Watts the matter

Positives: Oliver in traffic, about the only one who wasn't doing 10m hack kicks Brayshaws tackling Jones' kicking Intent of the players Negatives: Receiving two very soft goals from frees (Petracca and Hogan) Weideman (perhaps a bit harsh but gave two really poor efforts in the last two minutes of the 3Q then dropped a sitter in the last quarter). Did take a nice strong mark in the 2nd quarter. Wagner, VDB and Hogan all getting injured to varying degrees. Hunts disposal Players not taking shots at goal from 40m out

Dickson, Suckling, Wallis.

The Matt Burgan curse, published an article/did an interview in the lead up to our first pre season game last year with Neal-Bullen, then he didn't get selected. This year it's Trengove. Goodwin flagged earlier in the week who our new players were going to be (Lewis, Melksham and Smith) so no surprise to see Johnstone out.

Are you basing this on their career output or 2000 seasons? Must be the former as you've left out the brownlow medalist.

Just if anyone is interested (it's pre-season and anything football related is interesting to me). Here is an interview from Prestia on SEN. Talks a little bit about his decision to go to Richmond (and just stopped short of saying our midfield has a lot more young talent than Richmond). Around the 2.40 mark. https://audioboom.com/posts/5590118-dion-prestia-on-breakfast-with-garry-tim-and-hamish

Good edit And thanks!

Thanks for the updates! Oliver and Gus intercepting or their kicks being intercepted?

Such a lame generic response that gets posted nearly every time the topic gets raised. I don't see any correlation. It makes a lot more sense to compare him to a player that doesn't have speed. All slow players that make it at AFL level have elite attributes (whether it's their reflexes, sidestep, kicking skills etc.). I (like many others) questions what Trengoves are. This does not mean we do not wish for him to succeed, I want him to more than anyone one our list other than Nathan Jones but unfortunately I can't see it happening. I remember people saying he was moving well in the 2014 pre season and then went out to training myself and definitely couldn't see it. It appears the same here and picket fence is just calling it as he sees it.

Brendan McCartney doesn't agree with you on that one. "Kenty has still got that scintillating speed and game breaking tendencies. He’s a year older now and maturing. We think we’ve got a really good player, who will drive some elements of our game style better than anyone. He’s on his way."

Strange, strange comments. Severely underrating Kent while overrating Johnstone and Hannan. Hannan got in the best players just 2 times in the VFL and kicked just 19 goals. Kent kicked 25 and was ranked 16th (12th if you include players who played more than 10 games) in the league for goal assists per game. Do you really believe ANB and Trengove are competing for a spot with Kent? There is a thing called team balance and Kent has pace and the ability to break the game open like few others on our list. Kent developed nicely last season and improved his consistency as the season went on. I'd be staggered if you are on the mark with this one. Fair call on the second part though.

Poor form by the Melbourne website to have only 1 highlight up at this stage. Looks like he has some good speed in this clip.

The whole situation has been fishy for a long time. From memory Chanel 7 had him retiring/walking out which was denied by the club at the time. The following game he got a mystery concussion and never played again.

ProDee I'm not quite sure what your thoughts are on DE and clangers, can you please clarify?

I agree with most of it, but GWS an easy win here. The big difference between our midfields is they don't have any slow players. All of their inside mids have well rounded games and are much quicker than ours. They have 3 of the best runners in the game (Kelly, Scully and Whitfield), while at this stage we are relying on Stretch.

Considering the rules have changed there is not the slightest chance they are going to trade 1 pick for 4 picks. Means they would then need to use all of these draft picks or later picks.

Won't get there from all reports. There is likely to be at least 2 academy bids between 3 and 7 so it's an important upgrade for them.

Good news that he has re-signed and I am very happy with the 3 years. As his manager said it's still very much an unknown how good he will become. If I heard it right (his manager gave a sneaky one word answer which I found hard to hear) he has essentially signed a 3 year deal, changing next years contract and the terms around 2017.

I don't rate Salem as highly as others here, but if it's to get Todd Marshall I'll spew. Luckily this site is just making up crap.

Who are all these players?

You have conveniently ignored the first paragraph of my post. While I agree with your point that by saying someone is better at something than someone else it does not necessarily mean you would be underselling them. However, as Hogan has a poor ground level game (IMO, which you obviously don't agree with), that would then mean you are underselling Lynch by saying Hogans is better. Not rocket science.

What does creativity have to do with mobility? Or is it only OK to move to goal posts when you're making a point? You are underselling him by stating Hogan has a better ground level game and handball game.

Lynch definitely has a better all round game at this stage. Features much more prominently is goal assists in addition to goals kicked in a inferior team. It appears you're really underselling him. The second point everyone is aware of. The query many have with Hogan, including myself, is how much more upside he has. He doesn't have a huge leap and gets the majority of his goals from set shots. While his marking is very good, it remains to be seen how many other strings to his bow he has. At this stage there are major questions on his ground level game, kicking accuracy, kicking depth/range and defensive efforts. The Jon Brown comparison is a good one, although I don't think anyone fears Jesse Hogan and his foot skills aren't as good.

We got 20 back didn't we? And then wasted it on Dawes.

and drafted Ryan Burton most recently.

Guthrie, Motlop and then have Cockatoo developing.