Don't anyone ever...

[Plugger46]

tell me again that Ben Mathews can play. Everytime when the stakes are high and we're under the pump, he doesn't perform. He's fine when you're winning, but never puts his body on the line when it really matters.

[Nico]

And you can throw in J.Bolton and Fosdike.

Bolton is slow, will not be accountable for a player, can't kick and I watched him closely at a number of centre bounce and he has NFI what to do. He stands a mile from the contest and Peverill simply stood in front of him or gave him a little nudge to put him out of the contest. Being at the game gave me a clear view of where he is at, and he is just plain too slow around the ground to get to contests. The MCG really found him out. Canberra for him, but then he is one of the golden boys so I suppose I have to put up with his shortcomings.

Fosdike - well as I and others have said before he does nothing against the "hard" teams. May have had a few possessions but his effort in the 2nd Q where he passed beautifully to the chest of player, took the hand pass then dribbled it out of bounds was bloody awful stuff. Another who can't kick and refuses to make a contest. A couple of times today it looked as if he was scared.


Neither of these players give us much from a team perspective and rarely hurt the opposition. The only thing Bolton has done this year was to kick a goal in the 3rd Q.

Buchanan is far more aggressive and hard at it. Time to give him a go.

[chammond]

Who did Mathews play on?

[ugg]

Hard to pinpoint one direct opponent. Murphy maybe? or one of their young kids Dyson or Stanton

[BAM_BAM]

I think (?) I saw Ben on Mercuri at one point too. I thought Ben was OK (remembering a TV view is different to the game). He didn't pick up as many possesions as our running game was cut out due to the conditions, but he did take a couple of strong marks.

I'm not sure about the comments on Jude. quite a few 1%rs again. He was a little quiet a little early, but lifted towards the end, like most of the team.

I'm sorry I like the kid, but Monty is not a replacement for Fosie.

[Foreign Legion]

Mathews might not be playing next week after seeing him hobbling around at the aftermatch. He could barely walk so I don't know why he was even there.

I agree on Buchanan give him 3 weeks in a row with a heap of time on the ground - if he is no good then at least we gave him a chance.

[Mike_B]

Just over half the team was on the same flight back to Sydney as I was....they all looked injury free to me. Obviously with that, Schneider wasn't on the plane.

A fair few of the players would probably have stayed back in Melbourne to see family etc - I think the club is pretty flexible with this considering the players would get too many opportunities through the season.

[Schneidergirl]

Originally posted by Nico
And you can throw in J.Bolton and Fosdike.

Bolton is slow, will not be accountable for a player, can't kick and I watched him closely at a number of centre bounce and he has NFI what to do. He stands a mile from the contest and Peverill simply stood in front of him or gave him a little nudge to put him out of the contest. Being at the game gave me a clear view of where he is at, and he is just plain too slow around the ground to get to contests. The MCG really found him out. Canberra for him, but then he is one of the golden boys so I suppose I have to put up with his shortcomings.

Neither of these players give us much from a team perspective and rarely hurt the opposition. The only thing Bolton has done this year was to kick a goal in the 3rd Q.

Surely you must be joking?????

I would NOT like to see the team play without Jude! He is without a doubt one of the top ten players on the team. Sure he does some mistakes, but so does our BROWNLOW medalist for Christ sake!

To even contemplate getting rid of Jude would surely show you know nothing about this player!

It would be crimial to get rid of a 3rd placed club champion (2003).

I would hate to think what our midfield would play like if Jude and Fosdike weren't there.

I hope they make you eat humble pie for the rest of the season.

[Bron]

Yes, Jude makes mistakes. But most often, those are coming because he's trying his damndest. Those 1%ers can change the face of the game. They are risks that you have to take. This was why I first noticed Jude - his effort and attitude. Then I noticed his leadership abilities.

I had a boss once, who told me about 6 weeks after I'd started that he was concerned about my performance .... I thought I'd been doing well, he said that I hadn't made any mistakes and that his interpretation was that I wasn't trying hard enough or trying new things. To be a star, you have to be brave enough to go out on a limb.

And BTW, Jude also received 13 Brownlow votes last year, including 3 BOGs. So it's not just the opinion of a few (although after yesterday's debacle, I don't know how much I want to go by umpire decisions!).

If you look closely, you'll see the level of leadership that he displays on ground. He is always encouraging, urging and directing. Yesterday he was in there separating a fight.

He has courage, focus and team spirit. He is an invaluable member of our team and, hopefully, FSC!

[liz]

I thought Jude was one of the better players yesterday. Not at the level of Bazza, Bevo, Pebbles and Leapin' but probably in the next group down. Admittedly on TV you don't get to see what players are doing off the ball but based on the contests he got to he did OK. Yes he needs to improve if the team is going to to anywhere this year and we know from last year that he can.

[NMWBloods]

Sorry, but 16 possessions (only 9 after qtr time) and 2 clearances is not good enough for one of our key midfielders. I thought he was very ordinary, but he did have a lot of mates.

[hammo]

It's one thing to do the 1%ers and make a few tackles but good midfielders have to be able to hit the chests of forwards under pressure. I never have confidence in Fosdike, Bolton or Mathews doing this.

[Captain]

Originally posted by Nico
Bolton is slow, will not be accountable for a player, can't kick and I watched him closely at a number of centre bounce and he has NFI what to do. He stands a mile from the contest and Peverill simply stood in front of him or gave him a little nudge to put him out of the contest. Being at the game gave me a clear view of where he is at, and he is just plain too slow around the ground to get to contests. The MCG really found him out. Canberra for him, but then he is one of the golden boys so I suppose I have to put up with his shortcomings.

What a load of rubbish.

Bolton is a gun player. He didn't do all that much yesterday, but he did some lovely things in the 3rd qurter. To suggest dropping him is dumb.

He may no be the fastest runner, so what. Nor is Buckley, Voss etc they are all still pretty handy.

[Nico]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
Sorry, but 16 possessions (only 9 after qtr time) and 2 clearances is not good enough for one of our key midfielders. I thought he was very ordinary, but he did have a lot of mates.

Nice to see someone agrees with me. His form has been very poor this year and as a midfielder he has little or no dfensive side to his game at the moment because he is too flaming slow.

My comments are purely and simply based on where we are at the moment, and we just lack pace and grunt in the midfield.

Bolton and Fosdike have very ordinary disposal, and for a team that has a game plan based on high possessions this really does lower our % of clean disposals.

After watching StKilda/Brisbane game and the sheer pace of their respective midfields, to compete we can't afford to have players slow us down and not go hard to the contest. Essendon's midfield as simply too hard for us.

On another point. Can anyone tell me why we have no one running past a static player who has taken a mark eg. Ball to take a handpass and keep the game moving and perhaps open up the forward line quickly before the opposition floods back.

It is nausiating watching us just stop our run in midstream.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Captain
What a load of rubbish.

Bolton is a gun player. He didn't do all that much yesterday, but he did some lovely things in the 3rd qurter. To suggest dropping him is dumb.

He may no be the fastest runner, so what. Nor is Buckley, Voss etc they are all still pretty handy.

He still didn't get near the footy anywhere near enough. O'Bree of Collingwood is no superstar but he got close to 40 possessions today.

What Voss and Buckley not quick. Are watching the same football code?