Axis of Bob

Melksham for 25 is a fair deal. He's a relatively young, talented player who has played over 100 games of footy, so Essendon have already done all the donkey work for us. He is also a much more talented player than your average AFL footballer, and could fill a very good role for us in an area that we have been poor in for a number of years (providing line breaking run from half back). When I think about his recruitment I keep thinking about Rhyce Shaw. Shaw was an inconsistent wingman who was always in and out of the VFL. He was traded for a 3rd round pick to Sydney, who gave him a specific role in defence to use his run. At the time everyone was laughing at Sydney for trading for Shaw, since he was always derided by Collingwood supporters. Shaw took this simplified role, along with his added experience, and played nearly 150 more games with Sydney, including finishing 2nd in the B&F twice. Melksham has talent and speed, and has been underperforming for the last two years at a basketcase of a club. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that a move to a better club, along with a simplified role across half back, would see Melksham become an important member of a good team. Certainly there is a better chance of him doing it than pick 25 (or whatever it becomes). You certainly couldn't pick up a player with his talent in this draft with pick 25.

Really happy about the deal. I wanted to keep him regardless, but it's great to hear someone speak like that about the club.

I bet the Giants will be happy to receive compensation for the Suns losing Bennell.

..... and Adelaide would, rightly, ignore everything he said.

Melksham is a mixture of good and bad, but his good bits of play are the type that we really lack and are hard to get. He has good pace and excellent movement in contests, which allows him to break out of contests into space and move the ball quickly. The best teams can break into space and that's where a lot of the scoring now comes from. Melksham can do some things that make you rip your hair out but he has a skill that we lack, in an age group that is important. If he becomes the quality midfielder he was drafted to be then great, but if not he becomes a mature role player to bring a unique skill to our team.

Pass from me too. We play a far too accountable style of game to have a defender that can't compete.

One of my favorite players. His power as a midfielder was extraordinary. I will always remember how he hurt himself pretty badly early in the 2012 Grand Final after he was looking like winning the game by himself. He then played as a key forward, obviously hurt, to help his team. He had so much influence on that game, through sheer heart, and pretty much won them the premiership late in that game. That shows you the character he had. Plus his brave stand against some disturbing cultural issues, despite the personal blowback he would clearly suffer. He's a great footballer and a great man. His low key retirement is undeserving of a person of his quality.

Melksham isn't/wasn't slow. There are knocks on him as a footballer, but he is a really good runner who moves very well. If we are going for him it will be because we think he is a better footballer than he has shown himself to be at Essendon. He has good attributes that would be help him be part for an AFL team, as he's quick, has good endurance, moves well and is versatile (and only 24). For a team that lacks run, these are attractive attributes. Remember how much people were laughing at Sydney for taking Rhyce Shaw? His background was very similar.

............ Thank you for enlightening me as to what aerobic activity and anaerobic activity are. It certainly has made me question how I am perceived . Anyway, not that it's important, I think that you could argue that everything contains an element of aerobic/anaerobic because the systems have evolved to complement each other. Just because there is a small amount (at times) of anaerobic activity on the Tour de France, it seems unlikely that the primary fitness required of a road cyclist in an event covering over 3000km over the course of 3 weeks is anaerobic. But the point of the discussion is that the anaerobic capacity of Boak is shown in his ability to outlast opponents in sprints, allowing him to get on the end of long chains of play before his direct opponent. Newton shows no ability to run it the way that Boak does, and it's a major weakness of his.

Without going into it too much, repeat sprints are anaerobic. It's about performing at, or near, your peak intensity. Like running a 400m, or running a set of repeat 60m sprints. Aerobic is about lower intensity, but longer duration activity. Like running a marathon, or doing the Tour de France.

He certainly plays like he has good anaerobic running ability. His ability to repeat sprints is really good and probably one of the reasons he's as influential as he is. I'd be interested to see your information on his poor anaerobic running. I haven't see figures, but I'd be super surprised if that was the case.

