Not that you'd want to read more about this week's game but if you're a glutton for punishment, click here for more news! How did Chaffey do in his first week of the premiership season? Terrific, from what I understand. He was listed as one of the best on ground despite the devastating loss.

We started the week with a whoooooole lot of hype about Chaffey's return to the line-up. The big talk was who he'd be replacing. It almost as if it was a sad occasion because someone good, someone who deserved to get the start based on last week's performance, was going to be bumped. It was never in doubt whether or not Chaffey would get the start, only who he'd be taking the position away from.

As I read all the articles, and believe me, there were a lot of them, it struck me that this surely must be an unique situation. For once we've got too many skilled players! Injuries haven't taken their toll; it's not a matter of filling gaps. We had a lot of great choices!! How often does that happen!?! In retrospect I guess it gave me a false sense of security.

I read on 1 April that Chaffey would be coming in at the expense of Jay Schulz. I wonder how Chaffey felt about that. I wonder how Schulz felt about that.

In any case, Chaffey got the call and seemed to step up to the challenge. The Herald Sun reports:

    Neitz boots nine to unify Demons
    02 April 2004 Herald Sun
    AAP

    Brown's three goals gave him a respectable finish, but besides him, midfielders Andrew Krakouer and Johnson and overworked defender Mark Chaffey, there was little for Tiger fans to cheer.


I've been lurking around the Punt Road End message board where they had a thread about Chaffey. It goes something like this:

    Thought Chaffey was one of Richmonds better players tonight.

    Is it just me or does Chaffey continually send us to the boundary. It seems whenever he makes space it is tight against the boundary and his kicks always hug the boundary line. It becomes a major problem when he takes the ball from defence so often. He often picks a target who is covered and so we become very stop start.

    Agree nwonash....Chaffey was one of the very few that could walk tall and proud tonight....

    dont want to bag this guy to much but 21 possesions most of them soft sprinkled with a fair few turnovers.

    Yeah at times I do beleive his kicks go astray under pressure. But he offers a solid hardness that many others dont give in the back 6. And its not as bad for a backman to hit the wings AT TIMES...But Chaffs, well he is one of the rare consistent (did i just say that word about a richmond player?) performers.

I'm happy to give Chaffey the benefit of the doubt. All statistics, for whatever they're worth, point to a successful debut. I'd like to see what he can do for us in a game that is played better all around.

From: Chris Greenway
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 6:45 PM
Subject: Chaff
The report I read online listed him among the best. They probably went on stats and because the ball was in our defensive half so often he did get a lot of the ball, however stats can often be misleading. Chaffey has a tendency to slow play down and chip it to someone close rather than run with it and drive it into attack. He did that stop and chip kick stuff a lot last night. It's a waste of a possession really. If he and the rest of the backline, with the exception of Fiora, had been prepared to kick long and drive the ball quickly into attack then Melbourne would not have been able to flood back and we would have had some sort of chance. However he probably went to coaches orders and played that negative keep possession, crawl around the boundary style that Danny reverts to whenever he panics, which is most of the games that he coaches. Sigh.

Chris.