titan_uranus

And if he was a slackarse or a turd, he'd be sacked. Legally, unlike how Brisbane's done it. It's not what I'd do, but if GWS wants him, that's how they should do it.

Less than I have now, by definition, given I have to go to uni whilst right now I don't.

Melbourne 1. Matthew Warnock, 2. Nathan Jones, 3. Clint Bartram, 4. Jack Watts, 6. Matthew Bate, 7. Jamie Bennell, 9. Jack Trengove, 12. Colin Sylvia, 14. Lynden Dunn, 15. Ricky Petterd, 16. Jack Grimes, 18. Brad Green, 19. Addam Maric, 20. Colin Garland, 21. Lucas Cook, 22. Brent Moloney, 24. Liam Jurrah, 27. Jared Rivers, 28. Joel MacDonald, 34. Stefan Martin, 36. Aaron Davey, 38. Jeremy Howe, 39. Neville Jetta, 40. Mark Jamar, 42. Jake Spencer, 44. Rohan Bail, 46. Sam Blease, 47. James Strauss, 50. Michael Evans Essendon 1. Jay Neagle, 2. Ricky Dyson, 5. Brent Stanton, 6. Angus Monfries, 7. Leroy Jetta, 8. Jason Winderlich, 9. Brent Prismall 10. Mark McVeigh, 15. Courtenay Dempsey, 17. Jake Melksham, 18. Michael Hurley, 20. Henry Slattery, 21. Dyson Heppell, 22. Jake Carlisle, 23. David Myers, 24. Alex Browne, 26. Cale Hooker, 27. Luke Davis, 29. Alwyn Davey, 30. Patrick Ryder, 31. Dustin Fletcher, 32. Travis Colyer, 33. Mark Williams, 34. Kyle Hardingham, 40. Ben Howlett, 43. Michael Hibberd, 44. Tom Bellchambers, 45. Stewart Crameri, 46. Josh Jenkins

1) Hussey should have been taken to the WC in Steve Smith's place. Smith is crap. Hasn't made a 50 yet and hasn't taken more than 3 wickets in any innings. Adds nothing. Hussey is our best ODI batsman, a proven finisher, and is fit right now. 2) I feel for the Dutch. That almost was the biggest upset in WC history. If they can keep playing like that (big if) they can challenge and/or beat Ireland, West Indies and Bangladesh, and that might be enough to get them through.

Ah, true. I could just delay the draft. Of course, middle of March means uni. Which means less time. Oh well.

NAB Cup = I don't care what we wear. We'd only be wearing blue and pink if we wore the home jumper anyway.

If I'm GWS, he doesn't have to prove to me that he's reformed. I just want to know if he can still play. If he can, then, as I know no one else will go near him, I'll offer him the cheapest legal contract available with an immediate termination clause if he does anything the club doesn't like. If it works, we get a proven Coleman medallist at FF to help out a bunch of 18 year olds. If it doesn't we spend a rookie salary on an experiment. I'm not saying it'll happen, it almost certainly won't. But if I was tasked with working out how to get Fevola back into AFL, this would be it.

We have three people at the moment. I guess the interest waned once your league was set up. If we don't get to 16 by Sunday it'll have to die.

Alright then, I've made one. Let's hope we can get 12 people. League name: Demonland Mk 2 League ID: 351891 Password: demons Edit: Draft it tentatively set to start on Sunday at 11am with each pick having 2 hours. That can be changed if necessary.

FFS...I missed out again...this sucks. Are there 15 other people who want to make a second league with me?

Don't put it past GWS. No other club in their right mind would take him. But if that's the case, GWS can approach him and say 'Train with us for the rest of 2011. Work your ass off. Prove to us you want to play in 2012. Then we'll pay you close to a minimum wage with a contract that specifies you're out after just one misdemeanour, at our discretion'. Make it public. Put the pressure on him. If he gets it right (about as big an 'if' as there could be), GWS gets one of the five best forwards in the league (yes, even at 31). If it doesn't, they lose virtually no money and they're no worse off. What other options does Fev have? What has he got without football to keep him occupied? It is Kevin Sheedy after all.

