whatwhat say what

Someone whose I said to me last week that this current crop of Vic Metro and Vic Country kids 'may be the worst ever'. He reckons there's 5-10 really good kids and then, he said 'a whole lot of plodders'. Reckons Brander and Fogerty are pretty clear standouts, and some tall forward kid that Brisbane has academy access to too.

the pick we traded for him ended up being pick 30 after all the academy and father-son selections. it was mason redman. players who have gone after that pick haven't shown much at this stage - best of the lot would probably be tom phillips from the pies at pick 58.

weed's hands have looked good i thought. but at the moment he's not getting his hands on it. mccartin doesn't get involved at the moment either, but he's significantly bigger than weideman at this stage.

i think any deal involving him will have many moving parts to it - it won't be a simple swap, but could involve getting another couple of clubs involved. i still think he'll end up at the cats but i think there'll be other plays involved. steve may is every chance to leave, apparently, and whispers have been the hawks were into him for quite a while. they need to replace gibson and may is a very good defender. hawks are already talking about what other movements they can do if you believe what you read. breust was talked about last year, but signed a new contract, but the likes of sicily, langford and hartung are all under 25 and may look to move on. then there's isaac smith who is 28 plus schoenmakers and whitecross who are both classic 'solid citizen' players who might get picked up by another club but i reckon are pretty limited. it could become more the norm that the likes of a gunston, ceglar etc. could end up moving to a third club, just like caddy has done this year. at geelong could a motlop be a 'get'? he's 26, so he's either getting close to free agency level or he's at it next time he's out of contract, would he be a player that geelong are prepared to move on to bring baby judas home? just completely making something up off the top of my head: gc17 - geelong's first round pick, melbourne's second round pick, luke breust geelong: ablett, hawthorn's third round pick hawthorn - may melbourne - steve motlop

his skill level and his versatility remind me of hodge - can play the sweeper role, the wing, play through the middle, and go up forward and hit the scoreboard.

tigers are 4-0 cos they're playing good footy, not because of who they've beaten. their mosquito fleet will trouble us, and prestia / caddy has been a massive improvement over deledio. they're going okay.

add adams in too.

treloar's kicking is as bad as tyson's.

i've been to every game this year. it's the most in a row i've seen us for some time - i think the most games i saw in a row last year was three. that third quarter was the worst for the year, without doubt. however, i actually only tipped us in one of these games; the win against carlton. and i actually had freo finishing 9th when i did a ladder predictor thing at the start of this year; with their experience and an actual forward set up, they were always going to be significantly better this year. on the whole i'm okay with our start to the year - if you told me that hibberd would not have played a game, frost would've played 1 (i thought both were clear best 22), gawn effectively two and a quarter, and hogan and lewis 2 a piece, i think on the balance of things i'd be 'okay' with a 2-2 start to the year. i had us down as a 10-12 record this year, and i wonder whether we can get to 10 wins if the big man misses the minimum of the next 11. gawn is going to be a massive loss for the vast majority of the season. i really do worry that we're going to amount to nothing better than ordinary over the next 5-7 years, sort of like we were under daniher, where we were good enough to make finals six times in nine years but never really truly threaten to be a premiership chance. really amazed by the start to the year for oliver, petracca, very impressed by anb, stretch, and super excited by hunt. watts has been really good after the bizarre preseason shenanigans, and the same goes for jetta and garlett - the latter's hard work up the ground has been exemplary. really disappointed by the start to the year for weideman and hannan after a reasonable first game, neither have been anywhere near it in the last two games in particular, i didn't agree with making viney co-captain and something clearly ain't right with the boy, brayshaw, tyson, and melksham have some of the worst disposal imaginable, and hogan, vince, and particularly lewis owe the team big time after getting rubbed out for extended periods of time. we're a game and a half off the quarter mark of the season. it's a super even year this year, and i'm still actually reasonably excited about how the rest of the year could pan out, but also utterly terrified it could all fall in a hole too.

6 - oliver 5 - watts 4 - garlett 3 - spencer 2 - petracca 1 - neal-bullen our leaders were non-existent today.

gawn, lewis, hogan, hibberd. replace spencer, bugg, hannan and melksham with those four and we would probably have banked the four points. i really do fear that we're the new north melbourne - good for finals 4 of the next 6 or so years, but not classy, skilled or good enough to be a legitimate premiership threat.

That's very interesting the diabetics stuff. Not a good outlook moving forward for McCartin

do you go for st. kilda?

swans are a football factory. they pick up kids who were 'solid' at underage level and develop them to (near) perfection.

Meth Coke just getting the job done. Swans are there or thereabouts but unfortunately that's not enough these days.

When fit and up and about he's a terrific ruckman. But he's often limited with his fitness and he can't play anywhere but in the ruck. Someone will inevitably offer him a fair whack of cash but I don't think it'll be us.

His speed of development has been nearly as exciting as his speed.

does all the little things well. has continued to improve, which is all you can ask really.

re vince, if had surgery on his toe then it's pretty unlikely he'll get up for this weekend i would presume.

it would pretty amazing if he came back the week after surgery, regardless of which appendage.

well it would seem that vince is another out. wowee, injuries and suspension are starting to test depth a mere three rounds in. IN: spencer, frost OUT: gawn, vince B: Jetta - T McDonald - Frost HB: Hunt - O McDonald - Melksham C: Stretch - Jones - Salem HF: Petracca - Weideman - Kent F: Watts - Smith - Garlett Foll: Spencer - Oliver - Viney I/c: Tyson - Hannan - Neal-Bullen - Harmes i can't see how pedersen can come in with zero exposed form at any level (mind you, didn't stop hannan), and we're better off persevering with the weed than dropping him back to vfl level given that what he adds in terms of structural set-up is vital for our side. watts has made the forward / second ruck his - it gets him involved in the play, gets his hands on the ball, and keeps him around the contest.

it's the same quote every year. "this year is okay, but wait'll you get a load of next year's crop!"

I'm personally pretty happy with the way O Mac is developing, but I'd say T Mac was playing a key role for us as a defender at around the same age / development? Great post Axis.

Watts playing as the spare ruckman has helped elevate his game. It's going to be the way of the future for him as a player. Frustrating that we are not seeing vfl reports anymore but it would appear Pedo is miles off a run. Can't see that many changes this week other than for injury, as the cupboard is looking pretty bare.

fwiw. the next several months present a massive opportunity for spencer too - not necessarily to cement his spot in our side, but also to impress others. worth remembering that he's an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year.