Dappa Dan

It sucks, but that's part of the skill, at least in Ultimate footy. You have to take your backups seriously. I have 3 great centers.... and one more really good one I could trade easily, but I'm keeping him for the three weeks I lose the other ones.

Was this a gag? Or are you serious about trading him. I'll take him at bargain basement prices... :D

If he's listed in the 18, does that mean he can't be one of the subs? If not, I reckon that could be a clue as to why he's been included. Underdone, probably would tire in 120 minutes. Maybe this way they can ramp him up to match fitness?

Love the chip. Represents basically exactly what you want from every footballer you recruit. He'll be tough to beat for 8 more years, he'll be first picked, build a defence around him... And best of all he negates AND rebounds as well as you could hope a player to. Making him 2 players in one... Just like the best ones going round. Like Ablett gets his ball but delivers it well too, Goddard can rebound, but also be attacking, Judd gets hard ball but runs so hard he eliminates the need for ha extra kick. Go the chip.

In the Hun today, sheahan has interviewed him, and asked him to rate past and current players. He ranked frawley and pears as the best of the current crop. Not telling us anything we don't already know, of course, but it's good I reckon that the best defender, IMO, in recent times ranks frawley that high... Especially when frawley is so similar.

My query is over the fact that that was pretty much the midfield we had in the preseason and we were starved for inside fifties and tackles. Put in Scully there, and maybe a dash more Trengove and we might get somewhere. I also reckon that what made us dangerous (when we were dangerous) last year wasn't inside fifties that came about from clearances. It was our rebounding work from a very, very solid defence. No Frawley in there makes a difference, but ideally, the rest of those blokes can get a hold of the pill and drill it to the running mids who can spread. Which is why Tappy was brought in, I think. The biggest factor in the game? It's at the G. I still think we'll win, though I'm not AS sure without Tom.

Definitely rebounding... ALthough my biggest nervousness is to do with how little hardness we have through the guts with Scully and McKenzie both out... But I doubt he has the engine just yet.

Dogs was shorter under Wallace.

Hurts. Reeeeally hurts. We needed his grunt, probably more than any player besides frawley... I'm c

Melbourne by 43.

I rate the swans, but like most of us, I was there last year when they had something to play for, and we were only jut staying alive... And they were slaughtered. Not that much has changed between both sides. Im picking us and am moderately confident. I'm also glad we get them at the g. Up north, I pick them.

WHat was the end score?

It's not THAT harsh. Just cos you have an opinion and a dictionary doesn't make you right. Stop acting like you are. Buffoon.

I remember RIccardi late in his career was used as a burst player. If you can bring a guy in as a dedicated sub, that is only going to play half games, you might be able to maintain a bloke's career a bit longer. I could have seen JMac being used like this for example... Doesn't help much if someone does a knee in the first five minutes of course.

I was thinking about this today... I think you have to consider how the question was posed. They didn't ask "will Melbourne make the finals..." If they did, you'd have found a few people would have said maybe and many would have said yes. But they asked to provide your top 8. When you do that Melbourne are never considered. We're just another club on the list. With the others, their media presence, their identity is so much more meaty. It SAYS something if you pick Essendon to make finals, and it says something if you pick them to miss. With us... if we made the top 4 one year, I reckon most captains, at the start of the next season, would knock us out of that top 4, or even the 8... Just because we're a quiet club.

Some of this Watts = Goddard talk is a touch convenient. If you want to make more comparisons, look at Hurley. Yes he's a little older, but the kid has had a LOT of very, very good games in a short period. If you want to take the position that KP players take longer (though I don't think 24 is accurate), then fine... and I'm certainly giving Watts time... but just as Hurley is a player that made an impact very early for his type (and isn't indicative of the general trend), it's also true that Goddard is a very rare player. To go from such a fluff player to as much of a star as he is, taking that long... his case is also well outside the norm. IMO the time is this year or next for Watts to deliver. After 2012, he'd better be on the team sheet in pen.

Yeah. Can't find anything myself.

I laughed when I first saw Burgoyne at 21... But then if you read his article he's basically saying this is predictions time. And with that in mind, I reckon he's pretty well got it right... I don't agree with about a quarter of them... but that's actually a pretty good strike record, since we're taking about crystal ball gazing. A good example here is that if you go on last year's form, Jamar should be nestled inbetween Sandilands and one of Mumford or Jolly. But given that this coming season is all about predicting, he's likely saying that he thinks while Jamar is a great tap ruckman, Jolly will be more settled (produce his form from the second half of the year, and the GF) and Mumford will go from strength to strength from here on in. Don't get me wrong, I reckon Jamar is in the box seat to get the second most hitouts again... but Jolly and Mummy get more of the ball and kick more goals, do more around the ground. It's actually a pretty fair assessment really. He thinks Jamar outdid himself last year and will fall back a bit this year. Nothing wrong with that.

Juice!!! Ha!!!

Not with our list of ruckmen... we have 3 youngsters who we're going to want to test out. Spencer, Gawn, Fitz... and even Martin qualifies. What's the old saying? A midfielder has 5 minutes to impress his coach. A ruckman gets 5 years... Plenty of guys hung around and only started playing well in their late 20s, after doing nothing before. PJ just needs to be in a side where they don't rely on him for anything other than a big engine and pretty kicking action. He won't do much, but good on him... his problem was never application.

He'll fit in better in their gameplan, which has room for poor kicks... Swan, Cloke, Shaw, et al... Good fit I reckon. Not sure if he'll be breaking any records though.... I mean... He could be the fourth delisted/traded player to play in a flag in the last ten years...

HA! Yeah. He'll get a run of their ruckman all get hurt AGAIN. And in a decent side, he'll go alright, though he's really just a worst case scenario measure... Renouf and Bailey will be given games before him at every chance.

Garland is actually unconscious. Seriously. Pretty poor job by the photog. Just take 5 shots, and photoshop out the sleepy eyes...

How the hell do we know how much they were trying? This ONLY matters if we know for sure that the team had winning in their sights. If it was a training drill for Bailey to utilise, then we have nothing to worry about... and the thing is we'll never know. He can come out in the media and say he's trying to win it all... but that could just be appeasing the masses. We'll find out what we're made of in the first month of the season.

I love Matty Bate. He was a standout in our worst years, and sometimes a lone glimmer of hope. But I'm concerned about where he'll fit in in the current-day style of footy we play. The free flowing, pacey game is going to be tough for him to fit into. I can't see him pushing out genuine high flying CHFs that go up the ground like Dunn and Watts... and he certainly doesn't take pack marks or lead like the Fev/Bradshaw type we're waiting for at FF. I remember in his first couple of years he would burst out of defence, and actually use his considerable straight-line pace through the midfield. I don't rate his field kicking highly enough for him to do this job full time, but maybe he could drop a few kilos and they could look into a wing for him. He has an engine.... I just don't know how he's going to fit into our plan-A game style.