rpfc

You think that carrying the forward line for a game, playing through a corkie and turning the game in the last quarter is a 'minimum requirement' for someone who will 'never be the player we envisaged and hoped for'? Which is it? I agree that he is not the player we hoped 8 years ago he would be - and that means that performances like last week are 'cartwheel worthy' because they are over and above what you and I have accustomed ourselves to expect from this high HFF role player with great skills. He was our second best player on the ground - third in the game to Phil Davis - he may get Brownlow votes, that is well above what I envision as his 'minimum requirement.' He has Dees fans doing cartwheels because he played a great game. Others seem to be unjustly critical and cynical. I supposed that comes with 8 years of disappointment.

Rocked up to training with it last year and was told it looked "sick"...

You should have stuck to the 'not many players at the MFC have had to earn games these last ten years' argument. Not mention Martin at all. And that argument is fundamentally true. We have not had a list capable of keeping players honest. But that is not the fault of Watts, it is the fault of the club. You have to pick 22 every week. But to say that Watts has played what 70-80 'unearned' games is unfair to the bloke and the up and down seasons he has had. He didn't suddenly flick a switch for his solid two months last year, he has played about half a dozen good games every year for the past half decade. Except he doesn't back it up in the subsequent games he earns with those performances. Maybe we should go through the archives and collect all the selection threads and use the subjective judgment of Land to see how many he earned?

That Josh Fraser is a lovely fellow for greeting Nasher there.

Means as much as his demeanour in a press conference...

Should not have bothered going down that rabbit hole. He was gifted games in 09 and 10 and has been inconsistent and survived playing VFL off and on for a few years after that. But he has earned every game for a few years now, and was shown he had to in Round 23 last year.

No he hasn't. He was gifted games early. But he has been 'breaking out' and 'turning the corner' since 2011... We have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to this bloke. And we listen to our mates who support other teams who circle jerk with each other and wax lyrical about the 'sh!t blonde kid at Melbourne', the 'sissy', the 'woman in number 4.' Every year he shows us what he can do and then spasmodically reverts back to inconsistency and underperformance. It is entirely unfair to say his 115 games are largely unearned.

If Frost is coming 'in as a defender' then it is telling you something about how he is moving as a forward. Dawes drops marks because he has no confidence in his hands, Frost 'gets to contests' the same way a defender does and that is an effing problem in our forward line because we have a generational talent down there who needs his teammates to take their opponents away from the space he is using. Hogan needs some help but, more than anything, he needs to be trusted to beat his bloke in the space he is given. Frost doesn't seem to know he is in Hogan's space, and Pedersen doesn't seem to care. I don't see the same level of clogged space when Dawes is playing, drawing a player up the ground or to a flank.

What do you think it means?

...that he drops marks the same as Frost, but that they bounce away toward the opposition more than the ones Frost drops...

More of a link man than Toumpas, better forward play than Howe. He plays a role that we don't have too many competitors for - especially if he continue to find the footy through the middle. 10 touches within 55m of goal and 11 further up the ground. Not many on our list would be comfortable doing that, or be able to do it.

Sometimes stats can be misleading... I agree that Tyosn contributed, but he didn't play near to his standards and was a liability at times. He cannot coast with the youth we have.

I don't care what he gives as a defensive forward - if he continues to flap about in that 50 they way he does - Hogan will kick him out of the team himself. He needs to work on getting out of the way and keeping his man occupied while the actual forwards do their jobs. If he does that, then by all means have him as an offensively useless role player in that forwardline...

I have heard his thumbs are in terrible nick and tape is the only thing allowing to mark a footy.

You have no idea what the salary cap will be next year or 5 years down the track. $600k will not be overs for a player like Prestia.

Aside from Petracca - I don't care. We are no longer in development mode, there will be no gifting of games, and the experience of each team we put out there is an important question. Weideman et al. Can take their time until they knock the door down. I just don't care.

Watts was the only useful forward the entire game, played through a corkie, and changed the game in the last. That is not 'The Minimum Standard' for a role player like Watts. He will play just as well as that in easier wins because he has help in that forward line and delivering into that forward line. If you are asking him to be the best at both of those areas of a game, then you want him to fail. Against GWS the icing was the cake but don't ask that to happen often; we have a cake now - it's just out of the oven but it's there - and it's not fair to the icing.

Some of you have no idea what the cap will be soon... $550k for Prestia?

Hi s demeanor on field needs reigning in, as a captain or coach I would make it my duty to make him realise how infuriating it is to play with someone more interested in a free than the footy. When he has some banter with Schwarta - that is great. He had no right to be called disgraceful, and David deserved a little dig. Hogan doing the digging was a good sign he is becoming more comfortable off the field. Roos letting him (and us) know that he still has to learn the habits of a star player was to combat the hype. 'Second year blues' occur when a young player thinks he doesn't have to work for the game and the game will just come to him. Hopefully, yesterday was a lesson for Jesse in that regard too...

It also happened to be the first time we married quick ball movement with an entry into Hogan that was in space and he was favored by.

He was at his best as a link man and showed some neat skills hitting up forwards. A really excellent debut. If he keeps distributing the footy like that - he will play 22 games.

Good teams will do that to other teams. Unless we think that we should be kicking 5 or 6 goals a qtr against one of the best midfields in the game. Or do we really think that? Other than that, try having a forward line that has a 2nd forward worthy of being called a 2nd forward. Hogan, ____, and Watts are our best 3 tall options down there at the minute.

Yes? Go on...

I am with you there. A better poster than I will go through the archives one day and pick out the 5 threads a year from the last 5 years that have announced Watts' late entry onto the the scene of Good Football. Give me a rest - he has been a contributor of games like that for half a decade now, it is just that it is as regular as his inconsistency. This "I am glad he has pulled his finger out" nonsense is rich coming from a supporter base that has only seen digit-less players. Hopefully, the attention can be shared now among the other 21 players so when Jack has his next shocker we can see the under-performing forest for the inconsistent tree.