Wiseblood

More excuses. You are the king of them. And I'm happy for you to believe he can make it. Nothing wrong with that. I just believe he won't. We will certainly see come the end of the year.

You twist it by completely disregarding it as an important aspect of the game. For a tall player it is important to be strong in the contest and have the ability to not only mark on the lead but to also do it in a contested situation. His contested marking is poor. There is no denying that. Over his career he has only averaged 3.5 marks a game. Cam Pedersen, as an example, has averaged a tick under 5. Jack Watts has averaged over 5. His marking ability, both in finding space on the lead and in a contested situation, is not up to scratch.

I can't wait to see how he twists this in a way that suits his argument.

This last line sums you up. I said his marking was ok on the lead but not flash one on one. It's an accurate summary, yet you try and twist it almost as if one on one marking has no importance in the modern game at all. If Fitzy could do anything like Franklin, which by the way is a horrible comparison, then he would be in the side. He can't. But instead of agreeing with anything anyone else has to say you just do anything at all to disagree with them, no matter how silly you sound.

Beautiful plumage....

No it's not... it's resting!

I didn't realise you were the one around here who decided when threads were alive or dead. Glad I know now. Please tell me in the future when others are dead as well, we'd all appreciate it. I don't want to discuss players from a training session for more than two days. Perish the thought.

Nicely put Tim. You should email that through to the club.

No doubt about that. I'm sure they don't mind the chat or even a discussion about the last game etc. But the last thing they would do is be negative about a player in front of a fan. Just doesn't happen, and nor should it.

You can guarantee that this wouldn't happen. They would never say to a fan, no matter how often they showed up, that a player was only average in any area of their game. Imagine them saying it to the wrong person who blabs it round and it ends up on the back page of the SUN. Heads would roll. Coaches would play a straight bat with everyone and, therefore, their comments can be taken with a grain of salt. And we know what we see anyway, we don't need them to tell us.

Number 1 - you obviously agree with my definition of skill set so you can stop harping on about it now. And lets look at the rest. I'm going to enjoy this. Attitude - I agree. Come back from some seriously bad stuff. Good on him for that too. Fitness - being quick over a short distance doesn't mean you are fit. And he is the fastest 200cm player over 3k? Who is his competition? The HMAS Gawn and Jamar? Kicking - it's average. I don't care what the coaches say - they aren't going to say anything else are they? Footy IQ - 10 marks in a game doesn't equal good footy IQ. How many of those were side or back kicks? Laughable comparison here. Handballing - never seen him handball so how would we know? I like how you say he doesn't like it and that's a tick - shouldn't we want to see him enjoy it and play the team game and put others in a better position to score? Tsk, tsk. Physicality - Good on the lead, no good one on one. Marking - again, ok on the lead, no good one on one. Going by your description of him though he should have played every game last year and be one of the best players in the competition.. There is a reason he only played 4.

Skill set, if you haven't worked it out, are the skills a player needs to play at AFL level. Kicking, handballing, marking, footy IQ, fitness, attitude, physicality.... need I go on? I don't know why that is so hard for you to work out. I mentioned some of these in regards to Fitzpatrick and why I don't think he'll make it. If you don't agree then that's fine, no drama there as we differ on our opinion of his skills, I just have no idea why you keep harping on about a definition for skill set. It's not as if it will relate to their cooking skills or their ability to clip their toenails. I would have thought it's pretty straight forward.

I gave a pretty fair definition I would have thought. You asked and I responded. Regardless of whether or not you agree in terms of Fitzy, they are skills required to be a successful AFL footballer. I have no idea why you choose to ignore what I posted.

Crouches Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

I don't really want to get into this discussion, but I'm going to be respectful about it. No one is annoyed with your opinions Saty. I know that's surprising but it's true. The problem is how you put it forward and how you arrogantly cut other people down for theirs, either because you firmly believe it's wrong or you take it personally (which you do sometimes because you go and 'dob' people in to the players with their views). If you just posted normally and provided short and concise training reports that covered training, and nothing else, then we wouldn't have these problems every.... single.... time. But your arrogant, holier than thou delivery does you no favours at all. More and more people get annoyed with it, and that has to tell you something.

Well that's my opinion, which you asked for, which is based off what I've seen. Under pressure and on game day I don't think he is up to it. Done.

He is distinctly average. He is not good enough in a one on one situation, nor does he seem to get to the right positions on the field. His field kicking is average and he gets pushed around far too easily. I highly doubt there would be another team out there who would have him on their list. We have quite a few of those types. He has good pace for his height and he has a dip, no doubt about that, and I admire his willingness to come back from injury and health setbacks, but nothing I've seen suggests to me that he will earn another contract past this season.

Based on having watched him play over the last 4 seasons. My opinion is that he doesn't have the required skill set to be successful AFL player. That happens sometimes, not everyone can make and to me, he is one who won't.

Do you have a problem with my opinion?

That's great. He still won't make it.

Maybe, but my point still stands.

I don't think it matters as he'll be delisted come season's end. He didn't even get a look in during the 3 pre-season games. That tells us something.

Someone was asking about Dean Terlich earlier, can anyone check to see if he's under a few of those as well?

But I don't wanna be a pirate!