RalphiusMaximus

Pretty sure they told us a couple of weeks ago that he was running at training.

I would say if we were ever going to give Dom Barry a game this year Darwin would be the place for it. I agree that he's not ready, but he probably won't be this year anyway. Agree that Viney could probably use another week although his apparent exhaustion had a lot to do with the number of injuries during the match and thus less time on the bench. In reality though I just don't see that many changes to the side. You can't draw many conclusions from a game in which we were soundly thrashed in pretty much every department like that, especially given the conditions. Bringing in McKenzie for Nicholson maybe. Viney for someone maybe. We could very well see an unchanged lineup.

I don't think you can in any way criticise the drafting of Tapscott. He was very highly rated in that draft and we were surprised to see him drop to us. The posters on these boards at the time were in raptures about the devastating HF he was going to be. The fact that he hasn't panned out as well as people hoped can't be put down to a bad drafting decision when he was so highly rated.

I think we need to modify the OP a bit. Ball magnets who attack the footy, have clean hands, can hit targets under pressure, understand the need for hard work, have enough mongrel in them to fight over every ball and are fast both in terms of their rapid acceleration away from packs and on the sprint down the wing, while at the same time maintaining good lateral mobility to allow them to get out of heavy traffic. Yeah, two or three of those should help our side get itself together. I don't even care if they have good leadership or not.

Magner isn't allowed to play. He was elevated for Grimes. Now that Jack is back Magner is out of the picture.

19 i50's and 30 points? Sack that damn coach!

Interesting to look at Watts' stats. 10 disposals, 9 contested is a good sign, but 60% efficiency is not what we expect from him even in the wet. Better that Davey I guess.

Why would you bother trying to hit a target when you can bomb it long without any thought? Good tactics Neal. Keeping it simple so the players don't have to worry.

...Be quite happy and probably want to watch the replay ASAP.

Jetta playing in the reserves. Looks like it could be the end for him

There was quite a bit of information given out to fans at the time of that draft. They said they didn't expect Gawn to fall to the 30's so were thrilled to snap him up and then they didn't expect Fitz to still be there at 50. Both were regarded as bargain picks. I seem to recall that they had planned on grabbing Fitz at 34 if available but couldn't pass up Gawn. The fact that they got both was considered a massive bonus.

Neeld would hardly have seen Fitz at the Western Jets. He was their senior TAC coach for '05, '06 and '07 before moving to Collingwood. Fitz would have been barely 16 the last time he coached them. Sounds like crap to me.

Slightly more realistic here. I wonder what Jessica Trengove is doing these days? She's an athlete, she probably knows a few of our players, has ties to the club...

As good as Dawes has been, I worry about his future. We have Watts and Fitzpatrick showing a bit now. We have Clark and Hogan to come in. That's four tall forwards who are bigger and faster than he is. He's a smart player and knows how to do the job, but he could very well be Casey's most expensive recruit. He needs to add a bit more explosion to his game to hold his own in the next couple of years.

Once again, Hutchy on FC stated as fact that Neeld wasn't into him. I'd love to be able to challenge him to back this claim up, but it's not like they'd bring it up if it was texted or tweeted in to the show. Idiot.

The lad gives good interview. There were some very interesting points he made and the optimism at how quickly things can be turned around was nice to see.

Part of the issue for the umps is that the "official" interpretations are often directly opposed to the rules as written. How can they then adjudicate the game properly when they know what the rules say to do but their boss says to do something different?

I predict that there will be complaints about the coach, the fact that we are worse than people expected and our recruiting because some other club got a player who is showing a lot in their first year.

GWS can afford him and they have young talented mids to trade.

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/28163-nbt-next-big-thing/?p=478511 That is all I have to say at this time. Let's ignore the bit about Izzy though

I'm looking forward to watching the replay of this one since I was at work during. One thing that stood out for me on the live stats was the number of points Sydney kicked. Without being able to see the game, it looked like they could have blown us out of the water but kept missing. Is that at all accurate?

He was held back because of his many health issues. Not just the diabetes and CFS, but several injuries during the pre-season. They said on a few occasions that they wanted to be absolutely sure his body was ok before they put him into the senior side so he didn't just break down again.

No thanks. He's just not that good.

I would think a new coach would be quite happy to keep him on if he's willing. He obviously has a pretty good rapport with the players. Could be very handy.

He was showing quite a bit against the Saints. Really started to look like he could get there. We have really good depth in our talls right now. Just need a midfield to help them win the ball.