RalphiusMaximus

There are no speed issues. What I really look forward to is seeing this guy after he's had a real pre-season. Remember that he came to us recovering from surgery and didn't do a full load for a fair bit of the pre-season this time around. He can get bigger, stronger and faster.

I think we've done ok with Rookies. Jamar, Junior, Robbo, Bruce, even Nev although he's a special case. I don't know how we stack up in terms of the number of rookies we keep, but we've had some pretty good quality ones over the years.

He was also 22 when he started playing for us. Meanwhile, the Hulk looks like holding the lead in the contested mark stakes, one ahead of Hooker from the Bombers. They're starting to put a gap on the rest of the field. I think Hogan had significantly harder conditions to play under to get his as well.

Either last year or the year before.

I love the way he uses that little swivel of the hitps to break the tackle as he steps him. It's a damn nice little move. He seems to be the sort who takes it upon himself. When the game was looking shaky, he was one of the players who really threw themselves in there and refused to let it get away. That's something we've lacked for the last few years and it was great to see.

I don't see anything bad in there? Is it the fact that he says he'll be cheering them on?

I've been thinking kind of Jarrod Molloy at Brisbane. A slightly heavy forward wrecking ball.

Just a little note that I loved. Cross burned him on the lead and kicked it over his head to a pack for an easy turnover. Aaron didn't hesitate to let him know about it. That's a first gamer telling off a guy with over 200 games to his name. He's just slotted in as if he's been playing with us for years.

He'd be well worth a look. I'm sure the recruiting department are keeping an eye on him to see how he adapts to the game. How awesome would it be to have Lovett extract the ball, pass off to Stretch on the wing who nails the inside 50 pass to Lyon?

We go into the draft with two live picks and I'm backing Brayshaw and Lever to be the one's we take. Brayshaw has been a lock for quite a long time and Lever looks like he could be a great player with his impressive work ethic and athletic attributes (plus Roos likes the kid).

Petracca or Brayshaw look to the be the options, but Roos tends to surprise so I guess we'll see who he likes the look of.

I've been liking the look of him too. I know it's unlikely, but I'd hope if he slipped we'd snatch him up with our second round pick or if we'd traded for a later first rounder. Agree with this. The Saints are desperate for a quality tall forward so Nick isn't carrying the side on his own, but they also only have a couple of decent mids and their backline are all getting to their used-by date. They even need a ruck. There is seriously no area where they don't need players, so it's far from a sure thing that they'll take a tall early, especially if they can trade for one from somewhere.

Is Nev's lady pregnant? If so we need to get him up to the 100 game mark in preparation.

So if Mitch wants to go to the Saints as some are reporting, we'd want to include swapping pick 2 for pick one in the deal. Otherwise they get their key forward and Petracca and we're shafted again.

I saw him play once. He wasn't great, but there were a few flashes of awesome in there. When he gets in space his pace is blistering. He just needs to get a bit bigger so they can't just bully him out of it. Saw him do an amazing run down the wing and nail the pass to HF which led to a goal. Even if he doesn't play next year, I think we'll be keeping him on past his first contract.

The footage was interesting. He can take a mark which is always nice to see. He stands up in tackles and dishes well under pressure. His hand pass is good, his kick is long but average. Looked to be a fairly high trajectory which I don't like. It was hard to get an idea of his pace, but he seemed to have a pretty quick first few steps to get a little space. I'd say concerns over pace and kicking, but a legitimate ball-winning mid. I'm not sure I'd rave about him the way some are, but I'd need to see more than that clip.

They make him sound a lot like Dangermouse. He seems to have broken clear to be the highest ranked mid in the draft, and we could certainly use someone with those attributes. Sadly GWS also seem pretty set on him, so it could be difficult. What are the chances of the Saints surprising everyone and taking him instead of a tall forward with fist pick?

What we need is to put "leadership" and "potential" at the bottom of the list and "Able to play the game" and "Can hit a moving target" right at the top. It's a bit of a reversal on what we've done the last few years, but I think it could pay off.

SEN were talking up Wright as being the best tall prospect they have seen. They rate him higher than Danniher. It would be awesome to have Gawn rucking with Wright and Hogan forward. Imposing. Especially with Watts and Salem delivering the ball to them.

I actually really rate Cross. He may not be in the same league as Vince on the field, but he is setting such a good example around the club. Ask a Bulldogs supporter and they will tell you that he had a lot to do with the development of their young mids through is mentoring and training example. He's doing the same thing with our group now and we are going to see some huge benefits from it in the next couple of years. If we're lucky we'll manage to shift him from playing straight into a development/coaching role in a couple of years and continue to benefit from his skills in this area.

Did really well in the agility tests at the combine and has shown that he can play. We could do worse, but as has been mentioned, would probably want to go to a WA-based side.

The manager stands to make a lot more if he goes to Carlton. There are plenty of little brown bags to go around, plus jobs at Visy and sponsorships. Totally agree with this. Even if you look at the way Roos played the game, he wasn't overly physical but he held his own, didn't shirk and could stand tall and take the contested pack mark when it was there to take. He would be a great playing model for Jack to emulate.

The problem with Watts is that too often when he's in a position to contest for the ball he gives half an effort and the opposition get a clean possession. We saw it on Sunday a few times where the ball was loose in the forward line. Despite his clear advantage in speed and size he was unwilling to throw himself in there and his opponent won the ball through a superior show of desperation. This is something we see week in week out from Jack and it needs to stop. He suffers from the same issue as Jamie Bennell in that he always tries to avoid body contact and instead wants to ghost past the contest and pinch the ball on his way through. It works maybe once in ten or twenty tries, and the rest of the time the player who goes in with their whole body makes him look hopeless. I don't know if it's possible to cure him of this, but it needs to be attempted if he's ever going to be any real use.

I suppose nobody else has read this. Puts it all in a bit more perspective. As I said earlier, the article saying Watts wants out is nothing more than speculation citing other speculative pieces as sources. It has no real value other than [censored]-stirring. Typical bored lazy journalism at the HS.

I rather like the mention of at least eight clubs interested in the lad. If he does tell the club that he wants out, we can auction him off and get some good compensation for him. I'd put Gold Coast in the box seat at this stage given the other rumour that Prestia wants to come back to Victoria. Of course, given that this article relies entirely upon unnamed "sources" saying that Jack wants to be traded and backs itslef up by citing other HS articles, I don't think it actually has much factual basis other than the fact that Jack is out of contract. I note with interest that they mention that we haven't re-signed Frawley who is not even out of contract until the end of 2014. Poor research does not make me take this article seriously.