RalphiusMaximus

Blease just needs to learn that he's just as fast running the other way.

Well done to Salem on making his debut. Best of luck to the lad.

I say not yet. Like others I would like to see him doing it week-in week-out before promoting him. On top of that, I don't think Sydney is a great team to be debuting him against. They aren't likely to bully him as such, but they will make life very hard for him. I say better to start him against a lesser opponent.

This is where we differ I think. You are looking at it from the perspective of the next game and weakening the team. It is true that we will be giving up a weapon if we drop Watts. However, I think that in the long run the team as a whole is better off if we do drop him and keep him dropped until he gets his head around what he needs to do on the field. We may be worse off in the next few games, but in the long run not only will he be better for it (or show us that he isn't an AFL player), but the team will be better with the precedent having been set. The longer we let him keep doing what he's doing the harder it will be to change it.

My one big problem with Dawes' game was the turn and snap attempt. He had a teammate running past. He could have given the handpass and shepherd and let someone else run into an open goal and instead he went for glory and stuffed it. Isn't this exactly what he had a go at JKH for last game? Admittedly, I think hte teammate in question might have been Spencer which could count as a mitigating circumstance, but even so...

I think the obvious answer is that Watts can. That's the entire point of this discussion. It's not that we have a better ball-user waiting in the wings to take his spot, it's that Roos keeps preaching about non-negotiables and culture. If he's serious about that, then he can't let Jack keep jogging around the field giving half an effort when he feels like it. He needs to back up the talk with action and make a statement that that sort of attitude is unacceptable in a professional AFL player. Give him a set of clearly defined goals to achieve before he gets back into the side and let him loose at Casey. Hell, send him to train with the Storm for a month and see if he doesn't figure it out. Just don't let him keep doing this in the senior side.

Isn't that what the reserves are for? So the promising players can have a sheltered place to learn how to play to the standards we need without hurting the team? Send him back to Casey until he learns to use his body, even if it means he's played his last game for the year.

What we saw today were two teams where every single player goes in hard regardless of whether they are regarded as inside, outside, ruck or anything else. They all give 100%, they all work hard off the ball, they all do the one percenters. This is the culture that Roos is trying to give us here, and we are a hell of a long way off getting it right, not because of the skill level, but because of the commitment of the players.

I don't think they count them if the players gets the ball away. As for Watts, what I would love to see is the leadership group dropping him rather than the coach. That would be a huge statement that the culture Roos wants is beginning to take with the players setting the standards. Either way, I don't think he should be playing seniors until he can show he wants to be in the jumper, but for mine it would be better coming from the playing group. I will add an incident that really annoyed me. Watts was chasing a player through the middle. His man looked to kick hurriedly due to the pressure, and the moment he motioned that way Watts stopped chasing. As a result, his man was suddenly not under pressure an decided to keep running and nailed a pass into the forward 50 under no pressure at all. If Watts had just followed through for a few more steps they would have had a rushed kick into the forward half instead of a mark inside 50. Again, lack of effort and intent. I know I'm going on about this a bit, but the guy can do so much for the team when he puts in, it's painful to watch him plod around not giving a stuff.

Hard to argue with those, but I think you went easy on Watts. Maybe - Heartless. Drop him.

I'd like to highlight Viney's attempt to stop Ablett. He was clinging to him like a baby monkey, but Ablett just took it and got the ball away anyway. Awesome commitment from Viney and amazing strength and composure from the best in the business.

It's very easy to dismiss criticism with little three word slogans like this. It's something our current PM excels at. Sadly, it utterly fails to address the issue. Watts was terrible today. He was disinterested, lazy and more interested in winning free kicks than winning the ball. Basically, he was everything Roos tells us he doesn't want in his side. You can dismiss this as "mindless Watts bashing" all you like, but I am one of the few who have stood up for Jack from the start and as far as I'm concerned he needs to go back to Casey and prove to the team that he wants to be there.

