RalphiusMaximus

Good luck to him. Even if you don't like the way he plays, you can't question his commitment to the team. He's had to reinvent himself to fill holes in the side repeatedly and always took it on the (impressive) chin and gave it 100%. I'll be sad to see him go even though he seems to have been overtaken in the pecking order.

I disagree. When Watts is rucking we lose momentum and often concede runs of scores while not scoring ourselves. It's a combination of not being competitive in the ruck and not having his creativity at high half forward.

From AFL.com. So if you only have three spots on your list, you only have three draft picks and can't stockpile half a dozen third round picks to use on academy/FS selections.

Didn't they change the rules to prevent this kind of trade?

Doubt it. We're still slow and their coach is still building their team around running their asses off. The Blues and Saints will both get us by banging the ball away from stoppages and then outrunning us on the outside. Lewis isn't going to help us in the pace department.

I hear Hogan will be given to the new Tasmanian side as their first marquee player to make sure they are competitive from the start.

My understanding of the issues surrounding Rock at Brisbane is that he has clashed with the rest of the group through being too blunt and harsh over what he sees as a lack of effort, commitment and professionalism. In essence, he's talking to his team the way Neeld did at the MFC and getting a similar response. The media were talking about this last year before it got lost in the narrative surrounding the coaching mess. If that is the case, then his perceived issues could be more about his leadership than his quality as a player. In a more professional side he would be fine.

It does, but this draft has been consistently talked down for a few years now. Why do you think clubs are trading early picks so readily? No real standouts at the top end. When we traded away our first round pick last year it was considered a brilliant move because this draft is seen as significantly weaker. Meanwhile the same media experts have been talking up the top end quality of next year's group. Every club should be angling to get extra first round picks for that one. Giving ours up as steak knives in a player exchange is idiocy.

I really hope this isn't true. Next year's draft is said to be a lot stronger than this one. We should be aiming for more first round picks next year, not trading ours off. Tell them they can have Dunn and Lamumba for The Rock. Much better for us.

Well, maybe not that he'd come on THAT quickly.

Re. Hibberd He got a pretty decent write-up in this article even though he never made the squad.

If he's top 20 then we're not getting him.

We already have a bunch of those.

You'd think the third one would have ducked.

Likewise, I had no idea he was that old. I was thinking late 20s. And Barlow is only 28? I had him at 30+.

Hell no. The current F/S rules were introduced precisely because clubs were getting guys like Ablett jr for nothing like their actual worth. As for zoning, Rjay is right.We'd see a mass exodus of footy families to Collingwood, Hawthorn and Geelong. Clubs would be finding ways to pay families to move into their zones, providing jobs to family members... FIFA has had massive problems with this on an international scale, having to introduce rules to prevent clubs from importing junior players from Africa and South America so that they could have first option on them as adults. While the system voming into effect now is far from perfect, it is addressing the potential problems and giving the smaller clubs a chance to compete.It's up to us to put the time and money in to make it work for the club.

I'd be up for Mzungu of that lot. He's a ball-magnet and can run a bit. Cleaned up his disposal as well. Why did Ross not like him?

Well, that's a nice way to start the week. Well done to the folks who called this.

The trade preview article on the AFL website has us bringing in Hibberd and maybe trading Dunn, but otherwise sitting it out.

You improve your depth by bringing in better players gor your senior side. This forces players with AFL experience to drop down the pecking order. They are then challenged to improve and fight for their spot. This results in overall improvement of the list. Bringing in players who are not best 22 reduces competition for spots. That would be a bad thing.

Well that was just a great game of football. Both teams had a good hard crack at it, neither were overly aggressive outside the rules and the umpires were imperfect but not drastically so (more on that in a moment). Absolutely thrilled that the Doggies got up. This is what the game has been needing for years. Finally one of the "Have-Nots" of the game have managed to break through and win the flag. The fact that they beat both of the favoured children in Sydney to do it is perfect. It just shows that with the right development and team-wide buy-in it can be done without the many advantages enjoyed by the usual suspects. I really hope our entire squad was watching and taking the lesson to heart. On the Umpires, one thing I did note was their refusal to pay contact below the knee. There were three obvious incidents today that should have been called, the third of which resulted in a knee injury. Had they called the first two there's every chance that the third wouldn't have happened. And finally the real issue from the game: How the Hell did JJ get the Norm Smith? He was terrible today. Honestly, the only thing that could have made his numbers look good was a red and white jumper. I had him as one of the Doggies' worst due to his uncanny ability to pick out Sydney players with his kicks. I thought it was a toss-up between Boyd, Picken and Kennedy for BOG (I give it to Boyd). I have to conclude that this is yet another example of so-called "experts" having no feel for the game and being fooled by big numbers without actually looking at the impact on the game. 7 rebound 50's and 9 inside 50's sound great until you look at how many of those went straight to the opposition. OK, that's the rant done for the moment. Great win Doggies. Our turn in two years.

Watching the replay of Hawks vs Geelong from way back in the 80s. One thing that stands out for me is that kicking skills, and in particular kicking for goal, have declined sharply since that era. The umpiring was much better then as well.

Good name. You can just hear it being screamed by the commentators. Rolls off the tongue nicely. Is it short for Remington?

As I've said before, we have a huge opportunity in the Dandenong area to engage the large population of refugees and try to develop some of those kids into quality players. There is a clear lack of youth programs in the area, so if the club get in there and put the time and resources in they could reap huge rewards. The AFL have given us the opportunity. It's up to the club now to capitalise on what they've been given.

Tim Smith winning the Coach's Award is interesting. Clearly he's put in a lot of work on his game this year.