rpfc

Well said. Someone has finally tried to rid him of his false bravado and brain fades. Wonder who that was... Good role player for the next few years. Moving on...

Streets ahead. If he can play next week and get his match fitness up he is going to more important in the middle than Watts and Michie.

He isn't match fit - but he is already an established pure midfielder with instincts for the footy in close - he is ahead of Watts and Michie.

Ok, it's possession footy. The idea is if you can move it forward quickly, you do it - that is option 1, if you can move it forward short and slowly - that is option 2, and the third (and last) option is you MUST retain the footy either through lateral or backwards handballs or kicks. The problem I have seen is that there are some players so worried about not carrying out Option 3 that they don't look for the first two options when they get the footy, hence we overpossess the footy. A players natural instinct is to go forward but it will take them a while to get the balance right. It will infuriate the members wing against WCE in Rd 2 but so be it. It's modern footy and a solid grounding for our young team in the importance of skills and running hard to position.

He had 29 touches against the Tigers in 64% game time, and he had 13 touches in 73% game time. It is not a huge stretch to say he was down on what he can do. I saw him on a fwd flank a great deal so I think he was playing a role up there.

I was wrong; I just had a look back at his numbers and while they do not tell the full story by any means I believe that my judgement of Trengove's career so far has been coloured by his struggles in the last two years. Trengove is so very capable of being a hard running accumulator of possessions in the mould of Lenny Hayes - I hope he gets there. As for my point about Jones - he is still in the best 21+1 at this stage. Mids: Jones, Vince, Cross, Tyson, Trengove, and Viney* are a class above. Watts, Michie, McKenzie, Jones, Evans, Bail and Toumpas are fighting for the final 4 spots in the rotation. Watts and Michie look to be solid chances for numbers 7 and 8. It is quite something to realise that the 2nd best midfielder in 2013 is approx. the 8th or 9th best mid option coming into Rd 1 2014. It's taken the recruitment of 2 solid pros, and 2 promising kids from other clubs, the movement of a promising kid to a wing, the return to fitness from a young leader, and the continued progression of a 'brick with eyes.' *Fitness permitting

Trengove was certainly behind Jones after their respective 2013 seasons. I am waiting for Trengove to demand he be talked about with Nathan Jones, Vince, and Cross in the same way Viney established himself last year and Tyson looks set to do this year.

I think most are pleased - if they know what they are looking at - but people tend to readjust their expectations very quickly once something they want has been achieved. As we have a discernible gameplan that the players have bought into, posters have moved to running lines through players thy think can't play this style or dwelling on why certain players are struggling in their first two games in the system.

As I said, perhaps I am being tough on Trengove. Higher expectations might have crept in to that analysis. The point is that whether Matt Jones is 6th or 7th in line right now is irrelevant, he is in the mix for the midfield and if Watts and Toumpas want to be thought of ahead of him - they should string some games together the way Matt Jones did last year.

None of those has had a season of AFL footy as promising as Jones' 2013. They may all go past him this year but they have done nothing yet have they? I am probably being tough on Trengove. But sometimes he finds it hard to find the footy. He played a flank on Friday...

Matt Jones was our second best mid last year (3rd on talent to Viney) he is already down to 6th behind Jones, Vince, Cross, Tyson, and Viney without a game played. But you need to have 10 players to run through the middle at least, Matt Jones will have his chance.

Well, how about we stop trying to define each other's characteristics and stick to the argument? I think it is important when you are a journalist to get our facts right. Especially the substantive ones that change the context of your story. If you don't think that the article I linked contains obvious contradictions in the first few lines then I think you are willfully trying to ignore facts to suit your argument. That's ironic, because that is what Wilson does... What does it matter anyway? Journalism is a wasteland now so why expect any better? If people have issues with Wilson or Stevens or Barrett - just let them. We are howling at the moon anyway, nothing will change.

I think you are picking on a few mistakes he makes, he is always helping his fellow defenders. Always willing to provide an option and run to position. He is strong over the ball and in the air. He has courage.A few on here are using last night to run through names and strike them off - I am sorry to tell you but Clisby, Terlich, Toumpas, Byrnes, Jones and the other fringe players are not the only ones making some mind numbing howlers. Why not rewatch the game and write down where they came from? Everyone in the team was giving lazy handballs and ambitious 'switches' - if I am giving Watts time to get his head around this gameplan, I am also willing to give Matt Jones time. Remember we have to play 22 players every week, not the 8 that are reliable decision makers...

He and his friends strangled our run with terrible handballs - either the wrong handball, or simply a poorly directed one.

That 5 minutes of nonsense in the third cost us the game, which is quite something considering Geelong cut us up often and we over possess the footy. The game plan is going to test the players - Matt Jones tonight was case in point - he struggled to make good decisions and when rushed was making horrendous, even comical, decisions with the ball. Vince, Cross, Tyson, and Nathan Jones will get 100 touches a game and will make us a different team - it is just what the other 6 or 7 members of the midfield do with their 100 touches that will determine how close we get to teams. Hogan will be fine for Rd 1, he looked at ease out there. Watts looks lazy from time to time but runs hard to position. The handball happiness got out of hand against a good team. Everyone has to be patient with this possession footy - it won't happen overnight...

Happy to have a new thread for Watts as well (I started a new Trengove thread recently). It really does feel like a new beginning for the players from what they have said. He just needs to work hard and keep running and it will come, he will rely on others to get him the ball that isn't necessarily a bad thing (especially now that we have some help for the Jones' to actually get the ball). He can be a damaging outside midfielder.

Do you have Aspergers, or something similar? I don't want to offend, but you have casually called me a pedant for taking what is written in the first two sentences as factual. I take exception to that. I can see the bigger picture, and details are what makes up the bigger picture, the fact that she got some intrinsic details wrong set up a conspiratorial bigger picture that wasn't true and wasn't fair to the club or the individuals involved. You say it is of no substance but what if you were accused of ordering a secret meeting that you code named explicitly to discuss tanking. That misrepresentation directly affects how you are seen in this story. And it directly affected how we as a club were seen. If you change the context, it affects the story. If you get your facts wrong, you are going to get criticised.

Well, I don't know what the 'many' don't like about her but my objections to her reporting were the misrepresentations that were made in her reporting; the 'vault' that was the code name of the meeting specifically called to discuss tanking the season in which threats were made to staff. The above is the beginning of her article with the sentences in italics added in the online version after her 'facts' were found wanting. Probably due to her ego, the previous two lines - those bolded - remained. These lines directly contradict each other (1. The codenamed Vault meeting that wasn't codenamed, and 2. The 'secret meeting' that was a match committee meeting) and underline why I was so 'offended' by her reporting. She made us look diabolically conspiratorial not hamfisted and tactless, which would be the better descriptor. The ideal is to 'write when you get it right,' not re-write when you get caught.

lol You are always abusing posters.

M_9 is the poster who was so spiteful toward Clark that he said 'Clark won't bother attending the Richmond game' and that it will be a measure of his devotion. Well, Mitch Clark is not the one found lacking.

He's done. He should get his life right and play footy for fun and try to keep his life on track after all these years. AFL isn't for some people, no-one needs it to get their life back on track.

This is what happens when a few people expose their character.

I doubt Scully will ever see himself in the future as a Demon. I am talking about those that wish to be embraced as a Demon - they should be embraced.

Absolutely. All players should be welcomed back. We are a club after all and anyone that spends any time here is trying to do their best and should be afforded the respect that we would all expect at local clubs we have played/worked/volunteered in.

Or the beginning was last year in the NAB Cup... Yeahnah?