I don't know if we will see Salem or Toumpas til mid year, i want to see Toumpas winning some more contested ball and making himself impossible to overlook, and i want Salem to develop, learn his craft and so on, maybe come in and play a minor role on a forward flank or something later in the year to give him a small taste, maybe as sub

At the very least a small forward still has to be able to get the ball to ground in a one on one versus his direct opponent. The game has changed with the press and Byrnes and JKH have been found wanting in marking contests many times this year. JKH may improve this area of his game but as yet IMO we would be better off going with the bigger Salem.

Small forwards also need to be at the drop of the ball when the tall forwards are in a marking contest. Didn't see the north/swans game but listening on radio sounded like classic smart wet weather football from their smalls. Stand behind the pack, ball not marked slips out the back.....goal. We saw pre season what JKH can do in space. He also has a great defensive side to his game, and most of the time when he tackles the opponent isn't able to free his arms up. I think small forward is a specialised position and we've lacked one since Flash got moved up the ground. Marking might be something he can work on but I think a lot of our players need work on different parts of their game. For mine he stays in the side.

AFLCA votes - that's what I take notice of:

Carlton vs Melbourne
10 N. Jones (Melb)
8 Frawley (Melb)
6 McDonald (Melb)
3 Grimes (Melb)
3 Yarran (Carl)

And it looks like there was reasonable consensus between Malthouse and Roos. Interesting to note that there was only the one midfielder in that bunch.

Hope this hasn't been posted elsewhere, it is a very good article by Chris Dawes, he is a very smart guy and hopefully his thinking will rub off on the other players.

http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/four-points-and-on-top-of-the-world-20140415-36pzc.html