deanox

i actually thought newton was trying to put the ball in the goal square for someone to run onto. he had nothing if he turned back the other way and had two players pressuring him. other than that he shold have had 2 free kicks in front of goal, both for holding the man, when he was in the better position in the marking contest. he dropped 2 marks he should have taken, because he got his hands to them, but other than that every time he led the ball was kicked over his head, or he was ignored. i counted more than 5 times when he had a good lead into space and the player with the ball thought about kicking to him, but then held the ball up and kicked it to miller or sylvia who were in infinitly worse positions. he also chased, bumped and tackled players today. he is not quick. he will never run players down. but he put pressure on today, and tried to take players out of the contest after they handballed it by blocking them from running on. im not sure what people expect of this young 14th gamer, but he kicked 2 goals, and could easily have finished with more if delivery to him was better.

i think the most advantageous thing aobut it all is the first pick in the PSD. it allows you to hold any club over a barrel for any player. more important than the difference between picks 1 and 2 i believe.

the only upside of the gold coast side coming in is that they will have a glut of picks that they will be expected to offload for some players. that means they will pay over the odds for certain players. ricky looks like being good, but if we are going to lose anyone, i hope it is for top 10 picks.

he did. pavlich got dragged. harvey threw him forward and we got smashed. if only dunn hadnt played so well on him lol

and more specifically they are paying to be a part of the club including voting rights, and access to member only functions and information.

the 7 named break down like this: wona/maric, PJ/white, martin/carrol, valenti. its hard to see valenti geting dropped, he is the only mid on the bench. one of each of the pairs would play, you would assume. i think given form it is likely PJ and martin will hold their spots. wona could get a rest for maric, or maybe there will be a late out.

they were in the squad last week and didnt play. the squad means jack really. the chance of them getting a game is very very low. especially if they are not named on the field ala mcdonald...

yeah sorry, spatial awareness probably isnt the best term for it. but its that ability to step around a play who comes at him, from whatever angle. once he is stronger i think he will get caught a hell of a lot less, as it often looks like he is trying to bruch players off, and underestimates them...

he was playing both ends of the ground. not just a backman. leading past the forward 50 is well and good. but its no good if you cant kick goals and your job is to be a CHF. brown leads out of the 50, but kicks goals. pavlich plays everywhere, and kicks goals. franklin leads out as well, and kicks lots of goals. and dont tell me you consider bate a KPF?

you make a great point. i dont care what we're named. that was the least of our problems.

watch the boy move. i am not saying he is a similar player or a similar body type., i am saying he has the spatial awareness, and the time and space, and the agility allowing him to move around others, of travis.

miller has played a bit down back. not regularly until 2006 however. so the argument is invalid. and whats the point of a KPF who cant kick a bag of goals? i am at a loss. he might gets lots of it, but doesnt use it, and its not like his delivery into the forward 50 has been getting us goals. the only reason he has had a goal season this year is because he has kicked goals the last 5 weeks.

over his career brad miller average 1.3 tackles per game. this season he is average 1.5. and miller gets the benefit of running around the ground contesting the footy, not waiting for the mids to deliver it to him.

and for me this is the problem. he is being judged overly harsh because he has latent ability that is unfulfilled. sylvia has loads of talent, is judged harshly but at least people want to keep giving him another chance.

brad millers season average for goals reads something like this: 2002 0 2003 .1 2004 .6 2005 .3 2006 .3 2007 .6 2008 1.3 he wasnt improving but he got to 100 games. juice has played 13. in brad millers first season he got a total of 6 disposals no goals in 4 games. in millers second season he play 16 games, for 1 goal ad an average of 7.7 disposals.

ok so the stats show he didnt have any outstanding games, but you wont admit that. the stats show that CJ has had 2 extra years of playing at afl level than newton, but that doesnt interest you. because of a perceived mental weakness you are prepared to write off a young player who has kicked an average of more than a goal a game over his first 13 games, and not let him find his feet as we have allowed CJ to find his? (and i thought id note this for those who have expressed the 'he needs a long run in the seniors' argument. he got rounds 17,18,19 in 2005. in 2006 he got 9-15 (7 games in a row) on top of 2 other games. in 2007 he got rounds 1 and 2, 14,15,16 and 21,22 as consecutive games. and this year he has played rounds 3,4 and 12,13,14,15,16. so in the last 3 years he has been dropped after 1 game only three times, runs of 3 or more games in every season. not saying he wouldnt have benefited from more game time, but he got runs, and wasnt chopped and changed as much as some have made out.)

