Nasher

Riewoldt has been fantastic again tonight - best on ground by far, in a losing side. I'd be very excited if I were a Richmond fan. I'd still pick Chip though.

Indeed - and whether they get dropped or may depend on how much pressure there is coming from below. In this case, three best 22 players had to come in, so out go our (arguably) bottom three performers. It's a pretty simple equation.

A team of AFL grade players, up against a team of people who are essentially amateurs, topped up with the dregs from the afore mentioned AFL team. It would be an absolute massacre. Especially if it was played on the MCG.

I think he meant in list management terms not drafting terms. In that light, 2008 PSD was just a very fortunate consequence, but wasn't really the core outcome. Edit: or maybe not On a side note, how much has Barry Prendergast been KotD since being in the job? Watts, not having to make the choice between Scully and Trengove, having Liam Jurrah fall in to his lap... Lucky bloke.

I thought it was a win-win at the time, now I'm not so sure. I'm absolutely loving that we're on the giving end of the shaft.

Where did you get the idea Warnock was omitted through injury? It doesn't say that on any of the articles I can find.

Reckon it's strange that both Warnock and Macdonald got the flick ahead of Rivers, and neither are emergencies. Oh well, not too shabby all the same.

There's no such thing as a 'free' player - there's always a price to pay. In this case, it's Morton or a borderline young player such as Cheney, or perhaps some kid from the under 18s who is as tough as nails but slipped through the net -- say, a Jordie McKenzie. It might be low risk but it wouldn't make the selection any less wasteful. Keep our precious positions on the list for someone who deserves it.

I agree. We definitely need more lazy and unaccountable players. Real answer: this is club number two (all these issues were raised at club number one) and still the penny has not dropped with Mitch. Career over; talent wasted.

With Moloney's "white line fever" I find it hard to imagine that he won't have a dip at McLean when they step out on to the field, no matter how close they are as mates off the field. As Rhino said, if/when there's trouble I expect to see Moloney's stumpy legs and enormous arms in pole position.

Absolutely spot on.

I think you've touched on one of the core reasons why the "Voss" argument is silly. Once Hunt and Folau, and anyone else who comes in to our code this way start playing games of footy and their true ability at our sport comes to the fore, their salaries will level out appropriately. It's a one time "give our code a crack and we'll make it worth your while" offer. Subsequent contracts - if offered and accepted - will be at market value. If the goal is to attract big names from other codes (which it clearly is), then I don't see any other way of doing it since their actual market value is unknown. They're clearly not going to accept the base first year player salary. I don't see Voss offering up any suggestions on how to accomplish it either. I just can't see how these signings can be anything but good for our sport.

Can't stand 'Scullgove' here. I'm also surprised that the majority have voted the negative option, considering how commonly it is used.

Brain fart. That's how I emphasise when there's no 'rich text' functionality available. I momentarily forgot I could use italics (which I normally would). I blame my cold.

In addition to your points (which are all true), it also ingores the fact that it's none of the AFL's, Voss' or anyone else's business _who_ GWS or GC spend their salary cap on, so long as they do it within the allotted rules. Money out of the GWS recruitment fund is not impacting the AFL's investment in Auskick etc, so that argument is moot. As Inner Demon says, all it's affecting is GWS and GC's ability to poach other players because it's just money that would've been spent on nicking players from other clubs. In my eyes, nicking players from other codes is a million times better for our sport than intra-code poaching. From my personal POV, the recruitment of the likes of Hunt and Folau means these teams might be somewhat worth watching now, rather than being two boring franchises. I can't wait to see how they transition, because to my knowledge it's not a transition that has been successfully made before. What's that worth the AFL? I know it's gimmicky, but it does add interest to me.

Indeed. An absolute freak athlete, would reach the top echelon in any sport he chose I think. Happens to be an excellent cricketer, but chose athletics instead. jcb - funny :D

Nobody had even mentioned Strauss until you did.

It is, but can you (or anyone) name a single tagger in the league who's done any kind of job limiting Ablett's damage in the last few years? Because I certainly can't. Bennell won't be dropped. The selectors' memory is not that short -- he was fantastic last week. No room for Maric in the side for mine. I'm having a hard enough time fitting in the automatic selections, let alone players in the Casey team who are a fair way down the queue in terms of deserving a run.

There is no way he'll get the rising star nomination this week. It's not intended to be a "best young player of the week" award, so it's pretty rare to have a first gamer get the nomination.

That was a refreshingly well-written article.

lol. lol.

In: Bate, Scully, Trengove Out: Garland (inj), Rivers, MacDonald If Garland comes up, then swap him for Wonaeamirri. I don't really want to drop Wonaeamirri as his entire problem is fitness based, and on that regard I think there's more benefit to him playing in the MFC side than Casey. By the same token, it's Carlton and I want to smash the snot out of them at all costs, so I wouldn't be that upset if it happened. As usual, everyone who has Bruce in their outs is going to be disappointed next Thursday. Cheney won't be picked -- there's too many ahead of him at this point. I'd definitely prefer Bail if we were after a fourth 'in', or Bate doesn't come up. Anyone who thinks Cheney is going to be useful against Betts/Yarran/Garlett are kidding themselves.

Watts and Hawkins are (from memory) about 1cm different in height and 15kgs in weight. There's a good reason why Tom can impose himself now. Jack doesn't need to watch Hawkins at all. He just needs to get bigger and fitter.

I thought the final margin was about right for the development gap between the two teams at the moment. Never nice to lose by that much (or lose at all) but I find it hard to be too disappointed about that one. In my mind I've moved on already. Itching for next week against Carlton; that will be an interesting test for our developing team.

Tough initiation, that's for sure. Held up well under the circumstances. Very pleasing debut. And Ten were right, at the opening bounce Gysberts lined up next to Ablett. The matchup didn't last long though of course.