Rodney (Balls) Grinter

So it's all good then. I recon Vines would still play for us with a nearly detached foot.

Last year they had half a dozen Max Gawn highlight games. Hopefully something similar at some stage.

Gets some sublime service from Sean Wight in this game (tears start to well). I love the thumbs up he gives to the Collingwood players at 4:40.

JACKA!! That goal out of mid air and back over his head would have to be one of the all time most skilled/freakish goals. Remember this game well. If I recall correctly, Billy's dad took a screamer on the wing at some point as well. Good game from Jacks uncle also.

He was quite the performer on the footy show in his day too if I recall correctly, so I'm not suprised that he loves to talk. I actually think it's more surprising in some ways given his personality that he has become such a public recluse, but there is probably some ultimate wisdom and also something to be admired in that. So many footballers these days seem to think they can have a second career as B grade celebrities, but in the end, bar the talented, inelegent and articulate few, they just end up wearing thin on the public thay once adored them. Living somewhat close to Northern NSW, I'd love to find out the fishing charters he runs though. A day spent fishing with Jacko would be an awsome experience and I wouldn't even care if I didn't catch anything as per usual.

From all I understand of some of his behaviour and training habbits, I just wish that the Ox had Glen's application too.

“I would like to point out that this decision has been some time in the making –myself and Josh have been having conversations for a while now. In the end, the well was dry. I couldn’t live the trademark anymore as a player. I didn’t want to waste a year remaining on the list, both personally and for the team. One H. Lumumba would have done well to take this one out of Colin's playbook.

I take my hat off to this bloke, the way he conducted himself on and off the footy feild. A more loyal a servant the MFC will not find. For a few years there in the middle he was a pretty handy defender. All the best for the future Col.

To quote an AFL promotional advertisment - ' I'd like to see that! '

Can Keilty play ruck? Perhaps there is a longer term prospect for him to play the sort of key position support/backup ruckman role like Pedersen? As much as I'm not looking to replace Pedo in the short term, Cam is getting pretty close to retirement age. Particulaly with Watts leaving, we have less forward line depth as well, until Weiderman matures a bit more and is capable of playing a key role down there.

Love the dare and agression with which he takes on his imidiate opponent and really breaks open the game. Can be really damaging by foot when he is on. Not sure that he will ever be a power house like Clarry in the guts, but I think Harmes is just the sort of player that could hurt the oppoasition, particularly when he plays as part of a dominant team and they have their hands full trying to keep a lid on our guns.

I just hope this Balic is better than the last opertunity starved midfielder we picked up from Freo. I've had enough of recruiting recycled players that are champions for Casey.

Ture. He's a reasonable chance of playing finals at Melbourne though too, so it really depends somewhat on the finacial attractiveness or otherwise of the deal as well as how repairable Watts feels his professional relationship with Jones and Goodwin is. Do the MFC and some of it's supporters want Watts gone so badly we would be prepared to pay out the difference in his current contact terms and what he might get at another club, just to see him gone? All pure speculation, I'm just reading into the scenario.

I think most people would think it a reasonably acceptable propersition, without nessasrily being happy about it. I'll only really be happy about this or otherwise in retrospect, which is a prvillage I know our coaching staff and list management don't really have. Assuming we complete the trade amd Jack were to move on to for fill his talent potential and play a pivital role in a flag for Port I'd be pretty [censored]. A range of other scenarios are possible which would determine how I ultimately feel about this trade.

I'd actually say that the above proposed trade is a reasonable equivalence to the Bernie Vince for pick 27 trade we did with them a few years back. Though I do worry/wonder with all these free agent compo picks getting thrown in if 30 and 33 ends up more like 32/33 and 35/36. I also wonder if there could be a last minute twist to the Jack Watts trade scenario, with him ending up at the Gold Coast or Brisbane? Not sure what cap space Port would have left after Rocky and Motlop, but I can't see Watts agreeing to move for less money and as I understand it Brisbane/GC are the teams with both a need for more mature players and the draft picks to trade with.

'Unhinged' - ease up cowboy. It was an analogy, not every aspect to be taken 100% literally. Yeah, so would you take Jack Viney's 15 kicks per game at 40% efficiency over Jack Watts 8 kicks per game at 90% efficiency? (9 turnovers Vs 1). Actually I'd take both, because they play different roles within the team, but I think there's more chance that Jack Watts improves his training standards and intensity than Viney or any of our average kickers and decision makers bring that part of their game up to Watts standard. In so many of the games we played this year, we dominated time in forward half, but lacked the polish to make good decisions and execute with ball in hand to enable us to penitrate foward 50. Watts is elite at this game and also at finishing off when he gets the ball inside 50. Might help next year with Lever if Salem can be pushed further up the feild, but gaining Lever and loosing Watts could be two steps forward and at least one step back.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think all players probably get minimum 2 year contract comming out of the national draft, probably as an EBA condition? My impression from afar is similar with respects to Johnson, but we will see what another year brings - can only hope. Comparisons to Hunt seem a little off the mark, as my recallection is that Hunt seldom played in his first year or so, due to back problems, but that once he got back to some fitness, he showed clear potential. The current better comparison might be McNamar? (Though given McNamar came with a history of injuries and spent all this season injured for us, I'm not holding out much hope). A actually think last year's draft and trade period was a fair waste for us. We picked up Hibbard and Hannan, but the impression I get from match reports etc is that it's unlikely we picked up any other players of value through the conventional draft/trade period (perhaps Tim Smith), but might be saved by picking up Maynard and Joel Smith as Cat B rookies and what they look like as players.

