DubDee

What a good example of players taking a (bloody) long time to develop and mature. 7 poor years and now 2 good to very good years. So sometimes players are not list-cloggers, to reluctantly coin a Hutchy phrase, they just take time, especially players over 190cm. How good could Watts be by his 9th season i wonder.

That doesnty mean to say we should keep players on the list for 7 years to see how they go. its critical to have experienced coaches to assess their future worth and potential. And when we are playing decent footy ts amazing how much better the same players look

As I yell at the footy: WELL DONE DUNN!

there are 12 games left and only have one saturday day game prior to 3pm at the G, and ZERO sunday day games prior to 3pm at the G. wtf! Its all away games, etihad or twilight sunday games.

sunday twilight eqauls no atmosphere, getting home at 8:30, very hard for families to make it - kids usually in bed by 7-7:30

and they wonder why they have the lowest attendences for years? as if they give a toss!

Unavailable for the Pies; Maxwell, Sinclair, Lynch, Brown, Sidebottom. and some question marks over Swan and Grundy. Not sure ablout Reid, could he come back?

- Regardless of if Grundy plays, we should dominate the ruck.

- Cloke has been out of form (soft 2nd half goals on the weekend aside)

- they'll miss maxwell / Reid/ Brown. Dawes, Chip and Pedo should cause problems

- everyone talks about the PIe's depth but they are already playing a lot of kids so a couple more will stretch them

I reckon if we bring the high intensity game and our midfield fires, we will win this.

I'm way too fired up with 7 days to go til the game!!

well we have a great record in the Alice so we are surely a chance. Haven't lost there in years from memory.

in all seriousness, if we had Dawes and Hogan and it was played at the G, I'd be thinking we are a big chance. But I can't see this one happening, unless we make it an almighty ugly scrap of a game with less than 6 goals in the first half. I'll be more looking at how we go about it and counter their attacking style. are we gonna switch off and concede 7+ goals in one quarter?

The issue with Barry is how many good players can't get more than a dozen possessions in the VFL in their second year? An underdone Salem got 32 in his first full game in the midfield. Gysberts got 25 plus a week from the start.

Possessions aren't everything but when you are playing half back/wing/half forward you want to find a fair bit of the footy.

Those other guys have all stagnated since their early years. It looks like they've found their level as players. No doubt Barry has improvement in him but he'll need to improve so much to make it. And he's apparently very fit and has good GPS numbers at VFL level so it's not like he's the type who you need to get fit first. Sure he has to put on weight to reach his peak but that should be more for AFL level, being slight shouldn't hurt him too much at VFL level.

If he improves throughout the year I think he'll get another year. If he doesn't he's rightly questioned.

I see what you're saying but I don't see Barry as a true midfielder like Salem that will rack up 30+ even when he is at his peak. I see him more of a Lewis Jetta type that has speed, skill and will come in and out of games. Disposals aren't everything and as Go the biff mentioned, he is being used as a run-with player to learn the defensive side of the game before getting his chance. Barry will be a player!

I can't believe people want to cut Barry. He was still a teenager as of 2 months ago and was very skinny when drafted last year. From what I read on the VFL reviews he seems to have plenty of run and enthuaism and is learning the craft. I still expect a fair bit from him.

I wouldnt put him in the same bracket as Strauss/Blease/Tappy who have 4 years on our list more than him!

after the hell that was last year I'm surprised a lot of people didn't drop off. 35K is a great effort considering the last few years. if we win 7+ this year and Viney/Tyson etc become the heros we expect, we can certainly push for 40 next year

Just registered and subscribed. great site, thanks for maintaining it