Nasher

Righteo. I can't reconcile in my mind how the two are comparable, so we shall agree to disagree.

Even if it would make a difference (and I'm still not sure it will, though obviously my $5m example was extreme), I don't know how you can assess it from the outside. 1) we don't actually know how much Dawes is paid, we can only guess, 2) we don't know how much other players are being paid relative to Dawes (which is what matters). So not only is it boring administrative detail, it's boring administrative detail where we don't actually _have_ the detail. It's an exercise in pointlessness.

I don't think whether Dawes is paid $50,000/year or $5mil/year is going to make a lick of difference to the team performance. To me it's just tedious administrative detail.

Retaining Martin, as I understand it, was not an option in 2012. I'm not that fussed anyway. Gawn is a much better player, and it would be the second time Martin has chucked the toys out of the cot and walked from a club.

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/38894-max-has-re-signed/

Not sure of your point rjay. Obviously how the team performs is important fans...??

Please tell me you are kidding.

Our current team on paper looks better than that one. VandenBerg is the only player in that side missing that hasn't been replaced by someone equal or better. Not that that means much with our team.

He was our second best player, but I'm not unhappy to put him as the 6th best on the ground. Though I'd say he was definitely better than Thomas.Interesting breaking that list down. Coach A: Higgins Hogan Goldstein Cunnington Thomas Coach B: Higgins Cunnington Hogan Goldstein Thomas

I've never understood why supporters care about what the players are paid. It has no impact on what happens once the player steps out on to the field, so why worry? As far as I'm concerned, Josh Mahoney is there to lose sleep over player contract value so I don't have to.

That was actually their original explanation!

Heh, oh dear. At least it's a bit more honest than "we ate a steak in Mexico...".

I wonder what impact Dawes' personality has with his working relationship with Hogan? One thing I've noticed is that they never get in each others way - I put this down to both mutual smarts and Dawes' awareness of his place in the world. He says himself that Hogan is #1 and he's a battler, but accepts it and doesn't lose confidence from it. It's an admirable personality trait.

Gosh, imagine the whinging we'd have to read on here now if the positions had been reversed, and we'd have taken Martin first and left Jesse. Actually, don't imagine it. It's very unpleasant.

I thought exactly the same thing Clint. Robbie Tarrant must have felt terribly ripped off - he only defended against Dawes the same way every other defender has since he's been here, ie scragging, holding and chopping his arms, but he was the first one to get pinged for it.

Who the heck is Pulopulos?

I agree that it'd be tough going to drop Grimes, Michie or Jones on today's showing, but the answer isn't to drop Garlett or Garland. That's going too far in the other direction I reckon. The thing that makes it tricky is that our worst players today are all players who are clearly, far and away better players than anyone we can replace them with (special case Lumumba aside), and Salem is a better player than any of those others. Notwithstanding them playing good games, having one of them make way for Salem makes our side better; swapping him for Garlett et al doesn't make the side better overall. I agree that all of what I've said needs to be weighed against the message dropping players who were okay sends. This is putting forth a strong case for "no change", to be honest.

lol - has anyone seriously suggested John Butcher?

He's a small forward. Surely going missing a bit is just part of the gig? Even at his worst, he is still dangerous. If he'd swallowed that mark he may have had two goals today - I'd take a crap day with two goals over anything we've got kicking about in the VFL.

I do giggle whenever anyone blames the lack of selection of Fitzy for a loss. I wonder sometimes if there's some other Fitzy on our list that I've forgotten about, because the one I've seen definitely ain't the man to turn our losses in to wins. Notwithstanding the fact that he was unavailable today anyway. Suspect Brown might not have torn us a new one if their midfield had more to beat than witch's hats in the first quarter.

Stu, I reckon the only thing worse than having the same players in the revolving door is making changes based on a sample size of one game. Suggesting to drop Garlett is dead set laughable. He wasn't clean with the ball, he dropped a sitter etc, sure, but surely he's got the credits up his sleeve to be given some benefit of the doubt. You make changes that made the side better - that's why the same old names keep getting tossed up, because on balance they're the worst players in the side. There's no way there are better players than Garland and Garlett kicking about in the VFL at the moment. I'd say the same is true for Harmes at the moment, too.

If Salem is match fit now, he should be in. Any of the "big three" to go - Grimes, Michie and Matt Jones, though in my mind they were all okay today. Agree with the comment above that H should be in the gun but won't be.

I didn't actually say I bought the cold/flu reason. It's just conjecture. I was just amused by your connecting the conversation between a flu vaccine and not having the cattle. It was an odd segue; I pieced together the existing conversation with your addition and that's what I came up with. Carry on

As chook fowler pointed out, it's a vaccine against the most major strains. You won't get those strains if you've had the vaccine, but you may get other strains, and you'll still get the cold that every other bastard in the office/school/footy club has. Fewer people die of the major strains of influenza because of vaccination.