Jerry Lundergard

I have been frustrated by them too. Aussie should have been rewarded for his tackle. Jamar got his back broken by Tippert, and had a free given against him. Moloney should have been given an in the back near our F50, the ball spills and they kick a goal at the other end. I don't think we have been as bad as the score indicates. However, our defensive work has been deplorable without Rivers holding the unit together.

I think Garland on Burton might be a matchup they will try. Similar size players, and Burton has killed us in the past when he hasn't been in great form like he is now, so we couldn't do any worse. Could be a real good test for Garland to see where he is at.

I don't think it usaully matters how the team sheet is submitted, they can leave out whoever they like. On a side note, has anyone considered the possibilty that Valenti was promoted because one of our other inside midfielders(Brock, Jones, etc) may be injured and we don't know about it?

My dream is that the game at AAMI will not be over before half time, like it seems to be every time we play there.

I don't think any of Mitchell, Cornes, Kirk, Bartel or Corey would be classed as genuine speedsters. A good mixture of players would do equally as well. We do lack a bit of pace, but with Brock and Jones we have the potential to have real ball winners, to feed players with leg speed. Both Hawtorn and Geelong have players on their sides who would appear to lack leg speed on a bad side, but it is actaully the speed of their hands in close and their foot skills to move the ball quickly which gives them the appearance of much faster sides, IMO.

Kreuzer wasn't playing against men in the WAFL like Rich and Nat, so it would be a pointless comparison.

Yeah, i just swapped from Ricky P. to Aussie. I hope Ricky gets back and plays some good footy this year though and makes me change back.

Seeing as the boards are pretty slow during the break, i wanted to start a thread i had been thinking about for a while. I thought it might be a good idea for people to put in writing which players they love and can't seem to write a bad thing about, even when they have a shocker, you will defend them. And conversely, the ones who you struggle to give any credit to even if they play a blinder(YM banging on about Cam Bruce ring a bell). Players I Defend. Brock McLean - I think he gets a bit of a bad wrap at times on these boards, and the weekend was perfect evidence to suggest why he gets the No.1 tag each week, because he can be a match winner when not closely checked. AFL coaches don't spend every waking hour setting up stratedgies to beat opposing teams, and then go out and send their best tagger on a dud player. Lynden Dunn - Dunn has been one of my favourite young players over the past couple of seasons, and though he has been dissappointing for varying reasons so fgar this year, i am still hoping he can become a cornerstone of a future premiership team fo us. Paul Johnson - There a many who have jumped on the PJ bandwagon this year, but he was a much maligned player on these boards since his arrival here a few seasons ago. I personally have always thought he may become an important player for us. His effort can almost never be questioned, and it is well known that the bigger players generally take a little longer to develop than the smaller ones. Players I Don't Defend Colin Sylvia - I am not sure whether i mark him harder because of his high draft pick, but i have struggled to see(until the last couple of games, but am still yet convinced) any qualities in Col that make me think he will bee anything but an average AFL player. Still don't know whether i have forgiven him for taking out Ryan Ferguson in an uncalled for marking attempt on the wing in his 2nd season either. Jeff White - I understand he has been a great servant for the MFC over the years, but i have never really rated his ruckwork. He never actually seems to have a plan about where he going to tap the ball, he just runs up and tries to get a hand on it. Frustrates the hell out of me. His couage has also been called into question a couple of times.

It was nice of Channel 10 to have no mention or story of Aussie winning this weeks rising star this week, like they did for Cyril Rioli last week. Does Quarters have a say in what stories get covered in the sports section?

It was the first game this year that i took the wife and kids. Their ages are 4, 3 and 10mths, so it is a tough task to try and watch the game and keep tribe under control and mildly attentive, in fact it just about takes the fun out of the whole experience. At breaking point at halftime, i do recall turning to my wife and muttering something along the lines of "We may as well go home, they ask us to come out and support them and they dish up this crap." However, we stayed on, and late in the game when my 10mth old was very tired and unsettled i stood to rock him, and the sweet sounds of the Melbourne faithful in rapture must have sent him off into a deep sleep. So what could have easliy turned out to be a "we are never going to attempt that again" experience, now may become "let's do that agin" instead. What a day!

