Bring-Back-Powell

This would have to go down as one of the biggest blunders in the history of the AFL. On again Off again On again Off again On again I'll be rapt if comes through, purely as I pay my $60 a month for Foxtel, and without footy it ain't worth it. I won't hold my breath. I reckon the ideal split should be 5/3 in favour of FTA. Just like 2002-2006. 4/4 is a little unfair on non-subscribers. Probable Breakup - Round 1 Friday Night Melb V St.k - Channel 7 8:30 Saturday Kangaroos V Collingwood - Channel 10 3:40 delayed Fremantle V Port Adelaide- Fox 4:10 Live Sat Night Sydney V West Coast - Channel 10 Live 7:10 Brisbane V Hawthorn - Fox Live 8:10 (daylight savings special time) Sunday Adelaide V Essendon - Channel 7 1:10 Bulldogs V Geelong - Fox 2:10 Carlton V Richmond - Fox 5:10

Geelong would have to be that team as they've tasted finals in 2004 and 2005 and therefore are the most qualified out of that group. Richmond's so called 'super foward line' may be a wild smokey for top 4. Port Adelaide if their kids keep developing at a rate of knots and they make AAMI their fortress. Collingwood purely based on their soft draw. But remember they play all 4 interstate games by round 12 and without Didak and Holland, their season could be over by the halfway mark. The rest will play teams into form.

The 16 according to the TAB (To make the 8) West Coast 1.07 Adelaide 1.12 Sydney 1.20 St.Kilda 1.25 Fremantle 1.33 Western Bulldogs 1.33 Geelong 1.70 Melbourne 1.75 (pretty juicy odds!!) ----------------------- Collingwood 1.85 Port Adelaide 2.10 Richmond 2.60 Hawthorn 2.65 Essendon 2.65 Brisbane 3.50 Kangaroos 6.00 Carlton 6.00

Or Pagan. Perhaps he might steer them to a rare win

Robbo - He and his band performed a few numbers at my cousins wedding at the Arts Centre in early 06. Top bloke. Also bumped into Wheatley and Whelan at a 21st some years back, just before the season started. I must have given them bad luck as we ended up 14th. Both were very friendly.

What a waste of a priority draft pick if its come to the point where we have to compare these 2 blokes. I expect.....make that hope Sylvia develops into a top 6 or 8 MFC player in the next year or 2. Here's a look at the top 10 for the 2003 draft. Red means I think Sylvia is behind the player todate Green means Sylvia is ahead of the player todate Adam Cooney 63 games Andrew Walker 56 games Colin Sylvia 36 games Farren Ray 42 games Brock McLean 47 games Kepler Bradley 45 games Kane Tenace 30 games Raph Clarke 22 games David Trotter 8?? Ryley Dunn 4 games

How did you come up with that conclusion I know Yze kicked 2 out on the fulls, turned over the ball twice and didn't go in hard enough in the Freo final, while playing in the backline.....but still. Nar seriously the OOZE belongs in the foward line. This is what happened when Yze played soley as a forward. Round 4 - Sydney - 3 goals Round 5 - Kangaroos - 4 goals Round 11 - Collingwood - 4 goals Round 17 - Bulldogs - 5 goals Round 20 - Geelong - 3 Goals ND - Play him in the forward pocket!!!

Rhino, just out of interest, what changes are you hoping for (ins and outs) from the Freo Semi Final to our next final series (touch-wood we make it)

I suppose I'm a bit envious of Freo (Tarrant and Soloman), St.Kilda (Clarke, Gardiner, Birss) and Western Bulldogs (Akermanis, McDougall) who all traded with aggression in their pusuit for a 07 or 08 GF, while Melbourne who are also an established top 8 team folded at the trade table. I'm not saying we've done the wrong thing. The questions will more or less be answered at the end of the year. And thanks Hannabal for bring up CAC's views!

Ahhh...the old debate resurfaces. I'm not advocating trading for trade's sake (ie- Watt 4 Wheatley) but we could've gone for some bargains (ie Michael Gardiner) or saved a pick for the Pre-Season draft and punted on a Skipworth who played decent footy with the Crows. Or perhaps even traded Bell for a lucrative player from Adelaide. Remember Bell is still speculation at this stage on whether he will become good...and Adelaide were keen on Bell so we would've held some bargaining power on that one. The Dogs struck a sneaky trade for Akermanis - round 2 draft pick!!!! What a bargain I thought the Dees could've done exactly the same as 2005 and trade for a Pickett like impact player for a reasonably cheap price (2nd round draft pick again plus a couple of alterations in later rounds). Perhaps we could've made a serious play for Jason Johnson. He would've been handy...believe me! Time will tell whether we should've traded. We're playing for premierships in 07 and 08. Is our current list good enough? At this point of time we're going into battle with the same brigade. (Although Whelan and Jamer missed the Semi final.)

Great thread to bookmark for the end of year. ALthough I always like to do my pre-season ladder prediction after the NAB Cup. West Coast (Can't go pass them) Fremantle (Looked super impressive in the 2nd half of 2006) Adelaide (The oldies and AAMI Stadium will see them through) Sydney (Consistent as usual) Western Bulldogs (I'm believing the hype) Melbourne (Unfortunetly am expecting the usual late season fade out - tough rd 15-19 patch. No trading may hurt.) St.Kilda (Very tempting to put them higher - very good list. But new coach may see some teething problems) Geelong) (Will bounce back slightly to sneak into the finals) --------------------- Port Adelaide (Like the look of the new kids. Should recapture their AAMI stadium form Richmond (Be there-abouts but must overcome their inability to beat top sides) Collingwood (Did play some awesome football in 06. Expect a late-season revival. No interstate trips after rd 12.) Essendon (I'm expecting a mini revival with the inclusions of Llyod and Mal Michael. Too proud a club to remain in the bottom 4.) Hawthorn (Not sold on this club yet. Still too many young kids to carry the load. Should dominate in Tassie though.) Brisbane (Will win plenty at the GABBA but be useless away. Where has all the experience gone??) Carlton (Will finally get off the bottom. May win 6-8 games. The kids from 03-04-05-06 look the goods) Kangaroos (Have the weakest starting 22 and I think its time for a change of head coach at the end of 07. Must win at Carrara.

