Forest Demon

I haven't heard much positive talk around White this pre-season, so that is good to hear.

Don't disagree, but the VFL season hasn't even started yet, so not much of a form line to go off, and ANB could not have done much more than he did last week. Surely, at the very least, an encouraging spot in the extended squad.

Good luck to him. He was ordinary in the first half of that third NAB Challenge game, but got better as the game went on. Happy to put it down to nerves. Disappointed that Mitch White seems to have gone backwards this year after a promising debut.

I don't understand ANB's continued absence from all squads, and I have not just started saying it this week. He has a big tank, can run all day, perfect for 2016 footy with the limited interchange. I, like others, am concerned there is something else going on.

His good is up there with the best. His bad is down there with the worst. Needs to eradicate those shockers like Saturday and the Bulldogs game in the NAB Challenge. He seems to be a confidence player. If he makes a big turnover early, like he did in both those games mentioned above which both directly resulted in goals, he goes to pieces.

Assuming he means because all of these players will only play limited game time. That may change as the year goes on though and they build their conditioning up.

Thread title could easily be "The Last Million Times They Met vs North Melbourne". They have owned us for a very long time, even when they weren't a top 8 side. I want to win this as much as any game this year. Essendon and North Melbourne are my two most disliked teams for whatever reason, and the Essendon ship has well and truly sailed.

He is meant to have good aerobic ability. So he needs to get on this bike more, get a few possessions up the ground, creating space and working over his opponent in the process. If there is more space and his opponent is feeling the pinch, perfect. At the moment, he is plonked in the goal square, engages in a wrestle, appeals for the free kick as soon as he is touched, and just lets the opposition bring it to ground and take off with it unopposed. Obviously there are other moving parts around that, and Watts and Pederson need to play their part as well, but too many times I saw him not even provide a contest on the weekend.

Parish looks very good. He looks the safe bet player who will be a good B grader to me. Oliver is more raw, but with that comes more upside, and the early signs are very promising.

We get it. Some people take no interest in the NAB Challenge and it's correlation with season proper form, some do. Hardly thread worthy.

Spot on. He needs a rocket.

I am trying to be more positive this week after moping around the house all weekend. And I wanted to start it off by bumping little Benny's thread and giving him a pump up. I believe in the notion that you look at the players who stand up when the team is losing, rather than the down hill skiers. We had a couple of players who were ok, like Jones and Vince, but BK was the only winner for the day.

I have almost collected myself after Saturday. My only comforting fact, is that I thought a 1-1 start would be the way we would start our season, obviously just the games the other way around. And even more happy with the GWS win after they rolled Geelong.

Assuming nobody saw the showdown yesterday? Any ideas how he played?

I don't think it is an exaggeration that today was the worst loss of the last decade. 186 was against a dominant side, and we were a rabble, both as a team and as a club. Today, we were all under the impression we had turned a corner, we went in a big favourites, a chance to go 2 and 0, against a cobbled together team of misfits and kids. We thought we had a team of "competitors" and we were playing a "fast brand of footy". Yesterday was a stark realisation that we are far from out of the woods yet.

My absolute most hated line. Of course you are somewhat right, but it means a hell of a lot more to most people on here. Why on earth would we all spend time posting on an Internet forum if we didn't feel the highs of the wins and lows of the losses.

Very smart mo64. I am bumping this thread next time we go in as favourites, and we can all make a tidy little profit. That, or Demonland puts enough money on the opposition to blow the Dees out of favouritism and we win. Win win.

Hogan needs a rocket, but some of the chat in here is pretty ordinary. Only worth a second rounder? Haha. He just needs to get back to working up the ground getting his hands on the footy, rather than setting up camp in the goal square, and he will be fine. And I think he is still intending to stay.

There are as many as 10 names on the block. Bugg, Garland, Harmes, Kent, Brayshaw, VDB, Lumumba, Pederson, Matt Jones and even Oliver (more of a rest) could come under consideration imo. On the bright side, I don't think we will ever play another game where so many could play so badly.

And there would have been some juicy odds as well. Essendon today and Carlton last year in particular, were both long odds to beat us.

If we aren't already

Last week was hard because we didn't want to leave anyone out. This week is the opposite. I just came up with 5 names straight off the top of my head who could easily be dropped.

You won't get much support for that opinion, but I know where you are coming from. I don't think he was "one of the few good players", but I did appreciate his efforts to give some run off half back, considering we severely lacked run all over the park today. But despite that, he was still poor and turned the ball over consistently.

Unfortunately there was some of those meek contested moments again today for Jack, and didn't get enough of the ball. His last quarter was good. Took a good mark, kicked the goal, and setup Hogan beautifully for his goal. But obviously one quarter is not enough.

Haha, at least his teammates look happy that he is back on the park