Wiseblood

Our boys noticed very early too and Jones, in particular, gave him lip for the rest of the day. I counted 6 head high free kicks from him dropping the knees and throwing his head back. No idea why umps get sucked in either. It's staging in it's purest form.

You could make the argument that he is the perfect foil for Gawn - a bloke who can play forward and then be a legitimate pinch hitter in the ruck. It's a moot point though because I think we need to strengthen other areas and there will be other clubs willing to pay over the odds to get him. I don't get the Weideman argument though - we like to talk him up, but he's a kid who is unproven at AFL level. Yes, he's coming along nicely at Casey which is great, but he's still an unknown quantity at AFL level.

They're crazy then. You would think he has more than 3 good years left in the tank playing alongside Tex, Eddie and Lynch.

4 years isn't THAT bad for a 27 year old. There will be plenty of clubs, Freo included, who will throw truckloads of cash at him though.

God I love Jack Viney. He just BLEEDS red and blue. It's bloody brilliant!

Just announced on the MFC website that Clayton WILL make his debut this week! Well done son!

I love how your first sentence is simply you being pedantic about grammar, and then you need to edit your own work for a mistake. Classic.

I thought he looked good, although I'm not getting as excited as others by this performance. He isn't a lock for Round 1 at all as I believe once Jones, Vince and a fit Brayshaw return he may be squeezed out. Kennedy and Bugg showed that they will be handy additions as well so I believe Oliver may have to wait for his chance, although that's not a bad thing. Liked his composure though and he showed signs that he will be a very handy player for us sooner rather than later.

Great opportunity to give the kid a real taste of senior footy over the coming weeks. I don't see him getting a gig in Round 1 but he'll know a bit about what it takes at the highest level and hopefully spur him on to earn his spot early in the season.

It wasn't necessarily about his ability to play the game, more that we picked him in the Top 10 of what was dubbed a super draft and missed out completely, just like Cook. Very different players but we picked them both and missed out on others. I was only being light hearted, didn't think you would take it so seriously.

I was hoping we could go even further back and have a discussion about Luke Molan...

And Brayshaw was the one who was subbed off for Toumpas in the end.

Even if 6 midfielders somehow improved unbelievably out of sight over the next month or two, Jones is still a lock for the Round 1 side. He is our captain for a reason.

Agree with all of that. And you're right - it's not a knock on Jones, but more about the fact that we need the kids to surpass him over the next few years and push us to the next level. Jones has been a warrior for us, but you wouldn't class him as an A grader with some of the other elite mids who are on that level. We've got the players who can get there though, and thankfully a guy like Jones is an excellent role model due to his terrific work ethic and willingness to improve.

Rubbish. I had an opinion that differed and responded in kind. I wasn't rude about it. Your post, however, added nothing to the conversation either, so go ahead and sort yourself out.

Is that a realistic hypothetical though, mate? It sounded like a few players returned from the 6 week break before pre-season a little underdone, but would the modern footballer turn up with terrible skin folds these days? They might not do everything asked of them, or play basketball and injure themselves, but you would have to do plenty of terrible things not to get picked if you're Hogan. Roos himself even suggested that, even though he is disappointed with the injury Petracca sustained, he is still well and truly in the running to play Round 1. That tells us plenty. I wasn't looking to start an argument and derail the thread in this case, more that the idea that every spot is up for grabs is ludicrous and we all know it. We need to play our best players each and every week.

Don't twist your words and meaning around now. You said that no one was guaranteed a game, and I argued that this notion is ridiculous as we have a number of players who are an automatic walk up start. If you didn't say Hogan and Jones wouldn't be playing then you should have said SOME spots are up for grabs, not all.

You're kidding yourself. Really, you are. Jesse Hogan plays in Round 1 no matter what. Even if he plays in two NAB Cup games and doesn't get a kick, he plays. The same goes for a number of other players. We aren't Hawthorn. We need our best 22 on the park. The players might be on 'notice', but any person with half a brain knows that guys like Jones, Vince, Viney, McDonald, Gawn, Garland, Dunn, Salem, Tyson etc. will be playing in Round 1 if they aren't injured. That's just common sense.

Serious question - you are trying to tell me that Jesse Hogan, for example, is not a lock to play in Round 1 this year?

Matt Jones a lock in the best 22 again this year Saty? Without a doubt. There are 5-7 spots up for grabs in the side for Round 1. Plenty of them are well and truly filled and everyone knows it, no more so than the players.

I said much the same thing earlier in the thread. It's not as if Jake went out and deliberately cheated. As Fifty-5 so eloquently put, he was 20 at the time and from all reports what he was taking wasn't illegal. A year out of the game and what they've been through for the last 4 years is punishment enough.

Well you'll just have to learn to deal with it. That's up to you. I'm okay with it because he didn't go and do it himself. He's not someone like Lance Armstrong. I agree in that he should have queried it more, asked questions, done a little research etc, but I also believe the 34 players were misled and they put their trust in who they believed were the experts. They got burnt big time and they'll live with that stigma for the rest of their lives. But they didn't do it of their own volition and that makes it a different proposition... for me anyway. I can handle it.

You take yourself too seriously. He's at the club, either deal with it or support another club. Easy.

And that's what we did for years - talk up the kids to give us hope. We have barely done that at all this year, and it's telling. I see it as a real positive.

Fair enough mate. We will have to agree to disagree. Cheers.