Nasher

Nothing like a completely needless whack at a player on our list. There's about 30 players on our list that Lever is an upgrade on - why single out one of them?

Will it though? I felt a big wave of indifference pass through me when I read it. I thought it just made him sound like a total moron, especially when you look at his 'success' record as highlighted by Scythe above.

Yes - confirmed as just being a stock photo from earlier in the year.

Thanks. It's probably obvious to the locals, but I'm from Tassie and wouldn't know Burbank Oval from the Gabba. Unless it's the MCG or Etihad, good chance I've never been near it...

Jesus. Why would they do that? Social media 101 surely. I thought it odd that not one of the reports thus far mentioned that he played - I'd have thought that to be a pretty key piece of information.

Is that Pedersen I spy in the circle in the photo on the MFC facebook page?

Yep - there was similar commentary around when Hunt was drafted. Some people like to think they know more about it than those paid to do it for a living. That's all part of the fun though. You'd think recruiting intelligence plays a part in recruiting players like this out of (relative) nowhere. "This player is no certainty to make it, but we like him and we have reason to believe <x> club is going to move if we don't. Better not take the risk by waiting until the rookie draft, and snatch him now" type thing.

Great compilation - a mix of clutch moments in games (how calm was Jeff White?) and just miracle goals. Funny how to passage of time becomes blurry after a while. I had to double take when I saw Dean Kent on screen in one of the Flash goals. Hard to believe Flash has only been off the list for four years, that feels like a bloody lifetime ago.

I got the impression we did the opposite of convincing him to say. He's become a good player at the Pies, but he was a good player at the MFC, too. Let's not forget the frustrating inconsistency he showed when here though. Like stmj says above, I'm not prepared to bet on his output being sustained yet.

Man, they sure knew how to dole out cringeworthy jingles in the 80s.

The banter on GNF is beyond boring these days. I just choose to go with believing him if it's something I want to hear, and ignoring him if it's not. I believe you, GNF.

You'd only run a player of Hogan's calibre at Casey if he'd been out a long time and was badly out of condition, so you had doubts over his ability to run out a game. Hogan had a huge preseason, was in prime condition at the beginning of the season and has only been out a few weeks. He can find his touch in the ones. If he's feeling as fresh as I'm hoping, it won't take long.

Because Coniglio, Lobb and Smith are injured? The rest are past it old guys, run of the mill players and people the average fan will never have heard of.

Do you reckon Dusty would have knocked 'em over in the interview?

We got pick 3 and 4 for Scully; 3 was ontraded back to GWS for the Hogan mini-draft pick. Sadly we drafted the Toump with pick 4, but I see that as failure independent to the outcome of the Scully pick. The compensation we got for Scully was good and I'd prefer Hogan. Trengove's horrendous injury outcome wasn't predictable and is in no way is BP's fault - that's just luck of the draw. As Forest Demon said above, it was those 10-20 picks that really slaughtered us and set us back years. I'm quite happy to blame BP for that. Gawn was an inspired pick though.

Do you think the competition's elite players from Tas/NSW/Qld players would be interested in playing a half-arsed second tier competition? When Tas fielded standalone teams in the past it was often populated with a lot of local competition players - but that was when the local competition was strong and a legitimate pathway in and out of the AFL. That's not the case now. We had one notable victory against the "Big V" in 1990, but when you look at the Victorian team, it was a shadow of "best possible". If we'd have played a team containing Dunstall, Ablett etc we'd have been annihilated. From all three states, all the AFL players would all be picked by default, and if they're not available then the quality of available players will fall away quickly. It would soon descend in to a farce. For it to be interesting for the players from the minor states, they'd have to have the opportunity to play the major states, but that would then create the issues raised in my previous post.

Out just means out. Injured/omitted/promoted to seniors/rested all covered. Plapp's reports have been encouraging on Filipovic's progress - unfortunately it would seem he is injured this week.

The Allies might have been a laughable concept but the bottom line is there is an odd number of states able to field a likely competitive side. Without playing a long series, you need some mechanism to make sure the strong teams play their game(s) against teams that are competitive. It'd (even more of a) waste of time if, say, WA played one of their games against Tas, NSW or Qld and beat them by 120 points.

It won't depend on that. If Spencer is fit he comes in, it's an absolute no brainer. Pedersen can go forward. I think after reading the brief training report on afl.com.au It'll be Spencer and Salem in for OMac and Wagner. Hogan has really only just started doing the work to get back, so I'm not tipping him to come in at this stage.

That was my interpretation too. No point going too early on the contact drills. Get his fitness and touch up now and test the shoulder out closer to the time - gives the maximum chance of him being ready. I'm expecting him as an 'in' based on that. Hogan is a longer shot to return I think.

I love the post match threads days later, when people have had an opportunity to calm down and watch the replay. It is usually absolute pox immediately after the game with the exception of Wiseblood and a couple of others who seem capable of regulating their emotions.

Garland, vandenBerg, Spencer, Wagner.

Read on - I retracted but left the post in place as I was quoted several times. I am guilty of circulating rumour as fact. Edit: I've removed my post and all references to it.

At risk of incurring stmj's wrath, I had literally never heard of him before this week.

There's a lot to be said about watching the game for the first time already knowing the result. It's a lot easier to be objective when you take the stress and frustration out of it. Even watching a second time after watching it live, you're still going to be biased towards what you were feeling when watching it live. This is why I raised an eyebrow after the game when both Jones and Goodwin said they were doing a lot right in the first half when Demonlanders had me believe we were the second coming of Neeld-era Melbourne. I hope the senior coaches and players are able to be calm and rational - there is no such obligation on the fans.