Nasher

I think that sounds about right. I'd add to it: I've never seen him attack it like Howe (or Trengove, or a raft of others), but I've also never seen him genuinely poo his pants like at least two of the players I'll expect to play this week either. That's probably part of what gives me hope that his "situation" is salvageable.

I agree. I'm fully in rpfc's camp with regards to opinion on Dunn, but at this very early stage of the year and with the players available, I expect he'll be in. As the year goes on I think (hope) the likes of Morton, Tapscott and obviously Sylvia will put extreme pressure on his place. Err, yeah. I'd just assumed that that FS side was a genuine one from the club, so I just assumed I must've missed something re: Nicholson. Didn't realise it was a work of fiction.

This is the terrifying thing. I've heard similar views from both medical professionals and those who have seen the destruction of ice first hand. There's many who believe that when some people start this drug, it's not possible to get off. Range Rover is right in a way - an addiction is all in your head. The problem is that the brain is a complex network of nerve cells and chemicals. Once you start altering the balance of those chemicals you've changed the rules of the game, and no simple psychology is going to fix it.

Happy with that side - it's the obvious best available 25 at this point. Grimes is presumably on the extended bench pending fitness. Don't think Bennell or Tynan will be in the side - Watts, Magner, Bail, Couch and Nicholson will fight for the last three spots, with my preference being in that order.

Nicholson gives me flashbacks to Luke Williams. Love the endeavour and the guy can move, but... I haven't seen any pre-season footy except for the first round of the NAB, so I can only wonder how balanced the side will be with both Magner and Couch in it (and since both have been elevated I'm assuming both will play). Neeld did say he's a fan of grunt, and that seems to be evident in these promotions. I look forward to seeing what they can produce.

Precisely, Franky. Jurrah will play again before his case plays out, there's no doubt of that in my mind. There's no logical reason for him not to - can't say I found C&B's "it's not a good look" case very compelling.

Early days in this thread, but I'm thoroughly enjoying "omg this new version is hideous" posts when it's already been clearly explained that it's the same song, just digitally improved. Keep it coming.

It sounds like you're sarcastically agreeing with me, but I'm not 100% sure, so I'll make my position clear: I'm not presuming innocence or guilt - I think it's completely irrelevant to whether he plays football or not and if he's found guilty, it's up to the law to impose sanction and not the MFC.

Why would the club suspend him indefinitely? Surely it's business as usual until his time in court plays out.

Newton wasn't a VFL star. Shane Valenti and Paul Johnson were, though.

Obviously you include yourself in those with short memories, as in 2000 we had a guy named Anthony Ingerson at CHB and another guy named David Schwarz at CHF - you may have heard of them? Clint Biz played 20 games in 2000... for Geelong. He came to the club in 2002.

I've moved an metric shitload of Watts posts in to the Watts thread here: http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29486-jack-watts/ Sorry if I've broken the flow of conversation in either thread - the Locker Room stuff is still something of a work in progress.

Glad we've finally worked out that it was outrageous. I thought it was obvious that the 186 point loss was an extraordinary event that had nothing to do with the usual reasons for a loss. No AFL side loses by that much no matter how inexperienced or just generally poor it is unless there's something else very wrong,

Tim, I didn't hate your post until I read this line. Now I've got flashbacks of Neale Daniher selling us his vision of Paul Johnson. Argh.

I'd say it's Jamie McNamara. As for what happened to Tom, no idea where he went after he was delisted.

Applying the least amount of benefit of the doubt possible, I could not bring myself to call Bail, Grimes, Watts or Tapscott duds. You're being completely over the top again. Obviously that was Beer posting - I prefer it when Curry posts.

There you go - apologised for what he said (individually you can all take it or leave it - I choose my original position: apathy) and was given the boot from his show. Nothing more to discuss here.

Just a blatant attempt to keep himself relevant. Stopped giving a toss about what he thought ages ago - I used to think he called it as he saw it, but came to realise he just called it whatever way would create the best headline. Edit: Looks like RobbieF beat me to the punch to say exactly the same thing. Completely agree Robbie.

The expanding market is everything. If you lived in Tasmania, would you ditch the MFC to support a Tasmanian team? I do and I wouldn't. Neither would the masses of Hawthorn, Collingwood and St. Kilda fans that live down here. That's the thing - there's no growth at all to be achieved down here, all that would happen is the support for other clubs would be diluted. The worst case for a Tasmanian team is the same as the worst case for GWS and GC - i.e. no support and a burden on the AFL, and the best case is things being the same as they are now. The best case for a Tassie team is that from a growth perspective things remain completely the same, while for GWS and GC the best case is that the game has significant growth in these areas. From a business perspective, this is an absolute no brainer. With Hawthorn in Launceston and now North in Hobart playing games down here, the market has been fulfilled IMO. I'll head off to Bellerive twice this year, masquerade as a North supporter for those days purely as thanks to them for bringing me the game I love, and spend the rest of the year watching the MFC every weekend religiously on TV. More to the point, I'll take my kids along, knowing that I risk inadvertently turning them in to North supporters (as my brainwashing has otherwise been a complete success) - four less potential members for the MFC in years to come.

While I agree that people can stop posting about when they're good and ready, I am surprised anybody can be bothered with this discussion this week. I certainly can't - I don't have an ounce of energy or emotion for Tom or anything related to him at the moment.

Not sure if it's just me, but I couldn't hear what he was saying over the music?

Exactly. A gameplan is a strategy - "kick it long" is a tactic.

I can't see how you could possibly be a recruiter without having ever played or coached a match. And FWIW, the best in the business at phantom drafts was Matt Burgan before we plucked him from the jouro pool. If we were going to do something as outlandish as hiring a journalist to do the job of a recruiter, we could've done so without adding to the MFC employee head count!

The guy under the yellow Olympic ring is Russell Robertson, and to the left of him in the photo is David Neitz. Glad I could help.

Being able to mine information from recruiters and articulate them - which Emma Quayle is very good at - and being able to spot talent and manage a team of recruiters are vastly different skills.