Senegor

Too soon Billy... Too Soon

Go watch the film Draft Day and pretend Kevin Costner is playing Josh Mahoney - zero to hero!

Only being a demon fan through my other better half for the last 5 years (Token Kiwi who knew AFL only by name) - bear with me if I'm entirely off base... Maybe Jack reads the forums and we could help his confidence through focusing on the positives in his game under Roos rather than the negatives... even if its just for today. Behavioural change after all requires both positive and negative reinforcement. I would argue that Watts gets more criticism than anyone else in the team these days (even the Toump, who gets more positive remarks to cancel out the negatives on the ledger), in saying that Dawes and Lumumba are catching up. So where does the continued negativity come from?: Do we think Jack still has the most 'untapped potential' in the team which we're desperately trying to get him to realise? Are we all just angry that we didn't pick other more successful players from the draft and are holding Jack responsible for this? I think the reason for this is that we as fans continue to link Jacks' development and ability to the health and success of the team overall - more so than any other player on our roster. We want to believe that if Watts can just play the way he "could" or "should", the club will be more successful. I know I've thought that we would be better for it if Jack was playing out of his skin, especially after watching the slim pickings of talent our team had at times under Neeld. But would we? in reflecting upon this time, given the roster and management I'd be leaning towards "no". Simply put, I think Jack is simply a victim of probability - he had all the indicators and statistics to indicate he "would" be great. And that in essence set him up for failure. He is not the problem, we are. He happened to be in the wrong draft (super talented pool) and drafted to a club that didn't have a lot to be hopeful about in our future (post 2011), except maybe our youngsters courtesy of draft picks. As such, we the demoralised passionate player base saw him as our golden goose and continue to hold on to that ideal with almost childlike stubbornness. as much as we would like the draft to be a "science" built around objective measures, Jack to me is an example of the "art" that is draft picks. Great draft statistics do not necessarily make great players, especially considering the distance in ability between state comps and AFL level - To use a cross-code example Tom Brady of the New England patriots taken unashamedly from Wiki: "Brady was selected with pick #199, a compensatory pick, in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft. Considering his later achievements, many analysts have called Brady the best NFL draft pick of all time." We need to keep in mind that despite Watts not meeting our expectations, which are nothing more than personalised beliefs, he continues to love the club and wear the red and blue proudly. Yet it seems to me that there is almost as much animosity for him as there is for those that have hurt our club by leaving rather than be part of the solution i.e. Scully, Clark, Sylvia? To me there is the Pre-Roos Watts and the Post-Roos Watts - and since we have had an improved roster and a improved coaching team I'm happy with the improvement that I have seen in Watts, too bad we couldn't have drafted him straight into the Roos era Theoretical questions: Where would Jack needed to have been drafted in 2008 to avoid the expectation (and subsequent burden of disapproval) that we have put on his shoulders? What single behaviour / statistic could Jack demonstrate to you (non Jack fans) in a game that would be indicative of improvement in his game?

And the drills continue...

They look pretty sharp despite being out there for 2.5 hours, handling it much better than the cricketers did at the gabba

Looks like training is done

Haha Helping me I meant!

Grimes just copped one to the face on defusing inside fifties compliments of Tom McD. Off with blood.

Lots of little dees supporters around... terlich, riley, kent, spencer in the ice baths around 31 here - breeze isn't helping

Shall we all buy him a copy of 'Draft Day' and send them to him?

Mahoney-ed... we just got Mahoney-ed

Sam Frost to Dees for 23

Fair enough - new to this so just finding my way, appreciate the comments