Vipercrunch

I think what everyone is failing to remember about Magner is that he built the entire Eastlink by himself.

The day reporting on horse racing includes things like race times, splits, records and the like rather than "payouts" is when I'll believe that anyone really believes its a sport.

The one that would surprise me the most if they came out and had a very good season would be JKH. I just not convinced he can/will put it all together. He has some good qualities but I'm not convinced. Some others would be the 3 new traded recruits. I hope trading for 3 more guys that struggled to cement places in their old teams isn't just more of the same that we've seen with Riley, Newton and Michie.

Well I hope Melksham, Bugg and Kennedy don't turn into another group like Michie, Riley and Newton. Guys who were also brought in from clubs where they weren't playing consistently in the seniors with the hope they would be regular contributors. Very similar stories coming out in the welcome to the club information from the club and recruiters. They had assembled pretty good highlight packages too. Bringing on one of them I wouldn't have a problem with, but I think 3 is too much. Would much prefer using the 2nd or 3rd round picks used to recruit them ourselves at the draft table.

Is anyone convinced that any of the new recruits are in our best 22 if we stay semi healthy next year? I am not excited about them at all. Is there really much point recruiting more depth players like Newton and Riley. Time will tell of course but I would much prefer to get either bonefide AFL players like Vince and Gartlett or use the picks to draft youngsters or hidden mature-aged gems like VB.

Sometime in the last few years he started to give away far too many frees when defending one on one. Not sure if rule interpretations changed or he became clumsy or lazy, but the amount of frees he gave away got very frustrating. Given we got Angus Brayshaw with the pick we got for him, he deserves a life membership.

I like a lot of what he's done but I wish he was a bit more selfish around goal. He seems to try and pass the ball when well in range for AFL standard players. Once he takes the responsibility on himself and kicks running goals from 40-50m out, he will be very handy. He plays a similar role to Kent, who loves a goal and takes it on. Harmes will need to improve in this area if they are fighting for the same spot.

There have been tools playing this game for a long time that occasionally get booed. Players who dive or play for free kicks sometimes get booed for a short period. There are players who have transgressed (ie KO's someone) that get booed for that match and maybe future matches against the same team. This is on a whole new level though and there is definitely a "racial" undertone to it. The racial incident with the girl. The awarding of Aust. of the Year (which btw you can't award yourself, other people have to do that). And I think a real big part of it is the fact he became more than a really good indigenous footy player, of which we have heaps. He used his fame from footy to speak out on indigenous issues which make so many European Australians very uncomfortable. That is how this started I believe. Any now it will continue because people are often sheep and bullies. People know it upsets him, have been told not to, therefore it will continue and probably increase. The only way it will stop is if those who think is is childish, boorish behavior drown out the boo's with cheers.

Until they sign someone else, it's always a possibility due to the emotion involved. Whether or not he had a tie with Phil Walsh himself, he would feel for his old club at this time and if they came to him talking "family first" and telling him how much they need him at this time, then perhaps he will change his plans to re-join them. From all reports it would be a loss for us, but we heard great reports and references about our last couple of coaches too. Given the circumstances, I definitely wouldn't hold it against him.

Has JKH played enough good footy to come back in? I thought he was on the cusp of being dropped before his injury and haven't heard much in the way of positive reports from his games coming back through Casey. I'm not madly against him coming in, but I thought we were past gifting games to players on potential. Like many, I am really looking forward to having Salem and Kent back fit. I would love them to come back for the last 4 or so this year.

West Coast are a very good side. Some of their work in close was the best I've seen this year. They have the ability to find free and moving targets by hand while in traffic and under good (not great) pressure. I find that sort of creative handball so attractive and powerful in modern football. That ability along with their defensive set-up and multi-pronged forward line will see them into the Prelim at least. At the moment we cannot compete with sides like them. I was far from surprised with the result or upset with our effort. Indicative play of the night for me was an attempted tackle by Stretch on Priddis. Stretch had him cold and in 1 or 2 years time spent in the gym, would have had him holding the ball. This time though, Priddis was able to free his hands, get off an long effective handball to Shuey who goaled. We are still going to struggle against mature midfields for the rest of this season at least, but I'm confident with the guys coming into the system that it won't be too long before our midfield and therefore our team will be one of the better ones.

