Nasher

The go home was just an excuse to leave Brisbane, surely. I have to admit I struggle a bit with the number of grown men who seem unable to survive living a 2 hour plane flight away from their home city.

Do you take that view about people in general, or just football players?

Happy to go on record and say there is absolutely no chance, whatsoever, that he is going anywhere. Zero. No source, just confidence: belief in his character and belief that players would want to stay at Melbourne.

Why would he leave?!

There would be a degree of setness to it. A few times I’ve seen Gawn smash it out to Brayshaw running at full pace. That kind of play has to premeditated. They would also have to plan for the unlikely event that Gawn doesn’t win the tap as well I guess!

I wasn’t expecting him to be the huge possession winner he is. Has had over 30 possessions in 4 of his 12 games, and at least two of those where he didn’t were prior to finally being put in the guts. Having an outstanding season. I wasn’t as worried as many others that he wouldn’t hit his straps, but nonetheless it’s a relief to see him out the other side of the issues and playing with confidence.

Am I the only one who thinks his form (or lack of) is being overplayed? He's not going that badly. Not great, but not badly. He's just a victim of excessive expectations in my opinion.

Bloody Burgoyne will be the first to 500 games at this rate.

Hi old dee, I know first hand of occasions where things being said on the forum have made its way back to a player. In one case, years ago a former moderator on this forum got collared at the footy by the parent of a player who was demanding answers about why we continued to allow false and damaging information about his son to be published. If you reckon Demonland is a neat little box where we can say whatever we want and it has no real world consequences, you would be dead wrong.

I understand people are frustrated by his form, but I draw the line at accusations that are 100% conjecture with no basis in fact. Don’t make things up when you have no idea if it’s true or not. You might think it harmless, but it doesn’t take long at all for someone’s speculation to become the common wisdom.

I wouldn’t bother. I think we’re past the point where we retain decent but undependable players just in case they come good. That’s definitely where I’d put Kent. Seems 1/3 in form, 1/3 out of form and 1/3 injured. At this stage I’d say he’s most welcome to explore other opportunities.

Watts gets a hard time because he’s obviously got god given talent that could make him a genuine star of the game. That’s why he gets more heat than Joe Average on the fringe of the side. You can’t use the “only 22 spots in the side” here; if Watts delivered on his talent then he’d still get picked if there was only 5 spots in the side. That to me justifies the intrigue around him, but it doesn’t justify why people used to wail and get nasty as if they were personally affronted when Watts was disappointing. For some reason he doesn’t have the drive or competitive edge to really take the bull by the horns. So be it, many don’t.

This poster was also famous for “I’ve had enough of Tom McDonald” a few years ago. If you’d run a book on hardest bundle dropper I’d have wagered the house.

It’s not that interesting; there is absolutely zero chance Brayshaw goes to Freo. More chance of us getting Andrew here than Angus going there, and even then that’s remote.

Okay, I’m listening.

Um, I read their BF forum and all I saw was how to work Hogan or Brayshaw in to a trade. Their views aren’t worth squat.

I had literally never heard of Ed Langdon until the weekend when I saw a quarter of the Freo game. Just assumed he was from WA and a relative of that white haired muppet who used to play for West Coast and now makes a living stirring s*** in the WA footy media.

Bastinac has been running around in the NEAFL. He is on the brink of extinction as an AFL player.

Exactly. Huge chance to poll very well this year if current form continues.

There were plenty of wise heads on this forum in the early years who said this was how it would pan out, in that if we could convince him to stay in the early years he’d eventually grow out of the idea of returning to Perth. A strong bond with his teammates, a Victorian girlfriend, a club that has actively supported him during his more homesick periods and a bit of team success would (and has) created a sense of home in Melbourne. In my opinion the risk of him going has now completely evaporated. It may resurface when he’s a 30 year old, 200 game player looking to transition his life and spend his last contract at “home”, but by then with 3 flags and 2 Brownlows to his name, I’ll happy wave him goodbye with thanks, knowing he was a loyal Demon when it mattered.

It’s so hard to have this conversation with a straight face.

Maybe they’ll bully him when we play them like Adelaide did with Lever.

I know a few of the Casey watchers were all over him, but the impression I got was that he was an undersized key forward with a better than average leap. I was expecting a poor man’s Jeremy Howe, which didn’t excite me much. Nobody told me he would be a gun wing. He covers heaps of the ground, plays a tough brand and is so clean with the ball. I can’t believe our luck. By the way I reckon it’s a huge endorsement for the Casey system. The fact that players like Fritsch and Smith chose Casey as their clubs of choice to get noticed by the AFL system, then both got selected by Melbourne, sends a loud message to all players wanting a shot: come play for Casey; if you’re good enough, you will be noticed and given the chance to develop. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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I often wonder what happens behind the scenes with these multi-sport talents - especially the basketballers, when they’ve chosen the other sport, then suddenly rock up at Cat B rookies in the AFL. Given that there’s daylight between the career prestige and cash between the NBA and the AFL, you would owe it to yourself to have a crack at the former first and fall back to the latter when it was obvious it was not going to happen.