RalphiusMaximus

Tapscott is getting through a lot of work around half forward. You need to look for him a bit (you'd think a guy built like that would be easier to spot), but he's turned into a very good contested mark, his defensive work is very nice and his field kicking (aside from a little problem with not seeing the man on the mark) is good quality. If he had converted he'd be close to leading our goalkicking as well, but he's having some massive issues with his set shots for some reason. He still has some work to do, but hes coming along very nicely. Also, huge congrats to DF26 for the thread. It's nice to have a generally positive and constructive thread to join in on once in a while and this is doing the job very well indeed.

If the club sacks yet another coach before his contract is up, then they really are the basket case the media would have us believe them to be. Neeld has a third year to go, he has always said he was working in that timeframe and they would be insane to pull the plug on him after two years. Will he get a new contract after his third year? Who knows? It would almost certainly depend on how the team improves in 2014. As with everything he does, he has worked in a very structured way, building from the bottom up and making sure he has the foundations right before moving on. It's far too early to tell if his methods are effective.

Most Improved: A hard call. I agree that Garland, Evans and Tapscott have all gone up a notch or three. I would throw in Col Sylvia as well, given his more consistent output so far. In the cases of Evans and Tappy they've really cemented their spot in the side with some really good form, while Garland has ironed out a lot of his errors and seems to have bulked up a bit which is allowing him to dominate contests. Probably have to go with Evans given he's gone from an injury-plagued rookie to a regular starter. Gone Backwards: It's hard to look past Trengove here. There has to be something very wrong with him to explain the way he's moving. As numerous commentators have mentioned, he seems to have no power or energy. His kicking has lost penetration, he's unable to run or even jump properly. Something has gone wrong here and the club needs to figure it out and fix it. Mentions to Tommy Mac who is playing more like a 20 year old this year after an outstanding 2012, and to Frawley, who is still beating his opponents but seems to have lost his attacking mojo. Surprise: Matt Jones was known as a very consistent and dependable player in the VFL. I don't know why we should be surprised that he's turning out to be a consistent and dependable player in the AFL too. He hasn't set the world on fire, but he keeps working away, getting the ball and using it. I think it's worth mentioning Evans at this point again as well. After the start his career had, for him to be playing good football and starting in the side is a great effort. There was some speculation that he was only promoted because of an existing deal with the club that had to be honoured. I think we can now say that he had a few other things going for him.

I'm amazed that anyone could take this thing seriously. Although his identity appears well and truly blown, this is an anonymous blog for a guy to bignote himself writing BS articles defaming people who are more successful than he is. No doubt it makes him feel all manly and stuff when he puts up a post like this, but it's scarcely a credible source of information.

I know, but I can hope right?

The bombers are pushing the line that it was an institutional breach rather than the players. This is because of a line in the WADA code that says an institution may be punished in these circumstances. They are trying to wrangle a punishment for the club as a whole rather than sanctions against the players. The problem here is that IIR the code actually says that if the institution is found to have been part of systematic breaches they may be sanctioned in addition to the individuals involved, not instead of. Still, they may feel that this is the best chance they have of avoiding having players suspended should they be found to have given them something illegal.

That's why I said it could only happen during a halt in play. In the Tapscott incident there was a significant pause while people argued and players pushed and shoved. If we'd been able to raise a flag (or whatever) at that point there wouldn't have been that much impact on the game, and the free would have been voided. Presumably it would have been called a ball up at that point. I'm sure a system could be found that would enable this to work at least as well as umpires with no oversight is doing now.

Nope. He's not a free agent. If he wanted to walk he'd go into the draft.

I guess the one thing in Pedo's favour as far as the trade goes is that Gys hasn't played a game for NMFC. That puts us marginally ahead in that our guy has played a few poor games at least. I still think we paid too much, especially since we downgraded in a pick swap as well. Given the relative merits of the players and their careers to date I would have said Gys had more currency and that they should be giving us a low pick as a sweetener.

I can't see Byrnes being dropped at any point this season. He's doing exactly what we needed him to do and playing pretty well. He'll be kept on to provide leadership and an example for the whole season.

