DubDee

Good luck Alex! hope he plays well and is in the circle when we sing the song at the end of the game.

good analysis So we should play Gawn for the rest for the year as first ruck. He can develop his tank and keep learning his craft. At least then we might have a decent 1st ruck then try to recruit a 2nd ruck/fwd or mould Frost/Pedo. (fitzy back up) Jamar retires. Speno kept as back up for Gawnski

if the question is who has the most potential, then Gawn wins hand down. But he has shown very little so far that he can make it at AFL (aside from potential). He has been in and out of the team over the past 4 years, injuries have not helped but mostly, he has been dropped for performing poorly and not impacting games. I still have massive hopes for him and hope he turns the corner but to answer the question: we do not have a No 1 ruckman- We only have 2nd and 3rd choice ruckmen. If I had to pick, based on form this year and impact on games I would pick Spencer. These days in footy you need a competitor, and someone strong around the contest giving 2nd and 3rd efforts Recruitment will be interesting: do we target a talented No 1 ruckman? if so, get worried Speno Or do we target a fwd/2nd ruck (I know we have Frost but he could be more a defender) and back Gawn and Speno Talent wise, ruckman do not grow on trees - just look at how the Bombers are coping.

Tyson, Grimes IN for Vandenberg, Garland

Garland, vandeburg and Salem all a month out?! Fark me. Col is tough as nails playing with a broken hand

Grimes is so stiff. Done everything asked of him. Don't think m jones is in competition with him for a spot so if seems Howe was picked instead of grimes. I would have gone for grimes. Howe has been pathetic in 4-5 games this year Spencer is the other one screwed over, finally gets some confidence and gets dropped. Maybe they want gawns height against Grundy?

His value is plumetting the way he is playing. Would be better to 'rest' him

I am not saying he is not going to go like chip did. his heart was being questioned and as a supporter, I backed him up and pointed out that only last week he was one of few leaders. Col has been a good player over the last 6 years and I will continue to back him

I knowe are all gutted from last week but despite recent form, Port are a top 4 side. The Pies are not even a top 8 side in my opinion. The ladder means not much til everyone has played each other Its friday - lets save the pesimism for Tuesday! :-)

Add Viney and Vince in there and we are not so far behind. My point is they used to have 6-7 players to watch so if we can tag one and play well ourselves we are a shot

I personally think the pies are not that good. Their renowned midfield depth is gone. Swan, Pendles and sidebottom remain and could be the difference but they fall away after that. Pendles is carrying an injury. their defence isnt great, ruck is OK, and forward line OK again with elliot the X factor. They have 8 players injured (/suspended) that are either first 18 or on the fringes I am not saying we are better but I think we are fairly evenly matched. We just have to bring the attitude and hunger and play as a team. The pies play much better team/pressure football

So I reckon the consensus from the past 6 pages is we will win 10 of our last 13 and make finals?

Spencer is stiff Played his heart out the last three weeks and done well. Gawn done nothing to come in esp in a big game. I would personally prefer a competitor against Grundy then the maxiumus

he was our best player in the second half against Port. The chips were down. he beat his opponent many times and gave is good rebound. pity others didnt follow him

He is ok to coach on Monday according to sen

I have the Pies about par with the Tiges / Dogs. they will be favourites for sure but have a chance

we weren't favourites against GC, Tiges or Dogs either. Luckily we dont pay any mind to that

how do you think our form line will go and how many games do you think we will win?

Frost has good potential - is quick, big but not sure he's that important to us yet played 3 games, avg 8 touches, 2 tackles. wouldnt have surprised me if he was dropped before he got injured

okay ...trying to stay positive despite reading the last 2 pages: i reckon at our stage in development, starting from waaaaay back, we are not near good enough for the top 4-5 teams (no [censored] sherlock). however we are beating middle tier teams and we will hopefully beat teams 'below' us. The pies on monday and St Kilda next sunday will give us a big indicator of where we are at and if I am crazy in thinking we could win 6 more games Not playing the elite teams will give us the opportunity to gain some consistency, can we take the opportunity!?

its based on how we've played in the 9 games 3 wins from 9. we can expect ~5 from the next 13 on that form = 8 wins and its a much easier draw so I expect more than 8 wins to say who cares if its all top 4 teams doesnt make sense to me. I understand some periods of play have been unacceptable but there have been positives and wait until round 17 to judge %. we'll have hammered carlton by 120 pts by then

so we are 3 and 6 after a tough start. I venture to say people would have taken that at the start of the season (having played the top 4 from last season)? How do we think we will go for the rest of the season? The good news is we only have 1 game we are 100% no chance in (away to Freo). Call me crazy but I no longer put the cats in that category especially after the weekend Other good news: we play St kilda twice, brisbane at home, carlton, and dogs again I personally think we can win 6 of the next 13 at least. Given we have beaten GC, Tiges and Dogs (all fairly convinvingly) I think we roughly know our level. Given that, I reckon we are a shout in the 2 games against the pies and we will win one of them. When Tyson, Viney, Salem are back firing I think we could go on a roll and maybe...... dare I say it..... win two games in a row!!! Go Dees!! I'll be there on Monday screaming my guts out

MFC have handled him very well so far. avoided publicity as much as possible with signing him up early. managed his injuries conservatively Jesse would be thinking in 2-3 years of Viney, Salem, Tyson, Petracca, Brayshaw, Stretch serving goals up to him on a platter. Sign him up for 12 years! I'll put in a few bob if it helps!

I disagree. its not just about the 4 guys in the centre. When there are several links in the chain of the 18 on the ground that are poor and not even getting a touch that makes the whole team look terrible. We should not be reliant on 3 first year players, we have enouigh talent in the team to be competative

I'm offended as a football fan that the media are driving this racist angle. No one else in the comp gets booed based on the colour of their skin, why is goodes different? He gets booed like heaps of players do that are arrogant, get paid too many soft free kicks and just seems like a bit of a di-ck.