Goodvibes

Jesse might have missed the rising star nomination but surely he'll get Bob's Rascal of the Week.

He's like a high possession Max Rooke. You'd love to play next to him. I wouldn't mind Riley on the other side of me either.

If you saw it coming maybe you should have fired off this post 24 hours ago. It's a bit rich coming now. You went early on Neeld and you were right and I too would prefer our coach to be a little more positive about his appraisals of the team but this post comes across as grandstanding. What do you really want to say about Roos?

The exciting part is that players like Newton, vandenBerg and Brayshaw should all be significantly better in 12 months after another AFL standard pre-season.

Looks like a natural football player but the 'no defect' claim is a little optimistic. Looks like he's not blessed with speed and has a fair amount of work to do on his endurance. Seems to be winning more ball on the outside than the inside which differs from early reports on his game style. Wonder if this is a football dept instruction.

Clarke will destroy Dawes.

I'd do the following: OUT: Kent, Jetta IN: Spencer, Grimes If Tyson is also out, I'd include Toumpas but start him as the sub. I know Spencer has few friends here on Demonland but put yourself in his shoes. He's been working on developing an AFL ready ruckman's body for 7 years now. He's entering his prime. He showed in small glimpses early last year that he was competitive in the ruck and fast (when compared to say Sandilands) around the ground. He was cruelled by injury (and not for the first time) and missed a big chunk of the season. He's worked hard to get back, looks even bigger and has the form at Casey to justify his inclusion. I'd start him in the middle against Sandilands. He's taller and more athletic than Jamar and will relish running into the ageing giant. He'd be jumping out of his skin to have another crack and would relish the challenge of proving himself against the best. Jamar has had a good pre-season but faded badly last year. We need to manage him. I'd start him deep forward. The endurance and work ethic of both Hogan and Dawes allow us to do this. McPharlin and Johnson would go to Hogan and Dawes. Who takes Jamar? Freo are an amazing side but could be left a key defender short if we go with a three pronged tall approach. Obviously Jamar leaves us exposed on the rebound but we need to seek a point of difference if we're going to pull off an upset. Jamar deep with Garlett and JKH at his feet and Dawes and Hogan presenting up at the ball might work. And when Sandilands rests, Jamar will have an advantage over Clarke. Grimes is the obvious replacement for Jetta as most have suggested here. I'd play Grimes on Mayne, Garland on Ballantyne and Salem on Walters. As much as McDonald has simply taken the standout opposition forward each week, I'd actually play him on Clarke this week to allow him to zone off more regularly to take even more intercept marks. I'd back in Dunn against Pavlich and gamble on Howe matching Taberner. Obviously he'd be giving away 7 cms but at this point in time Taberner isn't quite the monster he'll no doubt turn into and Howe will be able to work up to the wing with him and hopefully read it better when the ball comes in deep. Grimes will be driven to make an impact. He is a proud young footballer and I expect him to get the job done whether it's Mayne, Ballantyne or Walters he gets. Fingers crossed Tyson gets up. As soon as a team makes more than two changes, I get nervous. Stability is so important.

We currently have the smallest injury list in the league. Given Dawes and Vince have had a game back and Howe is now two games back, we will field one of our strongest teams in years. Brodie Smith will be a loss for them. I'd make one change. JKH in for Newton and he plays as the sub. I think we've got to give the Frost as second ruck structure a couple more games. The alternative is Gawn and I don't like Gawn and Jamar in the same team. The second ruck/genuine tall forward role is going to be one of our key requirements going forward. I'd throw a stack of cash at Charlie Dixon (as I've suggested each of the last two trade periods). For the remainder of this season it appears we have five choices. The current situation, Dawes doing what he hated doing at Collingwood, a combo of two genuine rucks Jamar/Gawn or Jamar/Spencer or we give the clearly out of favour Pedersen another chance. The fifth option is the one no one will probably entertain - Hogan. It would allow us to play a Dawes/Hogan/Watts/Kent/Garlett/JKH forward line and have one extra runner in the team with Frost left to fight it out for a defensive post with Garland, McDonald, Dunn and Howe. And we'd have Hogan around the ball for an extra 20 minutes each game. He'd give us another quality midfielder in short bursts. I would have liked to have seen him move into the middle with 5 minutes to go in the third quarter last Saturday. He has the tank that would mean that his forward game wouldn't be negatively impacted by his time in the ruck. I'd seriously consider this option. If his back is an issue, he shouldn't be anywhere near a football field. I'd be more worried about the damage he'd do to the other second rucks in the league. We need the extra runner and Hogan in the ruck for 15 - 20 minutes a game helps us structure up much more competitively.

I agree. I'm just struggling to push away the thought of Demonland post another thrashing and a Dangerfield BOG performance.

10 days ago Roos suggested that he just wanted to see Grimes enjoying his football again. I'm not sure a re-introduction to the big stage on Patrick Dangerfield would be much fun. But like you, I think he's up for it. Grimes has the character to come back a better player.

It's been such a great week. Is is greedy to want the good vibes to continue for at least another seven days?

I think I made the mistake, almost a year ago, of mentioning he should never be named and strictly followed the conditions of the thread and excluded myself. It really is pretty easy not to click on a thread title. Why is its presence an issue?

I think the collective noun is a Hawhouse.

Nice work C & B. Now you just have to delete any reference you made to golden tickets, acknowledge the fine game had by Jeremy Howe, lose the bar room brawler mentality you've had all pre-season and rediscover your previous high quality posting habits.

Brayshaw leading all comers with 7 tackles to three quarter time. First goal of the last quarter would be huge.

Our biggest weakness over pre-season has been consistency of effort from one quarter to the next. This one is far from in the bank. First goal of the second half would be huge.

I think the thread title should be changed to 'Does Brayshaw play rounds 1 - 22?'

Can't believe how quickly people have jumped off the Viney train. I'm backing him. Top 4 best and fairest and will have a huge game tomorrow.

My head agrees with you. But my heart loves the team as named.

Let's cut to the chase. Did Essendon pay Charter and Alavi to distance themselves from their earlier submissions and not appear in court? It seems to me, they testify, Essendon loses.

Demon draftee Angus Brayshaw looms as round one chance after starring in VFL

And I assume alcohol is compulsory? No one likes a dry draft.

So as a newbie to live drafts is there anything I need to know? Is there a specific page I should be on or is it all pretty obvious once it's draft time?

Roos made mention in his season launch speech that he was at the Casey game on the weekend.

The part I'm struggling with is that we showed some genuinely good signs in the first half of last year. We've picked up 5 players (Lumumba, Garlett, Frost, Newton and vandenBerg) who all appear to have improved our best 22. Hogan also improves as structurally. Some of our emerging players look like they're taking steps (Watts, Salem and Kent) We've had another pre-season to improve our fitness levels and become more accustomed to the Roos philosophy on football. Why then are we sucking so badly? I really hope it's an application issue because that can be excused away by the pre-season factor. To my eye, our last 6 quarters of football have been at about 70% effort. It doesn't matter how good you are if a third of the team are going hard at the contest and running hard both ways, you're going to lose . . . to anyone.