Redleg

Kossie has enormous upside, especially when he fully adjusts to the AFL tempo of games. IMO Chandler has some upside and we will see this year how he goes if given chances. Spargo I am more concerned about. He is small like the others but to me just doesn't seem to be improving. Not quick, not tall, not a great mark, not a long kick, drifts in and out of games and aside from a few games has been underwhelming. I think this is his year to grab a spot or maybe struggle to stay on our list. As I have said before, barring injury Jones will get to 300, but we might see a retirement soon after that. While still talented, he has slowed down both in foot speed and decision making and turnovers are just too costly in the modern game. However, I would still play him ahead of Spargo, so that speaks volumes of where I see Spargo at. I think BTW we are seeing the last of Jetta, who has become very slow and I wouldn't be surprised to see him retire mid season or play out the year at Casey helping the younger players on the list. We need BB and Weid back and firing ASAP.

Now I know why BB came to us. " "Ben's been super since he came into our club," Goodwin said. "He trained really hard, got himself felt, was executing some things within our training that was really exciting. "

Now I am worried about a possible latest Bizarre injury to a MFC player, being bitten by a stick at training.

2 ACL's might be the reason he was overlooked.

Of course. If you have Max Gawn rucking for you, then you can beat Bontempelli, MacRae, Libba, Hunter, Dunkley, Smith etc, even if you are Sparrow, playing in your first few games, Jordon, who has not played one senior game, ANB, who is not a mid or sure ball handler, or AVB, playing your first game in ages. They were our mids at many of the stoppages today.

I can play a bit of tennis but will never win a game against any of the top 100 players in the world. Why is that I wonder?

Yes. An undermanned side, with nearly its whole midfield not playing, in addition to missing its two key forwards and best distributor of the ball, will never beat a near full strength Dogs side, which has one of the best midfields in the AFL.

With Tom our only key forward, why is he never up there leading out to the ball carrier? Fritsch is one out against 3 every time.

Not my favourite Demon, but played a great first half and making me eat my words.

Hard to do well when your whole first choice midfield isn’t playing to give you first use of the footy.

With no midfield. We are lucky they haven’t scored with their opportunities. On the other hand we have done fairly well with limited ones.

Win lose whatever today, just please no injuries.

Was speaking to Whispering Jack the last few weeks and he was suggesting we look at Kaine Baldwin a very good player before 2 ACL's curtailed him. I then looked him up and got quite excited and was quietly hoping we would take him with one of our free Rookie spots. He has just been listed by Essendon, which has several new key position players taken and traded recently. We will see, but I fear he will be a better prospect than Daw and Declase or Farmer and Smith.

Minimising turnovers alone will win us more games and as a result make us a better side.

I go back to when Saad left GC and I pushed hard to get him and we were uninterested. While not a perfect defender, his run off the back flank, especially with the new manning the Mark rule, makes him a very valuable player in setting up scoring opportunities.

You are not alone.

You missed my point, which was that the blokes we might move on, are all in their last contracted year, meaning no need to pay out their contracts. In other words it could be a salary cap disaster, if the blokes you didn’t want, are all on longer contracts. It wasn’t the number of players we might turn over, but rather that nearly all of them will be uncontracted at the end of the year.

FWIW, I agree with you that those 3 are the only MUST keeps on the 21 column. Of the rookies JJ will be uplifted and possibly Chandler and Bradtke should be kept. You could have 8-10 changes from those 2 lists ending this year, which to me demonstrates great list management, with most players you want to retain still contracted beyond this year.

You could say that about any delisted or unwanted player who plays well at his new club. Just for an old example and a favourite of mine, Brett Lovett with his 235 games for us, showed the Hawks couldn't develop players, correct? BTW I saw the second of Oscar's goals and it was a soft chest mark against a small opponent. Hardly makes him Lockett. Good luck to Oscar and I am not one of his knockers BTW.

I know nothing about him, but in the highlights he looks balanced and mobile and appears a nice mark and a long kick. That's a good start when you are 195 cms.

AVB still injured, or just not able to get fully fit?

Was in my class in Year 12 at Melbourne High, way back when. I remember telling him not to leave school to go into Music admin, in the September holidays, which he did anyway, as his parents were away on holiday and it would be too late for them to do anything about it when they returned. At a school reunion several years ago, I was the compere and heaped sh-t on him about being a roadie or something to do with music and I said as well as the all the successes in the room, we also have failures like Mike. I tore him to shreds and he loved it. I made him stand up and gave him even more. At the end of the night he came over and said he loved it and he couldn't stop laughing. Agree, taken much too soon, the Grandfather of the Aussie Music Industry. RIP MG.

Deserves 6 games, more than any other current demon and will get them barring injury, as we have several injured players who have opened spots up for the first few games. However, he looked really slow on Friday, like the end of last season and his turnovers were very costly. His reaction has obviously slowed with age and in lightning fast modern footy, it can be a game killer. I look forward to him breaking the banner in his 300th, but think he will struggle if we have a pretty full list to add to that total. He has been a champion of the club in difficult times and his loyalty will see him remembered as a great of the club. Well done NJ. Hopefully there is a bit more left in the tank.

Weid said he is back running next week, so here’s hoping he will be back quicker than first thought.

Brayshaw, Viney, B Brown, Weid, Melksham, Kossie, Hibberd, Lockhart, Hore and Joel Smith if he was not playing, add a bit of depth.