Nasher

Usually when the commentators talk about the "Selwoods" they mean the "Joels" anyway. The rest of the family are irrelevant.

Like who? Roos, and...?

My three year old son just scared the living sheet out of me by secretly lurking in the (very dark) bathroom playing with the glow stick he got at a birthday party today. Jesus effing Christ. I'm not certain which of us was more surprised when he came wandering out as I wandered in, but I'm pretty sure it was me.

I'd take out of it that Melbourne have a bye this week, and the players who need the run and are eligible for one will get one. It means stuff all in the context of who will be playing next week. Presumably when MFC have a bye, there's some rules (or at the very least, a gentlemen's agreement) about which players are eligible to line up for Casey. Much like when Casey are playing finals after the MFC season has finished.

Erm. "Mods" didn't. High Tower did. If you think mods don't have a right to post their own personal opinion without it being representative of the general moderating collective, you'd be sadly mistaken.

If they're absolutely desperate we might get away with that. Can't see it being anything other than a last resort though. And personally I'd settle for a lot less for two players we don't want that we're otherwise going to be stuck with. Frankly I'd take anything at all, even if it was picks we won't use.

Exactly. Jack Watts is currently by far the best crumber in our forward line. It'd be nice if we could muster up a small to do it somewhere along the line so we don't have to use our KPFs like that. I'd say the man for the job is not presently on our list.

It's amazing how each time someone hears a rumour it's somehow more credible than the last one isn't it? There's only one party who would even know and has an interest in this getting out one way or the other, and that party is being driven by a serial liar. I suppose it might register some time.

Why would you bother challenging a reprimand? I know the points carry over, but it wouldn't be worth the risk.

Great analogy.

I agree. There's no doubt Davey stunk this year prior to his injury, but last year he was far and away our most lethal user of the ball by foot (cue all the "he's been struggling for years" revisionists). Our coaching staff (starting in the ND era) had the foresight to transform him in to a midfielder and that's what he now is. We'd be wasting one of our best weapons if he played exclusively as a forward. Form is temporary and all that.

We weren't yet at the bottom of the U-curve four years ago.

Though I think that's extreme, I'd still call it progress from being a bottom 1-2 club.

You're kidding aren't you? (Look at me, I can be a patronising knob too!) No leadership and mental fragility are a symptom of the lack of maturity. I don't think those two items are "bigger issues" than our lack of maturity. I think it sits front and centre. As for poor coaching - I note that this never comes up when we win. Was Bailey a hero last week and a chump this week? I'm no expert (neither are you) but I just don't believe we're in a position to judge the coaching when the team's form is on such a rollercoaster.

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that a player has been nominated for the rookie draft? I always assumed the players just nominated themselves, so it's a bit of a boo-boo if he forgot to nominate himself. That'd be like me turning up for a job interview and saying "whoops, I forgot to apply for the job".

He struggled last night, but I'd be surprised and disappointed if he lost his spot in the side for it. I'm all for omitting players when their effort is not up to scratch, but that's not true in this case and I am dead against dropping young players for making mistakes. Chalk that one up to experience and give him the chance to do better next game.

This is nothing ground breaking, you're just saying that other clubs will be in their prime around the same time as us. This happens every year - clubs well within their window don't win flags because better sides are also in their prime: see Bulldogs and St. Kilda who now look as if their windows are closing. Two excellent sides look to be gunning for the flag this year in Geelong and Collingwood and both are clearly flag-worthy, but at least one of them is going to come away disappointed. Our list will be in its prime 2013-2016, but obviously we'll still need to be at the absolute top of our game if we're to win the flag through there.

Why would that be deluded? It's spot on for mine.

Funny how the umpiring is always worse when we get flogged, isn't it? I especially love the "the umpiring doesn't excuse the loss, but..." posts. That said, the 50 against Rivers made me sad.

I'll raise you all that with having to come in to the office to start work at 8AM, and end up spending half my morning deleting ridiculously abusive posts on Demonland.

Don't be sorry, just note that many like myself won't bother reading your post if it's all in caps.

And Jamar rucks for three quarters with no break? My belief is the opposite of yours. The smalls make the best subs and I think Blease is the right choice tonight.

Perhaps it's because players aren't robots and nor are their managers, so each individual (and combination) will think and operate differently? Noting that Richmond signed Martin and we're yet to sign Scully, then drawing the conclusion that therefore MFC=crap and RFC=good is a mega long bow.

I don't quite follow your logic, but I'm pretty sure subtracting the 22 is the right thing to do. Subtracting 22 games from each total is just subtracting 1 game per player. It doesn't take you back to round 1, it just cancels out the fact that the stat has the post game matches played figure, not the pre-game match. For example, right at this exact moment in time (before the game), Colin Garland has played 49 games, but when I look at that site after it publishes the stats, it will say 50 there. Therefore, I subtract the 1 game to get the number back to the pre-match figure. Do this for each of the 22 players = subtracting 22 from the total.

In his 31st game Franklin kicked a bag of 6 to take his career tally to 45.