remember that the official tackle stats are effective tackles: 'tackles that disposses or cause a turnover' i believe. it doesnt say how many times he has chased an opponent around only to have them handball off at the last second. tackle stats imo show the quality of your tackles, not the endeavour or application.

no it doesnt. these are his 2005 stats. Year Games Kicks Handballs Disposals Marks Goals Behinds Tackles Hitouts Frees For Frees Ag. 2005 4 6.8 2.5 9.2 3.8 0 0 1.8 0 0 0.8 4 games for an average of 9.2 disposals. disposal high was 14. in 2006 he had two games with 20 disposals. all other had less than 15. in 2007 his highest disposals in any game was 17. he made double figures 6 times out of 8. this year he has played 3 games with disposals above 20 (the last 3). people want to give CJ more time. in newtons first season at afl level he kicked 14.8 in 10 games. this year he has 4.4 in 3 games. out of interest newton has played 2 less seasons at afl level than CJ has. as a goal kicker newton has contributed in every game he has played (bar 1).

are you sure? i had only ever seen glimpses.

to part a) he reminds me of travis in this way. it will be great if as he gets stronger he keeps this and is able to slip through tackles, even if he ends up playing KP. he has amazing agility. regarding your second part. do you think this exposure will hamper or hasten his development? in some ways it is really hampering him. he is not getting the chance to play at sandy and dominate, he is forced to play above himself. he is getting crucified by certain posters here for every mistake, but they forget he is learning on the big stage. on the other hand, getting this much experience and exposure now means that he wont have to get the exposure next year or the year after when he bulks up a bit, and might start playing great footy straight away without that need to adjust...

what would you call him when he got the ball? he'd be hard to cheer for...

haha true, but everyone here is celebrating the fact that miller has had a great season (he is average 14 disposals, 8 marks and 1.3 goals), even though he has played over 100 games now, and is 25. (out of interest newton is average 8 disposals, 4 marks and 1.3 goals). CJ is having a purple patch over the last few weeks, but he has had 28 games and is a year and a bit older than newton. and we all expect that talls will take longer than smalls to develop...

a voice of reason. he needs time. he needs to improve, not only on his output, but also on the team things etc, but he should be given as much time as CJ, miller, sylvia, etc. why should he be judged so harshly? i just dont understand where that opinion comes from? have you been going to sandy games this year? in round 1 versus hawthorn he was terrible and was dropped. he was injured and eventually got fit. since then in his few games at sandy, he kicked lots of goals and points and missed lots, and took marks. he has come into the mfc side and has done not much. but i honestly havnt seen him do anything poorly. he has chased his man around at FF, layed a few tackles, taken some marks. if anything, my point of view is that he still isnt sure if he belongs, and he still looks lost - ie doesnt know his role well enough. playing FF for the mfc is different than playing CHF at sandy. give him time to adapt. this year and next. if he still hasnt come on by this time next year then i can understand that he might be a goner. but DB is being considered a very harsh judge of player, and DB picked him and didnt drop him after the first game.

melbourne carlton could be averted if, a) we never wore white shorts and they did (they already have white on their uniform). we could also help avert the clash by having the 'red' on the back of the jumper spread more, because the clash is only from behind. a simple change like that would fix it. we only clash with freo because they have red coming over their shoulder which makes them look like us. make all the teams to join in the last 20 years play with their original jumpers and i bet there would be virtually no clashes. make smart decisions about shorts: teams with white should wear the white shorts not teams with two other colours ie saints and sydney - even collingwood and carlton. let essendon and richmond wear wider sashes against each other, and do something to colour the backs of the jumpers. simple things, you dont need to change jumpers dramatically...

he has had two games in a row, and 3 for the year. spent most of the year out with injury. he has in total less than 15 games experience to his name, and is kicking over a goal per game on average (i think). why isnt he given the time to adjust to afl, and the time to grow into his own position that everyone else is given? why doesnt he get the chance to find his feet? is it because we all know he has some latent ability, and specifically an ability the team is crying out for?