We beat two non-finalists from last year and we're all of a sudden top 4 material. North loses to two top 4 teams from last year and all of a sudden they're bottom 4 material. Essendon thrashes Brisbane and draws with last year's Grand Finalist and they're bottom 2 material. Wow.

I think Grimes is a tad over-rated with his kicking. At times he seems to turn it over even on the easiest of kicks.

Just remember that in 2006 Carlton won the NAB Cup and the wooden spoon. Just because Gold Coast, Essendon and West Coast have all progressed to Week 2 does not mean any of them are automatically going to have a good year.

Let's not get defensive here (pun intended). Bartram, Rivers, MacDonald and Warnock are all likely Round 1 starters, and none of them would be classified as a 'good kick'. Grimes turns it over sometimes too. If there was a weakness to our backline, that would be it.

That 7 really was appalling though. A top four of Watson, Haddin, Ponting (who's looked good these two warm-up matches) and Clarke is sound and compares pretty well with the other sides (India and South Africa aside). It's the out-of-form middle order of White, D. Hussey, Smith and Johnson that needs to perform from a batting perspective, although we could feasibly get enough runs in the group games from the top 4. (PS: the 7 and 73 were warm-up games which technically aren't ODIs, but who cares?)

I have no idea what Maric can deliver. In fact, based on his AFL form, I doubt he can deliver much at all. I get the sentiment though.

Well, given Hussey's injured, there's no chance of that. White's form from the middle of 2009, when he batted at 3 against England and made a century, through to the tour of India last year, where he made 80-odd of about 40-odd, was top-notch. Along with M. Hussey, our best ODI batsman. Since the Australian summer he's struggled. But at his best he is, undoubtedly, in our best XI. I have no idea why you hate his captaincy, I think he does a good job. The bowling is an issue. Part of that is because of the way he was treated in 2008, but really, he shouldn't have dropped off so quickly. He would have been a much stronger candidate to replace North if he was still picking up a wicket here or there. But he needs his first class batting to improve anyway.

Phew. Thanks WYL. That's re-assuring.

Ta. Just in case there are any others out there who, like Loges, didn't realise that. Thankyou very much. And KS too. Nice logic.

This was probably mentioned in the Scully thread but I think it adds to the character discussion of Trengove here: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/107892/default.aspx Everything the kid says seems genuine and real.

Question: is this camp something that we as a club chose to do, or is this something the AFL gets all the clubs to do? Either way I like it.

OK. Why hasn't Scully held a press conference to douse the rumours? Surely the fact that every rumour on the radio/TV/newspapers says that Scully has signed means he has signed? Who wouldn't take that much money? Doesn't this, along with the Judd and Burgoyne situations, show that we are still a club that no one wants to play for?

Maybe your suggestion of modifying the retail jumpers for Round 1 is feasible. Not sure if it's that important for the NAB Cup. In essence, though, I'm sure there's no one here who wants to see us run out in Round 1 wearing pink. Whatever the solution is, that has to be the ultimate goal. The NAB Cup can take a back seat.

I wouldn't say there are 'worrying signs' a week out from the WC, but there are issues that need to be resolved. We didn't take a wicket from a bowler yesterday, just one run out. Krejza got to bowl 10 overs but the reports are that he isn't setting the world on fire, on pitches that are made for turn. In our innings Robin Peterson took 3, and he's not much chop. I guess it's a learning curve for a guy who's played 1 ODI but it's a risky situation. David Hussey and Steve Smith aren't providing the best back-up either. At least we've been lucky and played two top-class teams, rather than a waste of time against Canada or Kenya. This way we know we're a bit off and can look to improve on those areas in the easier actual WC games. Just went out for 7? Clarke? He made a nice 73. I didn't think you paid much attention.