Nasher

Not unlikely though, West Coast are already two games clear now as it is - and with Essendon up next, so that's not going to change soon. The top 8 is all but settled already. If you're in to ladder watching, our job from now is at best to nab 9th from Port, and at worst, defend 10th from Carlton and St Kilda (who play GWS and Geelong respectively this week). I think it's highly likely that we'll remain 10th and not move at all for the remainder of the season.

I'm on flu time unfortunately, this is the first time I've been online for any decent period of time all week.

Why would Jetta leave?

How about Jesse informing us that he'd like to be traded in round 13?

I've never lived in WA, but I suspect that prior to the Eagles being formed, not very many people over there were members of any of the VFL clubs or took anything more than a passing interest. Placing a team/teams there adds to the total membership and support of the national competition. In Tassie, everyone who might ever barrack for an AFL team already does, and is probably already a member of the club they barrack for. You've known me from this forum for a damn long time now, you reckon I'd drop my MFC membership and pick up a "Tassie Devils" one just because they rocked up? Does it help AFL membership and growth if I did? Tassie would gain a membership and the MFC would lose one, a net change of zero. That just seems pointless to me. Furthermore, there's no prospect of ever being able to draw a crowd of 30000 or more with a Tasmanian team. Our population is too small, sparse, and parochial about which end of the state they live in. You could argue there's no prospect of GWS ever doing that either, but I think you would be wrong. It might have worked in the early 90s when our local competition was strong, and hadn't yet been killed off by mass televisation of the AFL (people still went to the footy then). Too late now I reckon.

Without wanting to raise a tedious debate that has been done a dozen times already, putting a team in Tasmania would not be expanding the game, it would be diluting it.

Bang on as usual WYL. We're just as bad as we were in the 4 win 2014 season.

Unlike most in the match day thread, I didn't hate the first three quarters. In a game where strength matters, I felt we were just hanging on in the contest, which is a decent effort given the age and experience gap. Obviously the last quarter was limp and disappointing. Easy to blame selecting talls, but there were plenty of littles who gave us nothing, and I think it's no coincidence that it was young, under strength players like Stretch who were the least effective in the conditions. Pretty hard to swallow the idea that Grimes or Michie would have made that much difference.

Isn't SPC's avatar Nathan Brown?

My argument is purely that the emergencies (i.e. the three players who will not be selected, hence "the changes") will come from the extended bench. It was DemonWA who introduced the concept of players withdrawing through injury, which I said had nothing to do with my point, and you seem to agree with. If it's that tiresome, you're welcome to cease arguing.

That's not what we're talking about. Changes to the selected team will come from the extended bench only, I'd bet...someone else's house on it.

Not saying I'm not stunningly awesome at analysing football Clint. Just saying it's got nothing to do with my job title

I had Laidler listed as 189cm (from Google - may have been the wikipedia article), which is the same height as Josh Wagner and yes, 2cm taller than Hunt. I would hardly call it a significant difference. We can continue to quibble about a 1cm error if you like, but I would not have considered Laidler a "tall" - and certainly not the slow, lumbering type you'd expect to be left out due to weather conditions. My forum title is as it is because I have control of the forum software and do the maintenance on it. It is not intended to say anything about football nous.

Heh, no. Just suggesting that Laidler is a tall in the same sense that Wagner or Hunt are talls (i.e. they're not).

tall flanker

Alternate suggestion: Laidler has actually injured his knee. Radical idea I know.

I think he's suggesting he saw Kent with an injury (hence "saw something"). Obviously nobody in their right mind would suggest Kent be dropped after that game.

Even if it's a convention and not a rule, it amounts to the same thing: I've never seen them deviate from it (the MFC, at least) and I can't see any reason why they'd start this week. I'd put a wager on the changes coming out of the extended bench, but I don't reckon "I'll put Jack Watts in my avatar" will have quite enough punch I reckon the thing ManDee is referring to of faking an illness in a player is also one of those things that happens all the time in the minds of supporters and never in actual reality.

Are you aware of someone ill?

It was a beautiful winter's day in Fed Square pre-match, standing in the sun. At 5pm in the dark at the MCG, I was freezing my chops off.

Hunt, Kennedy, Trengove and Oliver are the only options. (Nobody bother telling me that the omissions don't have to come from extended bench. Albeit with no evidence other than experience, I am 100% certain they do.)

Watts rucking gives the Dawes vs Pedersen debate a whole new dimension. The fact that Hogan (seemingly) sees himself as a better player with Dawes in the side would really only be a tie-breaker in the conversation though.

Robertson? If so then very harsh I reckon.

We don't need White, so he won't be promoted. Therefore I'd not consider him an "obvious candidate". That's not to say we won't need him at all for the rest of the year, but I don't see it as a no brainer (which is what I'd consider an obvious candidate). We disagree and move on I think.

Nup. I can see why others take exception to your seemingly holding Watts to a higher standard than any other player (whether or not you believe this to be the case is irrelevant, that's how you present), but at the end of the day I think you're right. It would be bitterly disappointing if Watts dropped off after finally reaching this level and I think that's the bottom line.