Nasher

I try to align my expectations with what may happen in reality, and I think any notion of Bruce being dropped is fanciful at the moment. I don't get the impression that leaving Bruce out of the side is on the FD's radar (yet). In light of that, it has to be Dunn. There's just nobody else in my eyes.

Dunn; and not just because I'm anti-Dunn. Similar 'type' - bigish (though Dunn is in a man's body, Cale is still rake thin), mobile, big tank, scoring threat. Cale's the superior player. No brainer for mine.

Consider them marked. I think you're going to be bitterly disappointed though. PJ's had some success in the past, but it's always been as first ruck. He's consistently offered nothing as a second ruck. Since he's not good enough to be our first ruck (he is a long way behind Jamar), that puts him on the scrap heap for mine.

Wasn't that Daniher's game plan during the latter years of Yze's career? (Cheap shot I know)

Why would you cop it for that? It's absolutely spot on I reckon. Hannabal's question at the time was "where's he going to play and who's he better than?" The answer is of course full back, and he's better than Nathan Carroll, but it was impossible to forecast that at the time. Carroll was playing good footy and Warnock was coasting in the VFL.

I love the fact that he politely declined an offer from Adelaide, then volunteered to stay on the rookie list. That's commitment well beyond the call of duty. He must have also been pretty confident that he'd be able to work his way out of there to put his balls on the line like that. Couple that with the fact that he's so aggressive with his attack on man on ball on the field, and seems to lack nothing in general skill, there's nothing not to love about him. I'm a massive fan.

Carefactor ... Takes no gloss at all off the win in my eyes.

I felt exactly the same way when doing my post.

The most amazing thing about Warnock is that after his two years on the rookie list of zero output, he followed it up with another year on the senior list with zero output. It wasn't until his 4th year on the list, even as a "mature" recruit, that he began to have a real impact. It's a great example of the club persevering because they recognised attributes in a player that was invisible to the mug supporter. It just makes the fire Garland and Frawley received around here based on their initial years on the list look even more ridiculous.

No change pending injuries. Not much love for Martin - I realise he didn't have a "great" game but I thought his game was encouraging, and worth persevering with. At one stage he turned a 3 on 1 contest in the forward line in to a draw (ball up) when you could've forgiven him for being beaten. He didn't get a lot of the ball, but didn't slow it down when he did. On the back of that and the fact that I don't want Mark Jamar dead through exhaustion just yet, then he definitely stays in. If Bail's fit, then he'll play at Casey next week, which is just bad luck as he was playing good footy before his injury. Nobody deserves to be left out, and while I reckon Bail's been good, I don't think he offers a significant improvement over the players currently in the side. No room for Rivers in the side at the moment, but I'm sure we'll see him back again soon.

Indeed. That one was bad enough to actually make me feel a bit guilty. The Strauss holding the ball against Collingwood when he successfully got rid of it was pretty bad too.

Ridiculously harsh assessment.

6. Moloney 5. Frawley 4. Jones 3. Bate 2. Jamar 1. Trengove I know these votes are an each to their own thing, but I'm completely baffled by those who don't have Moloney in their list at all. I don't expect everyone to agree that he was the best, but I thought there would be universal agreement that he was in the best 6.

I'm not admitting I'm wrong, I'm walking away from the argument because I can't be bothered anymore. You haven't "won" anything, I've just stopped playing. I stand by everything I have said, just so we're clear.

I say that's one possibly exceptional case. You still can't assert that it's a strong possibility to happen every week. Arguing with you is a bit like banging my head against a brick wall, only less productive, and this is a fairly trivial topic anyway, so I won't bother responding to your other post.

You realise there's a big area between "never happens" (which is not what I said) and "a good chance" (which is what you said), right? I'm not disputing that it happens sometimes, I am disputing that there's a good chance of it happening. I don't have any stats, but I'll bet it's not more often than once a round on average. I view the chances of it happening to be small enough for these "there'll be a late change" to be nonsense claims. Especially when people start naming who will come out of the side when there's no evidence of that player being injured. Double especially when the person people name happens to be one of the 'marginal' players (by pure coincidence I'm sure!!). I don't believe he would, no. Martin is not some secret weapon we're concealing from the opposition to spring upon them on match day, he's the 23rd best player available at the moment. If Martin was that big a worry matchup-wise he'd be in the side, not on the emergency list. Moreover, opposition coaches see the emergency list too (funny that), so they'll probably have a plan for Martin should he come in to the side. I can't imagine the opposition coach going "holy cow, I had no idea that this might happen!". Earth. You?

3 and 4.

Agree on that. It seems to happen every week, people reckoning there's "going to be a late change" when there's no evidence at all to support it. I don't get it, it doesn't make sense. Teams do not just make late changes willy nilly. My money's on the team lining up as named. Again. The 'no change' was as predictable as the sun rising. No player played a real bust game in a very good team win, and there's no automatic inclusions to come in to the side. Martin moves to the 'reserve' tall spot on the emergency list as a consolation prize for playing good footy in the VFL. It's fairly meaningless practically, but it's a token gesture to indicate he's moved ahead of Spencer in the eyes of the FD. Personally I hope he plays in the VFL again this week though. He's got some good momentum up as a ruckman-forward and it'd be a shame to waste that by having him sit out this round.

The Marty McGurk joke was funny once, it has run its race now. Please go away.

Really? This is up there with the least interesting threads I've seen in a while.

I feel sick thinking about what would have been required to engineer a loss to Fremantle.

It's probably the most fair solution, but fairness isn't the only driver for a solution. I don't want the season to get shorter and I doubt the AFL does either.

Sums it up well. He seems to have a one massive cockup per game minimum; be it flinching in a contest, playing on in farcical fashion, or kicking a half-pass-half-shot-on-goal and getting the worst result out of the three - a point. He loses the plot in the heat of the moment and for that reason alone I reckon he's still in a lot of doubt long term. Bartram has just shown everyone why the FD clearly love him.

Aha! I thought your posting style seemed familiar.

Nice bump. Even as recently as the start of this year I had lingering doubts as to where he fitted in to the side. It's probably his aggression that has allowed him to blossom as a forward now that he's had a decent opportunity.