RalphiusMaximus

Best effort for me was Brisbane. A monster of a win against the undefeated top side. Can't beat that. For worst, hard to go past West Coast. The worst team in the competition and we let them beat us on the MCG. Rubbish effort.

Honestly, I think Goddard might have it. Jurrah's was great, but Goddard's is just a little better.

So are people saying Newton was worse than PJ last week? Looking at the stats he appears to have done a reasonable job.

Scully? Edit: Snap!

Ditto

x2 If we can get him up to speed on the other areas of his game we'll have one of the most damaging playmakers in the game. THat's the reason to stick with him for a few more years.

Untrue. They may take 1 uncontracted player from each club. Should they wish other players, contracted or otherwise, they have to trade for them. To use the Brisbane example, if they want both Brennan and Rischitellli, they may take 1 as an uncontracted player, but must then come to terms with Brisbane to trade for the other. Given the number of picks they have I would imagine they could agree on a value for him fairly quickly.

The changes to interchange rules haven't actually occurred yet have they? Aren't the proposed rules to be trialled in the NAB cup and then decided on?

I doubt if he'll be delisted so early. I have seen him in action and his kicking is everything it was supposed to be. I would think that that is worth giving him time. His issue is that he is soft (not soft like Green, Watts and Dunn have been called at various time, but marshmallow-soft). He seems to be unable to make contests at all. Feed him the ball in space and he can nail the pass like few players I have seen, but to play the role they need him to play he has to learn to compete, win his own ball and shut down an opponent. Personally I think it's worth giving him time to see if he can learn how to do it, but how much time? I bear in mind that Bail looked crap for his first year at the club and he was already 20. Given how far he has come this year I think it's not unreasonable to give Straus (and Blease for that matter) another couple of years to show that they are AFL material.

If that's the case then Jack Reiwoldt is out of the running.

Perhaps this is a last chance for Newton to show that he can contribute. Something like "show us that it is worth promoting you back to the senior list next year instead of using that pick on an untried young player." Maybe he's being given the final two games to either win himself a spot in the team of the next decade or farewell the club in style.

Agree that Newton is a good shot to play. He offers so much more than PJ around the ground, and his ruck work isn't likely to be much worse. My Bench would be Newton, Bail, Morton and McKenzie. I'm another who thinks that Moloney may have to play a week at Casey just to get his match fitness up. Also, traveling with a dodgy muscle injury is a bad move. If he's not 100%, I wouldn't be risking him. Edit: forgot Jordie. We can't play the game without him. I had Bate in there, but that would make us very heavy on forwards.

How much does that sum up the man. I think that is a huge point in his favour (as if he needed more) that he can look at the situation and come up with that perspective. Amazing contributor to the club.

I want Green to get it. However, I think Bruce is more likely unless they want a longer term option. Davey and Moloney outside shots but still in the running.

I don't think Bruce and Medhurst are good options. They need experience, but they also want guys who will be there when they are pushing for finals. Those two are a little close to the end of their careers for me. THat being said, both would be good choices for a ready-made leadership group, so who knows?

I'd prefer the other Tom Lynch. We're a shot at picking him up with our first round pick this year.

Hard to argue with that, although Warnock is a keeper if at all possible. I would be inclined to try to find PJ a new home rather than him.

Big call. I think that one could come back to bite you.

You couldn't really argue with that if it happened. He deserves it after trading away all those draft picks.

No, you're not. He's had a couple of games off half back and shown that while he is a great kick his defensive side is sadly lacking. He needs to really work on his contests if he wants to make it into the team. Has to be able to stop a man as well as run off them and set up play.

He's a very limited player. He can take a mark and he can kick straight. That's all. No run, no defensive pressure, no physical presence. I see no reason to put him into out forward group. I don't think the notion of making a play for Clarke is a terrible one. My only concern is that in the long term it might make us a little top-heavy with the young rucks we already have. We could always use a couple as trade bait though, so that could work out OK. Other than that, I'd only be interested in trading for a seriously good player like Dangerfield or Boak (both of whom have re-signed with their respective clubs). It's not worth going out of our way to attract a solid B+ when we have so many on our list already.

Interesting. I was under this impression that this was rarely the case, but over the last three seasons there has been a ruck on the bench twice (three times if you count Goodes last year). Now I'm wondering where I got the notion that they don't pick a reserve ruck?

Contracted players can be traded. The only difference is that the new club has to pick up the existing contract (or part of if the old club covers the rest of the payments) and the player has to agree to the move.

As far as Jacks game on the weekend went, I agree it wasn't one of his best efforts. The ball he won in the forward pocket and then stood there looking for a pass instead of taking the open shot... that hurt. The thing is though, I look at his games each week and I just want to see something improved. It doesn't have to be huge, but to see something he hasn't done well before, or hasn't attempted just shows that he is still working and improving. So for me the big thrill of the day was seeing him fly into a pack in front of the goals. I'm pretty sure that's the first time this year we've seen him crash a pack, and while he didn't take the mark he did get the ball down to a teammate and followed up to get an easy goal. One moment of really good forward play that we haven't seen from him before.

I've gone with an A. AT the start of the season I said that 6-7 wins would be a pass, if barely, and 8-9 would be a good year. Here we sit on 8 1/2 wins with two winnable (if dodgy) games left to go. Not only that, but we've come within a hair of knocking off Collingwood twice and the Bulldogs once. 6 more points and we would now be on 11 wins. The team has shown some real improvement and is now starting to implement the game plan. Teams are beginning to fear the MCG, so we once more have an actual home ground advantage. And let's not forget we handed out a legitimate thrashing to the Swans, who are a certainty to play finals. We also smashed the undefeated Brisbane side earlier in the year and followed up by beating them on their own ground. This has been a year of huge positives for us, and I can't wait to see what we do next season.