montasaurus

Are you being serious? or joking? I cant work it out.

We have the youngest team in the leauge! Not everyone can fit in!

I'm still in london, so it will be tough for me to actually see it, but im really excited to see the boys play again.

Grimes is the one I will be watching.

Don't forget the near full list of fit snr players as well. Its been a while! Maybe thats why we are used to seeing 1st year players at this stage. I for one think its a good thing, make them earn it, work hard etc rather then gift it on a plate. Also ensuring conditioning is correct

As do I, I would have said no more than 500 at a stretch

Don't know which game you were watching, but there would have been over 500 just in the main stand, close to the same either side and another few hundred around the ground. Also after the game there were people everywhere on the ground I would suggest atleast 1000 stayed plus leaving there was a big que to get out just after the game so easy 1500-2000. A media report on sunday had it at 2500. Surely all the official reports can't be wrong. Its a big ground so the crowds can look thin.

the reason why no team will be in tassie is because AFL players wont live there, and the AFL dont want to insult tassie by saying it, do u think a first round pick from Victoria will live in tassie for 12 years, i would not think so, great state but a young lad from the mainland is not going to want to spend a decade in tassie,the crows struggle with it, so down there will be 10 times worse.

careful, same could have been said about brisbane or sydney when they 1st started.

Hence concession sides now receive when they start. So long as they are paying the bills players will want to play there it may not be their 1st choice but many don't get their choice these days anyway. Also they would have unrestricted access to the "local talent". I would rather see a side in tassie any day ahead of west syd.

i hate collingwood as much as the next bloke don't get me wrong, but this sort of decision leads me to be increasingly disillusioned with the game. Take the teams out of it for a second. The tribunal ruled that he had a realistic alternative thatn to bump and that was to go for the ball. had he gone for the ball he would have been under extreme pressure from the opposition player. he knew he had a team mate behind him. He decided to utilise one tool players have and that was to use a shepherd to clear a path so his teamate could run onto it and have some time and space. he did what we're taught from the earliest of ages and that is to shepherd your team mates. he did the smartest thing from his position to advantage his team. it is ludicrous to suspend a player for this. its a contact sport. i feel for the young kid from WC but its just simple bad luck. accidents happen. it's apart of this vicious tough hard sport we love. Sure have a rule in place to stop clokes trying to take heads off. And protect the player with his head over the ball. this is clearly not one of the occasions where that rule is applicable. I for one am absolutely sick and tired of the AFL changing rules and interpretations every year. No other professional sport would have so many changes from year to year. it's ridiculous. Leave it alone. If it's not broke don't fix it. I'm sick of the AFL trying totake the physicality out of the sport. The bump and shirtfront is an integral part of the game. It needs to remain. It's what seperates the men from the boys. People undertake this sport knowing full well its very physical and people get hurt. It's part and parcel of the game.

Let Maxwell off, for the sake of the game.

Agree with everything you say apart from the last. Leave him hanging from the tree, but put it in the media so that it doesn't happen again (the report I mean)!

According to ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake a "Melbourne-North Melbourne merger is the most likely scenario that would fast-track Tasmania's inclusion into the AFL." AFL merger scenario

No wonder Australian banks are stuffed!

That dirty M word again!

if in 10mths time <edit> if we are bottom 3 and still sponserless don't rule it out!

red and blue will win out I think, but personally white stood out better on SAT as the logo is more defined

I have to agree even though it is Colling@###! This was a perfectly fair shepherd with absolutely no intent of causing injury. Gee, the great Noel McMahen would have been lucky to have played half a dozen games if this NETBALL rule of today had been in vogue.

What ever happened to within 5m of the ball? as a player you used to have a duty of care to yourself to know what was coming from the side and directly towards you prior to commiting to the contest. Maybe the netball association aka AFL rules have taken this away? Don't get me wrong I'm all for players who jump into others heads, or take the head of a player bent over the ball, but for mine the WCE player was fair game! its not U16's

Heres the incident.

