rpfc

Tyson and Viney are shouldering a lot of our midfield load and I do not expect them to keep that up - if they do then they are far more advanced that what I thought and what history tells us about 20 year old mids. Port and the WB didn't have two kids doing so much. As for our depth - they are not proven at AFL level and if we lose a structurally important player (just as we did at the start of the season) you cannot replace them - even with 'good depth.' The competition is healthy but the standard of our bottom 6 and the fringe players isn't exactly in the upper echelon... We will require luck with personnel and superhuman efforts from Tyson and Viney if we are to have the kind of season you envisage above.

You have your views, I have mine - we have both expressed them and people can decide whether they see my delineation of the facts as correct or yours - or whether they care. You can let it go now.

We lost two of those with 'our current team' against GC and WB. The only game in which we were severely undermanned was against St Kilda when we didn't have a forward line. The others we played a good half, or a good '3 qtr performance,' strangled the game to death, or were blown away - and you can't say we 'should' have won them or even that we 'would' have beaten them with a few personnel changes. We have shaky depth, and our best 5 mids include two 20 year olds - they are going to slow down. It is optimism in the extreme to think that we can keep this up for another 14 rounds. We are going to fall away badly and I won't say who it will be against but it may be in the games you have earmarked as games we 'should win.' And Coll, Kangaroos, and the Dogs are better than us. How we will beat NM in the last round as they gear up for September I don't know. You may not rate them, but they are better than us and they have a history of beating us. My only expectation is they go into every game with a belief they can win and show the kind of pressure and toughness they have shown since the Carlton game (bar a few quarters here and there).

You say that like it is fact - is it? First, second or third hand knowledge? I feel a strange sense of de ja vu but I see no reason to believe he is gone. Why are so many so quick to this judgement? We are a different club. I feel like we are 9 rounds old.

I'm glad we are getting to the point where the occasional clangers from Grimes, McDonald, and Terlich are what we are whinging about; that means we are progressing... But if I am giving patience to the awful way we deliver to Dawes from some of our best players then I am giving the same patience to the back 6 - especially when they are doing such an immense job defensively.

He has hardly been 'plug in and play.'

He's a weapon. Him staying fit gives Jamar a massive chop out and lengthen's his career IMO. The loss of Clark was brutal but Gawn being able to help in the ruck and be such a massive target mitigates the loss quite a bit.

McDonald is getting way too many kicks... Frawley back. What an inclusion down there in the next few weeks!

Swap of Pick in the 70s and in the 50s IIRC. We had to give the pick in the 50s to get the deal done... Seems a good swap now for us - I used to think it was a nothing trade.

He is playing the long game with that one... McLean for Pick 11, Gysberts at 11, Gysberts for Pedersen...

Classic case of moving the goalposts master. All we talk about is that he plays his role and he did that the entire game and threw himself into things when he needed to. The last quarter was a testament to his workrate that he got to contests that his opponent couldn't after spending the first 3 quarters right on his hammer. The first three quarters was 'the expectation' of all players under Roos' Melbourne - the last quarter was the deliverance on his talent.

Yeah, they didn't set up properly at all and those two made them pay with a BIG play.

Yes. But the value was what Gawn brings to the ruck in the forward line and when Jamar is tanked. His tap to the empty space in front of Vince was arrogant and excellent. 'I'm pumping this over my shoulder because I reckon I can see something, and you guys haven't set up properly.' Loved it. Edit: I may have used some dramatic licence but that tap was Gawn and Vince knowing the Tigers had no idea what they were doing.

Still waiting to be told your redeeming qualities...

He has played better games than that. We just believe the BS said by people who don't watch him as closely as we do and after a quiet month he is back to being a 'hack' or a 'spud' again. It's largely up to him to string some games together but I will bring it back home here with one of much loved comparisons - Lynden Dunn. Dunn was nowhere at Watts' age, absolutely nowhere. 2013 and this year he has finally become a solid pro capable of playing a role for the team. He is 27. With Watts well ahead of where Dunn was at the same age, you are absolutely correct that he will continue to get better as he matures. Hopefully, we will mature with him.

Not bad for a Pick 26...

Nah, split personality...

Fact - Everyone in the football world knew we taking him - we even signed him to a laughable 5 year contract (well done Schwabby) in 2010: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/jack-viney-commits-to-demons/story-e6frf9jf-1225959360745 GWS and GC could have made us pay with Pick 3 - they didn't. Why didn't they? Because we wouldn't have met their bid with Pick 3? We were always going to take the 'brick with eyes' especially with another pick right behind 3. So why didn't they bid? They would lose nothing. There is no risk if you know a team will take a player. GWS wanted 1, 2, and 3. GC wanted in on the mini-draft. GWS decide who gets what pick - so GC better behave themselves if they want Martin. GC did and we all get what we want. Your theory rests on The Greater Football World believing we wouldn't take Viney at 3 and, to me, that is absurd; he was touted to be a demon for years, we brought him down to break his jaw at Casey in 2012, and we even had a 'contract' with him for some stupid reason from 2010 to 2015.

In Basketball, that kind of drop step is colloquially referred to as "breaking your opponent's ankles"... And I hate to say it - but Astbury hurt himself. Viney is injuring blokes by just being in the vicinity...

Well put. I am proud and content in the fact that I know we will turn up every week and, at the very least, make it hard for the other side and bring some toughness and a little bit of arrogance. This started after the Sydney where we frustrated so many of their players - it was on their faces. That's the start - you frustrate them, then you worry them, and then you beat them.

Yes, and I am still wary... I bet he is a sleestak!

What the hell is going on with this kid?

I think the reason behind his better form this year is because he is decidedly not 'the man' and he even said it in interviews after the game that he was just told he is 'another player who has to play a role' and that is what you saw today.

I don't think Howe is going to spend much time forward this year - I think Roos is trying to make something of him. I am not convinced he can be anything other than a HFF with one very good trick, but we will see...

Excuse me, but you were not calling my theory 'plausible' at all, and now you equate what I say with what you say and tacitly call me ignorant and arrogant for believing me 'plausible' scenario? If they are 'equally as plausible' you just called yourself ignorant and arrogant, Billy.