whatwhat say what

GWS currently doing that scary array of midfielders thing against a Lewis / Hodge less Hawks.

best footage i've ever seen of rocket was when he was at the dogs with leon cameron on the phone down to the bench, and eade was going troppo about will minson stuffing up, ranting and raving, to the point where cameron screamed 'rocket, rocket, we can't hear ourselves!'. it's absolutely hilarious.

jack watts is currently the greg chappell of the mfc - just like chappell wasn't playing badly, and kept getting out, jack watts is running around and not getting the ball. he looks like he's running around, he's just not running to where the ball is or possibly might be. i would've dropped him and told him to go find the ball, but given that not the messiah swung the ax elsewhere at the selection table, he was probably always going to get dropped. michie is not all there - 0 tackles against freo, and bugger all attempts. even titular boy made more than that. jamar smashed by minson and sandilands, i don't reckon he can go against the 'big' boys anymore. he's okay against the likes of maric, smith, more 'lanky' types, but spencer? fark. something about desperate times, desperate measures... grimes was destroyed by mundy and turned it over again. such a shame he's turned out another monumentally average footballer.

To be honest I'm expecting Saad to win it based upon season thus far. He's been very good in a pretty disappointing side. Brayshaw, Hogan both looking good and vandenBerg impressive but just a year too old.

I am enjoying the Pies-Cats game. Clark being outmarked by Motlop and Geelong thrashing the filth.

Josh Kelly subbed out, used as the sub, now dropped from gws side over the last three weeks. Would love him.

Ruckmen have to operate in isolation. Spencer's big opportunity!

Can't wait to see SOS play for the MFC.

with he and salem likely to miss too, we're looking pretty light on for defensive run. perhaps this is toumpas' opportunity to come in and play a role as a rebounding flanker.

It might all come down to fresh environments. I for one refuse to believe Bennell and Matera won't want to head back west, and the Crows have been into Aish since he was drafted. It's unlikely we'd get any of those three. Lonergan looks a possible cheap pick up due to injury and form from gc17. Personally, from Brisbane, I'd be chasing Leuenberger as a free agent acquisition. They also don't have a surfeit of kids, or midfielders, so will be looking for the same sort of players that we have acquired in the last couple of years. The very fact that Mitch Robinson has become a consistent midfielder for them says a lot about the state of their list.

Dyson Heppell Hamish Harlett Sam Jacobs Taylor Walker Pearce Hanley Luke Shuey Andrew Gaff Jackson Trengove Jack Darling Nathan Brown Andrejs Everitt Matthew Leuenberger Ben Reid Mitch Brown Jack Watts Jake Melksham Trent Mckenzie Rhys Palmer Tom Scully Dylan Addison top 6-8 are pretty good. and then it goes into 'good, ordinary' players pretty quickly.

would love prestia, but he'll be one of the ones that rocket wants to keep. same with dixon. players who might be on the market at the end of the year might be: zac smith - they have a surfeit of ruckmen, at least one will move on at the end of the year alex sexton - can't crack a game as a push-up half forward, i personally doubt that he's got the ability to play midfield; is quick tho luke russell - vaguely similar to sexton, gc17 probably have too many of this type of player sam day - will be a good player and they'd probably like to keep him, but he might want a fresh opportunity elsewhere daniel gorringe - see smith trent mckenzie - naughty boy apparently, ripper kick but he's not a massive ball gatherer - only averaged 16 disposals a game last year playing as a half-back / wing type, which is not enough (his role may have been taken by kk to some extent, so he may be available at the 'right 'price') clay cameron - not for us, a third tall type jesse lonergan - a genuine midfielder, has had a rotten run with injuries who knows what gc17 will do. their list is average, with a once-in-a-generation player at the top, and o'meara and martin look like fantastic players both now and for the future, and bennell could be. i really like may, and rischitelli is a great hard-at-it mid, but honestly their list is far less impressive than gws.

Lotsa talk around that he's Brisbane's #1 target.

Freo's ability to kill us on the spread may also have had something to do with the fact that they are so much more experienced - we had 9 players with less than 50 games to their name, compared to 1. They're battle hardened and very much in premiership mode. With Pav, McPharlin and the human tree all in their dotage, I think it's now or never for Freo. If they don't win a premiership in 2015-16, I don't think they will with their current era of players - no matter how good Fyfe may be, losing a ruck, key forward and key back will hurt them big time. Admittedly it's different in an era of free agency and players being able to demand trades rather than be indentured employees, but I think there's a clear reason why they're a top four side and we are, in all likelihood, a bottom four one.

to be honest, i was a bit surprised goodwin was brought in when rawlings has been doing a good job with the backline for a while. i thought it might be a case of learning more under roos before taking over. rawlings has developed a strong group that has been pilfered from by the cats and the hawks in recent years. (with the exception of watts as a half-back flanker, which obviously didn't work out like howe has done.)

mids are the priority.

so what happened to toumpas in the second half? we desperately - desperately - need him to come on in the second half of his third year on the list.

leuenberger as an ufa is the best option, unless gawn and spencer can really start to show something in the last two-thirds of the year. the biggest issue with ruckmen is that they really are either starting ruckmen or nothing - look at jacobs and maric. never got a go at carlton or tigers as starting ruckmen, and it took them going to a new club and getting the opportunity to be the #1 man - there's nothing to say that gawn, for instance, couldn't do so too. the big issue is that when the big russian has been injured so too, more often than not, have both spencer and gawn, and similarly when he's been fit so have they, so they haven't been able to 'break' into the side. the sub rule has effectively stopped teams playing two ruckmen in the 22. the mids rotation is just such a preferred modus operandi. on gaff, i'd love him to be at the dees. i'd prefer schuey tho. problem is we would have to trade for either of them, whcih means that the free agent scott selwood is the winner of the trio to get in - but like most, i expect him to be at the cats in 2016.

Clear favourite for the bluey at the moment. How come we seem to develop so many good tall defenders yet constantly struggle for key forwards and dominant midfielders? Or does the latter inform the former, because they see so much of the ball with ours mids routinely slaughtered?

there's no way mick will be coach. gibbs - true value: about the same as bernie vince (low second round pick) / straight swap for watts vs carlton's perceived value: top 10 pick murphy - mid first round pick vs top 10 pick kruezer - high second / third round pick vs top 10 pick yarran - medium-high second rounder vs first round pick henderson - high first rounder / low second rounder vs top 10 pick etc. etc. they have a history of highly over-valuing their players. it'll be interesting to see whether silvagni - who a lot of carlton supporters absolutely hate these days - holds his nerve or whether he decides to go to the draft. as we melbourne supporters know well, lots of picks isn't necessarily the panacea to cure all ills. it's about how you develop them, and it could be argued that carlton's player development has been just as pathetic as ours

he does well, he and schuey would be fantastic 'gets' if they wanted to come home to victoria. but i agree with another poster - scooter sellwood has to be the target. has had injuries this year, but is a very good mid who is a free agent. bringing him in won't cost us anything.

exactly, pick 20 was a vital part of the deal - which was the cost of getting dawes in. hogan and dawes for wines and grundy. at worst, it's breaking even.

sadly, it's not going to happen paul.

Nah, that's the meat puppets. Nirvana is where you find something in the way, mm hm.

Was waiting for this thread. No word on whether it's an injury or management yet.