His eyes are on the man, not on the ball. And makes contact to the jaw/neck/head area with the full force of his shoulder.

Just looked at it again, PLAY ON! and its not even a filth player lying on the ground (But then again I'm a bit old fashioned!)

HT - your so right about tribunal things like this should be black and white for the rest of the year black and white!

Initially last night i thought its about time, the filth finally cop one.

But this concerned me thinking a bit more this morning. The way I saw the incident was the young WCE player was within a couple of meters of the ball, maxwell was initally running in the same direction and as his team mate approached the ball he simply changed direction and put on an excellent shepard. IMHO the result (Broken Jaw) dictated the tribunal process rather then the action. I hope this is not going to become the norm as 4 weeks (even if they are junk weeks at this stage) is still 4 weeks.

Firstly I would hate to see a great 1%'er like this removed from the game.

Secondly if the result of an action likely to put you into the tribunal will tackles like wheelan put on N.Brown suddenly be cited for rough conduct due to the outcome, or the tackle on bruce in 06 that fixed up his shoulder? Lets just hope this one is a flash in the pan and like I initially put down the filth finally coped a bad one (Is Eddy Mc-Bribe on holidays or something?)!

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/maxw...4632812113.html

in this article maxwell claims that it was his head that made contact which is consistant with my memory of the incident, i.e., he did not make intentional high contact.

Lack of defensive skills and physical pressure will limit his role down back.

Re davey down back agree, but if we play a 1/4back position like hodge I could see davey fulfilling this role well at times as a player setting up play. I Still think he is best in the forward line with the odd run in the middle, not the other way around.

Tiger have some really cheap flights going and I was wondering if it would be easy to get tickets to this game. Not much point flying in and out and watching the game on tv. Since we both relatively suck at the moment will there be any trouble?

Do you mean the hawks?

I watched a couple of games at the weekend and it was obvious that quite a few players across the board were rusty with their skills and disposal. It's too early to make a comment on how much we can improve. Sure, we have a battle ahead but I won't be criticising the players for a few skill errors in mid Feb as some dill on 'ology has been doing.

I actually thought that we were clean and sharp. One or two real bad ones but generally good skills and fast movement of the ball. Great starting point for us and more importantly bar JR no injury concerns out of the game!

Monty you have a bad case of the hoopla.

Maybe i was in the sun for too long over the weekend!

I trust the ground broke into rapturious applause every time he dashed out with a coach's message

Did i miss the media release stating that watts would not play on sat? I think a lot turned up just to see him play, and talking to a few of the punters waiting for the tucker shop at 1/2 time the majority had turned up for that general reason. I think your selling his current impact to the club in general a little short be it playing or not.

for the record, I was close to the bench and yes there where times where there was some applause as he ran messages!. (Good hussel #4!)

1 run - Just as well or I might have lost all faith!

What are we doing with players who are struggling at state level getting a game, yet a bloke who has dominated all year is left as 12th man? Would have something to do with the Aust. A side (AKA blues) playing victoria in a shield game? Something smells funny to me.....

Does anyone know how many touches strauss had on sat?

it was interesting that blease will not play any footy for 10 weeks, was he the runner for the red team?

Oh yeah, do you think just maybe a deal like that would depend on the outcome of the warnock deal?

BINGO we have a winner!

You would not trade 1 of 2 ruckmen unless you were replacing one. At that stage spencer and messen are both question marks for 09.

Whoa horsey. Jack Watts could be that iconic player in 3 years time and if he is the "star" will be a crowd and member magnet. But FCS, there is alot of water (think Ingham!) to flow under the bridge before he is at that stage. There is no surity that he will indeed be considered for selection at such an early stage.

Rhino are you suggesting that JW is not responsible for new members signing up already? 2.5k for a practice match for last years wooden spooners isn't a bad figure at all considering the game was moved last minute. I think you could be selling him a little short, many there on Sat were there to see JW (not nesicarly only JW, but most would have been there to have a look at him).

