whatwhat say what

Another week, another "rule of the week" from the maggots.

I love watching Sydney play. Hope they do an absolute number on the Cats in this second half.

Was chatting with a blues mate who likes to rub it in that we took Salem over Cripps, and I was saying one of the things I'd love in our team next season is a gun run and carry half back - he asked whether I'd 'given up' on Salem but I don't think it's quite that simplistic. He's another that I've put in my 'nice to have...if he can come back' category, alongside Clark, Trengove et al. I think when a player of his ability is unavailable due to an odd condition like this you hope he can come back more than depend on it. It's not like a hammy or even a knee these days, which seem to be easier to come back than a foot injury or a compound leg break or a thyroid issue. Until such a time I think you have to build the side without his availability factored in. (FWIW we were talking about Scrimshaw as a player who may be available in Melbourne's second draft pick range - classic left footed rebounding half back playing for Vic Metro and Sandringham Dragons.)

he's more of a pure midfielder than benken. jason taylor loved him in his draft year, fwiw.

bit harsh, he's better than all of them.

one thing i think that is worth pointing out is that all the brickbats that t mac cops is very, very similar to that which beset rance at about the same stage of development. rance is now clearly the premier tall defender in the competition. when t mac is up and going, he's the equal of rance imo. i would not want to lose him without the equivalent coming back in. we are already light on for genuine key defenders - arguably t mac and dunn are our only truly physically strong and imposing tall defenders, and the latter is clearly out of favour - and if we lost t mac our defence would be under even more pressure than it is now.

nothing we have experienced compares to the travails of morabito at fremantle.

there's another m king? hands off, he's ours!

wouldn't cost a lot to bring him in you wouldn't have thought, either trade-wise or contract size. we could have him sitting in our medical room for a prolonged period of time or we could have him create an immediate impact as a third tall / ruck - something we're desperately in need of having alongside hogan and watts, even if the latter has done far better than expected as a spare parts ruckman.

oh really, i had no idea? that's a blow if so. i thought he was only out for last week.

watts has been hugely benefited by stints in the ruck. it brings different assets of his game into the game. i think we definitely need wagner back in - it releases vince to move through the midfield more. i'd like to see oliver back in for his clean hands in possession and tackling intensity. i'd still much prefer mac x2 and frost as our key defenders than bring in garland if we're sticking to the three talls back, three talls forward structure that has clearly been the preference thus far this year. i would expected those most under the kosh would be vandenberg, petracca and dawes, although the latter two are pretty important to our forward line structure. likely ins: wagner, oliver likely outs: vandenberg, stretch and stretch has been good but i think harmes can cover that linebreaking wingman role, and in the darwin conditions we'll need oliver's clean hands at the contest and physical strength. can't see bugg or one of the triumvirate of rotating small forwards going out. B: Jetta - T. McDonald - Frost HB: Hunt - O. McDonald - Wagner C: Vince - N. Jones - M. Jones HF: Petracca - Dawes - Kennedy F: Watts - Hogan - Garlett Foll: Gawn - Tyson - Viney I/C: Oliver - Kent - Bugg - Harmes Emerg: Trengove - vandenBerg - Stretch

would love to get them both for free. if we do somehow land hurley as well as hibberd with a trade as part of the deal, we're going to have to give something of significance up. but if we can get them both without having to trade, it's not durant to dubs level, but i'm happy to take it.

really pleased to see him hunting the ball carrier this week. his intent was there to tackle and tackle hard. kid is a jet.

6: Watts 5: Jetta 4: N Jones 3: Garlett 2: Hunt 1; T McDonald

Tried to take the game on in the last to win and ended up losing by 22 when it could easily have been lost by 10. But at least we tried to take the game on and win. There is a lot to like about the side as it continues to evolve. We need more pace, a genuine third tall, and our tall defenders to learn how to a) read the play and b) kick the ball.

Harmes has been great. Frost we need over Garland, O Mac's youth wins out over Dunn, and we all know Dawes is 'structural'.

'for family reasons' = don't have to move across the country and have been offered big $$ to lead freo's women's team. good luck to her, but big blow for us.

And a young gun when queried about his involvement with their academy vaguely remembers meeting with them once.

Poetic license, redleg

irrelevant, as you've missed my point, which is that howe offers greater value for money than treloar. the latter gets it 30 times and turns it over 15, puts it in a disadvantageous position a further 5 times, and if only a third of his disposals are truly dangerous, plus he's effectively on the wages of howe and tyson combined, i'd argue howe has been a 'better recruit'. treloar is a very, very good player. but he's not a game-changer in my view.

The astute judges are saying that three or four of their zone - cos it's a zone, NOT an academy if truth be told - are top 25 talent. And that doesn't include Marshall, who seems likely to be pick #1 having been removed from the GW$ zone. It's a farce. I wonder if a Hogan contract extension is the first domino that will see Watts, Jetta and T Mac fall into place, or whether the latter three will occur first?

Freo look miles off being a contender. They're ageing and their list profile is all wrong - two more years for Danyle Pearce? Sandi continuing on? Mayne has seen his form drop off a cliff, as has Mundy. They're still in the box seat to bring Cam McCarthy in on the cheap at the end of this season - they dodged a bullet with GW$ not agreeing to what would be now a trade massively in their favour. In terms of Hogan, I'm more concerned about meth coke's intentions at the end of 2017.

He's a natural defender and has arguably been a better recruit than Adam 'burn the ball' Treloar. He'd suit the zone defence we are trying to implement as he reads the ball so well in the air.

that's just silly. we're miles away from where we were three years ago. three years ago they belted us by around 100 in the wet.

forget the 8. the game now is to finish above 12th so that we 'win' the trade with gc17 in terms of 'points value' to bring in oliver / weideman last year instead of having a first round pick this year.