Bang Bang Bang

Good, honest interview from Blucher there. Makes no bones about the fact GWS are out there and will be considered, but stresses that Tom's a great young man who is fully committed to his footy and won't buckle under media pressure, no matter how intense it becomes. So forget Darren's tweets, Mark Stevens, Damien Barrett and any other "friend of a friend" rumours. Tom doesn't know what he is doing in 2012, so there's no way in hell these guys do. Puts me at ease a bit for the time being, but I'll still be back checking this thread 100 times a day until he signs either way. haha

We got pick 12 which we on-traded for Brent Moloney, current vice-captain and probable B&F winner. Thommo has been better than Beamer over the journey, however I think we were pretty adequately compensated for a bloke that wanted out. Carry on.

I was slightly skeptical of Trengove's "go home" factor prior to him being drafted, but ever since I've been left in no doubt about this guy's commitment to the cause. Possibly the most impressive all-round young player I've seen come to the club in my time.

It's an interesting article because Sheehan has real quotes from real sources... none of this hearsay that some journos of this world go for. Personally I think we're every chance of keeping him now. It would take a pretty questionable character to turn down 600k and the chance to stay with friends, family, teammates and a team on the rise that invested a #1 pick... for a more lucrative contract with a soulless franchise. If you go back to Scully's presser earlier in the year, he admits that any GWS offer would be looked at, but that it "then goes back to your values..." If nothing else this article puts the "he has already signed with GWS" claims to bed. Thanks Mike.

Also I love seeing North get flogged!

1. Perhaps our loss to the Doggies wasn't as bad as first thought. A 64 point defeat doesn't look good no matter how you look at it, but they just upstaged the (overrated?) Blues and looking more like the 2010 Western Bulldogs. 2. If we don't beat Port then Bailey deserves to be sacked on the spot. They are almost Fitzroy-esque at the moment!!!

Not sure Cale Morton was too fond of this article, had a bit of a jibe at Mark Stevens on Twitter (maybe tongue in cheek, I dunno)... Anyway I reckon we'd be very silly to trade Morton for an early 2nd round pick (unless he walked out on us). Give him a full pre season over the summer and one more chance to redeem himself in 2012. After all, it really wasn't that long ago we all had him pencilled in as a future star, it's too early to be cutting our losses completely on a #4 pick. 2012 make or break.

Played pretty well. Way too big and strong. Kicking for goal was woeful from him though. Loved the look of Dom Tyson. I'm no expert on underage footy, and this was the first time I saw the 2011 crop in action, but gee I could find a place for a classy left-footer like him any day of the week.

Watched the game on the idiot box. Viney didn't get a great deal of the ball (maybe 12-13 possies), but from what I can gather he spent a lot of time on the bench. What I liked most about him, is the mongrel he showed. Starting melees, cleaning blokes up, pushing and shoving at every opportunity, and going in hard. The guy has a touch of harmichael about him and we need these types wearing red and blue.

He's playing. Saw the #7 running around for Metro in the warmup. They also showed his tackle in the intro. Wowee.

Surely that can't be right? He's been one of Vic's best players I'm led to believe. Booooo-urns.

Everything these days relates back to the much vaunted "forward press". And any middle-aged player that is struggling for form is now referred to as a "list clogger".

Will be interesting to see where Jack W finishes in the real B&F count. As Jaded had pointed out, he has contributed and given his all every single week since being the sub, I don't think any other player could claim that. I do think that Moloney will win it, but Jack could very well finish Top 5. Maybe even Top 3 at this rate.

Maybe the only positive thing I took from tonight's horror is that Jack Watts is an absolute rolls royce. I watched from Level 3 and the thing that stood out was his decision making, he gets the ball and you know he will do something good with it. He's going to be amazing at his peak.

Will be interesting to see what comes of this. Virtually an exact replica of the Dangerfield tackle but this time the Dogs player didn't hit his head. I think he'll be ok. Which is laughable in itself. As for the rest of tonight's game, yuck.

Nice spot up. He is indeed Tom's former manager, now works at 3AW. I scrolled down a bit further and he seems to have taken great offense to Jon Ralph's article from a couple of weeks ago, labelling Tom a traitor. Says "an insult to a champion young man" "way off the mark" and "insulting and totally incorrect". So we have that, we have Wolfmother (who I assume is legit) given positive rumblings straight from the horses mouth, and we have Gubby Allen denying they have even approached Tom. Nothing to see here folks. Ignore Barrett, he said on Sunday he thought Tom would stay! Then on Monday he hinted he'd leave! He has no idea.

Gubby Allen = Shifty! But I did take note off his response to Damo's question re. Tom. "Is there a deadline in place for Tom Scully." "No! (sighing) Who says we've even spoken to him?" Now I have no idea how to take this guy, as he is a different sort, but that would be consistent with Wolmother's reported conversation with Scully... i.e. they haven't even made an approach.

Good luck to Sam... first of many games in the red and blue.

$5m for Callan Ward? Yeah, sure, he's a good player. Probably at a B-grade level now, and might become an A-grader eventually. But that amount of money for him is ludicrous. Nothing will come of this btw.

You can put a line through Geelong at Skilled now. They haven't lost there since the Jurassic period. I'm sure Bailey had the Eagles at Etihad pencilled in as a win originally, but they would be heavy favourites now, especially at Etihad where their forward press can strangle teams. That leaves Hawks and Blues. I agree, reckon the Blues at the G with a much stronger side on the park could test them. As for Hawthorn, we owe them for the embarrassment they caused us in Rd 2. Doubt we can escape with the 4 points though. FWIW we can still make the 8 with wins over Bulldogs, Port x 2, Gold Coast and Richmond. The final game against Port might be at the Adelaide Oval.

Mike: "I think he has made a commitment with GWS" Gerard: "You just said Melbourne are negotiating a new deal with him!!!" Mike: "Oh yeah, I did too." Mike Sheehan = No idea.

What part of the 2nd quarter is this? Wouldn't mind going onto BigPond to have a look. Massive fan of Jordie Mac. How could you not be?

How do you know this?

Don't really agree with the "front-runner" claims. When Richmond were all over us early, it was Green who started putting scoreboard pressure on with our first 2 goals. Neither were gimmes. Has had his fair share of shockers this year, but is still on track for a 40 goal season.

His kicking does battle a bit over the 40-50m range. He probably needs to stick to his limitations a bit more, similar to someone like Simon Black who has little to no penetration but is reliable over shorter distances. I think his handballing is very good though.