Nasher

If I was the man with the contracts I'd take it year by year. It's only prudent with a man his age. As a supporter I have the right to get as far ahead of myself as I like. Cross seems the sort to be able to play for quite a while. He's never relied on pace, and the fact that he hasn't had any soft tissue injuries has to be a good sign. It would not surprise me if he made it to a third or fourth season with us.

I'm with the nays, but not because of some of the petulant people above who only seem to not want him because they're still bitter about how he handled us half a lifetime ago. I just simply don't see the point. There's a very big chance you'll get nothing from him. If he had anything left to give, Carlton would keep him.

Not exactly the standard I would ask.

I assume you are only joking, nonetheless I strongly disagree that it's ever appropriate to call umpires that. Especially when at most levels, they're doing it in their own time.

Very rough. He's a not particularly articulate 20 year old footballer just trying to spread a positive message. I know the message is not particularly helpful for those of us who have BTDT, but it's nice to know that some of the young players are optimistic still.

What's he doing playing in the development league?

He's a first year player, for crying out loud. I highly doubt he is "annoyed" at being in the twos, and if he is, he needs a good shot of reality.

Alternatively it could be that Roos is letting him develop at his own pace, as he said he would do from when he walked in the door.

If we nominate him as a promoted rookie, then other clubs can't nab him, and he'll become our 'last' draft pick. Edit: And in response to the original question on this: no, you don't wait until draft day, you tell him your plans for him well in advance, so he is able to nominate for the draft if he doesn't like what you're putting on the table. As far as I know, the promoted rookies don't actually nominate for the draft at all.

Does the question deserve such a condescending reply? He's played a total of 23 games for Port and I expect that many people, like myself, haven't seen a single one of them. I know he's a poor kick because I'm a sad bastard who spends too much time on the internet, but I expect the "Average Melbourne Following Joe" has had next to no exposure to him since he joined the AFL system.

Good luck Tappy. I have low expectations but hope for his sake that he can conjure up a Jetta like reversal.

I don't like it either rjay, but is it better or worse than the Tom "I'm just going to have a look around" Scully situation, or this business with Frawley now where every word and every movement is scrutinized? If Frawley is going, I'd prefer to know now so I can start thinking about life without him rather than waiting, waiting, waiting and being disappointed later.

Evans is contracted and we've got enough uncontracted players to move on as it is. Given that contracted players only get delisted in extreme circumstances and this isn't one of those, I imagine he'll see his contract.

Now you are on to something. And if you still didn't like the goal umpire's decision, you could just give him a little nudge in to the 'post', and he'll never make a wrong call again!

tl;dr version of picket fence's post: only 18 year olds with adult bodies like Wines make it in the AFL.

I'm not sure if you're taking the piss so I'll assume you're not, but those seem like difficult rules to enforce. What's the penalty?

Exactly what I was going to say. I'm all for a progressive, evolving game (to a degree) but I'd be sorry to see any changes the way scoring works.

Yeah, I was struggling to find a decent recent one.

Not very often that I'm grateful for mega-threads, but wow, we sure have been tracking this kid for a long time.

"No tagging" is actually a rule in the TAC?

Is it that bad really? He's probably "bottom quartile" in the AFL (and someone has to be) and I know he has a funny action, but in the error riddled game just gone, I don't recall any Tom McDonald howlers, and he was involved in the game plenty. It's probably a case of being way overplayed amongst supporters because a small number of very bad errors stick in people's mind and skews their perspective.

They're not. You can "see where a player is at" by seeing how they go at Casey. If that was the case we'd have seen every player on the list play. They must just believe he's adequately playing the role he's being asked to do.

There's the "you have to be open minded to any offers in case the deal of a lifetime falls on your lap" view that bub and co put forward, and then there's the "be a little bit realistic about what he's worth in a trade vs what he's worth to our team" view that rpfc and stmj have cast. Of course I'd trade Tom for Gaz Jr, but in reality I'd be staggered if we were offered a deal that landed us a player more valuable to us than our best 'gorilla' defender. I consider myself in the "I'm open minded for offers but as sceptical as could possibly be that we'd get anything that would make us a significantly better side so I wouldn't waste any time on it" camp.

Watts had always played footy anyway - he played both sports, and gave up basketball to concentrate on footy. He wasn't a 'convert' in the same way Martin was. So I'd say Prendergast recruited zero basketballers.

I doubt Martin would be selected ahead of Jamar as first ruck, and he sucked as second ruck. He got lucky with Leuenberger and West going down; had they not I expect he'd have finished out the year without getting a game and been delisted. If he'd stayed, I don't think it would have panned out the way it has for him at Brisbane. I would not call it a mistake. I was also lead to believe that he was happy to go.