At the break of Gawn

1 minute ago, P-man said:

Getting smashed now.

Lever has been awful.

Gave up a truck load of our salary cap for a loose defender who can't play one on one...

Harmes offered nothing so far. 

Got a bad feeling about tomorrow with our outs.

Cats will fire for Selwood's 250th and that spud Menzel will kick 5 (3 of them on Wagner). Cats by 30pts... But will be very happy if I'm wrong!

It was a standard Watts game. He had plenty of those games for us as well. He probably still would have delivered the same for us this year but he wasn't in Goodwin's plans. 

It'll be great to see him play finals at Port if they are good enough. Watched the highlights of that and his skills were as good as ever.

The club has pretty much rid itself off that era apart from Jones (I don't count Gawn due to his injuries) so all we have to do is to look onwards and upwards and see what this team can achieve. 

2 hours ago, Matt Demon said:

James Harmes #4

Yeah, just saw on Hogan's Instagram story.

Edit - was just a joke I think

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/jack-watts-needed-to-leave-his-demons-behind-20171020-gz4u1r.html

Quite a good article from Pete Ryan. 

33 minutes ago, Skuit said:

In a nut-shell. But as I've maintained while critisising Jack in the past, I don't consider his particular on-field traits as a mental weakness or personality flaw. In his own way, he's probably more well-rounded than the majority of footy-players, supporters, and the general public. But an admirable philosophy on life-work balance doesn't win flags. Potentially deranged individuals like Jack Viney win flags.  

I don't think that's necessarily true, nor is Jack's approach wrong. There are plenty of players with 2 or 3 kids who would consider their family as the no.1 thing in their life and can still manage to give 100% intensity. It's all about the focus and bringing that intensity when required. Unfortunately for Jack, he's never been an aggressive player and for a coach who's asking for a fierce competitor he doesn't fit the bill. He can still be a very useful player in the right team with enough competitive beasts to allow him to add that layer of polish.  

It was a sad day for the club (well, for most supporters).

I feel it's just now or never for this football club. You [censored] off a heap of your fans by trading a favourite son, and for some people, it alludes to the fact that we got the 2008 draft wrong.

If they don't make finals next year they might as well shut the doors, because good luck preaching hope after what we've endured over the last 10 years. 

I'm waiting for it to hit AFL.com

10 minutes ago, jumbo returns said:

No, it's not, but nothing will be divulged until it's on Open Mike or Open Gerard

I'm waiting for the autobiography "Watts happened? - The real story of my footballing escapades" 

8 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

T mac is a better forward than Watts.  Has Watts ever kicked 5 goals in a  game?  T Mad did just a few games after shifting forward,  and hes a career backman.

Adios, Jackie boy.

Tmac's leading patterns were woeful in half of the games he was forward. It's why Roos didn't have him in there for long stints when he experimented it in 2015/16. 

He's a better contested marker than Jack, but to claim that he's a better forward than Jack just because he has had a 5 goal game is laughable. 

It's like saying Scott Cummings was a better forward than David Neitz because he kicked 10 in a game once. 

The only real blunder was the Josh Kelly one, but the whole FD had input on that. 

4 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

Brendan McCartney has had a big hand in ridding the club of Watts. It's not Goodwin or Viney that have put a line through him. Macca was the person driving it. Has a track record of doing it too. 

Yep, and tried to do it to JJ and then Beveridge took over and now he's a norm Smith medalist. 

In the right environment, Watts will flourish. Roos had it, and hopefully for Jack's sake, Ken will be the same.

2018 is going to be a fascinating year to see how the players respond to Goody and the coaching group after what's happened over the off-season. 

