RalphiusMaximus

Just saw a few highlights on the news. I was thrilled to see footage of Brown on a long lead. Frawley overhauled him, got to the ball first and easily punched it out of bounds. Another play and Frawley outmuscles him to take a nice mark. Have to love a guy who is that fast and still strong enough to push Brown off the ball like that.

He kicked 2 goals. Not a bad thing. Of course, I have no idea how good his game was in general...

Well that's just silly. Where the hell did this all come from? I was sure I'd get 8 in the footy tipping this week and my own bloody team goes and ruins it for me! I wonder if Rhino still thinks we're only performing as expected this season? :D

Getting back to the point, it's not the worst idea. We know the AFL sees Africa as a source of talent, but there are plenty of other markets. China has the huge advantage of a monumental population, and thus a larger pool of potential athletes. Couple this with the amount of money they spend on developing these athletes (as mentioned above) and there is a very good opportunity there for a club to look into. Why not see if you can convince some nice government officials or corporate entities to start an Aussie Rules academy over there?

He didn't stroll out of the middle with the ball. He fumbled, chased, fumbled again, chased again... and eventually found himself at the edge of the square with the ball in his hands and no idea what to do next. Had he been tackled while attempting to take the ball it would have been a free, so they just went for the ball instead.

Wow. Bit of a comedown from the earlier reports on how he went. Guess I should wait for the official count rather than taking people's word on it.

Funny thing. I look at those two passages of play that have people so worked up and I see a guy fumbling, fetching his fumble, missing a target, fetching the ball again and then in desperation thumping it long. It's to his great credit that he was able to keep winning the ball back, but let's face it, none of those disposals were worthy of a first round draftee. He wins a hitout which dribbles down his body to land on the ground at his feet, he attempts to handpass and it goes all of a metre, missing all targets along the way and he thumps a blind kick into the fifty which happens to result in a goal. None of this is good play, although it did serve to showcase his freakish physical attributes as he bullocked his way through tacklers and teammates alike.

BOG? That's a bit of a stretch. I agree he showed some freakish ability, but he still only had 13 disposals. Despite my repeated downplaying of his abilities, I am not blind to his obvious talent. I just get sick of people proclaiming him the Second Coming every time he sneezes. He had some amazing touches on Friday, but to proclaim him BOG is waaaay over the top. He is still a fumble-fingered overgrown child at the moment. His game is half brilliance and half slapstick, and it's to his credit that he is quick enough and determined enough that he generally tracks down his own mistakes and tries to get the ball back again.

Which reports would those be? I've seen a couple of reports that said that he didn't set the place on fire but held his own and produced a few moments of brilliance, but I don't recall anyone saying he was beaten. And once again I ask you, who is this below average opponent you say he was playing on?

Not just no but HELL NO! He deserted us once, I say let him stay gone and see how many finals he plays wherever he winds up. Sure, he's a good player, but we have a few guys playing his style of game who will be far far better. If he wants to go to GC and babysit a pack of spoiled teenagers that's fine, but don't let him come sniffing around us.

I have absolutely no problem with Gysberts being taken at 11. Just because he hasn't made his debut yet is no reason to doubt his ability. We find ourselves in the enviable position of having too many players who deserve a spot in the team, and I for one am thrilled with that. I have no doubt that he will get his share of gametime as the year progresses and we'll see exactly why he was rated so highly.

Absolutely brilliant news. I really hope that nobody from Melbourne consider taking them up on whatever they are offering. We have a list that can and will take us to multiple Grand Finals. All we need is for the players to believe in each other and play for each other, and from the sound of things they are well and truly buying into it.

Who did he play on? And 24 disposals can hardly be considered being beaten pointless. Even if quite a few people said it was an average game from him (24 touches for a KPF and it's average? Awesome to see him when he's good),

We've seen him pretty much every week getting work on his hamstrings on the sideline. He could be carrying something minor that is enough to throw him off but not really prevent him from playing. It might almost be worth dropping him for a couple of weeks to let him get on top of it.

SO Jack Watts has a fairly quiet game, not one of his best, and still racks up 24? I'm beginning to get some idea of what we have on our hands here. So Who's this NicNat everyone keeps talking about?

Once again his hitout total was more than the other team. Love seeing that. Incidentally, should we be frightened by the fact that Sandilands is already 20 HO ahead?

Probably it is right. If he hand passes to a teammate who is in a bad position or is about to get tackled, it still counts as a successful pass so long as he hits them. He has no problem with accuracy, it's just his nasty habit of selling people into trouble that gets people worked up.

Honestly, to me it would be a terrible thing if any of our young guys wanted to leave, not just because of the loss of a promising player but because I like to think that the camaraderie of the group and the promise of some real success in the next few years would be enough to keep them despite the vast coffers of the GC and GWS teams. Given the culture that Jimmy is trying to build, any player who chooses to walk away is a blow.

Scary thought. Does he follow MFC as well?

Worth noting that Petterd said recently that while he loves playing with the Dees and is enjoying his footy, it would be a huge rush to be playing regularly in front of family and friends up north. He is very much open to the idea of going north, although not certain to go if they offer him a deal.

SO basically, we have to hope that the folks judging the Rising Star have a little more sense than to be sucked in by the hype and actually pay the award to the best performed young player rather than Little Nicky.

The more I think about it, the more I think we'll see Martin back into the side. Jamar can't ruck the whole game alone this time, and Martin has shown a glimmer of form at Casey the last couple of weeks. FF and back-up ruck for him. If he and Jamar rotate through FF it shouldn't hurt our rotations in the middle that much.

I was only looking at the match thingy on the AFL website, but he seemed to be involved multiple times in handball chains fairly often, sometimes a fair distance apart. He couldn't be doing that if he wasn't putting in the effort off the ball to run and make himself an option again. Noticed a few chains where we saw things like Bruce-Scully -McKenzie-Bruce-Scully... Liked the work ethic indicated by these.

Next week will be a different story. Brisbane have two very good rucks in the side, and Jamar will be run off his feet if he tries to go toe-to-toe with them both. Good chance that Martin or Spencer will be recalled to rotate with him.

I'd like to see us shut down their big guns in the forward line, break even in clearances and win the midfield battle. DO all that and we should be fine.