RalphiusMaximus

I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

The guy gives good interview. I think he handled himself really well. The discussion of how his broken leg affected his mindset was interesting, as well as the value of seeing a psych about it. On the contract, he didn't seem to be ducking the question. He simply said that his manager was looking after it for him and left it at that. He also seems to genuinely like being coached by Neeld and Craig. He said some good things about them and the way they've worked with him, and also that he is looking forward to improving his fitness and moving more into the midfield next season. Rates his fitness as about 75-80% of what it needs to be.

I heard someone or the radio (no idea who) say that they are in no rush to bring him back because he has already exceeded all expectations for this season and they don't see a great deal of value in pushing him to get back on the field for a dead rubber. He has nothing left to prove this season, so they are focusing on some of the other players who maybe need to show that they can play before the end of the season.

And another thought. Will they fine Geelong? They attempted to recruit Boak during the season.

Is that a horse I see bolting into the distance?

Meh. Yes it's a bloody stupid call, but it's not the first and it won't be the last. I feel the need to mention once again that Beamer has been suspended TWICE for not making contact with an opponent's head. In one of those cases, the MRP stated that he had not made any contact at all, but his intention was clearly to do so. This case pales in comparison.

As long as I see the Bombers and Blues miss out on the 8 I'm happy.

You forgot Cook, Williams and Fitzpatrick. Between the three of them I would hope we have one decent prospect to take a key forward role. Cook seems to think he'll be ready to go next year. To me Williams is actually playing better football than him, so could also be ready to go.

I think Nev may be a victim of other peoples' expectations to some extent. A lot of people look at him and see a small aboriginal player, so they expect lightning speed, flashy skills and the odd freakish moment. That's just not the sort of player he is. He's a hard, tough, courageous combatant who will fight for the contested ball and do well in traffic. He is more like Brett Kirk than Cyril Rioli.

I'm really not sure where the negativity is coming from today. We dominated for large periods of that game and apart for the third quarter looked like we could go toe to toe with them. Obviously the fact that our entire forward line is out injured is causing some issues in terms of not scoring from f50 entries, but the fact is that we broke even on forward 50 entries. We also matched them in clearances and contested possession, both of which are focuses for the team this year. On top of that, we've seen drastic improvement in a number of players. If we'd had a couple of legitimate forwards in the side (say Clark and Jurrah) we'd have been able to capitalise on the possession and kick a score. A couple of specifics to note: I have often noticed that collingwood players all have a very similar blocky body shape, obviously due to the way their fitness staff train them. Today I was somewhat impressed to see that many of our younger brigade are beginning to look like this as well. I think this is a good sign that they are getting their bodies into the sort of condition Neeld wants them in to be able to play the way he intends. We've clearly witnessed a couple of our youngsters coming of age in the last few weeks. Spencer seems to have figured out how to play AFL, and today was truly competitive, and of course, Blease is looking like he may be the answer to our crumbing forward dilemma. We also got to see what Jetta does best, although not enough of it, and Grimes is showing himself to be a massive ball-magnet in the midfield. All in all, while it would have been nice to snatch a win today, I can't really complain. We came to play and if not for a lack of legitimate forwards would probably have stolen it.

There were a few occasions where our backs kicked directly to an open Saint that can only be attributed to mistaken identity. Yet another uniform stuff-up from the almighty AFL.

The thing I really liked about his game today is that he showed he is listening to the coaches. Last week he played on twice close to goal and stuffed up both times. Neeld said in his interview post-match that they'd work on that. Today when Nev hit him in the open you could see how much he wanted to keep running into the open goal, but he saw a player closing in and did the sensible thing. Obviously the coaches had a word to him and he took it on board and did things a little differently this week.

6 - Blease. I had him a little further down until I looked at the stats for the game. 20 disposals, 8 marks, 3 tackles and 5 goals. 5 - Grimes. His disposal let him down a couple of times, but he worked hard all day and ed from the front. 4 - Spencer. Showed why he's still on our list today. Held his own in the ruck, got his hands on the ball, fought at ground level and his kicking is looking far better too. 3 - Jones. The usual. Need I say more? 2 - Dunn. He's playing like his career is on the line right now. Funny that. His run and aggression is coming in really handy these days. 1 - Jetta. Needs to find more of the ball, but his courage was inspirational and he put on some great tackling pressure.

Looks like GWS are on track for the Lachie Whitfield Cup right now.

As I said earlier in the year, Nev is the kind of player Neeld will love, if only he can get fit and get on the park to show it. I think he earned a lot of points with the coaching staff today. Still needs to get more of the ball, but that will come with improved fitness. His hardness and courage set the example for a lot of his teammates.

Why can we not trade him? Isn't he a restricted FA this year? Trading for him would help another club out as they would not have to beat our price on him.

Just shows his ignorance. Firstly the AFL has already said that if it gets wind of an such agreement it will be considered draft tampering and the clubs involved will be sanctioned severely, and secondly the FS nominations are before the trade period, so how do you work that into a trade? This is something that these so-called experts have consistently failed to recognise. It's all very well to say that our early picks have not come on and aren't getting games, but it's pretty hard to get games or improve when you're on crutches. Of our early picks for the last few years, the only one who has not spent a substantial amount of time out injured is Watts, and he's going along nicely (to the extent that they've all but stopped talking about him). We still need to wait until they have put together a full pre-season and season to find out what they are made of, and not one of that group have managed it yet.

This is the best thing about him, and you can see it every time he takes the field. He is clearly working on his game, building his fitness and generally trying everything to make himself a real AFL ruck. While people like to talk about his kicking, I think it has improved out of sight this year. He has also worked really hard to build up his body. He came to us as a beanpole and is now a mountain. I think he is well worth a few more years.

Not sure Gawn will be that quick to get there. I suspect that after multiple knees they will take a pretty conservative approach with him.

Seconded.

Pretty sure the player has to agree to the trade as well. Of course, if your club came to you and said, "hey, we're planning on offering you around to see if we can get some sucker to take you off our hands" would you really want to stay? I have always had high hopes for Morton, but even I have to agree that he's running out of chances. We may well try to trade him for a pick upgrade this time, but if not I truly hope he can get his act together and show us how good he can be next year.

Is this list assessment posted anywhere online? Anyone have a link?

Traditionally tagging Ablett is a way to teach players about how to move and find the ball in tight spaces. There is nobody better than Gary Junior at the moment and a lot of clubs are giving the run-with role to promising youngsters as a learning experience. Could this be an indication that the coaches like Morton?

I agree that this is a serious possibility. I have actually tipped against us this round. The fact is that GC have us covered on two thirds of the ground right now. Their midfield leaves ours for dead and they actually have forwards who are able to get on the ground, while we are struggling to put together a makeshift group out of spare tall defenders and midfielders who have shown that they know where the sticks are. I also think that they will kill us in the ruck. It is also very possible that GC will beat GWS. It'd basically a coin toss as to which of them turns up to play on the day. As for us travelling and winning, it's not something that we've shown a great knack for, is it? If GWS play like they did today, they are a chance to take us. Personally, I think that while the above scenario sucks, nobody can realistically expect us to compete with an injury list like ours, and in particular with the lack of forwards we've suffered. I am inclined to suck it up, take whatever picks we wind up getting and hope that things click over the summer and we shock the hell out of people next year.

Interesting that Williams is doing so well. Could be that he gets a late call-up rather than Cook at some point this year the way he's improving.