For our long term growth, I think not getting multiple games into Salem and kent at the moment is the most telling. They are crucial for us going forward, far more so than Frost.

It was a shame Garland and Grimes weren't out there with them to enjoy it with them. Those two defenders appeared to have felt the thrashings more than most.

My 12 year old son and I just love watching the work of Angus Brayshaw. His attack on the player and the ball is amazing. We've begun to just call him "The Bull". A wonderful mix of skill and aggression, and he is so no fuss about it. Mature beyond his years. Hopefully we have 10-15 awesome years of watching this star.

Which players would make us better? Chris Dawes - POSSIBLY Sam Frost - POSSIBLY Jay Kennedy-Harris - NOT AT THIS STAGE Dean Kent - YES Christian Petracca - ONE WOULD ASSUME YES Christian Salem - YES Jack Trengove - HOPEFULLY, POSSIBLY, BUT WHO KNOWS IF HE EVEN CAN RETURN Aaron vandenBerg - YES I doubt many agree with me re JKH, but I feel he still has a lot to learn and improvement to make before he is in our current best 22.

Hope you feel better getting that off your chest OD.

Toumpas is still far too young for the AFL world to have given up on him and would be taken via trade for sure if we decided to move him on (which I don't think we will). Garland and Dunn would also be valuable to other clubs if we wanted to move them on (also which I don't think we will). Take Fitz and Toumpas off Forest Demons list above and I wouldn't be too surprised.

The lighter side of the weekend:- http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/05/29/the-idiots-guide-to-booing-adam-goodes/ http://titusoreily.com/afl-to-ban-imaginary-spears-at-games/

Awesome post Dr. Perfect summary.

A lot of talk here about half forwards and half backs, as though they were the reason we lost. We could have players vastly superior to Matt Jones, Howe, Watts and Bail in the side and we still would have lost. Our problem is in the middle of the ground. Until Van Berg can run out a full game and not go missing for lengthy periods of time, Brayshaw is more experienced and also fitter, Pettracca has recovered from his knee, gained experience and is AFL fit and Tyson is over his knee problems and back in form. Until all those things occur, and Nat Jones and Vince are relegated to midfield support roles, we will continue to lose to better teams. Pulling out your hair and gnashing your teeth about the likes of Bail, Matt Jones, Howe and Watts is pointless. A fit Salem and Kent might make ever so slight improvements to our overall performance, but the major problem has been and still is with our midfield. Our key mids at the moment are either not fully AFL ready (Brayshaw, VanBerg, Patracca) or not AFL size (Nat Jones and Vince). Riley, Newton and a below 100% Tyson does not change the result on Saturday one bit imo. Shuffling the deck chairs.

Our defensive setup is working very well so far.

Special Spencil!!! Nice patient play then.

Hogan is still not real convincing from 40+ out. Nice start though.

https://twitter.com/melindayasso/status/604250127121809408 Not sure that link will work, but it sums up my thought exactly. There's has been so many people this week saying the boos are because he was chosen as Australian of the Year and dared to use that platform to bring attention to indigenous issues/concerns. They obviously are happy to be amazed and entertained by indigenous players on the sporting field, but don't want those same people to get a voice and talk about indigenous problems. I just don't buy it is because of anything he's done or continues to do n the footy field. The game is full of players who play unpopular footy (playing for frees etc), and they get booed occasionally , but the booing of Goodes is at entirely a new level. And people saying he shouldn't have picked on a 13 year old girl, seriously? He reacted to racist abuse and would have had no way to know anything about the person saying it. 13 years old in no excuse any way.

I doubt those Carlton supporters got evicted for booing. Racsism is alive at the footy and it's guys like Goodes who will help stop it.