deanox

Bate is a fantastic and underrated player who I think will have a breakout year this year (if last year wasn't his breakout year). That being said he does not play tall enough to be the focal CHF and is being currently utilised in the capacity of a tall flanker (similar to robbo was over the years). He has a fantastic motor, and very good pace off the mark meaning he pushes and rotates up the field (read: in the midfield) and drifts closer to goal as well. As a result he is currently not playing the true CHF role, but a different role. That being said, while I rate Bate, last year was his first year of good consistent footy for the whole season, he really found his straps. And you could argue that Miller struggled for games in the middle of last season. However, once he got back into the team he played some of his best footy for the year kicking 6.7 in 5 games average around 15 disposals and over 6 marks a game.

im not sure if you have much knowledge of the concept of leadership, but typically 'best player' is not part of the description. He is vocal and supportive, he trains hard and runs hard all day - which means even if he is not a world beater he is leadering by example with work ethic, which is far more important in leadership terms than doing fancy things well. he goes in hard and will throw his body around, he will fly the flag for young players. Did I mention how vocal he is on both the training track and on match days? Leadership is about getting the best out of other players, about standing up (in millers case physically) when required and about encouraging and supporting teammates. Miller might not be a lot of things, but in my opinion a leader is one of the things he is. And in a club devoid of leadership that is recognised by making him part of the leadership group.

yeah thats exactly how leadership groups work. the captain picks his 5 best mates.

i think the reason miller gets 'bashed' so much is because we all expect our CHF's to be dominant players, which miller isnt. he is an ordinary player who does his best on the field, and we currently have no other CHF's capable of playing at AFL level, let alone better than miller does. Redleg got it right. He will eventually be overtaken, but until then expect him to play at least 70% of games, and to be honest, I hope he passes on his work ethic both at training and around the ground to all the young tall players at the club. If he was a better kick at goal from 50 meters no one would be bagging him out. RE petterd, i think the biggest problem is that while he is talented and a good prospect and a tough nut, he hasnt looked like owning a position. yeah he can kicks goals - sometimes. he does alright off a back flank. could be used in the midfield. after 3 years, we still dont know where he should be played. Is he good enough to be a jack of all trades? i'm not sure. but if after 4 years he doesnt look like having a position he can call his own i can understand the reservations people might have for him. if he doesnt have a good year and is out of contact which 4 players would you delist ahead of him? the only names i can think of that could be in that bracket are bartram and bell. we will need to delist 4 players at the end of the year, and if petterd has an ordinary year he COULD be in the firing line, especially if a couple of other border line players stand up.

BBP that sounds pretty good to me, and I know I am being optimistic with suggestions of 8 wins. I think the big difference between this year and last year is that I think there is more drive to win some of those games later in the year. Particularly if we win one or two and get a bit of momentum the players could suddenly find themselves winning a couple more. Similarly it is completely possible that we will only win 5-6 and lose 8 more by less than 10 points and just not be able to finish off those victories. I won't be too dissapointed if that happens, but it will be a frustrating year.

if jurrah and sylvia are amongst the top six then his point is proven beautifully. sylvia has had a couple of amazing games in a reasonably solid season, for the first time in his career, and apart from potential and hope, there are no guarantees he will continue that form. LJ looks to be a freak. In his limited AFL games he has shown that he can do the spectacular. He has played less than 10 games. Lets give him a chance to establish himself, and play with some consistency before he is named as one of our top 6. these two may be stars in a couple of years. but until then they are just 'potential'.

we should offer to play 18 versus 17, might give talking carlton or saintsational a chance...

much more effective player at melbourne than port. kicked 4 goals at each club, but got them in only 18 games at the mfc, while it took 132 games at port adelaide :P

top post jackattack! i'd like to echo everyone elses sentiments and say that it would be a very sad day if demonland went under. unless of course you were a member of talking carlton, then you would be celebrating the chance to win a forum footy match again! top effort everyone on here, especially Bruce G and your company!

my only problem with playing games out there is that 20K is not enough imo. i think 30k is a more realistic number. we are struggling atm and granted these games sometimes draw as low as 14k. however, reality is they usually hover just below the 20k mark and could comfortably be 20-25 k if we were in top 4 contention. in 10 years, with population growth etc, does a 25k stadium become defunct? and how many of the 20-25k are standing room etc? i think you will quickly turn the footballing public off if standing rooms becomes the main GA section.

expect frawley, bate, garland, sylvia, dunn, jones, morton, maric and grimes to all step up. they have now all played a number of games together, have either got through their first couple of years (or shaken off some injuries) and will have big years this year. meanwhile players like watts, strauss, and this years draftees will play and show some class but will only really step up to consistency in 2011-2012.

you're kidding? every other club in the comp would trade for frawley if he was available, and while he might not be key back no.1 at all teams in round 1 he would definitely get a starting 18 spot. im not saying he will get AA this season, but he will be a superb talent over the next decade and other afl supporters and clubs know that.

oh you didn't nasher. you are going to cop it if this comes true...

i thought bate was one of the most underrated players last season, had a mammoth year. if he can improve on that i will be very excited, because he will push to being in our top 3 players.

a couple mentioned gysberts kicking, can you elaborate on why it needs work? action? sloppyness? what was it you guys saw?

probably need to unsticky this thread now the board has gawn...

it would be interesting if he was injured this season, did not play a game for carlton and got traded back at the end of 2010 to captain the dees to a premiership in 2011. i suppose we'll have to wait and see if he plays a game for them...

interesting point about age population, i wasnt aware of that. but how do you work out what score someone who left school would have got? do you just assume they would be the lowest? from this link: http://www.tisc.edu.au/tiscguide/about_ter.html#ter_atar What is a TER (ATAR)? A TER (ATAR) ranges between 99.95 and zero, and reports your rank position relative to all other students. It takes into account the number of students who sit the TEE/WACE examinations in any year and also the number of people of Year 12 school leaving age in the total population. In 2008 the TEA (Tertiary Entrance Aggregate) replaced the TES (Tertiary Entrance Score). Your TEA will be calculated and then converted to a TER (ATAR), which tells you where you are ranked relative to other students. This will be the same position as a ranking based on your TEA, but the TEA is not able to convey this information directly to you. If you have a TER (ATAR) of 70.00, for example, it indicates that you are equal to or better than 70% of the Year 12 school leaver age population.

fwiw i cannot remember what score i received but i just graduated from uni with degrees in science and engineering, which as my most recent qualifications are more important than an ENTER score from 6 years ago. I am not defending a score of 59. What I am defending is any student who didnt get 80's or 90's and are made to feel like they failed by parents/media and morons like those on this site who have no idea how an ENTER score is ranked. It is a percentile score which means 50 is the average, in a school system where 50 is usually a terrible score. People do not realise this, and unless they do they should not comment on someone elses score. In this particular case people are paying out on a young kid for getting a score above average across society. Why wouldn't you want to defend him? Are you the sort of person who thinks its ok to pick on others due to ignorance?

thats fantastic...

link?

a 59 ENTER score means the student beat 59% of the students in the state who COMPLETED the VCE. That does not include people who fail VCE or drop out during the year. I don't care what school he was going to he is not being ranked against his individual classmates, but against the whole state. 59 might be in the bottom rungs of his classmates, but he is also the best footballer at that school, so it trades off a bit. My point is not that his score was fabulous or anything. It is that the score of 59 represents an above average academic achievement across the state for this years VCE. Given that this student planned on being a professional footballer, NOT an academic, it is a positive result indicating he is most likely not stupid, but somewhere above or around average academically.

can you explain how I was wrong? that is EXACTLY what an ENTER score of 59 means.

time for a new sig CB?

i'm very keen to go around again, and may be a bit fitter than last time! will depend on the day/date with cricket and work commitments but generally sundays are ok. if we are going for feb, do we consider making it a morning match before it gets too hot, or is that pushing it a bit for a sunday? haha