Does anyone know how many were at the 08 intra club game?

I was wrapped that the club did not play him are are taking the "safe" approach to his and other's conditioning. Not withstanding this he is currently one of our most marketable players moving forward (apologies to Davey and Wonna).

Two words ------- ELEVATE SPENCER

Dunno when the russian is back but spencer looks the goods to me

The big russ would still be our #1 ruck. 1 scratch match is a long way from rd 1. I hope spencer plays really well during the nab cup and puts pressure on the list if there is a long term inj.

Both versions looked good on sat. If I had the choice I would go with the white one.

However all my comments above are probably useless..... as I spent alot of my day watching the runner.... sure he didn't get a kick but he ran well!!

I had a dear old lady sitting next to me for the 1st half. Every time a player came off she asked me if that's Jack. The 1st time she asked i said no thats valenti, I think jacks a little taller . Made me laugh! (Good hussel #4!)

but he will be worth 100's if not 1000's of new members! I can't remember the last time we had somebody like this that people come to watch 1 player. its exciting and looking forward to 10 weeks time when his ready to play!

We need our midfield to stand up! If it does were a real big chance. I'm sure quite a bit of confidence can be taken from sat game. We looked polished from where I was sitting.

Can someone who was there tell us how brock, maloney and bell went please?

GO DEES GO

Bell did a couple of good things early but under no pressure kicked a ball out on the full later in the game trying to hit a leading target. Probably much the same as what we have seen from him over the years. Both brock and maloney looked good but played at best 50% of the game each

Jack Watts

Cale Morton

Rohan Bail

James Strauss

Aussie Woneamirri

Colin Sylvia

Brent Moloney

Jamie Bennel

from a demon in Seattle!

Thanks in advance!!!

I missed the first 10minutes or so due to the ground being a little futher then I expected and heaps of road works!!

Jack Watts - I was mentioned he will not play any footy until rd 3 and is on a modified program plus VCE

Cale Morton - Easily in the best 5 on the day. Class written all over him and no disposal issues

Rohan Bail - Fast and classy, I think will play next week v Hawks

James Strauss - Didn't have his number but may have mentioned him in their reports on the other thread

Aussie Woneamirri - BOG by a mile!

Colin Sylvia - Tried hard and spent a lot of time off the ground

Brent Moloney - as above

Jamie Bennel - Played well and like bail likely to play next week!

Didn't see rivers but it sounds like he went off injured before I got there

The two best things I saw for the day was both Bails at half time and Jimmy at 3/4 time having a kick with the kids! This is the sort of stuff that will put bums on seats in the future! Great stuff!

Interested too. Also did Ricky P play in the middle or off HBF? Buckley played in the centre? Green a forward yet?

Spencer looks to be getting the go ahead with Jamar out - SPENCER SET FOR NAB CUP CALL-UP

Ricky P was excellent through the middle, buckley spent a lot of the time on the bench and didn't do a lot that I noticed. Green was deep in defense for most of the game. Spencers stoppage work was excellent but if he does play don't hand ball the thing to him. Wonna was by far the best and miller has to play deep forward for mine. Cale Morton was the other standout for me, skills and space but turned blindly into play a couple of times and got caught. All the new aboriginal recruits were also very good and almost looked a class above everybody else. Valenti was also a very consitient contributor as well.

P.s. Just got home, what a drive!

Very interesting to see in the members email that came out today - the pic of Mark Jamar holding a Hisense banner in a posed photo? Could this mean something? They have been promoting their brand throughout Melbourne obviously with the naming rights to the old Vodafone arena?! They might just well want to promote themmselves on our jumpers...

I did hear 2 days ago that "we are about to get some good news, watch this space" but many of us have heard this enough reciently and it definately was not inregards to the MCC re-union speculation. Still lets still cross our fingers. I wonder if there might be some big news saturday or next week in line with a membership drive?