rpfc

Yeah, someone better school him on that, lest he become a very good CHF and cannot be turned into a back flanker in the mould of an ineffectual Heath Shaw.

This would be quite a coup but at 27 next year, and considering the way he plays his footy, there might nit be much footy left in him. It would be debateable whether Brown for 3 or 4 years would open our window, my personal opinion is that he doesn't. The players older than 25 next year that will still be around will be: Green, Macca (for 1 more year), Robbo (1), Wheatley, Bruce, possibly White (1), Carroll (contracted - 1), and Whelan (1). We should be looking at a 'Brown' that is younger than 25. Is it Newton? Bate? Dunn? Miller? Well, he might be in the next draft...

I think credit should be given to White, he has had a better year than most of his teammates. I've heard contradictory things about his retirement and with that in mind it is difficult to know what he is going to do. I do know that before the Fremantle game, Jeff was becoming increasingly depressed about his career peetering out after 04, 05, and 06 promised so much. If we get Warnock, Sepncer is retained on the RL, and Jeff goes on for another year we will have: PJ, Jamar, White, Meesen, Spencer, and Warnock. PJ, White, and Meesen as mobile rucks and Jamar, Spencer, and Warnock as pure tap ruckman without use around the ground. With that in mind, Jamar would find it hard to be retained although I believe he is contracted for next year. You can only afford to have one Sandilands type ruck in the team so Warnock and rookie Spencer seems to be the way to go.

Oh, OK then. Didn't know. I'm just glad we've been able to sum up players after 9 games and 6 months of involvement at the club. What a world we live in...

Mitch is a solid unit for 185cm. Cale is 192cm and if he fills out like his eldest brother he should be playing CHF. Ans if he plays on a wing then he should be playing it like Richo is today; not alink man but someone who looks to read the play at either end of the ground, being a kick ahead of the play.

Too young. But I think he is very possibly a chance to fill the position of Neitz on the field. Maybe he is more value with more space to work in but he is a powerful leader (very quick over 20m) and a great mark. His kick is awkward but true.

They play different roles. JMac has moved back to his role of tagger as he was pre 2005. Valenti doesn't look to me to be run with player but who knows at this stage... It should be noted in the last half that whenever Valenti was in the middle for the bounce he was heavily guarded. So he is already highly regarded at stoppages.

Essendon will have to make this decision not us. They are looking worse by the week and we are not. I go for Nat personally, for a myriad of reasons - some not football related. But, as we can see with our future CHF Morton - you have a top 5 pick, you have a good player.

Let's be realistic here. Stevens didn't want to come to us. Judd.... Kerr is at the mercy of who finishes down the bottom to some extent but what will we have? We should not give our top 3 pick for Kerr. This could be debateable but our midfield is our strongest area; we need players who can hold down a KP or play ruck. And the best place to get your hands on a ruckman or KPP will be the draft. Therefore, we have possibly two first round picks to give and I don't think they would take it. BUT we may trade for picks and that might put us in the hunt but we would have to trade Green and Bruce to get our hands on enough credits to get Kerr. And many are not too keen on letting either, let alone both go.

We have a youth policy in full swing, so I am relatively happy to see Yze and Holland back in the reckoning if they earn a place with their form. 17 players on Sunday were 24 or younger. That says a lot.

Pavlich played wing, so did Gehrig. We need to develop a KP forward to take over from Neitz/Robertson. Newton is injured - physically and possibly mentally, so the fact that we drafted at Pick 4 a 192cm gun with great awareness, poise and skill means that I want to see him play a KP. I am willing to wait but when he is 21 or 22 or want to see a more solid body and a move to a KP.

Whoops, 71 from 220. Stats from MFC site. Which is champion data I believe...

Bell is doing fine under enormous pressure. What a waste if Morton becomes a HBF, 192cm with a long accurate kick and a brother at Richmond who has filled out nicely. We should be developing (and no remarks about our history of development, we now have two development coaches) him to play a KP. CHF.

