RalphiusMaximus

You joke, but this hits a little too close to home for my liking. They have a long and despicable history of punishing the result rather than the act.

They just showed the footage again during half time. Certainly looks a lot like a bite. Pathetic scummy thing to do.

I'm thrilled that Jack got his Century. Not only is it doing the right thing by the player, but it's simply good planning as long as the Father/Son (or Parent/Child) rules exist. There is no possible negative in making sure that he gets to triple figures and it makes the club look better to find room for him in the side a couple of extra times. Well done all around.

Pretty sure there are a few teammates who love playing with him.

North look a lot like blowing this. If only that could happen and the Pies not win...

I just saw a player named Hiscock. Sorry. Juvenile, but that's just a really unfortunate name.

Not really in keeping with the current discussion, but I have a bit of third-hand rumour. I know a guy through work who claims to be mates with a member of the Richmond Board. He says that this Board Member has told him that Richmond believe they have Prestia as good as signed and are hopeful of pulling Coniglio also. Would cost them two year's worth of first round picks I would think, but they do have the picks to trade.

Fancy that. When did that happen?

I too have backed these players in, except for Salem. I've always been a bit concerned about his size and lack of pace. He is however a damned clever and skillful player with a very hard edge and a great sidestep, so while I have doubts I am certainly not going to write him off. On the Watts contract situation, Damn that makes me happy.

Silly mistake in the article regarding White. He's on his last year as a rookie. We either promote him or cut him loose.

While there are structural issues still to resolve, the biggest issues are still in the midfield. Our basic skills let us down time and time again. The simplest things like picking up the ball cleanly and hitting targets are still letting us down. Yes, we get caught out by the fast sides, but that pace would be less of an issue if we had better skills. The Hawks aren't a quick side, nor are they contested beasts. They win because every player in their side knows where they need to put the ball and they have the skills to do it. Add to that their clean handling which buys them a little extra time and you see why they are dominant. Our players generally have no idea where to put the ball to our team's advantage and even when they do few have the skill to execute.

Was that the one where Watts tried to take a screamer over NikNat but was denied (possibly correctly) by the umpire who paid the man in front?

The big issue I had here was that they did exactly the same thing to us as last time. Did the coaches do any analysis last time? Did they by any chance look into why the Saints were able to get so many free players taking uncontested marks inside their forward 50? Could the possibly have deduced that the usual structures we use play directly into the hands of a hard spreading St Kilda outfit and that just possibly they might need to swallow their pride and make some adjustments? Yes, most of our players were poor, but they were thrown to the lions by our coaches today.

So we want to repeat the Grimes/Trengove debacle by dropping the captaincy on a young player? Jones is our Richie Vandenberg. He's not the best player in the world, he's being surpassed by the young midfield we're building, but his leadership is still needed. Let the kids keep developing together without the added pressure.

I'm thrilled with this. We're announcing the contracts regularly as more dominoes fall. Dean is a ripping little player and adds a real point of difference to the other small forwards with his powerful build. I really hope the selectors for the WA U18 squad are feeling like idiots right now.

Dominoes falling. It's great to see the club getting these guys locked away. Even better to see so many quality players standing up and saying they want to be at the club.

Issues between Clark and a teammate's girlfriend? Sound familiar anyone?

FINALLY finished downloading the game. I'm really looking forward to seeing the first half.

Comment from the AFL website: Article Also, I was listening to SEN today just before noon. They were discussing the Melbourne game and one of them (no idea who) was claiming the early credit for spotting Hunt. He said he went to a junior game to have a look at Salem and Kelly, and during the break joined the other spotters at the huddle and was head to ask the coach about "That blonde kid off half back." I'm not sure when this would have been, but given that Hunt didn't play rep football at u18 level it must have been a while ago. People are starting to notice.

Bloody Useless Waste OF Space GWS!!! They can't even beat the Pies when they're supposed to. Looking at the stats on AFL.com, Grundy has gone head to head with Mumford and smashed him. Great effort from the kid. Take away their ruck dominance and GWS are vulnerable.

We won't beat the Saints at Etihad. We need to campaign to play our home games at the MCG.

Did you note the beard?

I have. I have also categorised them. We have a group of traditionally wealthy Victorian clubs, and we have whichever interstate side is getting a leg-up at the time. Anyone else has to be damn lucky to get a shot.

The 90's featured two interstate startup teams and the usual suspects from Victoria. Essendon, Hawthorn, Collingwood and Carlton all had wins. The only outlier was North. Seems to me that the status was pretty damn Quo back then as well. Then of course we hit the Naughties, where we had the Bombers again, then six years of interstate super-teams before the Geelong/Hawthorn era kicked in.

He's been kept out because he's a Rookie and we couldn't elevate him until halfway through the season unless someone else went on to the LTI list. I wouldn't be surprised to see him play most of the remaining games now that we can use him. As has been said above, he's been consistently named in the best at Casey for most of the season and is generally listed as the best of the backs.