The Great Pretender

Four months ... and that means he goes back to the rookie list at least until he recovers.

What?

Correct. Rooey has an elite tank. Watts doesn't. He would be chopped up chasing his tail.

Statistically the Pies won the game in most facets of the game. When you win the clearances 43 to 25 and have more contested and uncontested possessions you should win. Even their %age of disposal efficiency was only marginally behind the doggies. In the end it was a few weak links on their part and maybe had the mark been paid to Moore, they might have brought home the bacon in the end.

Fact: Jack Watts is 0 - 16 at the Docklands.

Being able to kick long and with accuracy is only one attribute. More importantly, you need to get the ball often and be able to defend ferociously when you don't have it. If he hasn't caught your eye to date, that might suggest that he needs to do a lot more work to justify a spot on the list. However, as you say, it's still early days.

That's what amateur football is all about, isn't it?

No qualms about our list in 2017 being better than it was last year but what about the other clubs? They also claim they'll be better.

Not sure if the alleged debt claim amounted to us being in the same financial mess we were in when CS took over because when he left, we were substantially better off in terms of net assets.

Do we really need to go there for the umpteenth time? The buck stopped with CS and when the time came he resigned honourably instead of allowing the club to plunge deeper in trouble. There were plenty of others who didn't perform at the club who you can't say that about and when it's all said and done there's a conga line of failed CEOs on your criteria because, you might not have noticed, but we haven't won a flag since the days when Jimmy Cardwell ran the show.

Makes his story even more tragic IMO

In case it hasn't been mentioned anywhere, the two youth academy lads at training are both from the Dandenong Stingrays. They are 17 year olds - • Luke Davies-Uniacke 187cm 86kg Rye • Oscar Clavarino 194cm 80kg Berwick

But for this we have to thank the likes of Joe Gutnick and Cameron Schwab, two largely maligned figures in some circles, for their foresight and great understanding of the commercial benefits of the Bentleigh Club venture.

Since it involved his former club it would have been good if the AFL ensured that Evans had nothing to do with the decision. I'm not suggesting any impropriety but I would have thought good governance demanded it.

Agree with Skuit and think there will be more to come in the future. The thing that made the play that resulted in Salem's goal so spectacular was that it won us a game and was also a rare time during that period that the shackles were removed and for a moment we played good, attacking footy. For the remainder of that season we went back into our negative, defensive shells and stunk.

Can't see it happening now.

Quite frankly, I'm happier to play against a team that's had the wood on us and at a venue where we haven't performed well in recent years than to have a home game against a team we're expected to beat easily. I prefer the challenge. It would have been a lot tougher if we had been drawn to play Essendon in their home game at the MCG (which incidentally makes a mockery of us having to play home matches at Etihad) as happened last year and was originally suggested for a repeat in round one. The Bombers plan on putting on a march to the G again and to have an emotional welcome back for their drug cheats. Beat us last year and derailed our start to the season. Won't happen this year.

Is this thread still about Jesse Hogan?

I think the article is not saying that the entire three year period was an experiment but that, at some stage during 2016, there was a bold move made by the coaches to give preference to developing youth ahead of some of the more experienced players on the list. Possibly, this was due to the fact that an all out youth policy in the first two years of Roos' time as coach would have led to some disastrous results at a time when the club was vulnerable. Hence, Roos took the path of shoring up the team's defensive side to enable it to cope with a proper development programme. It worked because most young sides hit the wall long before we did this year. We weren't ready for the finals this year. Next year will be a different story. Thanks Roosy.

It's pretty cut and dried to me. If the appeal fails, he must lose the Brownlow and it must go to the next highest vote getter(s) from that year. This is what the Olympic Movement and most sports do in these cases. Just ask Jared Tallent who received his gold from London a couple of months before the Rio Olympics after the "winner" of the race was found to be a drug cheat at the time.

Another of his uncles was former Demon Andy Moir.

A muppet Carlton supporter was complaining that Carlton received no compensation for Eddie Betts when he left as a free agent but Melbourne got pick 23 for Colin Sylvia which was unfair. Thing is that they received no compensation because the formula cancelled itself out as they got Daisy Thomas from Collingwood in the same FA period. The Malthouse reign at the Blues just keeps on giving.

Like Melbourne tonight. Never in doubt. (and she's a lawyer)

I think it's fair to say now that we're the only team outside the top eight that can make it. It's still a tough gig but ...

This time ... unless they give it to Oscar!