RalphiusMaximus

Well, that'll teach me to follow the links on the AFL site. Thanks for the clarification. Given that I had a car payment due this week plus my sisters birthday and I get payed next week, ten dollars becomes a pretty big deal. Sadly my employer is one of the lowest paying in the industry, so I rarely have a huge amount left over in my budget. Saving is something I look forward to after my car is payed off. Also, pies? Ick!

I was just on the AFL site looking up the cost of tickets to the upcoming game, and to my horror discovered that they are now charging $30 for general admission cheap seats. I rarely have the opportunity to go to a game as I work most weekends, but I'm pretty sure the last time I went it was $20 admission. When did the price hike hit? Is it going to cost the club that the stadium is chasing away some supporters by upping their prices? Seriously, I know it's only a $10 difference, but I simply can't afford it right now and so instead of going to the game I'll be listening on the radio. I have to wonder how many others are in the same boat.

Didn't the footy show list Martin at FF last night?

Loved this write-up. It really highlights how much has changed at the club in the past year and how young and inexperienced our list is.

Not really. The Hawks have a crap back six, but we don't have the forwards to capitalise. While they have a couple of mids out, that really just makes it even. Our backs should be fairly strong against what they can put forward, so they won't blow us away. Sadly though, the only area we should clearly win will be the ruck. I just don't think we have the right people yet to convert clearances into scores, so there's not much chance of beating them.

Well I've just had a look at the list, and while I maintain that Davey is about right, the list as a whole is a joke. Le Cras at 49? I hope he doesn't put any other small forwards on the list then. And what is Heath Shaw doing in there? Is Sheehan being payed by collingwood to promote their list? Fev in the 40's? Too many incomprehensible calls to list.

I'd say a fairly good effort, though I think the scores may be a little on the high side. While the Hawk backline is crud, I don't know that our forwards are able to get up to the 80's, and with Franklin gone I doubt if the Hawks are going to be breaking the ton either. I'd also probably add a couple to each of the rookies' tallies, but that's just me.

Honestly, I think that's about right for Davey. As he was our B&F last year, it's not unreasonable to have the rest of the team rated lower than him. I haven't yet read the list, but I can't complain about it from a Melbourne perspective if this is what we've got. I will be interested in seeing his top 50 at the end of the season though. There's a good chance we'll see a couple of other names in there.

Agreed. I know plenty of people doubt this, but I think by the time we need our forwards firing Martin will be there. Given that we also have Jurrah, Bate, Watts and Fitzpatrick in there, I have absolutely no fear of our forwards letting us down when we need them.

I don't see the need for any of these changes to occur. Final 8 works quite well, and as mentioned it would become a bigger thing to make the finals if it were less than half of the competition getting in. I wouldn't mind if they reduced the number of teams though. That could be fun. There is no need to add any rounds. We already play every team once. All it means is that there is a bye incorporated (for a season) and less repeat fixtures. Given how many players struggle to make it through the home and away season as is, any additional games could be ruinous. And as for supergoals, hell no. They have too much potential to change games. Players like Stewart Dew and Paul Wheatley would suddenly become gold. We've seen how quickly a few supergoals can change a game in the NAB cup. We don't need to see it happen in a grand final.

I'm not really surprised by that figure. Factor in things like room hire, getting VIP's to attend, advertising... It all starts t add up. Either way, it's a hell of a lot better than the $5mil of a couple of years ago. I wonder if Diamond Joe would like to come back and help us out again?

It'd be nice if it happened, but I just can't see it. Our you stars are simply too young to pull it off. Maybe next year, certainly the year after.

I noticed that too. Nasty.

Utter nonsense. Even our own recruiting guys have mentioned it. There was an interview around draft time where it was brought up that a WA kid had told clubs if he were drafted to Victoria he'd be counting down the weeks until his contract was up. Des Headland wore a Fremantle top to his draft interviews and bailed the second he could. Gavin Wanganeen won a brownlow with the bombers and bailed on them in a heartbeat. Obviously we've been stung before with Thompson and the Wizard. There is plenty of precedent to back those worried about this kind of thing. When I heard Trengove drop that line, I too sat up and took notice. I really hope it was just nerves causing his tongue to run off in directions he wasn't pointing it, but there is precedent and in the past premierships and brownlows haven't been enough to keep players at the clubs they were drafted to (or even the club setting them up with models who like to wear really skimpy red dresses). I just really hope we're not going to be in for a shock in three years.