Out of those three you just mentioned, Judd is the only one who you can say actually can shake a tag and he is considered an all time great, so i am not sure what you point is there. Are you just pointing that there are other 22 year old who get the No.1 tag? Or are you trying to say others get the tag and still perform, so Brock should too?

It is the first game anyone has had an impact on a game this season. We have pretty much had our pants pulled down in every other game, therefore no one has been able to make a meaningful impact. BTW Brock cops a lot of flack for not being able to shake a tag. Jones gets tagged for the first time in his career and gets 4 possessions....but we win. No coach is going to make that mistake again.

Watching the game yesterday, i think one thing that hasn't been mentioned much about Aussie is his work rate. He ran as hard as anyone on he team when we had the ball, and when we didn't. It will be interesting against the Crows next game, as Neil Craig is a meticulous planner, and will have a focus on stopping Aussie. If he plays another blinder at AAMI under some fierce Adelaide pressure, there won't be anyone doubting his star potential then.

We definitely have some competetion for the No.1 pick in the draft this year, the Weagles look awful.

An interesting comparison. Austin Wonaemirri. 4 games 5 Goals 15 Tackles Cyril Rioli. 6 Games. 8 goals. 28 Tackles Considering the fanfare, the high draft pick, the team he is playing on and the opportunity that Cyril is getting in his F50, i think Aussie is faring pretty well comparable to Rioli. If Rioli was playing for Melbourne this year, would every footy journalist be wetting themselves over him like they are at the moment?

Once again Hannabal, you are full of positivity. Is ther anyone on our list that you actaully do rate?

12th pick.

Are you related to Y_M? That is a terrible call.

And they will beat the Bombers and Freo here. At the very least.

Gary Buchanara, who is the Hawks WA recruiter and was instrumental in getting the Hawks to draft Buddy, was on KB's morning show last week, and it seemed to me he was almost trying to hold himself back when talking about the possibilty of how good Natanui could be. He said that Rich is a gun too, and is obviously a safe bet, but NN has the potential to be a once in a generation player. For a club like ours that seems to be irrelevant on the AFL front at the moment, having a big Fijian kid running around in the Red & Blue leaping over opposition players, is something we desparately need. Just as there are kids taking up the game today wanting to become Hawthorn supporters because of Buddy Franklin, we have chance to finally have a player that will get not only Melbourne supporters to come back to watch the footy again, but supporters of other clubs as well.

I thought Warnock deserves another chance because he showed some courage, and his disposal was pretty good. However, i would like to see Martin in as well, so maybe he can come in for Jamar and do some back up ruckwork. I think Dunn has been given some negating roles, like TJ today, who didn't have a big impact on today's game. We don't have too many players who do a decent job in stopping opposing players, so i would prefer to see some persistence with Dunn. Agree with most of the others, but wouldn't mind seeing Maric as well, even at the expense of Davey, who has been poor for all but one game this year.

I have been one Sylvia's biggest critics, but he seems to be showing some signs of improvement. Or, is he just becoming a junk time specialist?

I saw us hit 3 players in a row on the chest in the 2nd quarter. Unfortunately they played for Brisbane.

Wow, you're pretty upbeat about the whole thing hey? If anything, we are probably lucky that we will be down the bottom for the next 2 years at least. By that stage we will hopefully be showing signs of a turnaround and be on the up again. Teams on the rebuid starting in 2010, will be the real ones feeling the pinch. It is far too early to make those sort of calls on Bailey yet. If he is supposed to be the teaching coach we all heard about, the proof of this will hopefully be seen in our younger players next season.

Extremely disasppointd that Bate has not been selected. So far, i have not been one of the many supporters confused by Baileys supposed game plan and direction, but my faith will start to waiver if i have to watch another pathetic display from our fowards on Sunday knowing Bate is playing for Sandy.