On the Watts debate, I have frequently defended him over the years, but I just can't do it today. He gave us a glimpse early on with a pinpoint pass to Dawes on the HFF, but then simply vanished. We've all seen the bit of footage by now of him being bustled off the ball and simply conceding (presumably hoping for a free). He did that sort of thing far too often today. He repeatedly jogged for half-hearted leads instead of sprinting into the space to get some separation. As has been mentioned, he laid a tackle and then just sat and watched the contest continue a few feet away when he should have been back on his feet and chasing the next target. He repeatedly failed to hold marks that should be simple for a player of his abilities. Roos talks about his desire to produce a player-driven culture of non-negotiable benchmarks. If he's serious about that then Watts has to be dropped. You can't let someone fail at so many of the "non-negotiables" and keep their spot in the side. He needs to show his teammates that he is willing and able to put in when it's his turn, take a hit if he has to and get the job done. Georgiou - Honestly, I have a lot of sympathy for him today. Yes, he was well beaten at times, but he's playing on a guy 9cm taller who broke records at draft camp for his jumping ability. There is no way in hell He'll win in a 1-1 marking contest against Day. I also think McDonald wasn't as bad as some are saying. He simply met his match today. We all know that Tom Lynch is going to be a star. That's why we wanted him so desperately and why our recruiters got sucked in to taking Cook when he wasn't available anymore. He was a little too big, too strong and too quick for TMac today, but Tommy kept fighting and kept taking him on when he had the ball in hand. This would be the definitive "honourable loss." I love the improving chemistry between Dawes and Frawley. They are starting to work out how to play together, and we saw a great example with Frawley's second. The Umpires today were absolutely diabolical. As always, they managed to pay enough meaningless frees on the flanks to keep the count close, but the number of umpire-assisted scores to GC was an absolute disgrace. It is to their credit that the team lost by only 8 points given they were playing against 21 opponents at any given time. That being said, the scoreline flattered us. GC were very wasteful in front of goal in the first half and should have been a lot further ahead. We really need to work on picking up the ball cleanly. We often had first hands to the ball at stoppages but the constant fumbling again let the cleaner opposition take the ball from us and run with it. Closely related to this is our ongoing issue of being unable to handpass at a height between hip and shoulder. Far too often we seem to have players passing either to their target's ankles or above their heads. This is a basic skill of the game that you would expect the average ten year old to have nailed, yet it seems to elude our professional players. Incidentally, can you imagine what the response would be if a doctor were as mistake-prone as most of our players?

Maybe. I'd say the umpires giving them multiple free kicks inside their attacking 50 cost us the game personally. Disgraceful display today.

This I agree with 100%. I couldn't believe how half-assed his efforts were today. He jogged on the lead, he rarely chased and to cap it off he led his opponent to a loose ball on our HF flank and rather than going for the ball he played for the free and let them have it without a fight. He had no interest in putting in when it was his turn and was more focused on winning a free than on winning the ball at any contest he went to. Time for him to go back to Casey until he learns to put in and win his own ball.

I too had the Lions tonight. I thought Brown's 250 would be enough to get them moving up there, and for a while in the third it looked like they would, but then they turned off again and let the Tigers get a run on. Silly buggers.

Great news for Nev. I really hope he kills it this year and cements a spot on the list once and for all.

We're not just talking about this year. He's never produced the game to back up the hype. He is eye-catching when he uses his supreme speed and power to burst through the melee and clear the ball, or leaps clean over his opponent to take a screamer, but he only does it once or twice a game. He's averaged 20 hitouts over his career which is nowhere near enough for a top ruck and he doesn't offer enough around the ground to warrant the praise heaped upon him. I freely admit he impacts contests with his 1 percenters, but again this is basically only at stoppages when what he should be doing is getting a clean hitout to one of his mids. He can have an impact on contest, but like so many of the maligned players on our list, he needs to do it consistently through the game, not just a few times before fading out again.

His pace is the issue for the HB spot. We need speed back there. We have consistently been thrashed by teams with fast small forwards who run rings around our medium pace defenders and kick bags. It's no co-incidence that we finally beat Carlton when they've booted Betts and dropped Garlett, two players who used to tear us apart.

Career. This Season. Watts is even ahead on tackles this season.

Garry has just gotten stuck into NicNat on Footy Classified. Brought up his stats for this year to back up his point that NicNat is vastly overrated based on his potential to one day be a game-breaker. Points out that he is averaging only 2 marks and a dozen disposals a game and that the people sining his praises all talk about his amazing impact on the game that no stats are able to show. Basically what a lot of us have been saying for years.

I don't like these comparisons. Nate Jones is Nate Jones. He plays like Nate Jones, and that is hard at it, head over the ball and working his ass off for the whole game.

Just had a look at Trengove's draft combine results. He ran 2.97 in the 20m sprint. You have to wonder what's gone wrong since. I have been told by several sources that repeat 300's are great for endurance but will kill your speed unless they are offset by plenty of burst/speed training. Maybe the focus on distance work under Neeld is the issue? If that's the case you would hope that it is being worked on now and we are just having to wait for the effects to show.

Last year they had the videos in normal format available as well, but they seem to have decided to charge for access to them this year and the Smart Replay is utterly crapulent, so I won't be wasting my time with that. Guess I'll have to watch less football this year.