grazman

Thank you Wayne, You and Pello were the voices of reason in a sea of banality. Bruce's general field kicking needs work, but he generally spots up targets pretty well, I think his flaw in his kicking is exaserpated when he kicks at goal because he actually tries to kick the ball too hard rather than simply trying to kick through the ball. As you pointed out his kicking wasn't always that bad , and as Pello pointed out, hopefully someone from the club is working on it.

It'd be interesting to see how it'd work. I think you're right in one respect, it'd be a great filip for the local comp here. On the other hand I can't see the side that was picked getting within 100 points of any of the other sides in reality. If we are looking to show case this as the best of the best then clearly the ACT doesn't deserve to be there simply because it is a seperate jurisdiction. It has to be able to hold it's own.

I don't think we necessarily have a dearth of midfielders, as others have already stated, our injury situation makes the situation look a lot worse than it actually is. I don't think it should be forgotten either that midfielders are a lot easier to find in drafts. We've done extremely well in the last couple of years in drafting later picks... We have a number of kids on the list yet to strut their wares in terms of midfield ability Buckley, Neville, Bode, Weetra, Hayes... some of them might make it, maybe none, but the club hasn't been sitting on it's hands. Petterd and Bartram are rippers and there's every chance there will be another one around the corner, if not this year, than next, but for every Ricky and Clint there's two or three others that don't make it. The two key concerns for us are firstly the Ruck... White is starting to come back to the pack, and thank God PJ has come on, because Jamar has not been able to find the ball and Neaves is not ready. That's four ruckman on the list and I think that's about right. It's worth examining though. Most sides have two ruckman in the side. The second ruckman is virtually the apprentice, but some sides are increasingly keeping both on the field rather than necessarily rotating through the bench. I think this will happen with PJ as his value increases in being able to do more around the ground other than contest hitouts. If Jamar goes, then I think we need to promote Neaves and look at another rookie list position or even two. Tall forwards I was a lot more worried about last weekend than this.... If Bate continues to play that role at CHF then I'll be very happy. We have Neita for maybe at least another year.... Will Newton be any good... we've all got our fingers crossed - it would certainly solve the depth problems. People have their doubts on Dunn, but I like him playing deep, but with Neita there it's hard to give him extended runs. Miller is problematic for me, because I love his endeavour and leadership, but he thinks too slowly to be a key forward. Robbo is a monty and the rest are filled in by midfielders. Small forwards are simply midfielders in transition. (with the exception of guys like Farmer, Medhurst, Armstrong, Milne etc - I think they have extremely limited value)

Interesting lists... I'm surprised he actually bothered about the ACT. Bloody Hell most Canberrans born and bred here consider themselves defacto New South Welshman anyway..... Its fascinating, because I reckon a dozen years ago neither the NSW or QLD sides would have had a bull's roar against any of the big three - they now look pretty strong and far stronger than Tassie - that would struggle to beat anyone other than the ACT. I think it's contentious about whether Ricky should actually line up for QLD or for the Taswegians.

Most amphetimines are out of the system within 24 hours.... Which makes you wonder about the Port Adelaide situation and Cousins himself... the rumour doing the rounds was that Cousins was off his face with Chick when they were told they would be tested the next day... neither player fronted for the drug test.... yet strangely no repercussions.... apart from Benny packing his bags and flicking the club the bird.... His family and the club made reference to the fact that he'd had a substance abuse problem since July. Drug testing is seriously compromised, look at cycling... Oil based steroids are detectable for about one month and water based steroids for about a week.... most athletes that are caught are vicitims of their own stupidity because they don't follow the instructions that are given and think they know better or are too scared that it will lead to a tapering of their performance.... There were even allegations that some time ago Eastern bloke countries were developing synthetic steroids that were undetectable - obviously because no one knew what to look for. It's not surprising that players that are using speed, meth, ecstacy or even cocaine aren't caught regularly, I'd go so far as to say the three that have tested positive twice are likely to have tested to something like cannabis... which can remain in the body for up to a month after use. The only answer to try and solve what is a seriously complicated problem is to test every player and test them frequently.

Does the bootstudder asking where he can get a coffee count as advice?

