Roger Mellie

A forward line with Bennell, Melksham and Fritsch would result in forward pressure somewhere between zero and token.

I'm not sure I could stand watching him stop dead after a missed mark and check his hands are still there, again.

Chateau cardboard and a kraft single - cant possibly loose ?

IIRC Preuss shed a heap of weight over the preseason and the mission was to get his aerobic fitness up to scratch. This was all going to plan until the injury. I would assume, even with the injury lay-off, his fitness base is far superior to last year when he wasn't even getting to ruck contests. I think he plays and a) bashes up Grundy or b) at least is in the same stratosphere as Cox if he is Grundy's replacement.

We don't even know the list size yet do we? We could be cutting a number of players first.

Seen the advertising onslaught? What are your tips for the aromas? Mine: A hint of rayon, baked beans and beer with overtones of cheap sex and hair product

In Viney, Gawn, Lockhart, Bennell Out (managed or otherwise) - AVB, Harmes, TMac or Jackson, Jones

Agree with everything you said apart from this - 'dash' and Tomlinson in the same sentence. He runs hard but, not by any stretch of the imagination is dash involved. He's lumbering. I'm not saying he should necessarily be dropped either.

What would we do without your insight?

Jeeesus! What's going on? There's hell of a lot of players heading out the door: https://womens.afl/news/51677/trade-period-preview-dees-bracing-for-exodus-tigers-eye-reinforcements O'Dea (Good pick-up Dees In Oct), Newman (poor year), Jakobsson (sold out on us twice or expendable?), Cordner (should only ever be allowed to play for MFC with that name), Guerin, Katherine Smith Cant we afford to pay them?

Ditto and that's just a start but: Tom - plodder. Is it a coincidence we played pretty well without him? Oscar - two shocking games, one of them particularly cringe worthy against a first gamer

When the pressure's on revert to type: - don't think, fall over - bomb it to port players or noone - all go for the same mark - forget the gameplan - let the structure fall to bits - look for frees - get sucked in by a second gamer into thinking you can forget them and spectate - confuse tackling with falling on players - dispose of ball in random directions - fumble

If we had the luxury of dropping forwards, Fritsch deserves to be dropped for one of the worst acting displays of all time - resulting in a much deserved 50 metre penalty.

These players need to managed - Jetta, Bennell, Jones, Pickett, Jackson. I can't see Bennell playing this week with his history - way too risky. Risky too, playing Jones in 4 days. Jetta's conking out. Pickett needs a break this game or next. Hannan was [censored] and didn't look to handle the conditions. Brayshaw bollocks and Harmes horrendous. Out: Bennell, Jetta (managed or head knock) Brayshaw In: ANB (not a fan but fills a need ), Tomlinson (ditto), Rivers or Smith Harmes can tag Gray and stop taking on the god dam tackler.

I like Lockhart and I presume Goodwin's giving him an extended run. He's making mistakes by getting caught with the ball but I think there's already improvement. He looks for and hits targets, has vision and is creative. I like that he looks inside and doesn't do the auto bomb down the boundary line. His lack of stats might be because he's given a job. I don't like that he gets caught with the ball and that he has no (or less of a) tank but both are improving. Smart footballer, quick enough and not afraid to tackle.

I'm not that fussed if it's Jackson or TMac. Perhaps the best wet weather footballer if it's going to be wet. Jackson will be a gun. His ground ball work is already better than TMac's but he's not really clunking them yet and a wet slog wont help. I think we'll need Jackson over the next month to give Gawn a decent chop out - not just a couple of minutes here and there. So, I'm happy if Jackson misses and comes back in on Thursday.

Interim Coach?

The positive (note the singular): A big shout out to Michael Hibberd. The guy is under way more duress than any other player in the team and still managed to shine.

We are also hopeless at guarding space. Geelong showed how easily they could zig zag their way through it. Zone defence is utterly futile if you cant guard space.

Out: Melksham - slow, out of form and tries to be too cute. AVB - too underdone. Rivers game was riddled with errors but he's worth persisting with. Lockhart did some absolute howlers but I like what he otherwise brings to the game. His replacement would be Jetta and he's too slow and plodding at the moment. In: Wiedeman. We need someone else for the bombs into the forward line. Brown doesn't take contested marks so it's either Weed or Jackson. I'm not that fussed which, but Jackson hasn't quite put it together yet. As mentioned earlier, Alir will have a field day if without a second tall. Bennell - need his class and precision although I don't know if the SCG will suit. Otherwise maybe Bedford (pressure and speed) or Jones (experience).

Yeah, pretty sure he was a development coach here for a year or two.

If Max plays 95% of game time, it will still be less than what he would've played in last years full length quarters.

Hopefully shuts down Stringer

Possibly a Kent Kingsley Award nominee. Having said that, he does manages to scrape back onto the Essendon list every year on a one year deal or rookie contract.

Bummers have gone for a short forward line too. Their full forward line is an out and out lol: [40] Will Snelling, [44] Shaun McKernan, [20] Jacob Townsend If we cant get on top of that forward line, we deserve to lose (yes, I know they don't necessarily line up that way) They may send Hooker forward given their short forward line. We may do the same with May, maybe (trying to break the record for using 'may' in a sentence). If Zaharakis plays like he did last week, Langdon will give him the mother of all baths. Managed minutes of Bennell, Hannan and AVB is a slight concern. Go Dees