Forest Demon

Ahh, that makes sense. I thought you were referring to talks of dropping Jamar earlier in the season because he was out of form. But still no, I wasn't calling for his axing. As I said, I will support Spencer and hope he makes it as I like his attitude and I always have a soft spot for players from the northern states, but I've seen nothing to convince me that will be the case as yet.

I disagree that they were exactly the same as Spencer. McEvoy especially was rated very highly and clearly had a lot of attributes that would make him a decent AFL ruckman. And for every Ben McEvoy or Sam Jacobs there are numerous big men who are drafted and don't make the grade. If the football department think they can turn Jake Spencer into a serviceable ruckman, then all the power to them, but I personally don't see it. I still support him because he plays for the club and gives his all, but will that be enough for him to make it. And the way football is going with less interchange, big guys who are solely ruckmen, and don't offer anything around the ground, are becoming harder to pick.

But my opinion is that Spencer doesn't have the tools to be developed into and AFL footballer. And I am not making him a scapegoat, this comment has very little to do with the weekend's result, but more of a discussion on a player who has in his 4th season at the club and is yet to show much. Hope he proves me wrong and makes the grade, but it is just my humble opinion that he won't. Not sure what your remark about me calling for Jamar's selection has to do with this discussion, but no I didn't call for his axing, and in fact very rarely call for anyone's axing.

On the money, a lot of people on this forum seem to get some sort of power trip from acting as faux moderators.

Of course he is not the 'problem', but as far as I can see he definitely is not part of the solution. We were top heavy on the weekend, I looked across the field at one stage yesterday and noted each defender of ours was at least a few centimetres taller than their opponent. Personally, I thought it was a baffling selection, and he is, along with others, not up to standard.

I believe the tip from Nev's mum was given when the recruiters met her which would of been after or at the end of the season, so we wouldn't have had time to scout him that season, and we are obviously not going to put someone on our rookie list just off a random tip by an 18 year old footballer's mother. By the time the next draft came along, he had played a season in the WAFL and impressed, and every club was aware of him, and we would of had to take him with our first rounder. Just a case of bad luck unfortunately.

I always think this too. But at the end of the day, you can't draft a bloke nobody had seen before and wasn't playing at a recognised level, just because some kid's mum says he is a good player. He is playing some seriously good football this year, and is a walk up start for the AA team unless they pick the same old incumbents they always pick, and make the young players put 2 or 3 good years together.

Nathan Ablett could barely get a kick when he was playing for Broadbeach, let alone in the AFL. He is finished. He was given every opportunity at the Suns, and if he wasn't going to make it there playing besides Gary, he is done.

You say Demetriou has given you no reason to think otherwise, yet your argument is purely hypothetical in that GWS or GC would be given the all clear to manipulate the draft, pretty flakey reasoning at best. Was it not GWS who were hatching a plan to get Jaeger O'Meara by trading themselves dodgily into the mini draft and the AFL shot it down.

The paranoia and conspiracy theories bandied around here in regards to the AFL or the media are just ridiculous. For christ's sake, the change was minimal and will have no effect on whether we use a 1st or 2nd rounder on Viney.

As supporters we like to see the youngsters get picked, hoping they might just burst onto the stage, as they are unknown and at this stage could be anything. But the reality of the situation, what we know we are going to get from Martin is most likely going to better than what we get from a young skinny kid who still has a lot of development to do at Casey. Those laying the boot into Martin are being a little harsh also. Similar to the way everyone was sticking the boot into Dan Nicholson earlier in the year, concentrating on one or two aspects of his game that need work, but forgetting all the good work he was doing last season, and then as soon as he came back into team he has been excellent. Same deal with Stef, he will never be world beater, but he has a lot of good attributes, and is coming of a good 2011 before an injury interrupted start to 2012.

Brock McLean is Ben Polis

Makes sense. Hard to simulate match pressure in training obviously though. Is it Cloke that listens to crowd noise in his earphones while practising his set shots, and went from a terrible kick for goal to a quite decent one.

If Brent Moloney ever visited this board and saw the way he was spoken about, for a bloke who has given a lot to this club both on and off the field, I wouldn't blame him if he walked. If anyone seriously believes he wouldn't be offered a contract at all for next season, they are dreaming. To me, Moloney is exactly the sort of big body we can't afford to lose right now, despite not having a great start to the season.

Feel for him. Was brave against the good sides during the tough run. If anyone deserved a couple of days out against [censored] opposition it was him. Kicks 4 in a quarter then out for the year. Sucks balls.

If Watts bites back at one of those peanuts do you honestly think that would stop it happening next week. Would just give them more reason to do it if they thought they were getting to him and could possibly get a cheap free.

Living in Brisbane, I had seen a lot of Mitch Clark and was happy we got him, but in no way did I expect him to be so influential as a key forward so early in his time at Melbourne. If you are watching the replay, keep an eye out for his first or second big grab in the 1st quarter and just look how high he takes the ball, 200cm + a big leap + arms fully outstretched + strong hands = extremely hard to spoil for most key defenders.

I have no doubt that he was approached by GWS people before he was even drafted. He was the standout 18 year old in his draft year, and he was always headed for GWS as soon as his first contract was up regardless of what he did in his time at Melbourne.

I was pretty subdued at the start of the game, but once Grimesy started pushing him at the opening bouce...I wanted blood.

I don't know what to make of this one. 3 or 4 weeks ago, I would of been pretty confident GWS would of beaten us, but we have shown more positive signs recently. I would be steering clear of this one and probably just betting on Adelaide overcoming the start against North.

What? I am sticking up for him. I am agreeing he has had a decent season. I am saying I don't think he is the superstar he is painted as after a big game, and he is definitely not the dud some people on here are suggesting after a quiet game. As I said, the truth is in the middle.

Football followers annoy me in that a bloke like Naitanui plays a blinder last week and he is a superstar and he is the best ruckman since Polly Farmer, and then the next week he is quiet and he is deemed a complete dud. Everyone seems to make knee-jerk comments to a team's or player's last game. The truth, as it is most of the time in footy, is somewhere in the middle. Just wait for the week long [censored] fest over Michael Hurley kicking 6 over at Subi tonight.

I have noticed a few players, James Podsiadly most recently, who don't even run through the banner, but rather skirt around it. Probably just some sort of superstition, but for some sad reason, it really [censored] me off, because I thought these cheer squad members had put in the time to make these banners, the least you can do is do them the honour of running through it.

GWS are not to be under rated. They are a far better team than Gold Coast were in their first year (in fact they are a far better side than the Gold Coast are this year). The facts that the game is at the MCG and possibly the weather make us slight favourites, but we have no right to be cocky, that's for sure.

Considering we would have to trade hard to get Boak, while Cloke comes through FA meaning we don't have to part with any high draft picks, means Cloke for me.