drdrake

If I was PJ I would still be looking for a new home regardless if we land Hale or not.

We go to plan B which has been our plan A until Hale was thrown up and that is developing the players we have. Martin, Gawn and Fitzpatrick will be three players we will use in that role. Gawn will get a full preseason and he won't have the strength at this stage of his development but you have to show respect to a man that stands at 208cms in the goal square.

If we miss out on Hale no big deal he was being pursued as a stop gap measure. If we get him thats good but we don't, don't turn into a why our club can't land players. If we don't get him it was because we had a plan we knew what we where willing to give up at credit for to the club if the deal doesn't work for us we walk away.

What is the ex Demon player that has been the Pies development coach, that also quit yesterday doing?

They would be the 9,000 direct deposit members that rolled over as at 1/10

Don't forget North have been the trade week bunny's and are starting to want a few wins. They got smashed by Hawthorn in the Hay and Thompson deals.

Totally agree with this, with 3 on the bench you can't have a ruckman taking up one of those spots. It is turning back the clock to a time where the resting ruck played in the forward pocket so we need someone that can play that forward role. PJ can't mark, Spencer can't kick and Martin has been injured. We are well positioned with Gawn and Fitzpatrick but they are a few years off but both these guys can play forward.

I'm interested in Bruce, I wonder if he is the person Guy Mckenna was talking about last week. If Bruce is considering leaving the Gold Coast is where the club needs him to go, at the very least we will get a second round pick but hopefully end of first round.

To beat this go one on one and back your players to win the footy and break, if they put 18 players inside their forward 50m arc we have 18 players and get ready for a fast break, no attacking team would want 36 players inside their 50m and wouldn't want to be exposed to the Davey, Aussie, Jurrah pace

I know that but I want him locked away from Kevin and GWS

Who is left? Bruce, PJ Looks like we have got most our key players out of the GWS reach only Scully comes to mind that I would love to see a contract extension before the years end

What a good problem to have.

Dunn in 2010 was an indication of what our club has been about for the past 2 years education. He was taught a defensive side of his game and then slotted back into the forward line as our defensive forward, but the best thing is, he is a natural forward that can kick goals so if the player he is on shows him no respect he can kick multiple goals. He was dropped because his goal kicking was in accurate I tink at one stage he had kicked 4 goals 11 behinds, he fixed this and was very good. If he can continue to improve he will be an important player in our forward set up.

Needs to stay fit, we have seen his true ability over the past 2 seasons and is our best most damaging player when fully fit.

He will slot into our midfield in 2011, it was great to see against North, he took a couple of good contested marks. He has a big engine and his kicking skills are very good when he kicks 40m+, he does though need to get rid of the little chip kick he uses for short kicks, this is the kick that turns the footy over. He is being educated in defensive footy and when he is released into the midfield he needs to remember the last twos years education or he will find himself at Casey. I see him as a high HFF or on the wing working he will be a very hard to match up, put a running smaller player on him he will work hard forward, put a taller player on him and he will run them off their legs. 2010 was a hard year but he has a huge upside.

Bruce staying or going makes no difference to where we will finish on the ladder. If he stays good if not we have enough quality coming through to ensure we keep improving.

I went to the game on Friday night and it was the greatest atmosphere I have ever encoutered at the footy. The Collingwood chant that went around the MCG was fantastic. Don't care who wins on Saturday, just want to get our club playing finals.

Bruce has no trade value in trade week, if he decides to leave we want him to sign with the GC, Bruce should get us the same return as Cambell Brown, a pick at the end of the first round. I don't think Cam Bruce will go anywhere he will hold out for a 2 year deal, I don't think Davey can get on our VL until the end of 2012 season.

Agree, this guy needs to stay fit as soon as he has a few weeks off it takes him 3-4 to get going again. One thing he needs to work on is narrowing the gap between his good and bad, at his best he is a good AFL player when he has an off day he would be lucky to get a game at Casey. If he can't address improving his bad games he might have limited game time in 2011. On the other side if he can turn his bad games into average games and throw in his good games more regular he will be a damaging forward.

I would trade pick 12 for Mundy any day of the week, he can also play that highly skilled HBF role.

Jack learnt in 2010 that he needs to work a lot harder to make it as an AFL footballer. In his first few games he didn't have the tank required to play at AFL level, with games this improved and we saw him work hard up the ground on leads then as all good forwards do work hard leading back towards goal. The last few games he had limited impact but he knows what he needs to do over preseason to improve his game. Fitness is the key he needs to stay fit over the next 12 months.

Watts is a leading forward, be it as a leading Full Forward or a CHF. What the club is educating him to do is lead both ways, work hard up the ground and even harder back towards goals. The difference between Watts and Miller as a lead up CHF, Watts can hit targets by foot, Miller always wanted to handball. We drafted two players last year that we want to develop into the ruck/forward option, don't forget our Giant Max Gawn he was a key forward until he had the huge growth spurt. I'm not concerned about our current forwards we have enough options with out a old school Gorilla. We need to continue to improve on getting quality ball inside our 50m arc and our transition from defensive 50 to attack, we still don't get the footy inside our forward 50m arc enough. I would be targeting Mundy, this might cost you pick 12 but you are getting a quality ball user that can run off half back or through the middle.

You have to give credit to this guy he proved a lot of people including me wrong. He is now a very important part of our back six. He is hard, quick and has a footy smarts. I listen to Bill Brownless on Sunday and he was right our back six are strong defensively but all have disposal flaws. When Grimes is fit he brings quality to the back line but when you have Bartram, Frawley, Garland, MacDonald, Bruce, Morton, Rivers back there we lack the quality go to man. Bartram will improve when our back 6 lines up like Bartram Frawley Garland Grimes Rivers Strauss or Blease If we can get Grimes fit and one of Blease or Strauss to improve and cement a spot we can carry Bartrams poor kicking as he will be our defensive stopper and won't need to attack. Don't forget this guy has a very good engine as a first year player he tagged some of the games best and won, he would have been a better option for Harvey in the last game. Great year, stay fit and Bartram will be a better player in 2011

Give it 3 years and we will have 5 players in the all Australian, Frawley, Watts, Scully, Trengove, Jurrah

In 2010 Jones got an eduction, like many of the players at our club they re learning to play roles that they haven't played in the past. Will Jones become a defensive midfielder, yes but no more than any other player in our midfield group. This year IMO the coach identified a weakness in his game and put him in a position to improve. It is the same as Dunn over the past few years, teach them to have a strong defensive side of their game to improve them as a player. Jones will again in 2011 play a similar role to this year but it will change slightly to match him against players he is better suited to. When assessing our players we need to consider what 2010 was about, continuing to educate our players and make them better footballers which in turn makes us a better team, Jones got to run with some very good footballers and this will make him a better player in 2011 and beyond. He still needs to learn that he isn't superman and can break every tackle, he has players around him with ability he needs to look to use the first option and not take on the world.