1 hour ago, Jack Jack Tappy said:

I just want to say that Jack did not come back to pre season under done, in fact he came back in the same shape as 2016 which was good, he had a great year. His 3 k time trial was his best ever, you can check it.  All his other figures were good too.  He came back with blue hair which was a mistake and put him I all the papers which [censored] off Goody.  He went to Byron on a Tuesday night, Wednesday was a day off, got back Wednesday night. Missed no rehab. He did extra sessions every week.  It's a furphy.  Jack is not like Viney, Jones or Macca, he doesn't live breath football 24/7, he is a normal person like 80 percent of the team but he loves MFC and will be sad to go but he will.  I don't know how many of you would have thought we would dream of trading Jack after round 13 this year

So are you saying they're trading him because he doesn't live and breathe football (i.e. a cultural misfit), JJT? 

12 minutes ago, --coach-- said:

Yeah I get it, I’m just being facetious because we are nearing 186 pages on this thread, 95% of which is complete BS.

But I just....can’t.....look.....away! Oh look a car crash....

If he ends up staying, we might as well create a sub forum for Jack. Do doubt there'll be a 100 page thread on how his pre-season is going and critiquing his daily decisions like doing bicep curls rather than Romanian deadlifts in the weights room. 

Regardless of where he ends up, it's good to see Jack has stayed in Melbourne this whole time, and from the looks of it, working out at Rob Jackson's cage. I'm sure he probably had to stay due to the trade news, but it might be a blessing in disguise for his performance in 2018. His 2016 holidays was the US (probably the worst place for your diet) and then I think Bali.

Am I imagining things or did Maynard not get any votes in the B&F? I know he only played one game but would that mean that none of the coaches thought he played his role? Most of us on here thought it was a decent debut. 

11 minutes ago, M_9 said:

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but my understanding is that one of the main reasons for trading out Watts is to free up some money (for Lever). I'm thinking up to $300k salary cap relief? 

That's contradictory to what Mahoney said. Said it was purely performance and money wasn't even a factor. 

For those interested. 

For the Watts haters, please direct comments to Ralphy, I'm just doing a copy and paste.

---

IS JACK WATTS REALLY THAT BAD?
Jon Ralph - Herald Sun

JACK Watts is gone from Melbourne, pushed out in an amazing turn of events.

He probably doesn’t care to look back any more given he has moved on to touring clubs like Geelong and Port Adelaide.

-----------

5 minutes ago, ProDee said:

I listened to the entire SEN interview that these articles are based on and Connors comments were directed at the Dogs.

He never "blasted" Melbourne whatsoever.

You'll note that the article linked below is also a take from that SEN interview and correctly the author refers to comments displeasure at the Dogs and NOT Melbourne.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-10-10/stringer-camp-slams-dogs-over-total-backflip

Agree on this. The only inclination I got from listening to the interview is that Goodwin harped on Watts' weaknesses and rarely praised anything good he did - a method that has never worked for JW. The only other point was that Jack and Jake were both blindsided by the their respective club's decision.

25 minutes ago, Goodvibes said:

Vocal player support

Game style

Games won

Ladder position

Percentage

Player growth

Roos' choice

Emphasis on culture

Stable support staff

Selection consistent with his philosophy on football

Innovation in terms of tactics

Lack of voluntary player movement

 

 

I'd rather wait to the end of 2018 before claiming Goody is heading us towards premiership glory.

He plays a high risk, high reward sort of game though. A good finals finish next year exemplified by a Demons outfit with a harder edge will see praise thrown in all directions at him and the shedding of Watts the right move. Another average year though and perhaps a resurgent Watts in a top 4 Cats team will see Mark Neeld MKII being thrown around all over this forum. 

6 minutes ago, worldwideweb_demon said:

Let's just hope we don't miss Watts in the forward line too much next year and hope Weideman takes a big step up. I suspect Tom Mcdonald and Pedersen will have their ups and downs.

If we're still relying on Pederson next year, then we're in trouble. 

9 minutes ago, PaulRB said:

True, but imagine the joy when he loses his [censored] every time Jack misses a tackle, contested mark or hardball get... 

Scott seems more of a people person than Goody, I reckon Watts will go ok under him. 

38 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Disagree. From what I can see, not uncommon across the AFL once exit interviews are over and the players are no longer around the club. Player managers are there for a reason.

It's not like he was in Bali with Gawny. Just a bit of courtesy never goes astray.