DemonDave

Leading Goalkickers since '96: 1996 David Neitz (56) 1997 David Neitz (30), Jeff Farmer (30) 1998 Jeff Farmer (47) 1999 David Neitz (46) 2000 Jeff Farmer (76) 2001 Russell Robertson (42) 2002 David Neitz (82) 2003 David Neitz (65) 2004 David Neitz (69) 2005 Russell Robertson (73) 2006 David Neitz (68) 2007 Russell Robertson (42) So this year is shaping up as the lowest season tally since '97, when incidentally was the last time we won the wooden spoon.

So crossing the waterway to line up for a portaloo on the outer side of the ground may be soon a distant memory? Phew!

Stefan Martin stars in "Land of the Giants"..... Those 3 could sit on each others shoulders, and one of them would be able to have a face-to-face conversation with Aaron Sandilands...

Looking at our list at the moment, its clear that we have a dearth of quality players aged around 26, which is what guys drafted in 2000 would be now, so draft penalties do have quite a long term impact on clubs. If we had picked up 1 or 2 players in those 2nd/3rd round picks (like a Newman at 55 or a Cross at 56) we'd be stronger for it. Next year we'll have our old guys at 28/29 (Bruce,Green) and then it goes back to the Millers,Rivers and McLeans almost as our next tier of experience

Unless posters on here are player-managers of all said players, then they really have no idea and can only guess what players are on, so please, don't say 'Player x is on $x' as if its fact. Its purely speculation, an educated guess at best. But it is fair to say we will have the capacity to save a fair bit of coin quite easily with the experienced players that are going to be moved on at years end. Does the club therefore have the capacity to offer Robbie Warnock the kind of big money being bandied around in the papers? It'd be doubtful. Do they pay out the last year of Nathan Carrolls contract to free up a spot on the list? Interesting times ahead for the list managers.

As far as I know there is no full-time ruck coach at the club at the moment. It was mentioned around the media that Luke Darcy has spent a bit of time recently helping out some of our ruckmen.

Nice work Scoop Jnr. Interestingly going into the game my biggest concern was also our ability to kick goals with the selected side. It was quite a pleasant surprise then that we were able to post our 2nd highest scoring effort of the year behind the Fremantle win, and crack the ton for just the 2nd time this year also.

The Pies might now be trying to offload Shaw and/or Didak given they've just released a new press release on 'On The Couch' stating that Didak was in the car with Shaw, and both of them lied about his presence to the club and police.. Todays sanctions have been thrown out, and new ones applied tomorrow, and yet another no doubt fiery press conference from the Lexus Centre which should make for compulsive listening!

Is Dalziell even eligible? He was taken as a 'mature' age recruit from the WAFL. I heard some conjecture on SEN last week as to wether he was just too old or similar. Either way the nominations tend to be given for persistence over a sustained period rather than one outstanding game, so I think it would definitely be Mortons turn this week. Which takes our number of nominations this year to 3, which is a great sign for the future...

Well Vlad will be making any comments about this game from a long way away, he wont even be in the country for the codes 150th anniversary round, but instead sipping prawn cocktails while kowtowing to our Communist overlords...

Did you guys never catch the tram to Princess Park? It stopped right outside! Public transport was fine for that place.

What is it with our more experienced players and injuries? Every time we get an injury this year, its to someone over 24 years of age. I dont think any of our youngsters this year have picked up an injury, Juice excepted, its only happening to the older guys that are hitting form (Green, Wheatley, Miller the last month alone).

That Hawthorn side that night probably had Hodge and Franklin in it, albeit 2 years less experienced than they are right now. Who out of our current side can we seriously see being an A-grade onballer and forward respectively?

So what style of player do we call Ryan O'Keefe himself?

To mix the two concepts together, could Dunn play on Petrie? Petrie-Height: 197cm Weight: 105kg Dunn- Height: 192cm Weight: 92kg To me Petrie was their best and most important player by a mile, he seemed to run from one end of the ground to the other. When not in the ruck, could you just have Dunn follow him around and stop him creating those 2-on-1 contests that he's so good at doing? Sort of like when clubs used to tag Jeff White/Jim Stynes at their peak with smaller stopping players to limit the damage their roaming posessions used to create. I'd doubt it will happen, but just a thought...

Can't see any of PJ, Valenti, Martin or Aussie getting dropped. Aussie was quiet, but that's probably his only real poor game he's had so far, he'll be given another chance. Good luck to Maric though if he does get a crack! And please people, dont post that player x will miss out for player y when player x has been named in the starting 18! Thems the rules, your interchange comes from the 7 listed as interchange from!

have you seen the photo in the physical edition of the Aged that accompanies this article? David Neitz in a fohawk and bling, standing next to Mr T. Just when I didnt think we could sink any lower...

In: Schwab Out: McNamee Just the 1 change for this week....

It was reported on SEN earlier today that we'd have to pay out 1/4 of his annual wages, totalling 125,000. add to this the cost of the headhunting firm earlier this year to get McNamee, and it's been a very costly exercise. The AFL must really be losing patience with us, and this time, I dont blame them, what a disaster.

I didnt say they dont bleed for the jumper, read it again. I said he bleeds for it as much as anyone else on the field, and more-so off it. Guys like Gallagher, Tregear, etc etc lived and breathed this club for many years as well, and provide/provided great leadership. So they only way you can go about bleeding for the club in a good way is to go about it quietly? C'mon! I think you'll find Sauntner won quite a few of his goalkicking awards before and away from us during the Melbourne alliance, and a good deal of his success over the years has also had to do with the quality of Zebra onballers we had. You don't win 7 leading goalkicker awards by constantly taking shortcuts, and since when has selfishness in forwards been an abhorrent quality? Its what made a lot of them so good. Again, have you ever been to a VFL huddle? His voice of encouragement and authoratitive presence stands above all others. The guy is a natural leader, teacher and motivator off-field. There is much Newton could do to learn off the bloke, but no, too many people would rather he figure out the caper for himself, and we know his mental strength is his weakest point.

Spot on Stigga, this guy bleeds for the club more than anyone else on the zebras list, maybe besides Chad Lidell. You've only gotta goto any 1/4 time or 3/4 time huddle, and it will be Sauntner doing all the talking anf firing up. Same with on-field, look beyond the initial petulance if a pass isnt spot on (which you would say a common trait amongst full-forwards Richo, Fev, Hall, JBrown etc), and you'll see he's one of the lodest and most influential out there, I've got no doubt he'd be an assistant coach straight away after he retires. Newton should aspire to gain the ruthless edge that makes Saunts as successful as he has been.

Possibly just as worrying the fact that the COO has been given the boot, how many more critical staff can we let go?

Interestingly on SEN this morning Hutchy intimated that the spat between Ricky Nixon, surely one of the lowest of low of the player-managers, and Glenn Archer, continued after they threw to an ad break. His responses to Archer were childish to say the least from what was a reasonable point from Archer.

Jarrod had an absolute shocker last night didnt he? He did remind me of Cale at the time with some of his clangers. I think cale is most similar to Jarrod, whereas Mitch is a bigger, stronger 'ox'. There's no doubting their skillsets, its the application, particularly for the younger two, that leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, he has time well and truly on his side, I have faith that he will turn into a very good footballer in a couple of years...

Spot on Cards, Jamars previous best was 12 vs Brisbane this year at the Gabba. He had a season high of 4(!) kicks today, and equal career high of 10 handballs, also against Brisbane at the MCG 3 weeks ago. Add to that another career-equalling high of 7 tackles to match his efforst against the Dogs last week, and he's doing OK.