Adam The God

Says everything about the readership of the Sun to me.

I agree. The Fasolo stuff is depression. A mental disorder. I don't know enough, but I know that much. You can't compare the case of Fasalo and the criticism Jack Watts has received for years and say one is softer than the other. It's missing the point.

Yep, it's a strange OP for me. I don't want to sound like a [censored], but I wouldn't have used the framework of golf if I wasn't that familiar with the scoring that underpins my entire point. I read this thread before the edit and it made no sense. Given the edit, I'd say Clarry should be about -5 or -6 and way out ahead on the leaderboard. I'd agree that Lewis should be at +1, perhaps even +2. I'd have Salem at -1, ANB (who I don't particularly rate, but has exceeded expectation) I'd have at -2, I'd have Bernie on +2 too, but that's just me I suspect.

So how much do we think Adelaide would offer him? And therefore, how high would we go? Incidentally, given we're generally unleakable as a club, I'd say the rumours of us chasing Lever have almost certainly been leaked from Lever's management to up their client's asking figure.

I think you know where I stand on Tyson.

I must admit a midfield of Oliver, Kelly, Salem, Petracca, Viney, Tyson, Jones, Lewis, Vince and hopefully even Brayshaw makes me salivate. That'd be five left footers and five right footers. Unfortunately though, it'll never happen.

Purely hypothetical, but let's say you could convince Jake Lever and Josh Kelly to come to you, but you only had room in the cap for one of them, who do you choose?

Wasn't that the goal Tyson kicked? And on the tap down to Harmes, I remember thinking he'd done it deliberately and yeah, Dermie said as much. Those little dinky taps and knock ons Jack does, I think they can look great if they come off, but it appears very soft if it doesn't. It can look like IMO he's avoiding body contact by tapping instead of taking possession of the ball. Still, it's definitely that basketball background. I agree. RE: his injury, he certainly grabbed at his groin in the last.

We also know that Watts is a better player when he's not the sole/key focus of our forwardline. So the sooner Jesse can get back in there, the better. Even Pedersen providing a contest inside 50 on the weekend enabled Jack to get into the game more. Our coaches need to be smarter in structuring our forwardline going forward and particularly, if Hogan isn't playing in it. But I reckon Jack will be 20% more potent with Hogan next to him. They do tend to compliment each other well.

Hibberd would have to be one of our greatest trades in the modern era. I know that sounds a little silly, but I can't recall a player that has come in and performed from game 1 at such a high level, consistently. A player in the Hibberd mould would be great, but if he'd played since Round 1, he'd be in AA contention. No doubt about it. So he's playing A grade football at the moment IMO. The circumstances that Hibberd was drawn to Melbourne were also slightly unusual in that Goodwin and his best mate Melksham were already at the club. I don't think we can expect or hope that players like him (and Lewis - a similar story with Todd Viney) fall into our laps again. But, perhaps the wheel will start to turn and good players will look at Melbourne with a desire to play for a club with a young talented list on the rise. Playing finals is obviously a huge part of creating an environment good players will want to come to. I disagree with this. My uninformed view is that Dusty will want to stay at Richmond and it'll take an absolutely insane offer to drag him away from Punt Rd. And even then, he might simply settle for a pay increase at Tigerland.

Great post, mate. Completely agree. Despite being incredibly frustrating at times this season, I've found it both fascinating and extremely exciting to see our clear progression. You're on fire! Another great post. They all provide something a little akin to a patchwork of creativity and footy offence that is incredibly tough to contain. It's rare you contain all three, if all three are playing. They'll only get better playing alongside each other more. Flashforward 2-3 years time and Weideman coming on at that stage too, offering a further foil for Hogan and Watts, add another goal sneak, say Devon Smith, and this will be a scary forwardline. Oh and a mercurial talent called Christan Petracca.

And gets beaten one-out by small forwards. But he uses his body well.

So Josh Kennedy (Eagles) will be out for 4 weeks. That means he'll currently miss the game against us. Very interesting...

He laid 5 tackles, yeah, but was murdered in the ruck and failed to take a contested mark once moved forward. I may have to check the tape, because maybe he did take some marks in the second half, but I certainly don't recall any.

I don't mind Pedo but he was bog ordinary yesterday. People seem to be overlooking that this week.

If we can get close to 5,000 NT members, that's a terrific effort, remembering we've got a game in Darwin too. Given our ordinary recent history that is a great return and will only get better the more we start winning. And if Hawthorn can play in Tassie through their premiership years, we can certainly play in the NT through ours. We pocket a handy $500k (is it per game?) and I presume additional monies from the NT government. I'm sure it's a key pillar of our financing strategy over the next 10 years and probably more likely to succeed than anything in Casey. Still, it's good to have multiple irons in the fire, I always say. Melksham could potentially offer us a really good additional string to our bow. If he can consistently gain meterage, break the lines and offer an outlet in the corridor or on the flanks, he makes us and Hunt far more unpredictable. It means we don't have to rely on Hunt either. Harmes is another who I suspect the FD think could play this role if required too. We're building really good flexibility in our list and our 22.

I think a lot of it was based on his poor ball use and decision making. He has some tools though and it was always about cleaning up these areas of his game. He becomes a weapon if he can perform consistently and use the ball well. His running and hardness are great assets to our forwardline and midfield.

And no way Lewis was second best on the ground. He was terrible for close to three quarters.

Aside from Kelly, who would you be targeting, Steve? There aren't exactly an abundance of silky mids on offer in FA.

Listened to the Richmond v Essendon game on 774 for a little bit tonight and was continually impressed by the Carlton captain Lauren Arnell's insights as a special commentator. She really broke down each play and assessed it in modern day footy terms. Really, really good stuff. I want to hear more of that from the flogs on FOX/7.

It spells excitement for me. I'm also buoyed by the fact that Goody is an attacking AND innovative coach.

Eh? What have I done now?

Little Jeffy Garlett outbodied Steven May today. May went to ground and Jeffy sauntered off and goaled. A clutch moment too. Rocket went berserk. If I was a Gold Coast supporter (are there any?) I would have been absolutely ropable. It was a pathetic effort, but of course you only see good in the opposition and only bad in a Melbourne jumper.

Fair enough, mate. I'm happy to give him time. If we had options, I'd prefer to allow him to develop off to the side (ie. the VFL or as third KPD). I reckon Harmes gets a game ahead of Wagner. He really needs to work on his disposal. Harmes seems to have improved this area of his game. Wagner's kicking for the most part, was much better last year.

Just on this, it gives me a reason to whinge about the commentators. Dermott gives me the shits. Has no idea what he's talking about. Labours points and generally has no idea what he's talking about and has no idea what he's talking about. Not to mention that bonehead Lynch, who spent the last five minutes trying to pick out free kicks for Tom Lynch that weren't there. FCS, what a [censored]. Fast becoming one of my favourite posters. Certainly giving DA a run for his money (come on, mate, step up ). Just woke the wife up laughing at this cracker. Great signs. We really are following the Bulldogs blueprint. Agreed. Nice psychological hurdle to overcome there. Interestingly, Jones was the one to put us in front with a set shot in the third. He was also the one that missed a relatively gettable set shot against Hawthorn in the third quarter that would have put us in front. Perhaps, that was the footy gods evening things up?