Found it on BigFooty. Handy little thread. Looks like we need to get signatures from Evans, Gawn, Jetta, Watts, Sylvia and Fitzpatrick, assuming we want to keep them all at the club. There are others, but they won't be getting attention from other clubs, so are perhaps less of an issue in that respect.

I'm fairly sure Carlton took it straight down the field and scored. Personally, I would like to have an appeal system of some sort. Obviously it could only work during a halt in play, but if the captain or coach could flag the call for an instant replay and adjudication it would save everyone a lot of angst. It works in the NFL, why not for us?

Interesting that Frawley will be gone with a year still to run on his contract. Anyone know where to get a full list of when our players' contracts run out?

Landing Thomas would be the ideal result for us. Neeld said last year that he was one A grad midfielder short of what he wanted, and this would fit the bill nicely. He is in the rigth age bracket, has the experience and skills we need and gets on well with our coach. Aside from this, does anyone know what Pendlebury's contract status is?

The bolded text is my biggest issue. They make calls when they didn't actually see what happened. This is a fundamental flaw in the way they are trained. In the case of Tapscott's entirely legal bump, the umpire saw a guy bending over get bumped and assumed that there was head high contact despite not actually seeing any. He made a call that was instantly shown to be entirely incorrect and which resulted in a Carlton goal. In this instance it had no impact on the result, but imagine if we had lost by that one goal.

From the VFL player review We need to bring them both into the side. These two plus a resting ruck will be a massive headache for the GC defence.

I think he's been great this year. Very harsh to rate him so poorly. He's finally stepping up and showing us what he can do. If he gets over his yips he'll be hitting the scoreboard as well. I don't think they'll even consider dropping him if he keeps this up.

I hope not. He'd retroactively suck away their mojo and make us all remember them as sounding like a seekers cover band.

Matthew Leppard Discipline: Field AFLUA Heritage No: 420 Shirt Number: 11 1st AFL Match: 2011 AFL Matches at the end of 2012: 31 Commenced career with: Goulburn Valley Umpires' Association Occupation: Risk Analyst________________________________________________________ In case anyone was wondering.

Plenty was shown on the TV coverage. The "High" hit impacted on the players hip. His head was about a foot away from any part of LTs body, and clearly in view of the umpire in question.

Wish we could report the damn umpire. As long as there is no accountability on their end we will continue to see idiocy like this report.

I think Neeld will get another contract, just not quite yet. It has always been a three year plan. He's always told us that it will be three years before the team is fit and strong enough for what he wants them doing. I accept that we are not looking good right now, and like everyone else I had higher expectations of what we would be producing, but I think that judgement has to be reserved until we see what his end product looks like. There have been plenty of other successful coaches who started off really badly. The idea that every side is going to instantly turn around like PA have done is delusional. The big power sides all had their slumps and calls for the coaches to be sacked. The difference is that they toughed it out and let the coach finish what he started. We need to do the same.

The only recruit I have any issue with is Pedersen. I said it at the time and I still think that we paid way too much for an ordinary player. He's shown he's not really good enough for AFL and he doesn't have any of the qualities the others bring in terms of leadership and experience. Byrnes has been exactly what we wanted him to be in the senior side. He is setting the example on how to play at the top level. He does all the hard things that most of our team don't seem to know how to do. Dawes has been injured, obviously, but we know he can play. Rodan was always going to be a bit player, but he has provided great leadership around the club and t training, in particular working with Viney on his stoppage work. I also saw someone comment that providing a good example at Casey is worthless. I would disagree given that this is where most of our developing players are at the moment. He is helping to ensure that they are learning the right way to do things.

Pretty close. I'd have Jetta starting on the HBF and Strauss on the bench. McKenzie as sub is a poor choice, He's not an impact player. He won't provide anything to give us a boost if he comes on late. Save that spot for a Blease or Davey, someone who can take on opponents and kick a few late goals.

I am happy enough with the logic behind not playing Fitzpatrick yet, even though it hurts to not have a tall target. It would suck if he came in, kicked a few and then broke down again. We certainly don't want his first game of the year to be against a team that thrashes us on a regular basis. I would say that next week is a good opportunity to give him a run against slightly weaker opposition (especially without Warnock in their back line). If not, then they may wind up shelving him until later on when we face GWS again.