Nasher

I agree. I think it's as simple as the fact that he's competing with Dunn for a spot and at present, Dunn is ahead.

Just to respond to myself: apparently Paine is playing in the NT league this season in order to gain match fitness. I've never heard of anyone playing in that league during the "off" season before, but I suppose chasing an English county contract would've been difficult given how long he's been out for now.

That's my take on it too after seeing it again. Shit handpass and a shit effort at getting it. Both players lose.

One poor handball sure proves he turns it over 40% of the time. And I don't have to prove anything - you're the one making outrageous claims. 40% turnover rate is a very damning brush to paint a player with. If you're going to make outrageous claims, the onus is on you to prove it.

At risk of inciting a very boring debate about depth that I've seen go around a million times on this site now, knowing that Very Average Player #23 can come in to fill in the role of Being Very Average when Very Average Player #22 gets injured hardly gets me excited. Honestly - would anyone seriously go "oh, damn, Jones is injured. But thank God we've got Tom Couch to fill the void!"

Essendon, North, Richmond and St. Kilda won't make it. 8 goes in to 8 very nicely.

I'd like to see Paine play a game of cricket some time in the future before backing him in. I do think he's still in the frame for life after Haddin and frankly I think this is a good problem to have, but his recovery from this injury has not been encouraging so far.

What about "he's just not that good a player"?

All going well, next week it could be down to just Evans, Gawn, Tynan and Jetta, none of whom are relevant to our fortunes this year. Seeing a short injury list would make a nice change.

Oddly, I'm looking forward to this match. The match against St. Kilda was quite revitalising considering it was a loss. Obviously not expecting a win, but I can't wait to see whether the boys have another crack. Fingers crossed.

dee-luded, "organic behaviour"? That's just nonsense to me - I don't think it's natural to unleash a tirade of f's and c's directly at a player when kids are in earshot. You (general "you", not you you) wouldn't do it if you were at a school, so why is doing so at the footy okay? In fact, I don't think it even matters if there are kids in ear shot or not. I think it's boorish, idiotic behavior and I think you're a boorish idiot if you do it.

Your admission that you made it up without any facts to back it is appreciated.

Exactly. I understand the desire to be "ruthless" in business, but that means doing what you can to gain an edge over your competitors - it does NOT mean wiping your feet on anyone and everyone who finds themselves involved.

You've said this several times in this thread now, and it's a malicious lie not supported by the statistics. Please either prove it or stop stating it as fact. Hint: I already explained in this thread that DE% doesn't have anything to do with turnover rate, so you'll need to look a little deeper than that.

There aren't many players I detest more than Mitch Robinson. I'd prefer we avoided that comparison altogether.

I agree that dropping Davey would be counter-productive. Doubly so when the suggested replacement is Blease.

Bahaha. Touché.

+1. I opened the thread looking for snippets of information on our players, then got caught up in KC's commentary of the last quarter and ended up feeling nervy and jumpy like I would in a close MFC match. Epic. Also, thanks for the player summaries so far to those who have offered one up. They're the reasons I read these threads.

Don't call them the Tassie Hawks. I bloody hate that - they do not represent me.

6. Jones - BOG by a mile for the first half. Wasn't as prolific as the game wore on, but I believe his guts and his efforts set the precedent for the rest if the team initially. Has really been exceptional this year. 5. McKenzie - the smother on Goddard (3rd quarter?) set this in stone for me. Back to the Jordie we love - hard as a cat's head. 4. Jamar - hitouts galore and put them in useful spots. Starting to find some cohesion with our current batch of mids. 3. McDonald - would've made a few in the selection thread red-faced. Seemed to strike the perfect balance between manning his superstar opponent and attacking the ball. Very impressive game. 2. Rivers - reading of the play has always been his strength and was on show tonight. Has a knack of seeming to just appear in the right place for the contest every time. 1. Magner. 4 game veteran. Just love the brand of footy he plays. Still pinching myself that we got him/ Others whose game I loved but couldn't find room for in the votes: Bartram - saved his best for his 100th. Unfashionable but can always be counted on for 100% effort. His goal itself was probably more arse than class, but the work he put in to win the footy and break way to score it certainly wasn't. Morton - showed all his tools. Helped out in packs when it was necessary without compromising his outside game, and his tackling was the best it's ever been probably. In the last two weeks he's improved significantly. Turned the corner? Grimes - just works so hard, and I reckon the lack of quality in his disposal is greatly overstated. His tackle on Montagna (?) that lead to the Watts goal gave goosebumps. Was very pleased to see all the boys including Watts run straight to him after that goal. Bail - provided crucial run on a night that didn't suit running much. His form has been ordinary, but turned it around last night. Two goals is a good return.

Agree with every word of this. I'd also add that I was happy enough with the games of Dunn and Macdonald this week and they're only in my out list because I believe that on both ability and balance, they're the 21st and 22nd best players in our side, and Clark and Frawley obviously pick themselves. I wouldn't support any shuffling of fringe players this week after that effort - swapping Dunn or Watts or Tapscott for Petterd or Couch seems like change for the sake of change to me.

I think yesterday showed why our coaches are the coaches and the fans are just the fans. Quite a lot of egg to be wiped off faces in the selection thread.

It's also easy to forget that Jones is only 24. I know it feels like he's been around for an eternity, but his best footy is ahead of him. Each year the weaknesses in his game seem to diminish a bit more. I couldn't be happier with his effort and his form this year.

Bril. So they've added a new skill requirement - being presentable on TV. When are they going to require that the journalist (or should that be media-ist?) actually be capable of deep analysis?

If you think it's because you said we were better last year that you got shot down then you've got a severe reading comprehension problem.