picket fence

Gary Lyon certainly rates Jimmy Toumpas, suggesting in todays Age " For Jimmy Toumpas to continue to develop and showcase his skills under pressure" Yep, well lets hope so! I will be watching for signs of this.

My Dad took me and we were right on the Fence! Seems appropriate.

Liked Garry Lyon as reasonably good footballer, just wish he would now not offer comments relating to demon matters and perhaps save his best work for the comedy segments which footy show faithful seem to enjoy. Interested in what others think?

And unlike Toumpas at least he has once "Torn it up"

Ok Let's hope he can cut the mustard tomorrow then Eh?

I can count hundreds of footballers both played with and watched who were "The best trainers in pre season" "Have not missed a session" "Worked his guts out" Etc Yadda yadda and guess what, when the real stuff starts they can't get the footy!! On the other side I have seen the worst trainers in footy teams" Tear it up in games" Your comment displays a very simplistic view of theory to practice.

I would have Blease in the side rather than Toumpas at this stage.

I beg your pardon? I have replaced two questionable outside types with some who can get the footy and do something with it. Your comment "You need to get the ball before these are really effective" can be ably attributed to Toumpas and Bynes I would have thought! To master Demon give me rare brilliant burst runs to a bloke who has to this stage shown none of that! anyday

Not a bad team save for two possibly three inclusions. How Shannon Bynes gets a game with his modest stats and pre season form staggers me! Toumpas must consider himself extremely lucky to have got a gig, and Pederson gets a gig only by virtue of lack of other tall options. I would have had Blease for Toumpas ( easily I cannot how a bloke who can kick brilliant goals in a game and has electrifying pace cannot get a gig) Jetta for Byrnes and Clisby for Pederson. My side therefore would look like this B TERLICH FRAWLEY GRIMES HB DUNNE MC DONALD CLISBY C JETTA MICHIE TYSON HF BAIL FITZPATRICK BLEASE F HOWE WATTS KENNEDY- HARRIS R SPENCER JONES VINCE inter CROSS, GEORGIO, TRENGOVE SUB M JONES plenty of flexibility and with a bit of X Factor. Pity I'm not a selector as I reckon this team beats the actual team hands down.

Thanks Mono understand and agree with your second paragraph. Fence

I tend to agree but his ball drop leaves quite a bit of margin of error. Just check it out he seems to not guide the ball down with his right hand but rather drop from a greater height therefore increasing error.

Riley and Salem.

Yeah well they get it far more times than Fitzy so therefore conversion rates will be better! I would have thought that obvious! I like Fitzy really do, but the natural footballing instincts look a little more, ah, Forced!? He is Athletic in some ways but you wouldn't call him a Natural footballer.

And to finish of with a "cool" goal was testimony to the exquisite skills which never were developed by Demon coaches, much to our dismay!

Mods, it appears that I posted this under forum help. Please move to proper Forum location as I cannot seem to be able to do this! Thanks PF

Love Fitzys endeavour but he is not a reliable kick for goal. To me that is a key ingredient for any forward.

Has for years been very poor. Since the days of recruiting John Tillbrook we perennially have not got it right!. How can we have got so many high draft picks so wrong and yet Hawthorn produce success with mid twenty or lower draft picks which have tremendous immediate success?

Sorry Mono, Juice has all of these beaten with his record! Nick Smith? I remember watching him in a final, I felt sorry that he was thrown to the wolves as we had no one else at the time!

Yep I'll call it. We made the wrong call! Given our needs then and now!

Cmon posters gotta have a little bit of fun here ya know. I thought entertainment was the key!??

Incorrect, Juice was a regular in the senior side when he did an ACL a few weeks out of finals which lingered into last season as well! Lets all hope a fit raring to go "Juice" Plunders opponents at Norwood this year which will set the tone for a fairytale renaissance back at AFL level in 2015! Lets here it for the mighty Michael "Juice" Newton, THE THINKING MANS FAN FAVOURITE!!!!

And just to prove my point, Juice kicked two goals and was looking sensational then you know what happened!? He was moved into the ruck to cover yet another inadequacy! If only he had played out the game at Full Forward Alas what might have been!

I ALWAYS PUT FULL VALUE ON MY EXCLAMATIONS!!!!!!!!!!

If you go over to AFL stats and look at Newtons Top 10 I think the term "Dud" will be quickly dispelled! Pity I cannot upload otherwise I would do so! Any other poster out there with the required know how If you wouldn't mind doing this so that in the interest of fairness the revelation of stats might just surprise some on this forum!

Agree with all of this Nathan, you cannot have too many quality in and under mids! Never! What our recruiting dept failed to see I believe was that 1 You must get the infield clearance first 2 Outside run becomes very redundant if you don't! What my main beef about Toumpas is he is neither quick or damaging enough, nor does he show much appetite for the ball via some two way gut running! prerequisites for outsider mids. Had we went for Wines then we may not have gone for the mids we did this preseason and if that was the case we could have picked up another KPF OR something else. FWIW I would rather develop Jack Watts or Christian Salem as the outside mids.