Wiseblood

We have had a heap of players recently state they love the club and then signed on. You might be cynical about it, but we have a pretty good track record recently of players following through with their intention to re-sign with the club.

Not every player has to be painted with the Tom Scully brush.

I know. I'm as surprised as you are that SWYL has finally matured in his views.

He'll be linked to them until he re-signs because of his brothers. I don't really think there is much more in it than that.

He probably won't be bothered, but I reckon he would have a case. What he did was no worse than the pushing, shoving and blocking that would go on around the stoppages during a game. Or he could ask Michael Walters to pay it, as had he hit someone else who doesn't have a pea heart it wouldn't have even been a 50 metre penalty.

You're spot on here, mate. Not only that but the 50 metre penalty was a soft as they come with Walters going down like he'd been shot. Lewis is doing far more positive than negative for our side and there's simply no chance he gets dropped.

True. Saty will tell you that until he is blue in the face. Your opinion can be wrong, though, and it's not as if Gaff has been up and down this year. He's having a sensational year and everyone, bar one, agrees. It just seems as though he's sticking to his opinion out of stubbornness more so than actually believing Gaff is nothing but an accumulator. That, plus he also lied a few times when he said Gaff had never won a B&F, then when he was corrected on that claimed that he has Eagles supporter friends who didn't rate him that highly the year he won it... which made no sense considering he said he'd never won one. He hasn't exactly covered himself in glory on this topic.

Yeah, how dare he rack up important touches and hit targets further down the field. Just the player we don't need... On a serious note, there was piece of play in that third term that summed up how good he is. He got the ball on the half back flank, ran and took two bounces before hitting up Cripps 50 metres away to help set up a goal. It was great to watch. He would look superb in the red and blue.

First two lines are fluff. He is generally pretty good regardless of the opposition. And I rarely see Lewis panic with the ball in hand. He isn't quick and he should keep his feet a little more often, but panic isn't something I see him do. The 50 metre penalty shouldn't have been given. Any player with more than pea heart would have kept on running. Walters, however, milked it and suck the umpire in. Your thoughts on his performance on irrelevant to me now. You're so fixated on potting the bloke that it overtakes any form of rational thought on the matter.

Outside of the 50 metre penalty, which had Walters going down as if he was smashed by a battering ram, I though Lewis did his job well tonight. He was part of a backline that dominated and he played his role with minimal fuss.

If you're saying it's a rubbish deal because of Josh Kelly then remember that Roos said we would have taken Jack Billings anyway. As a side note, I hope your username is something we're all saying later on this evening.

I pay absolutely no attention to the TAC Cup. Not now that we're half decent and not in play for a pick inside the Top 20 anyway. So, therefore, I have no idea who the bloke is. I've heard of Rankine and Lukosius in the last few days, but that's it.

He does fix our problems. Our backline was on fire before he went down, and that was due in large part to his leadership, footy IQ and footy skills. You are selling the bloke short. As for this years top 20 being 'exceptional' - we've all heard that before. Our first rounder this year still has every chance of being around about the 11-12 mark, which isn't superb by any stretch. The last 'super draft' that everyone refers to from 2001 had far more misses than hits. If you take out Judd, Ball and Hodge as the Top 3, an area we wouldn't have been picking in anyway, from picks 4 through to 30 only Bartel (#8), Dal Santo (#13), James Kelly (#17) and Steve Johnson (#24) could be considered gun picks. There are a heap of no name players who did nothing with their careers. After pick 30 you had guys like Sam Mitchell, Leigh Montagna, Dane Swan (pick #58!), Jarrad Waite andBrian Lake (#71) all taken in the second round and beyond. They can talk it all up all you like, but I think having what is considered a strong Top 20 works in our favour. Jason Taylor has a proven track record of securing talent later in the draft and I'd back him in to do so again. We didn't overpay at all for Lever. We paid market value for a bloke with 50 games under his belt and almost AA selection in his first few seasons in the game.

No, we didn't. Seriously, we didn't.

Hogan's work rate, generally, is terrific. It's what allowed him earlier in the season to have such an impact all over the ground. He's been quieter over the last month or so, but to suggest his work rate is poor and his season has been 'shithouse' is plain wrong.

Yeah, he's been that bad he's kicked 34 goals this season to be fourth for the Coleman Medal. Does he need to have cracked the ton at this point of the season to get a pass mark from you?

That's right, I had a civil discussion with Steve about Oscar McDonald. At least he makes some sense, rather than saying things like Jake Lever isn't a key position player, and that Joel Smith is our current CHB, even though Harrison Petty played that role on the weekend.

How old are you? 12? I look forward to it, Steve. Lever going down with an injury has been pretty catastrophic to make up of our backline, as he and Oscar had been working superbly down there together. No doubt it has hurt us more than I think we care to admit, but I still think Oscar has been doing a pretty good job under the circumstances. Just last week, outside of a couple of 50 metre penalties, one of which was pretty dodgy, he had Charlie Dixon's measure. That's no easy task. Either way, I think finding the right player to put alongside Oscar is the bigger issue than the issue of Oscar himself.

Mate, the onus isn't on me. You're the one who knocked Oscar, so the burden of proof is on you. Not me. And then you come back with this 'attacking posters' garbage when I disagree with your view. You tried to prove a point and it didn't work. Lever isn't a KPD at 195cm, but Joel Smith is at just 191cm? You can't make this stuff up.

I love how you've listed every teams 2 key backs, even if they're injured, but then made sure to leave Lever out as if he doesn't exist. Some rarely even play back now, like Harry Taylor, while others have never played there, like Sam Reid at Sydney. I don't know what this post tries to prove, as it fails miserably.

This is the big one for me. The St. Kilda forwards has acres and acres of space to work in, while their midfield had plenty of time to settle and hit a target. Not much anybody can do to stop that, and that rests at the feet of our midfield.

I'm not dismissing it. Don't be so melodramatic. I'd acknowledge that our second key defensive post is now an issue. Oscar is not. Who we have playing alongside him is now the problem we need to solve. They've given Petty a run and, right now, he is probably not the answer. So we'll try something else, whatever that may be. But descending back into this farce of knocking Oscar McDonald, when there is no reason to, is silly. What did he do wrong on the weekend? How many times was he beaten one on one? How many clangers did he have? Not many from memory. Many of the goals were kicked on Petty. I think it stinks that we're back to this again when there is no reason to be.

I'd like to see any key defender perform well with the lack of defensive pressure we put on up the field. Oscar is fine and he isn't even close to being a problem for the club at present.

Can't argue that we had some workrate issues on the weekend. The Saints played out of their skin and we just didn't want to keep up with them. Their spread was good and we didn't want to work hard enough once they got the ball in their hands to ensure that we got it back as quickly as possible. I also think our set up around the stoppages needs some work as well. Too often we have all 3 players going for the ball which takes away that outlet handpass, or we get first hands on it, cough it up and they get the clearance. We need a little more balance in there and also around the ground.

I've heard he has had further problems with his foot and is a strong chance to retire by seasons end. I would have happily nabbed him otherwise.