Jerry Lundergard

I heard Ricky in an interview with KB before the start of the season and he stated that he loved it Melbourne and was not interested in returning to QLD to play.

Altough i was impressed with his run(it did remind me of L.Barry), the one play which really surprised me was when the ball came in the passage before Fev kicked his 6th of the ground, i was expecting to see Fev brush Frawley away like a ragdoll and mark the ball easily. Instead, it appeared that young Chip actually worked Fevola out of position with some strength i didn't know he possessed. If he has that sought of strength to go with his speed and athletcism, he and Riv will make a fantastic conerstone of our defense for the next 5- 10 years.

There was an incident in the first quarter which summed up our foward line woes for the year. We kicked it to Neitz right in front of goal where he had a body on body marking contest. He got hands on it, but could not quite reel it in and Carlton cleared it out of their defensive zone. A few moments later, the ball gets kicked to Fevola in a similar marking contest, he manages to control the ball for a mark and goal. That only needs to happen 4 or 5 times in a game, and there is a decent winning margin. On top of other problems we have with effeciency of ball use, pressure, clearances, tall defenders, etc...when we do kick it down there we rarely have anyone who is able to win a 50/50 contest, and crumbers are seldom seen if the ball does get spilt to ground level anyway.

I know you have put a fair amount of effort into to your post, but i see no point in discussing whether oppostion coaches may or may not be around next season, maybe take that over to Bigfooty.

Fevola is my main concern. Two years ago when we made finals, they beat us twice with the Fev killing us in at least one of those games. Last year, we beat the Blues twice, both times Fevola missed. They are an improved team this year with the likes of Judd, Stevens and development to their younger players. Are we an improved team?

- I can get a seat on the train on the way to games. - I get at least one tip right every week

Well, i am pretty sure DB doesn't spend all week instructing the players to kick it to the other team, make sure all passes by hand or foot arrive about 30 cm on the ground before their intended receiver, give hanballs to players under pressure in stationary positions, don't run hard and present an option, etc....

Nobody other than the media said Cousins was on Ice. IMO, there is no way he was. Coke, yes. Pills, probably. But, ther is no way Cousins could have maintained an elite standard of play, and kept his body in such good nick with an Ice addiction. It was just the "now" drug for the media to jump on.

Wow, the answer to our foward line problems, make Sylvia the focal point and watch him kick 100 for the season, how could our coaching staff over the last 4 or 5 seasons not have thought of this?

Great post Jaded. Maybe tha Hawks should have given Clarko the arse in his first year, or the Bulldogs gotten rid of Eade last year, or Bomber should have been shown the door at the cattery a couple of yeras ago. I get mad as hell when i watch them play as poorly as they do. I thought our first half, bar the last 5 minutes, was some of the worst football i have ever witnessed in the AFL by any team. But, i can't blame DB for the teams inept skills out there on the field. In 3 years time, if they are of the same poor level, i will.

I agree he did do some good things that you mentioned above, but they were in junk time when the sting was out of the game. If Sylvia played a good game today, then so did Robbo.

My point is, if Rawlings picks up and blankets N.Jones at every stoppage, i reckon Brock would pick up about 30+ possessions. So why is it that none of our other onballers are able to get their hands consistently on the pill when they are not being heavily tagged?

I think Brock cops a pretty raw deal from our supporters. He gets the No.1 tag now with TJ gone, and Rawlings has put the clamps on many good players, that's why he is a B & F winner at the Roos. He was also holding him at evry single stoppage, and with the umpiring being some of the worst seen this century, he was never going to be given a break. He is still young, and will probably not get a chop out until some of the other players around him not being tagged start to win a fair bit of ball themselves, and give opposing coaches a reason to tag someone else. He did get 22 in the first half last week without an opponenent, so he just needs to learn how to cope with a heavy tag.

It's interesting that you can call Robbo out for kicking some goals when the game was over, yet Sylvia is a gun for picking up a few possessions across the half back line when the heat was well and truly out of the game. It could be argued the Robbo finally had some decent delivery into a foward line left vacant largley to himself, and he could be running into some form.

People need to get over the the Demons being on top of the table 2 years ago after about round 17 or 18. The fact remains we fell away badly and missed out on a top 4 spot, almost always got smashed when we played the strong interstate clubs on thier grounds and were never close to a premiership with that group. That ladder postion was fools gold. Look at Port Adelaide, they made the GF last year, but how close are they(or were they), to actually winning a premiership?

Not much love on this forum for Robbo at the moment. Personally, i think Sylvia is very lucky to have his spot over Beamer. He needs to show something this week. SOMETHING FFS, SOMETHING!!!!

I would have thought the Lions winning three in a row this decade puts them a fair way in front of Geelong.

Should definitely be an interesting Rising Star this year. Josh Hill has been playing some great footy along with Rhys Palmer, then throw in Kruezer, Rioli and Morton. I think it will be one of the most hottly contested awards in years.

Do we know what is wrong with him? It seems he was dropped after round 1, then hasn't played for Sandy, but i haven't heard about an injury to him.

What is the deal with these two? Are they injured still? Will they be brought back through Sandy?

Should we keep Bruce's defensive wins on a roll by giving him the inform Corey Jones next week?

Having the surety of Rivers down back, plus a hard leading Miller instsntly made the game plan easier to implement. And not having the likes of Buckley turning it over running from half back helps. Now if we can get Bate fit, we will hopefully have another target when moving it foward, because we are seriously lacking in players who can can beat their opponent in the foward half.

Morton has way more upside than Palmer, in terms of physical development to go with his sublime skills . Palmer was always going to make an immediate impact due to having a more mature body. He looked fantastic yesterday, as did Kruezer.

1st half positives. - Our effort - PJ, Brock, Bruce, Aussie, Miller Negatives. - Our disposal - Jones, Bell(shouldn't take kick ins) and Garland(How does he get a game?)

Great effort by the guys in the first quarter. It's a shame poor skill errors gifted them the last 3 goals. Jones disposal was terrible. PJ has been fantastic.