Newton is a surprisingly good stoppage player, from what I've seen, and regularly kicked stoppage goals in the VFL. The problem is that doesn't appear to be a good enough runner to play as a midfielder, which limits one of his strengths. He's nothing like Boak, though. Boak is a really good anaerobic runner, which is his main strength. It appears to be Newton's main weakness.

I look at St Kilda versus their contemporaries and see a huge hole. Midfield. The Dogs have genuine up and coming centre square midfielders, and quite a depth of them, that are hard to get. The Saints have Steven (26 next year) and Armitage (28) who won't get better, but the best contested ball winner otherwise is Luke Dunstan, who is an undersized plodder. I like Newnes and Billings, but they are more flankers. The Bulldogs have a list as long as your arm: Bontempelli, Macrae, Wallis, Dalhaus, Liberatore. That's also where I see us and St Kilda. St Kilda have picked up McCartin and Goddard, which is good for them. But, once they develop, that gets them level with us. But the next hard part is to get midfielders who win the footy. Montagna, Steven and Armitage won't get better, and the cupboard is bare after that. On the other hand, we have Jones and Vince, who won't get better, but then we have Viney, Tyson, Brayshaw and Petracca behind them will all get a lot better and have high levels of talent. St Kilda performed as well as they could this year, given uninterrupted years from their best, most experienced players. Their midfield was as good as it could have been, which kept them consistent enough to beat teams at, or below, them on the ladder. But they won't really go forward until they can better footballers to run through the middle for them and, given the number and quality they need, I don't know where they are going to get them. We are better placed than them, but we all know how some players can pop out of nowhere when you least expect it.

I'd give him a one year contract. He's an experienced ruckman who is still a capable back up. He's only out of the team because of the form of Gawn; his VFL form has been excellent. Roos talks about a ruck group, and Jamar provides valuable depth in an area where injuries are pretty frequent. Especially since Gawn and Spencer haven't been able to get on the park for extended periods of time. We only have 3 ruckmen on the list. If we retire Russian then we have 2 injury prone ruckmen and draftee, and that is really dangerous.

Then what you heard isn't correct. Nor, in all likelihood, did you actually hear it.,

The Ed replay is super annoying, but I'm really enjoying it because I know what's about to happen!

Was an excellent interview. Thanks for the link.

Lovell, the honest 174cm man child, is your pick as the standout mid? That is .... errrr .... a bold prediction.

I think it would be interesting to know all sorts of things about the people who boo Adam Goodes, because then maybe we could get some hard evidence for what is triggering it. At the moment people are hiding behind the anonymity of a mob.

I was looking for more information on that metric, since my sample size of people I know in real life who would consider booing Goodes is very small, yet follows the hypothesis I stated.

I agree, but I figured it was much easier to ask for ages than get into that bunfight!

Watching the replay, Jayden Hunt is exciting. He is properly fast. He doesn't get a heap of it, but he is playing as goalkicking forward and also hasn't played a heap of footy. But what he does do is very exciting. He's actually deceptively strong overhead and bigger than I remember. He has the sort of forward game that could work at AFL level if it all comes together. What he's done really well over the last month is that he is able to turn his opponent around higher up the ground and then just beat him back to the goalsquare with raw pace. This means that he's getting 'easy' goals. They are even starting to recognise his pace and just kicking it over his head a la Matt White. He's a long way from the finished product, but has some tools that you just can't teach.

I would be interested to know the age of the people in this thread. I believe that there is probably a correlation.

Because, while it could be a convenient argument to justify the booing, it unfortunately isn't true.

Adam Goodes says things that are uncomfortable for people to hear. I don't think that the majority of people booing believe that they are racists, because they feel like the issue of indigenous rights has already been solved. The problem is that they are wrong. So, rather than confront the uncomfortable issues Goodes raises, many would rather confront Adam Goodes. Those that claim the booing is about his football (not about his stance on indigenous rights) are either willfully ignorant, or racists (even if they don't realise it).