That might be a reference to the fact that many agents plan to use the GC17 as a way of maximising contracts for the free agents in two years time. Otherwise, yeah he's from Tassie.

Bruce had his best game of the year for mine on Sunday, and it coincided with 26 touches and 10 contested possessions. But how has he gone compared to others this year in that area? Comparable wingers/midfielders in bold. McLean 71 contested possessions out of 220 disposals (32.3%) Jones 54 of 173 (31.2%) Green 51 of 206 (24.7%) Bruce 51 of 201 (25.3%) Macca 51 of 166 (30.7%) White 50 of 161 Davey 45 of 137 (32.8%) Robertson 36 of 113 Jamar 35 of 46 Bell 32 of 143 Wonna 32 of 96 Miller 31 of 107 Batram 31 of 108 (28.7%) Moloney 29 of 135 (21.5%) Morton 29 of 139 (20.9%) Bruce has maintained his percentage contested possessions since earlier in the season but the real fall is from McLean who was hovering in the high thirties and now is down to 32%, same with Jones who was close to 40%. Big suprise with Davey (included because he spends more and more time on the wing) getting the highest contested possessions percentage and Moloney getting near 1 in 5 possessions being contested. AFL comparison: Judd - 48%, Foley - 41%, Tuck - 39%, Joel Selwood - 37%, and Ablett - 36.5%.

He was servicable but probably vulnerable at selection. 22 touches and 12 tackles in 2 games is a very good start for a little bloke. Best part was when he ran 50m chasing after 2 Hawks on the back flank, they fumbled, he ran over the footy and cleaned up a bloke and we took it down the other end and kicked a major.

Hard not to after you went on that crazy, multi post diatribe about Bailey a couple of weeks ago...

Cheney is, and McNamara is one of the youngest to be drafted; he turned 18 a month ago.

He'd be around 26 or 27. No value going forward, better off getting games into youngsters that are going to be around for a tilt. Warnock is 24 and lucky that Rivers is injured as he is finally showing something.

Garland is simply an improving 20yr old KP back. We are hoping the players remain motivated. 120 minutes is a lot longer than we have previously shown. A huge mistake would be to miss the shine amidst the gloom. We are going to have an awful season but positives there will be and Sunday was choc full of them. Are we hoping for more, of course we are, does not mean we don't see the problems we face.

The ones that play like millionaires are the ones that take the game on and fail. The great players are the ones that take the game on and succeed. The rest are too scared to fail so they do nothing, and when the game is over they [censored] and moan about the ones that tried and failed.

The acid will be on the saints though, both teams should be pretty hard at it. This isn't a linear thought but bear with me... I thought we were better off losing on Sunday because a win allows the players to fall back into complacency whereas they are going to have to back up their performance to gain the respect they would have received had we won. Sounds a little pathetic but we have had a group in previous years that have been too easily pleased with achievements that you couldn't really call achievements: making the finals (not winning one except for 2006), being top or in the top 4 deep in the season (2004, 2005 & 2006), and now I hope that losing gallantly is not another case... In other words: I would have two performances like that without a win than a win and a blowout next week.

Although we should point out that playing with such a young team means that we are going to have some pitiful blowouts. Need some patience.

He plays with a boldness that's refreshing considering the short kicking, hit a target style of a few clubs (looking in your direction Sydney and St.Kilda). Similar to White from Richmond who is another youngster finding his way.

Good point about the draw but I'm conflicted about where we want to finish, with reference to to the draft... But as I have said before, as long as we institute a youth policy (and boy have we!) then if we win games then we win games. Another match with 17 players 24 and under, so please don't kick up a stink if that number comes down to 16 or 15; it's still a significant number. This was our backline for a significant amount of time: Garland, Warnock, Bell, Frawley, Buckley, and Batram. That is a backline with an average age of 21 and an average of 21 games played. That is astounding, really.