whatwhat say what

i've been saying it for years. he's just not very good - an okay kick, but shocking decision maker with no lateral movement and zero awareness. clearly not a defender - give me ward, walsh and brown any day over bell.

i'd still like to see him trialled as a tagger in the middle, but clearly the likes of junior, dunn and bartram are preferred in that role.

sounds great sydneydemon...

but whereabouts?? what time? etc.?

what, both always injured but nevertheless vastly over-rated?

and that's the thing. it's clear that, in reality, the dogs appear the only side interested in giving robbo a three-year deal.

but as a 29 year old with a history of knee troubles what is he worth in a trade? given that they used, what was it, a third-rounder for aka then perhaps a 2nd rounder for robbo? not enough for mine. and not farren ray. he's just like tj - no muscle development and skills that look fantastic but misses targets surprisingly frequently for one so skilled, and exerts no defensive pressure (which may have to do with the muscle issue).

i think you can safely rule green out of being traded based on comments made from officials at the club. he's considered a leader.

but, as most of us have been saying for about 3 years now, one of tj, green, or bruce must go for the betterment of the overall side. it's just a matter of what we can get from them to best maximise not only our benefit but the trading club's as well. i think a player like bruce could really benefit a developing brisbane midfield.

of course, we may not involve ourselves in trade week at all, with bailey chalking up our shocking performance in 2007 to poor preparation, poor gameplan, then a poor injury run. we shall see.

they're called 'trade possibilities' for a reason, hangon.

as i see it, the ones i mentioned would be the only ones on our list that perhaps could be valuable to other sides, and get us someting valuable in return.

so the very reason that i suggested the players that i did is that i see them as being potentially valuable to another side, much as they have the possibility to be potentially valuable to us (if they get their 'heads' right, if they learn how to hit a target and not just blaze away, if they can kick more than 35m per foot, if they can learn to use their right side of their body, etc, etc).

i'm certainly not advocating them all, by any means. but perhaps one, two, or three of them could be potentially beneficial for both our club and others too.

you have to give something in order to get something.

You are a deadset Goose. Absolute trash talk that you have completely fabricated with no thought what so ever.

your brilliant analytical skills and freely-given opinions are valuable and encouraged.

i think matt whelan needs a change of luck. let's see how goes higher up the batting order.

hope it's ebert, simply because of the pedigree.

but the thing is there's always write-ups eulogising certain players and dismissing others. really, picking any kid is a total lucky-dip. you could get a brock mclean or a luke molan.

Clint Bartram

Matthew Bate

Simon Buckley

Nathan Carroll

Aaron Davey

Lynden Dunn

Ryan Ferguson

James Frawley

Colin Garland

Simon Godfrey

Brad Green

Ben Holland

Mark Jamar

Paul A. Johnson

Travis Johnstone

Nathan Jones

James McDonald

Brock McLean

Brent Moloney

David Neitz

Michael Newton

Ricky Petterd

Jared Rivers

Russell Robertson

Isaac Weetra

Paul Wheatley

Matthew Whelan

Jeff White

Adem Yze

Trade Possibilities? Where to & for what?

Daniel Bell - Adelaide for first round draft pick / second round and a Victorian kid or perhaps third round plus Meesen?

Cameron Bruce - lower end of the first round in the draft / higher end second round (perhaps Hawthorn, Footscray, Brisbane) or perhaps Cameron Wood directly from the latter?

Chris A. Johnson - West Australian team, hopefully 3rd or 4th round of draft

Brad Miller - don't expect any offers, imagine he's under contract. Will stay on if so.

Colin Sylvia - first round draft pick or similar not-quite-there player from another's list (such as one of Hawthorn's current ruckmen, Fisher from Carlton, etc)

Rookies

Jace Bode - elevate

Daniel Hughes - hold

Shane Neaves - elevate

Daniel Hayes - drop

Gone or should go

Clint Bizzell

Nathan D. Brown

Byron Pickett

Heath Neville - delist

Daniel Ward - delist

top 5

mcdonald

white

jones

green

godfrey

good contest so far.

melbourne started fiddling with the ball too much which got the filth back into the game to a certain extent.

losing travis - hamstring - is a huge blow, but collingwood lost harry o'brien early on too.

c'mon dees. keep fighting.

jones, junior, p johnson, biz, mclean, wheatley all v v good so far.

when we're 1-11 or 0-12 at the mid-season break daniher will resign, and serve out the rest of the year while the club work on recruiting a new coach.

i think we saw the real effects of 2 close losses.

no one was prepared to chase. at all. the defensive pressure that we thought may be there after getting oh so close for 2 weeks in a row evaporated into the vapour waves of chris judd streaming forward.

oh, for a superstar like that at the mfc.

bell was horrific. again. his use of the ball makes ward and brown look like superstars; he tries hard, but he's very, very trying.

miller just didn't give a whimper, did he? awful.

i dunno. the losses aren't bothering me anymore. i'm just expecting that they're going to continue to mount up.

i like how you laugh at the commentators saying robinson, but have no problem typing newtown

ha! hadn't even noticed i typed that - error of the fingers rather than the tongue

pressure on miller is huge now. with robbo coming back, he really should be dropped anyway, and newtown MUST be close to debuting.

great to see hughes sounding impressive, and i'd prefer wheatley to ward or brown. i'm positive he could play on their players at least as defensively as they can, and be better skilled when he has the ball into the bargain.

he's always played as a medium tall player on tall players. it'd be great to see him play as a medium tall on slightly smaller players. i think he might have the agility to do fairly well.

commentators say that very even performance.

commentators opinions:

sautner prevented, "but it was telling that he and robbo spoiled each other."

impressed by robbo, had a hand in 6 or 7

wheatley miserly in defence, link man across hb

bizzell terrific in the middle or down back

poyas cutting across hb

like the look of gallagher

summers in and out of the game

hughes - only played for 2 quarters, livewire when he came on the ground

holland down back an old head.

no mention of newtown. sounded to me via their very bias call that he was very, very good

16.16.112

13.12.90

goals:

robertson (and robinson) - 4

sautner - 3

newtown - 2.6!

pickett - 2

hughes - 2

summers, gallagher, garland all singles

best / most frequently called in last quarter and a half: pickett, gallagher, lidell, newtown, robertson, valenti, neaves.

sandy wins.

robbo to be interviewed? nope, walked away.

gallagher nails one for sandy, 26 mins gone. looks like sandy has it wrapped up now.

some bloke called robinson misses. apparently he's done well enough to be straight back in for the dees next week.

not sure about robertson though.

johnson kicks another for the seagulls. the commentators go 'nanas as a result.

another goal for sandy, but i have absolutely no idea who kicked it as the commentators immediately started talking about williamstown again.

newtown missed a sitter.

seagulls get one back.

they're pumping up williamstown tyres. the bias is 5aa-esque.

he misses. 25 pts the diff i think it is.