Jarka

I agree red. Bate needs more game time at AFL level to build up his fitness, playing him at Casey is a waste. Warnock is still our best option on big forwards. Dunn would be very lucky to get another chance. Miller hasn't improved in 5 years, he offers nothing to our forwardline. Strauss should be given more time. The only other option I'd be tempted with is to bring in Newton. I know his limitations, but all of our other key forwards are NQR either - Miller, Martin & Bate. At least Newton is capable of a contested mark..

Once a player is into his 4th season at a club then the expectations should increase, these are the guys that need to step up and take more responsibility. From our perspective that means from Frawley's draft backwards. Obviously some take a little longer than others, but we can't afford to be sitting on a dozen players 'hoping' that they'll eventually come good. Injuries have killed as though. Last year we should have had more development into Watts, Blease and Strauss, the result is that we have two years of draft choices who are effectively playing in their first year. That's going to hurt us as we try and get game time into all of these kids. A similar thing happened the previous year with Grimes & Maric, the end result is their development has been slower than we liked. I don't believe the club could have done anything to prevent these injuries as alot of them have been impact types, it just makes it bloody hard.

Age, that sounds like my childhood and growing up barracking for the demons in the 70's. Kinda sad really

Why would GC want Miller or Petterd? Let's be realistic for one second, Miller would struggle to get onto another list and almost zero chance of playing regular footy with another team. Petterd is probably a bit better but only because of his age. GC is going to go after established talented players, not struggling ones.

One particular play from Trengove today I absolutely loved. Can't remember when it was but he had the ball and he knew he was about to be tackled, instead of panicing and throwing the ball away, he rode the tackle and passed it on to our advantage. At all times he knew where he was and when his teammate was. Just a small thing but something our current older mids lack

This is a really great point. We have two potential champions now (Scully and Trengove are both going to be great, today just reinforced this), whay we should do is head hunt a current midfield coach or player from Geelong to be our midfield coach. The team needs to learn how to protect these guys like Geelong does for Ablett, right now the other mids like Jones, Moloney etc have no idea. Now is the time to start these type of behaviours.

Good post Barry, didn't completely agree with absolutely everything everything but nothing you said was over the top. I think we just need a couple of adjustments and we'll improve alot, and as you said, it begins with the forwardline. Unfortuantely we don't have any real natural forwards playing right now so it's going to be a struggle untill that happens. I was very pleased with some of the kids, I'm still pretty excited by the future. Add Sylvia, Morton, Garland, Blease, Gysberts, Watts and Tapscott to that team and within a couple of years it will be very exciting. We all know that we're still a couple of years from being consistently competitive, unfortunately we'll still have more days like today before we're back in the eight.

Clearly our forwardline needs to be restructured. Martin isn't the answer long term but at this stage he's worth a shot, he definitely wouldn't have made it worse today.

As previously mentioned our current forwardline is terrible, it's the worst I've ever seen. We had no targets in that team today, but it will get better, we just have to be patient. This year was always going to be another development year because we have to somehow get games into all of our kids. Scully, trengove, Blease, Strauss, Gysberts, McKenzie etc Give it time, soon we'll be playing some great, exciting football. (in patches this year)

Hawthorn are still a good side, they're very good at dismantling poor young side via their anti-social style. At this stage we're no match for a team like this. But, there were some good signs, namely our young mids. We'll get better as the year goes on, I have no doubt about that, but as our better players are all young we'll still have poor games. LEt's judge the side once we've played half a dozen games

Scully & Trengove are definitely positives, McKenzie has also shown a bit.

Not that I'm happy about someone getting injured but at this stage I'll take anything that goes our way. Johncock out for 4 weeks after breaking his thumb, we play them in round 3. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/johncock-breaks-thumb-out-for-four-weeks-20100326-r19l.html

I really like that side, especially Strauss, McKenzie & Spencer (and obviously Scully and Trengove). It's a team that's designed for the future but also very strong at the same time. Dunn would be the only real concern, but if he can nail a run with role and shut down Mitchell or Hodge then he'll deserve his spot. I know that this is still a development year and we're still very far behind but when that siren rings on Saturday I'll be barracking for (and expecting) a win. Oh man I'm excited!!!

Form and history are against us but in any two horse race either team is a chance. Unlikely would be my response but definitely not no chance, alot can happen.

Unfortunately the personal insults are a fact of life on website forums, it's not ideal but as it's anonymous then it's bound to happen. And yes I've been guilty of it as much as anyone else who visits this board. Best this to do is to just ignore these posts, there's still been some good discussion in this thread. People post to get a reaction, take the award away from them and the incentive to do it will vanish.

The Brett Lovett comment was the highlight

Spot on Jacey, you can't blame a kid for trying to get the best contract for himself, especially when the writing was on the wall regarding the realities of a long career are coming to an end.

Trengove leaving to go 'home' is a complete crock, the kid isn't even from Adelaide. It's about the same distance from his home to Melbourne as it is to Adelaide. God I can't wait untill the season starts

I'd imagine that the club be taking an extremely conservative approach with him as well

Not convinced by that George, that article makes no mention of the priority pick. I've just had a quick search via google and haven't been able to find an article stating a definite for either way however the previous article linked in this thread does state that we are the only club eligible for a pp in 2010. I seem to remember an article stating that if we do get it again it will be after QC's first three picks, ie no.4. But I'm not sure whether it would be 4 & 5 or 4 & 6, I'm guessing the latter. As for the talent available, I agree that GC will get the best kids (obviously) but it's still a very strong draft with alot of depth. I've heard some so called 'experts' say that without the extra benefits to GC it would have been the best ever, but even as it is it's still considered extremely strong. The top three seem to be Darling, Swallow and, take your pick of either Day, Cripps or Bennell. Potentially picks 4 & 6 will reap extremely good talent. Obviously though between now and then soem players will improve (like Watts & Trengove) and other falter (see Butcher) but this is just a demonstration. Personally I hope we don't get anywhere near a PP, but we'll probably still have a pick in the top 10 (or close to it)

"A talented guitarist and singer" Ummm....ok, that's not exactly how I'd put it....

Welcome to celebrity status on demonland!!

Yeah agree, he also seems to have the ability to hit a contested situation at speed like Scully

I read somewhere that he hasn't lost any of his pace which is good, it will still take him a while though to mentally get over it.

Thanks for that. Was Bailey still experimenting with our set ups or did it look like our A-game?