RalphiusMaximus

I think a case could be made for the HBF for several teams. Lots of sides now like to set up their play through their rebounding HBF who will distribute to the mids and half forwards to create their attacking moves.

From a fans perspective, I'd love it if every player's salary were public. It would be really interesting, we could get a real idea of which players are value for money and which weren't (Cough Scully cough) and we could look at our own list and compare what we get for $400,000 to what the Hawks or Geelong do. If I played the game, I would be dead set against it.

I have a feeling that we're going to see the introduction of a fast, linebreaking HBF with a good boot on him this season. I'm not sure which option it will be though. Hunt or White, either one will make me happy.

Yay for derailing threads. How about we just agree that we're ALL Heroes? Personally, I can't get to many training sessions, so I really appreciate the insights from those who do go along and share it with us. The different perspectives give us a great idea of how the team is tracking, and personally I love Saty's little interactions with the players as it gives yet another angle from which to view training. Great work to everyone who keeps turning up and I really hope you don't let the trolls get to you.

Tom's kicking is actually not terrible. The problem is his decision-making, and fortunately that is something that can be fixed.

Well hell, why don't we just bring Strauss back and make him FB? He's a great kick, can set up play, has pace. He can't defend or win a 1-1 contest to save himself, but apparently those aren't qualities we look for in a key defender, so it won't be a real loss.

I did. When Bailey was coaching it looked like the local side down the park. They yelled a lot, dropped balls all over the place and generally stuffed around. Neeld got rid of that crap and tried to make them act like they were professional athletes. Unfortunately he turned out to have no people skills and alienated pretty much the entire list by being too blunt and harsh. Roos came in and said basically he same things as Neeld, followed a lot of the same strategies, but he has the people skills and the experience to sell it to the players and the supporters. It's still the same mantra of get them fitter and bring in some older, bigger and more experienced players to balance the young list, but Roos managed to get better quality imports and got the playing group behind him.

Not just find space but strip the ball from him, find space and kick the damn goal.

To all of you who actually can run 3k, my utmost respect. Even before I busted a few bits I would have struggled doing those sort of times. I was never much of a runner.

Forget the Brownlow, I want him winning a Norm Smith. Jordie is actually pretty good at winning inside ball. He could be used in a Luke Ball sort of role where he wins the contested ball and hand passes out. His hand passing is actually pretty good, it's just that we can't let him kick it.

How to attract members in two steps: Advertise. Get members to wear demonland caps to games or something. Stop the trolling BS. The mods need to do their jobs and keep threads on track. Every thread I read winds up being derailed by the same few posters reenacting the same tired arguments. You'd be amazed how much these two things would do to improve the place.

I was thinking this too, but I have a feeling they're more likely to go with Gawn as the Ruck/Forward to switch with Jamar. I'd love it if he did manage to push into the side though.

I just want the kids who've had so many random injury and illness issues to be healthy for a few years and show us what they can really do.

Fourth Photo. I want to see that in our forward line next year.

Wasn't that Armstrong's only game for the year?

I think the big issue is durability. Reports on him all mentioned his injury interrupted season causing him to drop. His highlights look very good in terms of courage, intercept marking and kicking. From what I've been able to find he is behind a lot of his fellow draftees in the fitness stakes, again largely due to injury, and there is a big question of whether his body will hold up to AFL. If Misson can work his magic and get his body sorted he'll be a great pickup.

Happy now.

This post made my day. Possibly not for the reasons it was meant to.

I really do hope Fitz can make it. I've backed him from before he was drafted and he would just be a great story for the club, as well as giving us another scoring option. Even if he goes at two goals a game as he has shown he can so far, that's 40+ for the season, well above what we've been getting from any players the last few years. If we got that from Fitz, Hogan and Garlett our attack would look far better. I've said it before, if you watch live games you will see Watts leading time after time and being ignored by his teammates. He will burn off his opponent and lead into wide open spaces seven or eight times to get one pass which is generally directed behind him to his opponent's advantage. It's no wonder he always looks stuffed. If we can get some better kicking and decision-making at half back and through the midfield you will see Watts' possession count skyrocket as they actually take the option he presents and put the ball to his advantage. Once the ball is in his hands there are no worries.

The opposite in fact. All the evidence we have says that Jones wants to sign ad the club is quibbling over the length of the deal. If this is true then they should be ashamed of themselves. Give him whatever length he wants to keep him at the club.

Roos won't give them games for the sake of giving them games. They have to earn it. Part of the reason we have a raft of imported 20-25 year old mids is that they become the "incumbents" that need to be knocked off to win a spot in the side. The young players are challenged to show the form and professionalism to take a spot off one of the older guys, and the older guys are challenged to play well, maintain form and hold on to their spot with a pack of young guns nipping at their heels.

I tend to think either #7 or maybe has an important family/friends thing and asked the club for a leave of absence to attend. I don't see any great reason to imagine disastrous scenarios over such a small matter.

The problem with this stance is that precedent is against it. Wade Lees imported a banned substance on the recommendation of his club doctor and was banned for two years. He never even took it. They were able to prove that the club doctor told him to take the stuff, but the authorities said it was still up to him to make sure it was safe to take and he should have checked with ASADA before importing it. Same principal applies here. The players have multiple methods available to them to check if the drugs are legal. There's even a mobile phone app. Not one of them thought to double check. It's on them.

Lots of discussion of what would/should happen in a court of law in this thread. I think we all need to reassess based on the fact that this is not going to be judged in a court, but in front of the notoriously inconsistent and politically guided AFL tribunal with no media in attendance. Given the way it has been handled so far and the decision to close the hearing, you have to question whether the AFL is planning on playing this one straight. They have a long and proud history of quietly sweeping things under the carpet in the name of not making a fuss and maintaining the appearance of propriety (such as not finding Melbourne guilty but fining them anyway and suspending coaches). I suspect the discussions at the tribunal (behind closed doors) will center more on what penalty will satisfy ASADA, give the appearance of punishing the guilty and make it look like the issue has been fully resolved and never has to be mentioned again. I also suspect that no matter what they decide behind those closed doors, they have already failed in their attempt to maintain appearances. If they let the players off lightly, the vast majority of the football world will think they have half-assed the hearing and swept it all under the mat. If they punish them according to the standard penalties, the Essendon fans will never believe that they have been treated fairly. The only way the AFL could have come out of this looking good was if they made the hearing public. Hiding it has virtually guaranteed that this issue won't die.

I was just reading the Roos interview in the magazine they sent out. I don't know what it is about him, but the way he expresses himself gives you such confidence in what he's doing. He just has the knack for saying the right thing.