Cranky Franky

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 

7 minutes ago, Redleg said:

I am staggered, given the conditions today, that Grimes wasn't played. A hard experienced body would have been a plus. 

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.  

10 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Who are these flankers?

I can name 1 that I'm confident on. Bernie Vince. And we should have options so we can play him on the wing or in the midfield if required.

Jetta's a back pocket. Lumumba (regardless of everything else) is about to turn 30 and probably close to the end after next year. 

I like both Hunt and Wagner, but they could both go either way. And right now they are best 22. Mitch White is our next best and he's the only depth. Melksham presumably comes in to this group next year, but we are still looking at only a couple of young rookie pick ups as our best depth. Chuck in the very speculative Joel Smith I guess at that's it for small/medium defenders at the club. Viv Michie has played at half back this year. If we were stacked with half backs he wouldn't get a game.

With the right training and physical development Frost, Tom and Oscar can physically handle any tall forward in the league. Joe Daniher is 200cm but doesn't have a lot of strength. Walker is strong and athletic but is 194cm. Jon Patton is 200cm, strong as can be but moves like a glacier. 

We could do with a better key defender, particularly an experienced one as Dunn and Garland are battling and we apparently went hard for Cale Hooker, but there's only so many out there. If we bolster our backline in other ways it will make it a lot easier for the talls to develop if we head down the draft path. And if they don't come on we can trade in later. If we find players to make us better the spots to fill shrink and players will be more likely to come to us.

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.

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

That is not true. He had four seasons at Norf improving significantly with each one. He was targeted by Hawthorn to fill the role he is playing now. Garland did play well early on but something happened and he began to have brain fades and disposal issues.

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.

12 hours ago, Moonshadow said:

On what planet can Garlo be compared with Josh Gibson? Chalk and cheese.

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.

Both players are about the same size & have the same level of natural ability in fact Col is probably more talented.  Gibson is more aggressive & tenacious & pushes the rules ie hangs on & scrags a lot & is invariably looking to attack. 

Gibson now has 2 B&F's, an AA and is a premiership player. 

A few years ago Col was 2nd in the B&F & looked set to become an elite player.  Since then he has gone backwards, become timid & hesitant.  Maybe he could take a leaf out of Gibson's book & turn out to be the player we all hoped for.

I am glad he has been dropped hopefully it is the kick up the ars# that he needs. 

Early days but Parish looks damn good. 

We need to remember that Frost has played just 25 odd games of footy.  He was initially a rookie at GWS.  He showed promise as a defender at GWS.

I think Roos is showing poor judgement to expect him to be holding down CHF.  He needs to go back to defence, learn the game & get comfortable.  Then after a couple of seasons when he has learned a bit more about the game maybe he can be tried up forward.

18 minutes ago, Farmer said:

In the last quarter, as Pedo  was out marked by  Lobb, I wondered why he had gone back and not Frost.

i still can't understand why he can't play SOME role in the ruck. Stynes was able to play all day in the ball, because for much of the time Schwarz did the ruck work on the forward line. From recollection he never contested in the centre of the ground, but was very effective at boundary throwins. If Frost could take some of the workload from Max it would help our cause greatly.

overall, however, with his size and athletecism, I favour giving him a decent run in the team

The fact is that coaches despite the fact they have a lot of knowledge occasionally get it totally wrong.   Eventually the penny will drop & Frost will go back to defence.