grazman

Earlier in the season I would have said trade him, but playing forward I think he's demonstrated he's got a lot of value. I like his competitive nature and would only trade him for a ridiculously good offer. Having said that I'll be interested to see if he can't iron out some of the more 'individual' habits in his play. Ox made mention of him bouncing the ball after two steps and putting a team mate out of position. It's a pet hate of mine. I know coaches urge players to run and take the game on, but if you're going to bounce the ball, then you absolutely have to hit a team mate and you don't do it after you take two steps.

Which begs the question of why have the 'award' at all. They could've given it to Brad Johnson or Ben Hudson if they wanted to slam someone for 'underachieving', but someone from the losing side is a far 'safer' target.

Sounds pretty right Jerry. All the mail surrounding White this year and his own guarded comments indicate that retirement is exactly what he has in mind. He can happily sit out the rest of the year in the VFL and have a farewell match in Rd 22.

The Worst on Ground is an outrage IMO and appeals only to idiots. (Maybe MMM know their target audience) Be that as it may, our use of the ball was the marked difference between us and the Bulldogs. We've a long way to go. Bruce isn't the only offender, Jones, Valenti, Wheatley, Sylvia all continued to miss targets yesterday. Even CJ, who continues to rack up big stats too often misses his team mates by foot. Big ticks for endeavour and work rate across the board, but our disposal has to improve.

John Worsfold should.

Don't think so Dan, it's too early and they usually name an extended bench for a Sunday game.

Consensus is that Yarran is a top 5-6 pick and McKernan a top 10. Doubt either would slip that far, but it'd be nice.

I'm confused. I'm pretty sure that next year GC17 has access to the best 17 y.o. kids,- or at least that was the proposal - I'm not sure it's been locked away. Isn't Watts 17 this year - therefor making him ineligible for them? Or have I got that all wrong?

OK I'm used to Vlad sticking his head in the sand about the issues of players recreational past times or the dubious nature of some clubs list management (not to mention Drug induced Tanking) - but how long do we have to suffer the ignominy of such a flawed and ridiculous system that consistently overlooks those that deserve to be rewarded... No I'm not talking about Charlie, rather the Rising Star awards. Why the bloody hell has Col'n not been Nominated! The boy's a champion and something's smelling fishy in AFL headquarters and I'm not talking about the apple danish! Colin Garland for the 2008 NAB Rising star (sorry Wona and Cale - although that's another conspiracy theory in the making)

Actually there were a couple, but they weren't glaring.... he's a work in progress in this regard. There were other times that he went in hard and tackled his arse off, once he does it all the time without thinking about it, he'll be a complete player. Apparently he's got a fantastic attitude, so I think he'll continue to improve under Bailey and Co.

If I knew exactly what that was, I'd get excited... it is something to be excited about isn't it?

Yes, but he's named in the seniors. Yze is not.

I don't pretend to know either Jack, I expect him to play... although maybe you can confirm as to whether he looked less than interested last weekend? He's been dropped from the senior side (MFC) twice now, rumours on another thread is that he's out of the leadership group as well.

Yze on an extended Sandy bench... interesting.

A lot of people have Wona high, but he's played relatively few matches. I'll be surprised if he gets anywhere near the top ten. Bate will be there, he's only played 7 matches so far, but he's easily been BOG twice and his averages are better now than last year when he came third. I agree though, it's a two horse race at the minute. 1. Green 2. McLean 3. Miller 4.Bruce 5. Jones 6. Wheatley 7. Bate 8. McDonald 9. Robertson* 10. P. Johnson I expect Colin Garland to come home with a flourish.

Damn. I assumed you were talking about Holland, who would be a handy inclusion in the forward line this week.

I'm a big rap for Bartman, but he's struggling at the minute.

Excellent post AD. I agree re White. He's aging now, but is still our best ruckman and it's a real worry as to what happens if we can't get a Robbie Warnock - or who will be his understudy, because I don't see either of the current two being up to the task. It's a pity we couldn't morph PJ and Jamar into one body, we'd get a pretty decent ruckman.

