Nasher

They had so many possessions because they handballed it and stuffed around with it coming out of defence! Having as many possessions as the opposition is a useless stat, it doesn't say anything about where the possessions were or how they were used.

Your attempts to pick me off at every opportunity are wearing thin. Knock it off. "Always right"? I've never claimed to always be right, but if you think I am, great! Rhino summed it up perfectly. The original post in my opinion was unfair on a young player who so far hasn't put too much of a foot wrong.

Bate has all the time in the world to improve on his deficiencies at this point. This thread is an absolute crock.

Ooops, I meant to do that on the weekend but I forgot. How's right now sound? Hold on 5 minutes.

I don't agree with that. The real breakdowns occurred when we were running it out of defence. When we won it out of the middle we had little trouble delivering it to the forwards. If you win it out of the middle quickly then you can put it down your forwards' throats before the opposition get a chance to get too many numbers back in the right places. Extra numbers back is more effective when you're coming from defence. It isn't as effective if you win the ball out of the middle and get a good kick forward. Moloney demonstrated this perfectly in the last quarter when he rammed it down Neitz's throat after a quick centre clearance.

I remember last year when Davey gave away the 50 that resulted in a goal, he was dragged, and stayed off the ground for a whole minute. Neale said after the game that he had never intended to keep him off for long "because he's Aaron Davey". The attitude he displays at times needs to be nipped in the bud ASAP. Next time he cocks up, take him off and leave him off for the whole quarter. It's harsh and potentially detrimental to the team, but he needs to learn that he can't get away with giving away stupid frees and 50s just because he's the Flash. Otherwise we risk ending up with Yze Mk II.

If Wheels gets rubbed out for that bump then I will absolutely spew. It was a perfectly legitimate shepherd that just unfortunately resulted in a clash of heads. :angry:

My dream team would be happy if we picked Bizzell, considering I bought him for cheap. From a real world POV though I'd be surprised if he was picked over Holland. You're just swapping one liability for another there. Deck chairs on the Titanic and all that. If Pickett is fit, he should come in in favour of Yze. If not Pickett then Brown.

I think that where ever you got your numbers from, either one or both of them are wrong. Height numbers from year to year, and record to record are almost never accurate.

Exactly, Territory. We all chose Chris Johnson because he's very cheap in relation to his potential output.

Yep, completely agree. As I said in my earlier post, the attitude mentioned above is arrogant and extremely elitist and I detest it.

I know you've already clarified your point here, but what you've said in this post is extremely misleading. Player payments come out of the clubs' coffers. So yes, if it's not raising any money through memberships and whatnot it is possible and probable that the club won't be able to afford to pay its players. That's why clubs like Western Bulldogs in the past have only paid the minimum amount they were allowed to pay, because they couldn't afford to do otherwise. The salary cap is a ceiling amount you're allowed to pay your players and nothing else. The AFL does inject an amount of money to the clubs each year, but it's not the same thing as the salary cap.

This thread is premature, from what I gather Neale didn't explicitly say that Yze wouldn't play. I'll lock this thread until the teams are officially released.

It's an elitist attitude that I can't stand, personally. You don't have to support financially to be a supporter. By buying a membership you buy a package from a club, and voting rights. That's all. It doesn't buy the right to belittle those who don't want to part with their money for whatever reason. And yes I am a paid up (interstate) member.

Yep, I have West as my captain too for exactly the same reason. I've also got C.Johnson, Bell, Selwood, Gibbs and Alwyn Davey. It looks like we're coming from the same school of thought Maurie. Good spoilers are great in the real world, useless in Dream Team. I skimped on rucks. They can earn you a lot of points, but for me spending big in the middle was the bigger priority. I bought Sandilands, but after that all my rucks are either second rucks or new draftees. If Sandilands goes down or doesn't get a kick I'm boned in the ruck department, but I'm hoping my busy midfield will make up for it. I definitely think that drafting new draftees is a good idea, especially the very early picks. All they need to do is play and not be completely hopeless and their worth will skyrocket. Even if they're in your reserve and not earning you any points, you can always either select them the next week, or trade them because their worth will have gone up. Hawkins was a bargain, as he was taken later in the draft thanks to F/S, he cost less than Gibbs and the other top 10 picks. I also bought Clint Bizzell @ $127,000. He easily represented the best value-for-money back at that price. Best outcome there is he gets back to his best and scores heaps. Worst case scenario is he spends the year at Sandy and I haven't lost much at all.

Last year in my dream team debut I made the mistake of choosing too many players who, while extremely valuable to their side, don't score very big on the dream team because they're not huge winners of the ball. Like Clint Bizkit said -- players like Glass are vital to their side in the real world, but pretty much useless in the Dream Team situation. My salary cap this year is very biased towards the midfield.

Like Finks I'm not a fan either, but if people like it, and you like writing it, then why not?

There's plans to implement in-house tipping like on 'Ology (Tim_ stole my thunder, dammit!!), but it's not going to be ready in time for this season. Presumably our tipping will be run through OZTips just as it has been in the past, but I have no idea who organises that. Tim's tipping setup on Demonology is pretty good.

Starts at 7:30 here. Ripper :D

Yep, Demonland (and thus, its owners and controllers) can get in a lot of trouble for facilitating the spreading of rumours and innuendo, especially when they're posted without any concrete evidence that they are factual.

Though I think everyone will agree that carrying an extra 5-10kgs in fat is not on.

I know what he's saying, I just don't agree. I highly doubt the club was completely unaware of what this kid's headspace was like. From what I understand though, he's a very talented footballer, so the recruitment staff decided that the risk, when weighed up against his talent, was worth it. I don't really believe that the fact that this very low-risk investment came unstuck is worthy of any real criticism or disappointment towards to the club at all. It's just the way it works with the rookie draft; some picks come off, some don't, for a variety of different reasons.

I don't think that's a particularly fair or true conclusion dd. The club would have weighed up his talent versus any issues he might have had. What if he'd made it and he had become a superstar? It'd be a huge recruiting coup and you'd be worshipping the ground CAC stood on. The great thing about the rookie draft is that it's an extremely low risk investment. This is one that didn't come off. If he'd been on the senior list I'd agree with you, but that's not how it panned out. I highly doubt it.

Completely agree, and well said. If he is really an addict of the drug everyone is implying then that is very, very bad news for Ben Cousins. I've seen first hand what that drug does to people, so if he's in deep then you can forget about seeing him this season, and possibly forever. This is not the time for West Coast to concern themselves with getting Cousins back on the field. Yes, their primary business is to win premierships, but they also have a social responsibility to their players. The last thing in the world this guy needs right now is the pressures of professional sport. His head is in the wrong place right now.

I find it very hard to believe that he'd be suspended indefinitely for just missing training. I guess we'll find out in roughly 41 minutes.