defenders 2 A back up ruckman 3. Goal kicking small forwards.

Hibberd - you must be joking - we have about a million 187 cm half backs atm we don't need any more. What we need desperately is big solid key defenders that can play on Joe Daniher & Tex Walker.

Both Hunt, Wagner (and Oscar too) need to work on awareness and how to dispose of the ball when they are tackled. ATM all 3 are pretty clueless & it seems to come as a great shock to them when their arms are pinned so they are prone to give away frees. More time in the gym & more work on that aspect of their development & they all could become real guns.

6. Gawn 5. Vince 4. T Mac 3 Watts 2. Kennedy 1. Kent

Sorry I can't join the party most teams would have belted the pies by 10 goals. Oscar was passable but should still be at Casey - he gave away 2 goals. Jetta, Stretch & VDB were barely adequate. Frost & Tom McD were lucky the Pies kicking for goal was poor. Hogan dropped 3 chest marks. Trengove is just going. Lucky for us Watts, Max & Bernie had huge games & the Pies were missing a few players.

I don't find it particularly funny. I'm not a great fan of Grimes but his form at Casey has been outstanding & he deserves an opportunity. I don't think it does much for the integrity of the Club or the playing group if good form is not rewarded.

He's just signed a new contract & unfortunately a lot of players drop form when that happens. A couple of years ago Lynden Dunn was in career best form during contract negotiations but his form dropped away after he had signed. Aaron Davey was another one who played his best footy leading up to contract negotiations.

I am starting campaign to bring back Jack Grimes. At the moment only Nev Jetta seems to have clue about how to play properly in our backline. Jack may have suspect disposal but he is courageous & knows how to stick close to dangerous forwards - time to bring him back.

If Oscar was at Hawthorn or Geelong he would spend 40-50 games in the VFL developing his skills & learning the game which is what should happen to most players unless they are super talented. How our Brains Trust believe that Oscar is a better bet in defence than Frost has got me flummoxed.

I am very worried that we have no natural match up for Stringer. If he is not manned up he will chop us to pieces. We stuffed up our defensive match ups against St Kilda & I'm worried we might do it again on Sunday. Would have thought that Dunn was the ideal match for Stringer. Dogs have Campbell & Redpath. We can use Garland & Tom McD on them although both are a little undermanned. Maybe they have a plan to use Oscar McD.

First Daniher chopped us up then no Melbourne player went near Brent Harvey & he carved us & now Membrey & Riewoldt(again) destroyed us. Who the hell is organising the defence at the Club because ATM they look like rabble. Harry & Jetta have had to pick up players 10cm taller & nobody seems to be able to stick close to his opponent. Dunn looks shot & Tom Mc leaves his man to chase kicks. The defensive 6 should work as a tight unit but they are bordering rubbish. Maybe its time to bring back Grimes & Garland who at least know how to play tight.

Jackson's most important job now is to make sure that whenever he decides to leave his replacement is as good as he is.

Gibson's first 3 years at NM were statistically speaking very similar with little improvement. In his 4th year he improved significantly. Likewise in his first 3 years at Hawthorn his stats were just so so. After that however his career really took off whereas at the same age Garland's career went south.

Very comparable actually. When Gibson left North he was seen as just a journeyman ie a good ordinary player. At Hawthorn he has got better & better. After 4/5 years Garland was seen as a potential top notch player. He played very well on Buddy Franklin early in his career & was hailed as the prototype "swing man". Sadly since then he has stalled or gone backwards whereas Gibson has blossomed.