Bang Bang Bang

Will wait until they do it in the real stuff before declaring it official, but Roos looks to have cleaned up again during trade week. Frost and Garlett in particular have been great!

Toumpas >>>> Wines

We look a lot better with Toumpas/Salem kicking the ball out of defence, Lumumba providing run, Hogan providing a contest and Garlett crumbing. The game's being played at a training intensity but some decent signs early on. Four quarter performance is important.

Robbo tweeted this 'opinion' earlier today. I suspect Essendon will call a press conference before March 31 and announce James Hird will be coach this year regardless of what decision the anti-doping tribunal finds. The club will say Hird has already been punished, that the players want him and that the that the club wants him to be coach. Some media types will smash the club, but club won't care. The club and players want Hird. Despite his buffoonery he's pretty well connected on Essendon intel. I honestly cannot believe Hird gets out of this scot free, regardless of what happens to players. I know he was good at chasing leather around many years ago, but he clearly does not deserve a golden ticket for life because of it. Absolutely ludicrous!

I don't think speculating on whether or not he really has depression is above the belt. It's not an easy thing to admit to I'd imagine, particularly for a famous footballer in the spotlight. I reckon his 'retirement' was genuine, but later in the year he had a sudden realisation that we sucked and he could easily take a side door entrance to another club. A complete dog act. While I sympathise with his condition (I don't suffer from depression - but have family members that do), it does not excuse him from right or wrong. It does not excuse him pissing on the club that helped him through a difficult time in his life. Will I boo him? Abso-[censored]-lutely! Will I be sad if he gets injured? Absolutely [censored] not!

The key to these sorts of articles is to read the direct quotes from Mahoney, or relevant footy figure. In this article, there are none. I don't mind Jay Clark's work and he has an alright strike rate but this is probably just pre-season filler.

Just kicked his sixth! I look forward to his phony pro-Geelong and self-indulgent tweets in an hour or two. [censored] him. Absolutely hate the bastard. Hope one of the Crows steps on his foot (too far? too far!) Lumumba is going to be good but only injury is going to stop Clark dominating this year. He always had the talent!

Good news, would be nice to see Petracca extend his for another year too. Tom Boyd set a precedent last trade period so the longer we can lock our young stars away for, the better.

I wouldn't say he's 100% gone, but when was a last time a player pushed talks off to the end of the year, then re-signed when the time came? I know Travis Cloke did it, but can't remember any other instances. If he was hell-bent on staying, he would be open to negotiations during the season. This tells me an offer is already on the table, probably big $$$ from GWS. It will be a shame to lose him, but he's expendable and we'll get something good in return.

I noticed that too. His disposal by foot was poor but his clean hands in difficult conditions stood out.

3 goal defeat and no major injuries? I think we take that. Two whole quarters without a goal is disappointing though. All of our recruits: Frost, Newton (1st half), Garlett (2nd half) and Lumumba looked good. vandernBerg looks like he could be a player. Some encouraging signs from Salem and to a lesser extent Toumpas after half time. Simply, we will continue to lose games this year if Matt Jones, Bail, McKenzie, Grimes and Garland continue to make the same schoolboy errors they always make. Georgiou in early 2014 was more reliable than what we've seen from Garland since then.

I have already pressed the mute button 10+ times, it has come in handy. I like Huddo but the other two have a bad case of verbal diarrhoea. When does the cricket come back?

Newton has easily been the biggest positive so far. Hogan has had some good moments up the field. Lumumba has been solid. But one feels it's going to be another long year seeing familiar faces making their familiar mistakes. Why was Grimes taking a kick out? We have some skilled players back there (Dunn, Salem, Lumumba) and it was obvious he was going to stink it up. Matt Jones, Bail, TMac etc.

If you offered me a 8 goal loss BUT no injuries right now, I'd consider taking it. An 8 goal win but ONE random injury? Probably not. The Dogs may have beaten Richmond on the scoreboard, but they were the massive losers over the weekend. Let's hope we can get out of Perth unscathed. We've had some pretty bad luck in recent years (Jurrah's shoulder, Morton going down when he was good, Hogan, Petracca already this year...)

I don't know why you're disappointed. All those players are limited footballers, and will never fix their flaws. They can't just magically decide during the off-season that they're going to become skilled players. All those players are still on the list because they work hard and get the most out of their limited talent.

Salem is just all class. Has looked it since his first game against the Swans. He had trouble finding the ball last year, so if he can busier for longer periods this year he'll be a player to watch. Sounds like he had no such trouble today. Great report BB, thanks.

[GLASS HALF FULL] At least we know he's out for the year, and won't be teased with a never-ending '6-8 weeks' prognosis from Dave Misson every week, a la Hogan. [/GLASS HALF FULL] Shattering news none the less.

I bet he will go to the Hawks, with Lake set to retire at end of season.

Players should have taken deals last year. Sure, they would have had "drug cheat" attached to their names forever, but people have short memories and most understand the difficult position they were put in. They could have missed bugger all games and entered 2015 with a clean slate.

Strained a calf already, according to Jay Clark's twitter.

Yes, I live overseas too and can vouch for the AFL website subscription service. It has the occasional problem but for the most part is very reliable. About $120 for a season pass. You can watch all 9 games Live. I’ve watched footy at a pub called Bradman’s in Bangkok. From memory they showed every game, either on cable TV or through a stream (presumably the same service as above).

Yes but you're forgetting the other side of the equation in that Hawthorn were able to add a 26 y/o, highly rated KPP to their roster, free of charge. Sylvia has been a bust but same theory applies there too. One day, we hope to be matching and even beating the likes of Hawthorn but if they can strengthen their list and top up so easily, as they have shown this year, then it's gong to be harder than ever before.

I disagree. I reckon the club were just as filthy on him as we were, but had to play a straight bat in public. Roos did refer to him as our best player at some stage last year. I seriously doubt he was happy to lose him.

I still follow the guy on Twitter, his pro-Geelong tweets are so phony. Did the exact same thing when he came to us. He sucked me in then, he's not going to suck me in now. Anyway, Lumumba is ours now, more than fair compensation. We can move forward from the whole debacle. But I still hope his career at Geelong is a failure.

You're not wrong, but if we had kept pick 23, there's some chance we would have taken ANB there anyway. If not, then at the very least he definitely would have been in the mix with a few others you'd think. So in that sense, the trade is already looking smart without a game being played. But you're right in that time will tell how good these kids become. If they all end up delisted in 2 years then we won't be gloating too much. I don't expect that to be the case and think Frost will play lots of games this year.