Nup, sorry but huge problems with these statements - total BS. Jack was there and stuck with the MFC through some of our darkest times. Unlike the Weed who has had the luxury of developing in the twos, it's well documented that Jack was thrown in the deep end. Jack probably could have picked his club in 2010-2012 after his first contract ran out and bolted for the doors to a club that won more than 2 games a season. We need to repay that faith. His efforts this year in the ruck against Geelong and Richmond show he'll push himself to the point of exaughstion as good as most on the team. Delivered in spades on Queens Birthday and really helped lead us out of the wilderness that day, which I actually think was a bit of a turing point in the direction of our season at the time. He played as hard and we'll as all on the team against the Bulldogs, after which his season kind of fell apart a bit, but he wasn't the only one in that camp. And all his career Jack has played with the pressure of being that No.1 pick saviour under which we have seen others like Tom Boyd fold. I think it takes pretty decent mental toughness to play under the pressure and keep picking yourself up after the at times constant criticism that Watts has, so to call him a leaner is way off the mark. If Jack is around longer, for any success we have, he will have earnt every bit of the party that ensues.

I think we would be duding our selves for those trades when Devon Smith and pick twenty something went for pick 11 and thirty something from Essendon. Please don't anyone try telling me that Devon Smith, who didn't even make their best 22 for their prelim is anywhere as good as Watts. We now have essentially two second round picks after the Lever deal and will end up not having had a first round pick in three years if we don't get up there again this year. If anything good comes of trading out Watts, my take is we need to somehow work a first Rd pick in there. Our recruiters seem to be pretty good at finding dimonds in the rough, but I doubt Clarry or Weid would have been there in the second round of the draft.

I agree, it's not a direct comparison on all fronts, but it's more about not cutting off your nose to spite your face and over reactions to the situation. Similar analogy would be those that were saying it was Tommy Bugg's last game after his brain fade against Sydney/Mills, that wasn't his first chave either and had been comming over a course of weeks. Haven't heard Bugg's name mentioned in any trade rumors. I thought on the whole Watts season was pretty acceptable. Pleanty of other players who struggled in the second half of the season returning from injury - Gawn had minimal impact, Jones was hit and miss, Garlett (and half of the team) horrible agianst Collingwood, Salem had to be dropped and Viney after all his heroics probably pushed his body too hard and broke down again as a result and was unavailable through that for crucial games. If you want the young guys to learn how to kick for goal, don't expect them to looking up to Viney. Jack Watts definitely sets the standard there. Though Tom Mac Donald is probably now getting close to Watts in front of goal, I don't quite think he is there - I recon Watts would have taken and nailed that shot from 50 against Collingwood in Rd 23, just like he did with a number of similar shots to win us the game against the on Queens birthday Monday.

One of the thinge I despise about this so called professional era. These guys are entitled to have a life, have different personalities and not be robots all the time. I think Roos understood that and managed his team accordingly, but I'm not sure that Goodwin does.

I'll accept that everyone will apply themselves on the track like Oliver, Jones and Viney when they can all kick like Jack Watts. From what I understand (and I think his playing body shape would back this up), Jason Dunstall was never a very good trainer at Hawthorn, but I don't think he ever would have been put up for trade mid contact (or ever) and the first bloke you would pick at full forward any day of the week. Not that Jack has the hundreds of goals to his name that Piggy did, but it's not like Jack's played in side as dominant for his whole career either or has exactly the same attributes. Basically horses for courses and I really do feel like Jack is being made into a scape goat. In my veiw, the whole episode has been poorly managed by the club, particularly post season, with Jones, Goodwin and Co comming out and publicly criticizing him. I do feel like the club is making a huge mistake putting up a player who has put faith in the club over a long period up as a bargaining chip mid contract - hardly the sort of thing that will encourage mutual commitment to the team by talented players in the future.

Just interested to know how many of those that would trade Jack for his off-feild behavior would have sacked Oliver after his drink driving at the start of the season and how many of those still would now.

I agree, but on the positive, at least we are now close enough to be disappointed. In years gone by, we were so far off the mark, this kind of talk wouldn't have occured. It would have been more like "we had a few (three or four) wins during the year and got to within a few points of winning a few others, which shows what this team is building towards, but we also had some were really disappointing performances (referring to 100+ point losses) and we know we have to get that out of our game"...no mention of finals. But I agree that Jones in disapointent in particular sounded pretty scriped, robotic and insincere. I'm sure that it was sincere, but it didn't really come across with a lot of passion, as I think Jones is probably pretty fatigued of telling that story.

I actually think that picking up Maynard and Joel Smith somewhat makes up for us trading away our high picks and this recruitment of young top end tallent from the draft over the last few years. Some really screwd recruitment through alternate pathways. I'm hoping they prove me wrong, but I don't think we picked up anyone of great potential from last year's draft other than Hannan.