Axis of Bob

I agree with others about Tommy Mac. He looks exceptional at the moment. He defended really well and is still rebounding like he did. He's just a fantastic runner with great judgement and a really good size. I was impressed with Clisby. He was clean in defence and carried the ball really well. Gave some good overlapping run from deep, which is what we need to move the ball quickly. I don't want to throw more petrol on the Viney fire, but he makes it hard not to. Towards the end there was a drill with the forwards and midfielders involving stoppages. It seemed very much to be an A-team vs B-team in the midfield, with just an A-team setup up forward. It was Jamar, Jones, Jones, McKenzie, Viney, Grimes vs Spencer, Evans, Magner, Couch and Taggert (IIRC) in the midfield. The forwards were Dawes, Pedersen, Fitzpatrick, Davey and Tapscott. They were set up like an X (20 metres apart) with Dawes in the middle about 30 metres from goal, Pedersen and Fitz playing deeper, but separated, and Tapscott and Davey playing higher (about 40 or so metres out) but spread out. The stoppage was won and then kicked forwards (either quickly under pressure or measured if they get space) where one of the talls knocked the ball down for a small to run onto the ball. With the running, they did repeat sprints with Misson in groups over about 30 metres. There were different targets for different players: a B cone, an A cone and an A+ cone (each one about 3 or so metres past the last - ie, Bs did 30m, As did 33m and A+ did 36m). In the midfielders group the A+ group were Grimes (who was ultra impressive), Jones and Viney. One thing about the drills is that there was a marked improvement from last year with the intensity. Especially defensively. The pressure that was placed on the ball carrier was very good and there seemed to be a lot of drills done to emphasise this. The match simulation had some turnovers, but a lot of that was to do with the defensive intent of the defending team. It was good to see, and easy to notice that the players genuinely value the defensive aspect.

Yeah, they were two sites that were based, predominantly, around the match reports of two different people - George on the Outer on Demonology, and Whispering Jack on Demonland. There were also the VFL reports of Barry from Beach Road on Demonland. They only got forums later on.

Don't call me Shirley.

I think that there is a lack of love for Matt Jones. He was recruited as a mature midfielder and he was very impressive today at training. I've heard very little about him in the training reports this summer, which is surprising given that he would have been recruited to play a role fairly quickly. He was very good in close, a good size and also ran very well. I'd be surprised if he wasn't playing round 1, or at least being right on the cusp of selection.

I think what Dunn does which is very important, and fairly unique in our back line, is he can move the ball by foot very quickly. By this I mean that he can kick the ball long while still being penetrating rather than lobbing the ball. What we struggle with is moving the ball quickly from defence. The transition aspect from defence to attack. We often get stuck in defence because we don't take enough risks bringing the ball from defence. The top teams all have a player that is aggressive from defence, either through aggressive running or penetrating kicking. Players like Heath and Rhyce Shaw, Birchall, Sucking and Guerra, Mattner etc. We don't really have anyone who is really aggressive from defence. Dunn is someone who can move the ball quickly and break a line through his kicking. Who else do we have that can do that? Nicholson is an aggressive runner and can break up the play. Unfortunately he is an awful kick. Strauss is a penetrating kick and can move the ball quickly. But he's not a really aggressive runner. This may improve with fitness, though. Watts has the ability, but is less direct as a player and it's not his natural style. We have drafted some, like Terlich and Clisby, who we are yet to see. I actually favour Nicholson at the moment for the small defender. Even though he has serious limitations, so does Rhyce Shaw. But the benefits he brings, like the ability to break a line from defence, are very hard to find. Hopefully we can find that with Terlich.

I think it'll be much easier for you to tell the difference, Nash, once they have the footy in their hands.

I doubt that no club interviewed. I'm pretty sure that's why he wasn't drafted.

Because if there's someone who seems like they're up to date with the teenagers of today, it's you.

There's a lot more to it than that. A lot more. We're building an elite performance culture and there is nothing about Garlett that appears to fit with this. Why risk throwing away all of our work during the draft/trade period on a player that is capable of @#%*ing it all up? If Sydney don't think he's worth the risk, why would we?

I'm happy to pull up some old posts on Pup Clarke. Seeing the ball pretty well at the moment.

Maric was/is an elite kick. He just couldn't do it once he got tired. And with his running ability, this happened very quickly.

I have a problem with this sort of comment. It's fine to offer an opinion but definitive statements, like this one, are delusional - especially given the relative knowledge and information that the professional recruiters are working with, compared with that of a nobody on a fan site. A wise man knows himself to be a fool. Personally, it wouldn't surprise me if we went for Wines.

Where does it say anything about a strong go home factor? Also, the surgery he had on his hips is not a big deal. I had the same operation 2 years ago and then ran a marathon 6 months later (which included 3 months of training). Plus I played a full season of footy straight afterwards. You don't know what you are talking about.

It is important to discern when evidence leads conclusion, and when conclusion leads evidence.

... he's ...

With pick 4, and then nothing until 49, what we do makes no difference. We only have 4 players to rank and we'll take the best of those that are available. We don't really have any reason to be secretive. But all comments should be taken with a grain or 12 of salt.

I'm not sure that Cunnington was a great endurance runner. He spent a lot of time forward that year. Wines is almost exclusively an inside midfielder. He's also a bigger body than Cunnington. If you were to compare him with a North mid then you'd be thinking of a better running Ziebell. Both of them are genuinely big midfielders (like Watson and Kennedy are). Selecting Wines makes sense, based on the style of game that we have played this year. It involves a lot of stoppages and being able to get first hands on the ball to drive it forward. O'Rourke is a classy player, but Wines is a 'force of will' player that suits the style that we are looking to play. Not fancy. Not sublime. Just brutally, ruthlessly effective.

There we go. I just removed the clutter for you.

The good thing about Pedersen is that he offers us a slightly different type of key forward. He is a very mobile player that is as comfortable presenting to the ball as he is carrying the ball from higher up the ground. Dawes is a presenting, competing forward, as is Hogan. Clark is the pea and Pedersen is a more mobile and flexible player. Think of it like West Coast, who ideally play Kennedy, Lynch, Cox and Darling in the same forward line. Pedersen is much more like Darling than our others are. It also indicates that Howe will be almost exclusively a midfielder.

Another guy with his head screwed on right too. Neeld is basically replacing the players he thinks are poor for the culture with guys he thinks are good for the culture. It's consistent with his approach to the captaincy, where he saw that culture change wasn't going to work gradually, but instead needed to be based on big events (like changing captain and bringing in an influx of new mature players).

Good stats.

That's pretty much it, Nash. He runs really well, but is iffy by foot. But he certainly can be an AFL level runner which will help us a lot.

I think people are looking for excuses to keep Petterd. He didn't get a look in with Neeld and the club has actively looked to change the structure of the forward line with proper talls (Dawes, Hogan, Pederson) and proper smalls (Byrnes) rather than in betweeners like Petterd. That says that Ricky will be playing country/state league footy next year.

It doesn't appear that we have any intention of using a draft pick (other than 4) below about 60 (which we may just use to upgrade rookies), so the difference between a second and third round pick is, for us, pretty much zero. If we can move Martin on for an upgrade to a second round pick then everyone wins. We get the player we want (Pederson) for a draft pick we won't use (49) and a player who unwanted yet unfortunately contracted.

Jamar can ruck. Much better than Martin. So can Spencer. Gawn will probably end up being better than all of them. Martin is a so so ruckman that is rubbish elsewhere. I hope he gets a chance to move clubs because he doesn't have a future at Melbourne.