Pirlo

Petty was killed by the U18s last week. He very much can do worse than Oscar, even on this season's form. You just have to think about his debut. No use bringing the saviour kids in like its 2009 if they can't do a job against underaged opposition.

Steven May's preparation is clearly an absolute joke. Fingers crossed we have a strong enough culture to carry people like him for the next few years until he sorts his standards out. Lots of footy to play, but all signs point to this being an unmitigated disaster.

This season maybe, but its pretty reductive to claim that Lever, May and T.McDonald aren't historically very good players.

Every club that's not winning a flag is rebuilding. We may need to sell some stock to get some young runners/crumbers in but our spine remains as good as any in the competition, as does our midfield.

Let's just hope this year is a step backwards (albeit a large one) for two steps forward. We're woefully underprepared for the rule changes, and that doesn't change. Leg speed and natural crumbers will be the order of the day when it comes trade time. Unfortunately, we have nobody of real use to trade so will need to hope for a JT first round special.

Went to the second half of the Tiges game after our game today. They will rip us apart with their leg speed, and will use their entries well with Riewoldt coming back. I've been to the four game in Vic this year, including down to Geelong, and broken my longstanding rule around avoiding replacement bus services at all costs. Wednesday night, PH the next day, trains back on...I'm seriously considering not going. We are a side bereft of confidence, belief, leadership, guts, and instruction at the moment. Everything that could go wrong seems to be going wrong. I'm sure I'll be roped back in by next Wednesday, [censored] that I am, so here are my changes. Out: Wagner, Wagner, Spargo, Hibberd In: O.McDonald, Stretch, Garlett, Kolodjashnij Hibberd is absolutely bang out of form. We know he's better than this. He needs to sort it out. He is costing us every time he brings it out the back 50. J.Wagner was ok but we have too many of his type at the moment. C.Wagner was abysmal. The less said about Spargo, the better. Stretch and KK aren't perfect, but we need two way runners and hopefully they'll play that role.

People ITT haven't watched him much. He's a Heeney clone in an inferior team. He would be perfect for us, but won't leave GCS and good on him for it.

May and Lewis are both back, right?

A three year extension was too long.

It is a genuine indictment on this club that fans can watch our players start the season so complacently and preach patience because "the players and coach are hurting too". That's the kind of rubbish we stood by for about a decade before we got serious under Jackson and Roos. I will be patient, happily, because most teams that make a deep finals run for the first time take a step back the next year. Teams figure them out and start paying more attention. But this start to the year isn't normal. This is far more than one step back. Three quotes stood out to me yesterday: A.Brayshaw: "Unfortunately some of our players aren't buying in and coming back to help defend" Lewis: "I think May would look back at the way he arrived at the club and wouldn't be happy with it" Goodwin: "We're going to try and turn this around" Would this kind of defeatist language have happened under Roos or Jackson? How could our recruiting team not realise that Steven May has dreadful standards before they signed him up on a high priced deal and, if there were concerns in his medical, why would they not have given him an off-season exercise plan? Brayshaw literally accused his teammates of downhill skiing after the game - does that symbolise a united playing group? For all the fugazi about the boys loving Goody so much, why has the top-down consistency that Jackson established eroded so quickly? Why have our players forgotten how to play football? Why are they putting in so little effort that two senior players blasted them for it on the same day? Goodwin insisted after the Cats game that we are not underdone, so what's the excuse? Where the [censored] are our captains in all of this? I'm just not confident in the culture of this club at the moment, and I never once had that concern under PJ and Roos.

Extended for three to make four. I agree he shou;dn't be in any danger yet, but what say we finish bottom four? And start next year the same way? The club can't afford to pay him out. Our financial position is built on six careful years of the Jackson administration slowly building modest profits. Talk of 70k is ludicrous, let alone the 50 they wanted this year. We have only reached 45 and that's coming off a prelim.

Why did we need to give him a four year deal? What was the rush?

He's a hopeless orator. Uses the kind of cliches that coaches insisted on using 10 years ago and offers absolutely no analysis beyond "we have to get better". That's a direct bloody quote from tonight. When we lost games like this under Roos, you felt like he was able to deflect media attention away and talk about areas that we needed to lift.

His decision to give Goodwin a three year extension on the eve of the season is just another in the long list of erratic captain's calls that saw him sacked at the Pies.

Nail on the head

So Jones and Viney are both unfit and missed most of the pre-season, but Jack gets a rest and Jones has to slog it at Casey. Right. Ok.

Out: Frost, Hore In: May, Stretch

Laughable overreaction

He was actually okay aside from that insidious drop that ended the game for us. I don't see anyone in the reserves that would do a better job than him, and he's far away from first in line to be dropped.

Jack Viney ran like Jack Trengove today. I fear for his foot, I really do.

The article in The Age suggests that Hogan has had mental health issues since what happened last year, and it certainly explains his dip in form after Queen's Birthday this season. Will miss him dearly, and feel like we were short changed (giving back pick 55 is a kick in the teeth), but its clear the club was hamstrung by a young man desperate to go home and decided that May was the man to bring in as a replacement tall.

God some people are stupid. Kennedy-Harris played one good game, and that was in 2014. McDonald has been excellent for 90% of this season. Who would you play instead? Petty? Keilty? [censored] stupid.

How many midfielders are game breakers within 100 games, let alone 50? Only one I can think of at Melbourne is Oliver. Cripps, Bontempelli, Kelly, Shiel stand out in recent years. Coniglio is rated by everyone these days, but took 80 games to really get going at all.

Bloody hell, the guy is out of form. Not sure why he deserves so many people casting aspersions over his character. He obviously needs to improve, but there's plenty of time for that. Lets wait and see where we are in six, 12, 18 months time before we start piling [censored] into a 22 year old.

Christ. Nathan Jones is not the problem. Ridiculous. Having said that, I do think his days as leader are numbered. He lacks the ability to delegate and isn't the best communicator. He was a great captain when effort was the word of the day, but now that we need to be winning games I think a more natural leader like Viney, who can rally the troops on field, is needed. I'd imagine we'll only have one captain next season.