The AFL are being 100% consistent. Screw Melbourne at every opportunity.

I would've said a mixed bag from Dunn. He did some shocking things, but also some pretty good things. If he could iron out the shocking he'd be a much better prospect.

What he brings to the forward line is the ability to hit the side of a barn with his kicking, a good engine for running and tackling, and a bit of ball-winning ability. While I agree he's never shown anything overhead, when he started out in the forward line (many years ago) he showed a good knack for outpositioning players, in particular forcing them under the ball and then turning and running on with it. Given his greater bulk, I can't see that having changed now. I would love to see him have an extended run up forward to see if he can't show us a little more of what he had in the beginning of his career (remember when they were talking him up as the next David Neitz?).

Not in terrible shape in 2-3 years when (hopefully) some of these guys have lived up to the hype, but in the next half a dozen games? We are in serious trouble for the start of the season. I think we'll be lucky to get out with a 1-5 record at this point. Once more key player down and we're no chance of winning one.

So you'll be getting rid of Davey, Trengove, Bate and Maric as well then?

Doubly agreed. Nick Nat got a couple of goals handed to him on a platter, but otherwise Warnock killed him when he went forward. He's not in the league of Scarelt or Lake, but he's solid.

The problem is that our players are fairly consistently overrated on this board, and when they fail to live up to the inflated expectations people are savage in their disappointment. You say we have plenty of good players left to choose from. I say where are they? We have a number of players who are very highly rated by fans on this site, but who have yet to truly prove themselves. We have a solid (if small) core of B+ senior players who can be relied upon to hold their own most of the time. I look at the list and see nobody who is a proven A grade AFL player. Plenty who might get there, and probably should, but none who have done so yet.

If our kick-ins are bad, our zone on opposition kick-ins is worse. Hard to understand how we can never take a mark on ours and never stop them taking marks on theirs.

Best thing about that report was the Casey games. Garland playing well and no injury. Fitzpatrick getting a couple of goals. Gysberts having a good game. These are all real positives from an otherwise woeful day. Also, just how good a prospect is this Luke McDonald. Given how bad our forwards are atm, he could this be someone to look at in the rookie or PSD this year?

Honestly, I have to say that this was a pretty worrying game for us. It's not that we lost, but the way we lost that is a concern. Once again we knew coming in that our forwards can't kick, and as we flew out of the blocks to take the lead with a handful of points at the start this was again shown to be true. But the big concerns were in the middle and the back. We actually looked very good at a lot of the stoppages. I think we probably won the clearances which is not easy to do against WC. However, far too often once we had the ball we gave it straight back to them and were killed on the rebound. Basic skill errors, like a player under zero pressure failing to hit an unmarked man with a handpass and instead putting it into the hands of an opponent, happened with depressing regularity. The there's the great and glaring hole in our defense, that of course being the small defender. Sadly, we don't seem to have anyone who fills this role. We have Bennell and Straus, both of whom are great at running out of the 50 and attacking the ball, but sadly neither of them seem to understand that they also need to shut down their opponent when the opposition has the ball. Cheney does understand this, but he isn't as good when it comes to rebounding, and so is less favoured in the role. It killed me today to see the number of times that Mark LeCras was left unmarked in the pocket. Had he had his kicking boots on the margin would have been far worse. I can not even begin to understand how a guy who kicked 50+ goals from the pocket last year didn't have an opponent. Still, for all this, there were a couple of glimmers of hope. I'm probably going to be alone in saying that Stef Martin showed us something today. He presented very well early, and pulled off a couple of great moves. It's just sad that he still can't kick, but in our forward line that just makes him par for the course. Green of course was great all day. Kicked a couple of goals, made contests where WC should have been away clear. Jamar stood up well and took a couple of great pack marks as well. I'm also liking Bail more and more. He's never going to be an A grade star, but I think he'll find his way into the first 22 quite happily this year.

Is that referring to Jurrah's rehab? If so, what's the source? We want details here!