Straight Sets Simon

Good thread, I agree entirely. If I was an Adelaide supporter I would be bloody annoyed that they didn't win by at least ten goals.

6. Frawley 5. Davey 4. Rivers 3. Martin 2. Moloney 1. McLean

Bate isn't a full forward. He is playing terrible football at the moment but it isn't helped by playing him deep in the forward line.

A poor crowd for a poor game of football. It was fitting really...

OUT: Newton, Bate, Bartram, Jetta IN: Robertson, Wonaeamirri*, Grimes, Maric *Fitness pending

Bartram - Can be excused for poor performance Bate - Not a full forward Bennell - Showing promise Bruce - Made some really stupid mistakes Davey - Very good season Dunn - Must be played forward Frawley - One of his best games Jetta - Needs a run at Casey Johnson - Poor skills today Jones - Loves being stationary when calling for a handpass in congested situations Martin - I love his work McDonald - Relatively quiet day McLean - Lacked polish Meesen - Good effort Miller - Poor Moloney - Long kicking a treat Morton - One of his worst games Newton - Very poor Petterd - Not a forward, looks much better down back Rivers - Good as always Sylvia - Still reveling in his second quarter last week Warnock - Reliable again

In the last quarter Melbourne finally got a little bit of a run on, they were only two or three goals down with around ten minutes to go and yet when Adelaide had the ball in their defence Melbourne refused to apply any kind of pressure and allow Adelaide players to get cheap kicks to loose players. Where is the logic in this? Amazingly, despite only kicking one goal in a half of football, Melbourne were still in the game and yet they didn't do anything that would actually see them win. The mind boggles. Football is supposed to be attacking and most importantly entertaining, that was neither. God help us against Geelong because if Melbourne play in the same style as they did today they will lose by 150+ points because Geelong don't waste time chipping the ball around in their back half like Adelaide did.

They usually find a way. Dale Thomas meeting some school kids once made front page news (not front page of the sports section either). Remember who the target market of the Herald Sun is.

20,000 would be a very good result in this weather. It's freezing.

Wrong thread, my bad.

I think that the game should be left to Collingwood and Essendon. They've created a tradition, they get the crowds and there is always interest in the game. I suppose that people think that Queens Birthday should be taken from Melbourne and Collingwood too?

Jetta must be thanking his lucky stars, it would have been one of the worst clangers in recent history.

Agreed.

7.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of dim-witted individuals (mainly Collingwood, Richmond or any other supporters who are in a cheer squad) who believe that the whole world revolves around the AFL and use the Herald Sun to get their "news". The Herald Sun is just giving the people what they want.

Judd's grandma just called...

It was something that Melbourne did in the first three weeks.

Five minutes of game time, but the quarter went for about 32 minutes in total (ten minutes after the slow down debacle). It's interesting to see from watching On The Couch, that in an almost identical situation Carlton tried the same thing against Sydney and it cost them a goal instead creating a potential scoring opportunity.

Buckley too.

I did enjoy seeing Moloney, McLean and Sylvia in the middle together.

He was a lot better yesterday, but the fact that he doesn't have the confidence to kick for goal from within 30 metres is a real worry.

I managed to see from the end of the second quarter onwards and Bowden did have more influence than I saw from watching the game live, but for the number of possessions he had he still wasn't as damaging as you would expect.

Kicking the ball long to the forward line (which had an even ratio of Richmond and Melbourne players) was, is and almost always will be the better option. I managed to watch the replay from just after this incident and the commentators rightly heavily criticised Melbourne for this and Bruce was benched accordingly. Good to see.

Agreed.

Dunn to stay in the forward line.