We were sitting at that end of the ground Doggo. Even though he got the ball about two or three times up on the HFF, he was definately playing FF. He was used very sparingly in the ruck today. They used him pretty well IMO. He was left isolated to lead one on one with Leo Barry, quite often they'd kick long to a one on one contest and back the person on the lead to take the mark or get the free kick. I don't think PJ's great overhead, but on the lead he was better than OK today. Kicked a nice goal from the pocket today, but needs to improve his kicking at goal in general to be a consistent forward.

What a strange comment. PJ played FF not CHF, and was a recipient of Miller's hard work up the ground. FYI, Miller took 11 marks and kicked a goal today, so it's not like he was MIA.

It was Roberts-Thomson, and I turned to my mate next to me as soon as it happened and said "He should have put him in F***ing Hospital, you have to attack the ball!" It was a bad blue. It's easy to hang blokes on these sorts of errors, but it's a learning curve for them, as long as they don't keep repeating the same mistakes.

It's not that I thought he played a bad game, because he didn't. He started up forward and took a while to come into the game, but that's just my opinion and I haven't seen any stats, so I don't know what his first quarter was like. His disposal was excellent and he just goes everytime it's his turn. He's a very brave player. I should probably have squeezed him into the votes along with Brad Miller who despite his critics (who have gone strangely silent), just keeps presenting. I wanted to reward the backline players like Garland, CJ and Warnock because it wasn't their fault at all that Sydney kicked so many goals and they constantly worked to present options coming out of the back fifty. Col had a magnificent run, but couldn't goal unfortunately. Personally I didn't think Aaron had a good day. He did a few flashy things (yes a deliberate pun) but in general you'd expect to get a bit more out of him .

I Just got back from the game, and If I had to write an article about it, I'd label it "Horror Movie" not because our forward line has as much life as the former frontman of Skyhooks, but because like most Hollywood schlock that is passed off as horror, it was just oh so predictable. The first quarter was pretty much what we've come to expect of the side lately. MIA for 20 minutes... game over. I was bemoaning the fact that PJ would never ever take another mark above his head and we just generally butcher the ball running out of defence. Hall was monstering poor Warnock and Colin had his hands full with Micky O. That was the story of the afternoon. They had two marking forwards, with over 1000 goals and 500 games between them and we had a makeshift forward come ruckman as our one genuine marking option inside the forward fifty while Bate and Miller had to push hard up the ground in search of kicks because our midfield were given a lesson about intensity and taking front position. The second quarter while not reflected on the scoreboard showed a marked increase in workrate and effort. Matthew Bate and Lynden Dunn were the standouts, these kids are going to be good. Bate was in everything, and while Goodes looked set to have another typical outing for him at Manuka as he got off to a flyer courtesy of some dumb free kicks and umpiring generosity, Dunn did well to negate his effect. CJ was doing a job on O'Keefe as he did all day and while Warnock and Garland were clearly not strong enough to compete in one on ones with the Swans forwards, they showed some real poise coming out of defence, and the most surprising thing for me was that PJ actually started to take some marks in front of his face and was presenting really well. In general I'd say he had the best of Leo Barry who found him just to tall too spoil. The third quarter was easily our best with the boys actually moving to make space and leading their opponents to the ball. The midfield started to break even and the Swans looked a little lack lustre when it was their turn to chase, the fourth was a continuance, but the wind was taken out of the sails by some unlucky breaks and some poor umpiring . In general it was a day where the midfield was well beaten, but it's clear where the team is heading and how Bailey wants them to play and there's some very encouraging signs. The best from my vantage point in what was pretty much a blanket field were. 6. Bate 5. Dunn 4. Garland 3. CJ 2. PJ 1. Warnock Apologies to Brad Green who was also good... and Brad Miller.

I love Dennis. It's not just that he's so good, because the standard of the other commentators is so bad, but he has a certain integrity about him the same way Tim Lane does. The comment was a crack up. Geelong were so dominant early some of the West Coast supporters started to clap a Geelong goal, hence Dennis' comment.

Jack, thanks for that. Both the piece in the Australian and your article are very pertinent. I really like Bailey and It's no wonder that everyone that ever meets him walks away with the impression that he's really going to take this list places. Monday's experts!