Wiseblood

Does anyone know if the bloke is any good? I've heard of him but have no idea if he can play or not.

If you were to go purely on their ruck work, then Gawn wins. He leads the comp in hitouts and hitouts to advantage (and another one they mentioned today, but I can't remember what that was.) Grundy has more influence around the ground, but to me, the AA ruck should play the rucking role better than anyone else. To me, that puts Gawn in the box seat.

I believe Harmes was the one to do that, although with how well he runs the wings Fritsch was able to give some support down there as well.

The only thing against him at the moment might be his slow start to the season, although his last month has been sensational.

I'd have just the three - Gawn, Oliver and Hogan. Why 3? It's the even spread of contributions from everyone in the side at the moment. The above 3 are the consistent standouts for me.

True, but a golden injury run can force players to look elsewhere. Dom may see the writing on the wall and ask for a trade if an attractive offer comes his way. He is signed until the end of next year so he will probably see his contract out, but while he is very good for our depth we can't expect a bloke with plenty of footy left in him to hang around waiting for a chance.

That's great. Some would agree, others would call him a troll. I fall in the latter. And him 'bleeding red & blue' might make him a better supporter than you, but it doesn't make him better than the rest.

No one is a better supporter than anyone else. We all contribute in our own ways, whether that be through attendance, membership, posting here or wearing your gear into work on a Monday win, lose or draw. While I don't agree with some posters on here, that doesn't mean I would consider them any less of a supporter than me or anyone else.

The comments in this thread, as well as the Goodwin thread, show how scarred some fans are. It annoys me, but at the same time I slightly understand where they are coming from. The last month shows how we need to be patient - a couple of bad losses and we had some supporters, who now look rather stupid, questioning everything as if the club was caving in. Now look at us. Just goes to show that we don't need to be negative about every decision made and be able to see the long term view, not just the short term.

Kind of reaffirms my stance on his article - Jay Clark is connecting dots that simply aren't there yet. All the chatter has been about us having the room and that we've looked long term for some time now to ensure we have the space to sign our players and add others. Seems like he's seen one Brayshaw at the Eagles, looked at the potential of Gaff leaving with Melbourne being interested and gone from there. Nothing in it.

Yep. The link they make with the Eagles is the fact one of his brothers plays there. It's thin at best.

For those that might not be able to read it - that article is a joke. Nowhere does it actually say that the Eagles are interested in Gus, more that it wonders if the Eagles will chase him as 'revenge' for us chasing Gaff. There is absolutely nothing to suggest he wants out, no quotes from managers or coaches or anything resembling something new. It's a headline purely for there for clicks.

Agree with all of that, LH. Others who we need to re-sign include: James Harmes, who has had a great year to date. Tim Smith, whose last 2 games show that he can be a really handy player for us going forward. They will make a call on it later in the year, but I reckon Bernie deserves one more year at the moment. Harley Balic is probably in line for another year as, from all reports, he's doing pretty well at Casey. Beyond those above and the players you mentioned (Gus, T Mac, Oscar, Jetta), I'll be interested to see who else we re-sign. Does Buggy get another year? Do we give Pedo another year as well, or do we have enough tall cover now?

I don't think we'll ever know the reasons behind it unless Goodwin, or McCartney himself, come forward with it. We could speculate all day - perhaps they moved him there as an extra voice on the bench to encourage, support and teach the players through the game, something he has always been really good at? Either way it's been a positive move and further proof that Goodwin is happy to make changes when required.

I'd do the same thing... if I had any semblance of a rig...

Here is the article: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/melbourne/melbournes-jake-melksham-has-become-the-afls-oneonone-king-inside-forward-50/news-story/dab7157a6984a8090831b8205849f9d3 For those that cannot get past the paywall, the crux of the article is this: Jake has won more one on one contests inside 50 (9 out of 14) than any other player in the competition. Since Round 6 we have also retained possession of the ball a ridiculous 93.3% of the time when Melksham kicks the ball inside 50. That's 20% better than anyone else. This bloke is having a stellar year and is a big reason why we've been so good since the Richmond game (where he kicked 4 goals and have Rance an absolute bath). He is continuing to prove that he is a fantastic pick up for the side and, at only 26 years of age, still has plenty to offer in the years to come.

Not only is it good drafting, but they're not getting games because we have no one else. They're keeping out very experienced and capable players. It's fantastic to watch.

We've got one of the smallest injury lists in the league right now. You can call it out all you like. Nobody is listening.

Exactly. They traded out their stars for picks, so they can't put their hand out for a priority pick when they've chosen to go with youth.

Get a few of those from Trevor Marmalade's All-Star team from the early 90's, Colin?

He did that in the AFL side anyway. He had done pretty much all of the pre-season training before the injury struck so he still had the base fitness from that. You're just clutching at straws as you want to blame 'bad management', when it's clearly untrue.

How so?

Apparently, according to one track watcher, the moment there is a niggle you're training in the rehab group. Don't tell me this track watcher, who is never wrong, is actually wrong....?

It's an interesting point BBP, as now that we've found a structure that works, we should be able to cover him well enough that we still win the game we should be winning. Pedersen isn't a world beater, but he has the tank to get himself up the ground and have stints in the ruck. Same goes for both Hogan and Tim Smith - they have the capacity to play Tom's role and therefore we keep the structure of the side intact. Obviously, Tom is in ripping form and we're not the same side without him, but I believe that now we have a good structure in place that we can push on in a positive direction if we don't have him in the side.

To add to this, and some mentioned it earlier, he has already played some rep footy during his junior years so he isn't coming from a long way back. He will know what he is doing pretty quickly. The beauty is that, at 17, time is also on his side and he can develop his craft at Casey without being thrown to the wolves too soon. With Gawny taking him under his wing he has a good chance of developing into a player for us. And we got him for nothing. Gold.