Who has done enough to keep their spot?

[desertsaint]

not many, but we need to think about what we want out of the year.
i'd say we can now abandom all pretensions of a top eight spot and develop our youth.
how the heck we back a journeyman like stevens to be a tagger over one of our best young mids i don't know. a tagger against brisbane for gods sake - and they still smashed us inside. then we keep him when there is no target - baecause 'a wins a win' and all that.
stevens got just two contested possessions today. he literally gave away almost half of all his disposals to the opposition, he is a depth player. not the future.
we got lucky last week and made no changes. and here we are - allowed the players some security and complacency after a mediocre effort last week. they played with complacency today.
going forward play the youngsters regardless and stop worrying about points. rotate them among games. heck if we come bottom we get a good draft pick.
but more than anything else we need to be playing them in a team with a bit of a game plan and structure. we need a leader to motivate and inspire them. so get rid of our coach no matter what else we do.

[Linton Lodger]

Only Carlisle, J Steven, Billings, Brown, Acres, Roberton and Gresham ought to be automatic inclusions next week. The other 15 should be the ones who bust their guts the hardest in training this week and the ones who showed very good form in Sandy's practice match.

Yes! Even the Captain needs to earn his selection after his lacklustre performance and failure to lead.

[degruch]

Billings? What did he do? He was as useless as 90% of them.

[samuraisaint]

Well, we were absolutely schooled by Billy Hartung, Jed Anderson, Marley Williams and a 35 year old by name of Jarrod Waite. They will certainly play next week.

Oh, you mean for us? Well...

[nw7]

Our kicking was just deplorable. You cant condone bad kicking and sub par performance each week by picking the same players, that gives the message that its ok. Webster turns the ball over every 2nd kick, they are crucial errors and cost goals. Billy Longer is a terrible player, he shouldnt be in the Team Hickey is a better option. Carlisle has to play forward, i know hes a good backman but we need him to take that mark on the wing after our short clearance kick after a point is kicked and also mark inside 50 when go go forward in general play. Change it up Richo.

[Bruce G McAbee]

Dunstan comes in for Armo, he olayed better than Armo in the JLT and should have been ahead of him anyway. Marshall for McCartin, can play forward and ruck. The rest I will have to think about but there should be a few heads to roll.

[Joffa Burns]

Outs
Stevens - good endeavor but butchers the ball
Sinclair - looks panicked when he goes near it, lost confidence
Longer - injured, but lacks skill
Brown - been screaming this for weeks, lumbering dinosaur
Paddy - out of his depth and lacks confidence

Keeps (though probably gifting games)
Long - he's young and has a crack
Clarke - ditto

Lots more like Steele are struggling, but who comes in and how many changes in one week?

Ins
Dunstan for Stevens
Austin or Coffield or Clavirino for Brown (never to be selected again)
Marshall for Longer (rather the kid than Hickey)
Mav - Paddy (go for a small instead of tall)
Lonie - Sinclair

Reward those who performed in the reserves.

Acres & Billings should spend more time on ball and at stoppages.
They have A grade skill (though not a grade players yet) and importantly both are good field kicks.

[Winmar]

The player who has disappointed me most so far is Sinclair. I had high hopes for him, but he's looked lost so far. He'll come good, I'd expect him to get dropped for next week unless they're just trying to get more games into him. I'd be very surprised if Dunstan didn't come in for him or Stevens.