Agree, but why have a different testing regime than every other sport. The suggestion is that he was an adict which means he would have been taking the drug regularly... he didn't test positive... that should be ringing a few alarm bells in AFL house. It also begs a definition of what IN competition means for professional athletes.

My error... Still prohibited though.

Just a point of clarification.... If anyone wants to look on the WADA website they will find that Methamphetimines are actually classified as performance enhancing drugs... Not that Benny (if he was taking them - for all you flat earth believers) was taking them for performance enhancing reasons...

I think it will be the other way around. West Coast will keep Ben if Judd moves on... I think Judd holds more cards than West Coast at the minute.

The obvious inference from I can't believe it's not Butters is that Cornflakes is cutting St Kilda's lunch with both Nicks. Neither are signed, sealed or delivered.... it could be a very interesting trade period.

Ditto.. Not mentioned on the club's injured list.

I think the Richmond player you mean was the Ex- Bulldog Justin Charles. He took steroids to help his rehabilitation, but also knew he shouldn't have he copped nearly a year from memory. The real problem for the AFL is that "apparently" they have not caught Cousin's doing anything - despite his family and club admitting their knowledge of his addiction since July 2006.

Other than his family stating he has a substance abuse problems and his links to high profile criminal elements and his intensive rehabilitation. No proof what- so - ever. In fact Police should only charge people with offences where they are good enough to come forward and admit their guilt. If you want to believe he is innocent fine - but I knows what I knows - the boys guilty.

I know its only a small thing, but if we are going to keep talking about the kid can we spell his name right please.

Yes... As someone said they forked out five figures for him to be cured of his Tim Tam addiction.

yikes the moral high ground!!!! Often used ironically by people to attack another's stand, while justifying their own I'm not naive enough to believe that all our players need to be choir boys to play footy, but there surely should be some hard and fast rules in relation to the sort of behaviour we expect of our players - particularly for clubs struggling to compete for sponsorship dollars.

No... No and No. Seriously a talk back caller in Canberra recently called in and said that for the NRL team here, they could build their training facility inside the new prison they were building - that was quite funny (that's because I don't barrack for them). Cousins coming to Melbourne would be ..... it just won't happen. For further reference Look at the Pres' comments.

Obviously I agree, that's the reason I presented the stats.... Pavlich and Riewoldt are clearly in the top five or so players in the AFL. But this is not 1970, footy is won around stopages and Judd is dominant - ubelievably dominant -regardless of whether other West Coast midfielders are playing or not. Last year he had 149 clearances compared to Junior who was twelth in theAFL with 96. He had 115 contested possessions compared to our highest ranked player in Junior (17th) with 62 - He was sixth in total for disposals, second for first possessions and amazingly for a bloke that wins so much of the ball himself 20th for 1%s. Judd would take our midfield from being solid to being dominant. Pavlich would be nice, but if Bate keeps progressing we can work around the problem of CHF.

I'd heard he was interested in coming further East, my first choice though would still be Judd.

My understanding (certainly from reading the paper today) is that all are out of contract at the end of the year and will not re-sign until the end of the year. There are whispers (and that is all they are - not even strong enough to be rumours) that both Judd and Pavlich are disgruntled with the culture at their respective clubs... go figure! Anyway time will tell. My personal feeling is that Chris Judd would add more to the club than either of the other two (both of whom I rate highly). I just think with Judd, as well as obviously being a fantastic player and leader on the field, would add that much more in terms of increased sponsorship/marketing with the club as well as membership. Anyway here's some interesting stats in relation to Judd and Pavlich and their relative worth. Chris Judd. ranked first for total possessions in 2007, first in clearances 2007 (1st 2006, 3rd 2005), second in contested possessions 2007 (1st in 2006 & 2005), second in first possessions 2007 (2nd 2006 & 4th 2005) and first for inside fifties in 2007. Matthew Pavlich. ranked for fourth for goals in 2007 (4th in 2006), fifth for total marks in 2007 (3rd in 2006 & 2005) , fourth for contested marks in 2007 (2nd 2006 & 3rd 2005)

I loved the little salute to the crowd by Bater... good on ya son!

They wanted him last year and he stayed with the Dees!

Leadership material... you betcha... how good were those marks

Good thread - simply outstanding, brave as the day is long and just gives his all for the club.... any Belly knockers want to post some humble pie?