Tony Tea

Jakovich, Tingay, Charles, Glenn Lovett, Prymke, Schwarz.

Schwabby announced on Saturday that Tapscott went to Adelaide because his grandmother died.

Junior certainly DID NOT say "Jack Watts has a back injury and has hardly done any pre-season." NOR did he say "unlikely to play in the first half of the season." What he said was that Jack hasn't had the pre-season he would have liked, and he's had a few niggles.

I hear on the street that when Gysberts finishes his AFL career he wants to work in an office.

You don't need to be a chicken to know a rotten egg.

Absolutely agree about Scott Thompson. Out of the 12 games he played in 2004 before he injured his foot against Essendon in Round 13 we won 10. After his injury we were flogged by Adelaide at AAMI in round 14 (Craig's first game in charge); beat StKilda in round 15; battled past the cellar-dweller Bulldogs, Hawks and Tigers in rounds 16, 17 and 18; and finally lost the last 5 including the first week of the finals. Thompson's loss to Melbourne was massive; we've barely played good clearance footy since he left. And, naturally, since he's been at the Crows, he's hardly missed a game.

Nathan Buckley: "I want to leave Brisbane to play in premierships at Collingwood."

If Ball is prepared to put himself in the draft, he is prepared to accept he might get picked by Melbourne, which is tantamount to him giving Melbourne the green light. Take him with 18.

Mark Stevens - lightweight. Fell into the footy by accident. Rarely, if ever, writes anything insightful. Just takes press-release dictation. "Jeez. I'm stuck for copy; what can I write? I know. I'll take a punt on Bradshaw to Melbourne. Should create waves. Well, ripples, anyw... zzzzzzzz"

I also hate to be a wowser, but surely the quote cited in that article is inconclusive: The request from the Ball camp was that Melbourne lay off until Ball is back in circulation. Ball's back next week - Ball will meet Melbourne next week. That's not the same as Ball pro-actively asking to meet Melbourne.

"Bleeds for the ... " AND "heart and soul player". Both had an up-in-lights run during trade week. Journalists must really resent their production line job, relentlessly re-packing hollow phrases for daily distribution.

Noted on pick 12. Makes it even harder for the Bears to get Ball. (The Bears is flippant. They'll never be the Lions to me.)

Any chance Greg Denham might consider all the evidence, rather than cherry picking the facts to bolster a story: Correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, I could be miles out here. Melbourne are indeed keen to select Ball with the No.1 pick in the PSD, but the Demons also have FOUR picks in the ND before Brisbane's pick 27. Then, while Brisbane have pick 12, Melbourne also have pick 11. Ball can get to Brisbane is if the Bears commit to use pick 12, or Melbourne pass on pick 18.

Look on the bright side. If you liked Buckley and thought he was stiff to be dumped (not me - he's borderline hack), then the rest of the players who weren't dumped must be guns.

The Herald Sun's Mark Stevens once again proves he is a journalist first and a football "expert" second with his pearl-clutching over-dramatisation of what the Demons should do regarding Ball: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/dees...f-1225785358214 Speaking of Ball and the captaincy: Schwabby on twitter.

St Kilda have now got more "foreigners" than the England cricket side.

True. Although, Robbo set a high (or low) benchmark for stuff-ups with the Terry Wallace sacking/non-sacking.

The Herald Sun list without Melbourne. (Or with an invisible Melbourne, depending on your perspective, or lack of it.) Apparently there were originally 16 teams listed, but a sub-editor felt two Collingwood paragraphs was one too many.

Probably easier to ask: Least ignorant football journalist? I'll start: Jake Niall, Leaping Larry, Steve Rielly, Richard Hinds.

Matt Thompson: Head of "How to speak like a teenage girl" department.

Righto. Now, what was I saying? In relation to the Brock trade, the Age mentioned that some fine print needed to be finalised. The deal is not a formality.

Why?

Anyone watch this year's grand final? Big, heavy bodies all over the place. Geelong won because they eventually out-muscled StKilda after 100+ minutes of bash and crash. Look back over, say, the last 30 years - Hawthorn, Essendon, West Coast, Adelaide, North, Brisbane, Geelong. All their flag winning teams had size on their side. We don't need a flighty outside player like Lovett, we need someone like Sewell.

To quote Barney Gumble: "Ooo, look! A peanut."

Scratch that Hurley revenge: