Nasher

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.

I laughed. Then I cried.

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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.

We respond to posts as they get reported using the “report post” feature or as we stumble across them. We don’t read every single post - that’s doubly true during very busy periods like the trade period. Sometimes if I’m busy, 10 pages will be added to threads in between me viewing. If you see untoward things happening in threads, use the “report post” feature to bring it to a moderators attention.

Prestia choosing Melbourne also would have required Melbourne to choose Prestia, of course. The vast majority of the time the players are going to choose the club that pursues them the hardest.

“Indefinite” almost literally means “not sure”.

I feel for McCartin. The way the footy public crush these early picks with expectations and them flog them mercilessly with them disgusts me. He needs to be given time and patience, there’s no doubt about it. I don’t feel for the Saints fans though. Years of being kicked while down by other supporters has made me bitter and spiteful. I get a bit of a kick at seeing them seethe.

BigFooty Aints supporter comment of the day: Well on todays exhibition the Paddy V Petracca has been settled once and for all - we should have picked Brayshaw! Eat a bag, Aints!

Summary of the last page of this thread: Oscar is a dud because he couldn’t stop a perfectly weighted kick, nor chase down Essendon’s fastest player who some other dope in a Melbourne jumper let get 30 metres in space. Sweet.

Don’t see much of the Aints, bb? Roberton is an AFL grade defender who has been around a while (128 games).

@Grapevineywill be happy! Me too for that matter. It’s a disgrace to have a member of the media so willing to trash the club representing it on its official podcast. It’s a bit petty but I hope he was escorted away rather than “stepping”.

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While I'm supportive of (and pleased by) the social aspect of this decision, I highly doubt it's any more than a side effect of a decision that was otherwise 100% business. The current administration hasn't done anything to suggest it operates in any way other than a shrewd one. I'm surprised you're not prepared to cut them some slack and let this play out before flying off the handle.

You don't think it reasonable that people's view might evolve as life experience grows? 2010 for me was 50% of my adult life ago and I can tell you that my knowledge on the topic at hand and desire to explore it was precisely zero.

Very pleasing news. Hopefully there is a plan to minimise or ideally negate the impact to the bottom line. The argument that this does nothing to address the social issue because someone else will just pick up the licenses is just rubbish. The best way to initiate change is to lead it, and that's what the MFC have done. Let's see how many other AFL clubs are still operating these venues in 3 years time.

As we're all well aware of, crushing teams does rely on the crushee giving way as much as the crusher getting the job done. I'm not convinced the Brisbane side last night lent itself to a crushing, but I'm also not convinced I'm not just telling myself that to avoid facing the truth.

A couple of points: To you it's good info, to everyone else it's information from somebody called "Beetle" and we have no way of judging the veracity of it other than your word. It's not personal, but people are entitled to be sceptical. We have seen a *lot* of this type of information before and it varies from correct, to a mangled chinese whisper, to an outright lie. Often the poster could be correctly relaying what they heard but their source got the wrong end of the stick. Secondly, people will be doubtful about this particular item because it just sounds unlikely after the year he had. On top of that, it beggars belief that no other club would be interested. There's no need to get pissy about it when people question your post, it is inevitable and perfectly reasonable for that to happen. Try to understand a little bit where people are coming from.

I was expecting a feature article on Fritsch, and what I read was a bunch of dribble about the Watts trade with a few anecdotes about Fritsch. The quality of journalism in the AFL is pus.

It's not breaking news that Watts is a good player who can really turn it on from time to time. That never was, and never will be the issue.