Axis of Bob

Really? That's your contribution? You thought that what you said was important enough for people to know that you wanted to post it onto the internet forever? In answer to your question, Chaser, yes he did play. Seemed to get through uninjured.

Aside from the hilarious transparency of the OP, Garland is a very different player to McDonald. Very different.

I too saw the game and I can remember a fumble from Toumpas but it didn't have anything to do with him "shirking the contest" on "a number of occasions".

Sandy was also situated in a wind tunnel. Its ground was also a postage stamp.

Based on what I saw, Harmes will be a player. He has good pace, is hard and very clean. Skills seem reasonable, but it was really hard to tell in those conditions. Huge wind blowing across the ground. Gawn killed Longer in the ruck. Just rag dolled him all day. Was solid around the ground. McKenzie was our best midfielder all day - comfortably. Also, I must say that I haven't seen a team as unfortunate as Casey were today in terms of umpiring. Sandy were a far better team, but .... wow! We were solid enough inside the packs, but Sandy broke free outside the packs too often and sliced Casey up when they did. Casey weren't clean enough outside when they had the chance to attack, which is similar to what happens at AFL level.

Nicholls is an athletic, high leaping ruckman. His aim is to avoid body contact and outjump his opponent for the ball. Spencer is a bash and crash ruckman. His job is to find the other ruckman and make him mistime his leap or smash into him. In order to do this he needs to know where the other ruckman is. It's unfashionable, but it worked for Darren Jolly for a decade. Spencer is 8th in the league for hitouts. He is also 8th for average hitouts per game. He is ahead of Lobbe, Pyke, Cox, Grundy, McEvoy, McIntosh, Ryder, Naitanui and West. He's been doing a pretty decent job in the ruck.

"....... by any stretch of the imagination."

That's all well and good, but it wasn't your original argument.

Strauss is a very good kick.

If Dom finds it cold in a Melbourne autumn, he must have hated the winters while living in Ballarat!

I don't see the link. Could you please explain it to me?

If you think about football in the same way that you think about your own job, then you'll never understand and you'll keep making poor judgements. What would happen if people came in and actively tried to stop you from doing your job? Would you think about your productivity differently? What if you got 2 hours of work done every day last year, but yesterday you did 6 hours? Would you consider that to be a positive?

My "tsunami of support" consisted of: - Saying that if he is left alone then he is a very damaging user of the footy, - Saying that his running capacity has improved since he arrived at the club. - ................... I don't see how either of these are in any way controversial. It's just the fact that I said these things after he had a bad game, rather than a good game, that blinds people to what I actually said.

Sorry, I must have misinterpreted when you asked me if I was Jack Watts.

I think what often happens is that players don't understand what they have to do until they actually do it. Many players often think that they are working as hard as they can, because at the end of the game they are tired and sore. When it's suggested that they aren't working hard enough they don't believe it because they are working as hard as they think they can. And then, one day, they run a bit harder and realise that they had more in them. Sometimes they never do and sometimes they actually are working as hard as they can. Where does he lie in all of this? It's hard to tell from the outside, but the club should have test results that will show what he theoretically should be able to do. Also, the lack of subtlety in any debate on this site is a worry. The fact that Song and J VINEY FAN!!!OMG11!! think that I'm saying he played well today is troubling.

No. Why do you ask?

There could be many reasons. It's certainly much better now than when he first came to the club.

Oh, that'll be a shame that we wont get to read your pearls of wisdom, including you talking about your vomit and telling Frawley to leave the club.

When things aren't flowing for him he unfortunately doesn't have the midfielder's tank to be able to fall back on where he can win the footy through sheer gut running. Currently, he has to find space in the seams of the play. It's a fine line that can either look fantastic or awful. But if he improves his tank then he'll be able to win more footy in more conventional ways. In the role he's playing, his number one priority should be developing his running capacity.

Am I sticking up for his game today?

It feels appropriate at Easter.

Which goes back to my original comment. When he is left alone he is a very damaging footballer. The problem is when isn't left alone. DID YOU READ WHAT I SAID IN MY POST?? IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU DIDN'T!!!! DO YOU KNOW THAT TYPING IN CAPS ALL THE TIME IS REALLY ANNOYING AND MORE DIFFICULT TO READ?? IT ALSO MEANS THAT PEOPLE WON'T PAY AS MUCH ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU SAY, DESPITE YOU THINKING THE OPPOSITE!!

You are doing yourself a disservice if you think that Watts doesn't damage the opposition when he has the footy.

That is rubbish. Any team that leaves Watts alone will know that they'll be cut apart. The problem is how he goes when he is not being left alone. I think that his problems lie mainly in his lack of strength. As a tall, he is expected to bully midfielders. Unfortunately he does not have the physical strength to do so and this frustrates everyone. Since they have an assumption that he is stronger/as strong as his opponent, they assume his inability to win the contest is due to a lack of application.

Rawlings stated that we'd see him in round 7, 8 or 9. Dawes at least had a few runs in the preseason. He lost some fitness, but he still had a base to build upon. Garland, unfortunately, has been out for a few months and has almost zero fitness base. But it is also possible that we'll see him back next week, depending on how he went for Casey today.