Akum

If that came off (and especially if it did help us nail Gaff as well as Lever), Watts would be doing us a huge favour.

Whoa! Has anybody ever seen Ricky Nixon and our own STMJ in the same room?

Where else but Demonland could you get Enigma, Mensa, any known shed and self-destructive horsesh!t all in the one post!!

By way of comparison, heard on radio that apparently Dipper had 90-something games with Hawthorn reserves before getting a run in the seniors. Times have changed.

Oh right. Misunderstood, sorry.

Poster is actually looking at evidence and making their point from there, rather than starting with their subjective opinion and ignoring or trashing evidence that doesn't support it. Stats comparison with Lynch is totally legitimate place to start.

Another excellent first post. Welcome aboard.

How do we know this? PJ, Mahoney & the Board have been silent so far, which is actually very wise, because for them to say anything about it, publicly or privately, could be quite damaging for the club. They would not be happy at all about being put in this position.

Gotta be more than Motlop, surely?

Pendles, as long as Watts stays???

This is the part that bothers me too. From Watts's past behaviour, it's always been crystal clear that he would never be the one to take the initiative to leave. I think he actually said when Roos came that he'd only leave if the club didn't want him. This was why I've believed strongly that Watts must be gone because the coach (or coaches) gave him an unmistakeable indication that they don't want him. That's the only reason that Watts is actually talking to other clubs at all. And if the coach wants you out, you're pretty much out. So I've found it uncomfortable that Goodwin was trying to give the impression that he's happy for Watts to stay, or that it's mutual. If he'd given Watts the option of staying, Watts, by past performance, wouldn't be talking with other clubs. Pure and simple. So why does Goodwin seem to want to avoid taking responsibility for that? To me, all Watts is doing is trying to make sure everybody's clear that it's not his choice to leave. As he has a perfect right to do. Goodwin seems to not only want Watts to leave, he wants Watts to take the responsibility for leaving. That's what bothers me most. Especially when this all seems to be about being strong enough to stand up and be counted. Great first post by the way, Chewy. Welcome to the loony bin.

So if he had a back-related "hammy problem", that's a very different beast.

Yeah, but the trouble is, if you tell a player they're "not untradeable", what is that player going to tell their manager about how the end-of-season meeting with the coach went? Especially after the year that Hogan's had. Especially if up until now, the club has given him the impression that he IS untradeable. And if you were that manager, and you continue to get speculative calls from the clubs in their home state, what might your advice to your player be? It's probably nothing, but the door's been opened just a chink when there was absolutely no need to touch it.

Surely if Sloane was on the market, the Blues would be all over it like a rash.

What's RSN?

I thought Pyke's remarks after the GF, where he tried to wash his hands of any responsibility for the team's performance, were remarkable. If that's a reflection of his overall attitude to coaching ...

Gee, not good. You'd think he'd be capable of keeping his thoughts to himself, at least until after trade period.

Brilliant post, this whole part hits the nail on the head.

Bernie Quinlan.

I get your point, but I think there's a big case for saying three trades won the Tiges the flag. Thought they played massive overs for Prestia & Caddy, but those two allowed them to use Dusty & Cotchin to much more damaging effect. And Nankervis did just what they wanted him to do, not just at stoppages but around the ground too. He got to so many aerial contests. If Jake lets us structure our defence much better, it allows the likes of Hibberd & Salem to play further up the ground. And as others have said, it allows T-Mac to play forward, and he suits our bomb-it-to-30m-from-goal forward game plan better than Watts or Weid or even Hogan.

That truly is a load of bollocks. Talia was worst on the ground by a mile, but "can't really fault" him? That's probably because he rarely got to any contests so you could say he didn't make any mistakes with the ball. He threw the whole defence out because he couldn't keep up with Riewoldt and was useless on anybody else. I like Talia in general but I've never seen a worse defensive game in a granny, he played like he was as stoned as the hack who wrote this. Also overrates Brown & underrates Kelly & Lever.

Notice too that Rance plays on the weakest link - Jenkins. Talia had an absolute stinker, so Lever & Hartigan had to do a lot more than usual. Lever had to take Riewoldt far more than he'd like to.

"Hey, wanna send a pic of me to my wife?" "Pretty weird, but OK" Seriously, why is he letting her take a nude photo?

"Grand sale! Grand sale! Grand sale! ...." (Actually, Franco Cozzo is a great bloke. Don't think even he could sell a Stringer though.)

Actually Crossy's view on the Watts situation would be really interesting. Especially being an ex-Bulldog.