Straight Sets Simon

He should be known as Murali because he can't straighten his arms.

Hard to have forward pressure when there is no forward line. Countless times Melbourne players looked up to no options up forward of the centre. Jetta was easily Melbourne's best. Bate should be playing a lot at Casey this year. His awkardness is painful to watch. Watts was soft. Scully did nothing. Tappscott's foot is a weapon. Umpiring was dreadful. Sylvia did nothing. I really hope next week Melbourne pick the best team possible and don't rest anyone.

Yes.

Yes, but there is a difference. Someone has started a thread suggesting Frawley should be played forward, is that "manipulating results" too?

I did notice he left that part out.

I don't like the line: Two points: 1) There is a difference between trying to lose and not having winning as your top priority. Melbourne were the latter. 2) I would accept that Melbourne "manipulated results" if Jordan McMahon was paid to miss after the siren or if the players were told to lose, but he wasn't and they weren't.

I think they peaked at the right time, if they left it later they would have missed out. In 2008 they had Franklin winning the Coleman, Crawford was on his last legs as were Croad and Dew. I think they are a chance again this year but it has taken them a while to recover from the loss of the senior players.

The issue with Bate is that is awkwardness (always hunched over and can't seem to straighten his arms, especially with kicking and marking) is catching up with him. In the past he could get away with it, but like a golfer with a flawed golf swing you can only play so well without having to change your whole swing or technique.

No one knows.

I still would have kept Valenti over Jones.

No, I mean he will kick ten goals one day if he puts in a four quarter effort.

And a cheat, I can't believe he claimed that mark and the umpire paid it.

There was too much fiddling around with the ball tonight, kicking backwards and sideways. If under pressure kick the ball long, don't handpass sideways. Melbourne just always looked second to the ball. Trengove has painfully slow acceleration. I can't wait for the day that Jurrah puts in a four quarter effort.

1) Collingwood 2) Hawthorn 3) Geelong 4) Western Bulldogs 5) St Kilda 6) Melbourne 7) Fremantle 8) Adelaide I am feeling surprisingly optimistic.

We are not talking about a handful, we are talking about one and Joel Macdonald is above those players anyway.

Steven Armstrong is a Premiership player, so is Mark Blake. That argument means very little.

There is more than one spot in the backline. I see the backline looking something like this for much of the season: FB: Garland Frawley Bartram/Jetta HB: Grimes Rivers/Warnock Macdonald Macdonald is tough, hard and breaks tackles just about better than anyone else on the list. Morton and Bennell are more suited to a wing or a HFF, both are nowhere near as tough as Macdonald and not as effective in defence. Those kids will get a game when they deserve it, this year is about making the finals, development will still be there but not at the expense of winning games.

Who is ahead of him at the moment?

Looks pretty good, but not in the class of Jurrah.

It' pretty obvious isn't it? The umpires have worn red and black in every game. Red and black are the colours of the NAB logo, it's stupid but we are talking about the AFL here so no one should be surprised.

I wrote this after last Friday night: Love his work.

Interesting. I was a big fan of Martin in 2009, injuries and constant positional changes made a lot of people (myself included) forget a bit about him. On Friday night I thought of the few touches he did have he was quite good and there definitely is an opportunity there for him to take the second ruck position.

I think North should move to Tasmania, but I would be surprised if they did. When they only got 26,000 people to the game at Docklands against Melbourne (around half were Melbourne supporters) I knew that their supporters just didn't care. That's about 14,000 people to a Saturday afternoon game, not good enough.

I love these player descriptions. No weaknesses? This kid must be the greatest player of all time! Also, good to see that our quota of three or four red heads has been maintained.

One thing I did like about this years jumper was that the AFL logo was only on the red yolk, it didn't overlap. When the logos on the jumper overlap the patterns it takes away from the design which is key to the jumper, whereas if it is just on the red the design is much clearer. Obviously with the "V" being sharper, the yolk is narrower and there will most likely be an overlap. I like the sharp V, however I would prefer if the top of the V started below the cuffs so that there was both a sharper V and no overlap. I realise I am nit picking, but that's just my take. On the logo, I prefer the more detailed one. In some cases the simple one is needed but I hope the club use the detailed version as much as possible.