Will be closely looking at Buckley in the NAB Cup. Has a touch of class, can kick your 2 goals a game and does appear to have 'all the time in the world' when in possession. One for the future IMO.

The Willy game would finish at about 4:30-40. As long as you could get a train straight away (is Williamstown station near the ground??), you'd probably miss about 15 minutes of the big game!

If the MFC were of this view, they would've done a Nicho and more or less forced Bizzell to retire. I'm tipping they still see life in the Biz. They'll unleash him for the NAB Cup (fitness permitting) to see if he's worthy of a rd 1 spot

A combination of kids and veterans. But after watching the Freo final, perhaps we are further away than what we'd like. Its just that I nearly spat my coffee out when Old mentioned that Robbo, Yze and Davey are fighting for 2/3 spots for our best 22. Ofcourse he may be correct, but it just seems like a very left-field suggestion at this stage. Perhaps this is the kick in the pants that all 3 players need!

I know the exact game you're talking about. Kangaroos rd 20 when Davey kicked 4 goals against a rabble. But what do we do? Delist them because they play well in the regular season but fail in the finals? Remember you have to qualify to make the finals first.

I'm on the Yze bandwagon!!! He must be in the 22. Ludicrious to suggest otherwise. Imagine if Yze isn't in the team for the St.Kilda game and we lose 7.14 to 13.10 with a severe lack of class and style as well as no foward line synergy. Meanwhile Yze plays in Sandringham's final practice match the next day and kicks 5 or 6 goals, jags 30 possessions and we wonder what the hell a 258 game stalwart is doing in a crappy suburban ground. Also Robbo, Yze and Davey should not be fighting one another for spots in our best 22. Their our guns, not our depth! Quality should not be languishing in front of 113 people at an 'out-of-the-way' beach-side park. The kids won't win us a flag. You saw Bate and Jones were hopelessly overawed against Freo. People criticise Davey for poor final performances and which is certainly warranted (Hell he hit the post from the goal sqaure against Geelong on 05 !!!) But a season is made up of 22 games plus 3 or 4 showcase games. You have to play 22 games to qualify. His home and away performances in all 3 years have been superb...absolutley superb!!! And Yze must be in the 22.

Where's Yze?? Perhaps if Daniher got him of defence (ie - Freo final) then maybe he'll be more the skilfull and classy player we loved in the early 2000's!!! He must be in the starting 22. Not negotiable. If he has a soft 6 weeks, then drop him.

Can I make that request for you to put up your 22?? I'm pretty sure Ward will be in the team come round 1 - provided he has a servicable NAB Cup. Last year he got a round 1 gig with just 1 pre-season game under his belt. Ward, Bizzel, Wheatley and Brown will be fighting for the 1 (veteran) spot in our halfback line for the season opener I would think.

No surprises there

Have a look at some of the replays of last years games, particularly the second Sydney game where CJ got 5 possessions in a game where we were injury depleted and needed our depth to step up. The guy just doesn't excite me, and I feel expectations around here grossly exceed what he's produced on the field todate. I don't think he has what it takes to become an AFL player. I hope I'm wrong.... However it wouldn't surprise me if this is Chris Johnson's last year for the red & blue. Bate, Jones, Dunn, Bartram, McLean, Bell and Sylvia appear far more likely candidates for the future.

Yze must be in. Miller must be in Perhaps Dunn misses out. Perhaps Bell/Ward/Sylvia (hurts me to say it) misses out. Very hard to do a 22. Some unlucky players I don't want to see Chris Johnson anywhere near that best 22.

That bloke came over from SA with the biggest reputation (off memory) but failed at all 3 clubs - Kangaroos, Melbourne and Collingwood. Played for the Dees in our 2 worst years of recent memory - 1996 & 97. (or was it just 97?) Pyman was just another poor recruit of the mid-late 90's in the mould of Nick Pesch, Nick Carter, Darren O'Brien (who at least tried) and some Williams bloke from Adelaide who kicked about 18 goals in 1 game for Noble Park last year.

I'd be stoked too if I didn't have to pay $60 per month, while getting 8 games for free. Good luck to you! It's called extreme bitterness that I along with thousands of Pay TV subscribing footy fans are going through. I don't trust channel 7 here. I just don't believe they'll put in the dedication that Fox Footy put into the game. Ie- shafting games to the middle of the night in preference to a Rugby game, V8 supercars or a re-run of the 'Sound of Music' or some crap like that on a Saturday night. For example can we be 100% totally assured that Freo V Melbourne in rd 21 will be shown live on channel 7 on the Saturday afternoon? I know Fox Footy would've shown it!

Here's an amazing concept to fathom....perhaps Judd will play out his career at West Coast. I don't know why every Victorian and his dog are obsessed with the thought of Christopher returning to Victoria. I also can't work out why Neitz hasn't been reinstated yet for 2007. I thought it was automatically assumed. Would he not want the job for next year? He did a superb job in 06 IMO.