Nasher

*snort*

On fire as usual rpfc. Excellent post. Particulary this ^ bit.

Out: Johnson, Rivers, Bruce (inj), Bate (inj) In: Gysberts, Morton, Macdonald, Miller If one of the injured guys gets up then Miller will remain out; if both get up then Macdonald and Miller to both remain out. Johnson: If keeping Jamar off the casualty list means that we absolutely must carry a ruckman who isn't any good, I'd prefer it to be Martin or Spencer because at least then we can call it 'development'. Those guys might come good - PJ definitely won't and surely we've seen enough. He is occupying a valuable place in the side at the moment and needs to get out of the road. Rivers: He's good at taking marks as a loose man in defence, but that's a role anyone can do IMO. What attributes does he bring to the table defensively that we don't get from the Garland, Warnock, Frawley combo? As an attacking defender, I'd prefer Macdonald. Sylvia was really ordinary today but I don't think dropping him is realistic. He's one player we've got who can be a real gamebreaker and I just don't think you drop these sorts unless their run of poor form is really long. He'll come good any minute and he needs to actually be in the side when that happens. I'm not interested in leaving Hughes out at this time and I don't think dropping Bartram or Bennell will be on the radar at all. In: Gysberts: VFL form speaks for itself. Deserves a shot now that the spots are opening up. Morton: I had him in my 'in' list for next week already before the game even started, and seeing the VFL results just confirms it. You don't leave one of your best players floundering in the VFL for too long. Any further match fitness he needs to get can be got in the main side. Macdonald: Served his time in pergatory for his rotten game against North. Straight swap for Rivers -- offers similar benefits defensively and more offensively. I reckon I'll be pretty bored with Rivers-Macdonald ping-pong after a while since I'm not sure either have a spot in the long term, but at the moment I'm happy to keep playing it. Miller: In the end my decision boiled down to Miller and Wonaeamirri. I went for Miller for two reasons - firstly because he's kicked 3 or 4 goals in the VFL for weeks on end and I believe that you can't turn your back on that kind of form forever, even if you have put a line through the player's name. What was the point of keeping him on the list for this year if we won't play him when he is clearly in good form? Reason two was that Wonaeamirri has also been out of the game for quite a long time and time is on his side more than Miller. His chance will come. I also considered Jetta and Cheney (good VFL form) and Spencer (to keep Jamar going), but none of those really felt like the right decisions to me.

There's no doubt whatsoever that he's genuine. And I agree with your post -- I'm more than a little embarrassed with this thread.

He(?) just looks like a wanker I think.

In other words, you don't have any evidence.

Good luck with that!

I think this just highlights a problem that exists in the footy media in general: it's jam packed with ex-coaches and ex-players who have been out of the game for too long and have lost touch with it. Because they are not professional journalists and they lose their 'contacts' in the industry over time and therefore their ability to get 'real' information, they just start making stuff up. Parkin is definitely one of these types. You can't put any stock at all in anything he says. Robert Walls is another. What we really need are knowledgeable journalists who really know and understand the game, but who are actually professional journalists at the core. Unfortunately the talent pool of people who meet this criteria seems to be completely dry.

Great news.

Don McLardy won't be choosing the next captain, though.

Those injury lists are notoriously inaccurate. They're a reasonable guide at getting a feel for when guys will be back, but unless they're obvious injuries (e.g. happen in an AFL match where everyone sees it) players tend to miss weeks before they appear on the list initially. I'm guessing it's because sites like InjuryUpdate have to go chasing the clubs for the injury lists, and unless they know the questions to ask, they don't get the answers. I bet if someone writes in asking where Martin and Blease are, their names will appear on there next week (even if it just says "test").

Damn, there goes my sacrificial lamb (little-l) to make way for Morton when he's ready. Now I need to find someone else. Exciting all the same

^ This.

Surprise to who? It certainly wasn't a surprise to me, and it had nothing to do with his off-field personality (which I knew nothing about).

Maybe he should've gone down for the bump and broken his (or the other bloke's) neck instead.

Heh! Whoops!

Agreed. If Grimes plays 22 games this year his career total will be 34 at season's end. I'd be very surprised if anyone under 50 games had ever been made captain, and there's a good reason for that. Someone mentioned Carey and Voss, but guys like that are rare and Grimes is not in their league. If McDonald goes this year I'd also be looking at Green, he's just the best choice of the older players IMO. Not only that, but the timing would be perfect -- when he's finishing up, the likes of Grimes, Scully and Trengove will have 80+ games up their sleeve in theory. Moloney would probably be my second choice. I reckon Junior will look to go on in 2011 anyway.

I feel you may have missed my point. If you can point me in the direction of specific examples where any of these blokes made dangerous bump where there was zero net benefit to the team (which would have been the case had Bennell done that) then I might take your point.

Do Kirk, Selwood et al do it even when there's no benefit at all to the team? i.e. when it won't help them get to ball or protect a team mate who has it? If they do, then they're stupid, not courageous.

It's not just small/mercurial players though. Any player of any size would be mad for not avoiding that kind of contact, because the guy sliding along the ground has all the momentum. There's good times for putting your body on the line and times that are just plain stupid. I agree with the principle of your post though (of course, since it's agreeing with mine )

The only possible outcome would have been to hurt himself or the other bloke if he hadn't have jumped as he did. There is absolutely no way he could've had a significant impact on the contest in the split second he reacted. He hasn't been allowed to forget about what happened in the Collingwood game (which is probably fair enough), but now it seems we are just looking for instances of doing the wrong thing that just aren't there. Ridiculous thread.

Nothing I guess, and it obviously depends on each individual, but thinking back to when I was 21, I can't imagine wanting to go out with a 17 year old. Four years is not a big age gap, but I think there'd be a fair maturity gap between 17 and 21. Put it this way: I was 17 at the end of year 11, and at 21 I had finished with uni and was working full time. I was at totally different stages of my life, basically.

Correct me if my maths here is wrong, but if she's 19 and he's 23 and they had been together for two years, when they got together she was 17 and he was 21? Hmm.

Dunn's been pretty good this year based on his rock bottom standards of the past. He's probably playing good enough footy to hold his spot, but the fact of the matter is Morton is just a better player, and it's the only 'straight swap' you can do that does not rob the team of other attributes it needs. On Dunn: I thought earlier in the year that he just could not play footy, but I've changed my mind. He clearly can play. The issue with him is that he just does some really bizarre things in the 'heat of the moment'. Flinching and spilling straight forward marks and playing on to kick in to the man on the mark are great examples of this, and he appears to make at least one howler per game. He's a bit like Daniel Bell in that he's got the physical attributes and the skills to make it, but has a major flaw. In Belly's case it's awareness, in Dunn's case it's lack of composure. It'll be interesting to see if this corrects itself as his confidence improves with all the game time he's had this year, but I'm not holding my breath.

It was a great goal, but let's not get carried away. There's already been more 'spectacular' goals kicked than that one this year, and there will be plenty more. Ditto the mark.