volders

Love this team.

Spargo and ANB huge second halfs for not kicking a goal between them.

He has played really well, feel like he has eliminated some mistakes, taking people on and poor kicking. Has done some really good work in close with his handballing and releasing other players too. I hope he can hold his form when Viney comes back in and takes the 'third' mid role.

IN: Langdon, B.Brown OUT: Melk, Weid ?: Is Viney Ready? Think he is an automatic inclusion, but tough to find an OUT. Hunt maybe, but the defensive unit has been good, think her keeps his spot for now. Sparrow as the last one in, but he was good tonight. Jordan, maybe due for a rest?

Such a great defensive game from the wing. Really shut down Bont in quiet a few contests, which is so important since Bont is usually very damaging.

Talks about his speed quite a bit. Only weaknesses seem to be height and penetration kicking. The stuff about leadership, attack on the ball, culture changer. This is what we need. Give me a son of a club legend, with these type of non-statistic based qualities over a 2% better selection as a player.

FWIW Knightmare (Bigfooty poster, puts up a Phantom draft every year, has great knowledge on potential draftees) has Viney as the fourth best player (Behind Daniher, O'Meera and Whitfield) so the 2nd best available for us. Based on that the discussion is kind of moot since if they want a midfielder whoever has pick 2 will nominate him. Hopefully they are after a ruckman, ie. Grundy or more of an outside midfielder. I see no reason for them to nominate Viney if they don't want him, it doesn't help them in anyway unless they trade for pick 5-8 or something ridiculous.

Think they could have named another 10-15 without us getting a nod. Moloney probably around 50-55. Go watch some non-demon games, McPharlin is all but a lock at FB.

Martin AINEC

Well Fremantle is doing well and is probably the only real example of 'just add water' footy club. PA has history, Adelaide/WC don't really count since they were the first teams in AFL heartland cities. Although I do doubt GC/GWS will have as smooth a ride as Freo.

Why would a Dale Thomas or a Marc Murphy leave there club when they are in a premiership window? It's not like they've gone out of their way to target the bottom teams, it's just easier to persuade players that are unlikely to be winning a premiership in the short term future to move clubs, especially when there is a lot of money involved. Someone had to suffer to bring new teams into the league, it's just unfortunate for teams that are bottoming out now. Be thankful we are not in PAs shoes... and have already topped up on a lot of talent.

98% certain I qualify, Hi!

God, seriously. I read Bigfooty (probably too much) and the comparisons between NN v JW (v MH) and Scully v Trengove v Martin (v Fyfe) drive me insane, mainly due to Melbourne supporters that constantly have to be validated that our player is/will be the 'best'.

Meh, only part I agree with is that he is essentially worth exactly a number 1 pick, no reason to dispute this. But there is no way the AFL will change the formula for us specifically, otherwise every club will petition the AFL for 'special conditions'. The only question is, will we get band 1 or band 2 if he leaves? The result is so dependent on where we finish in the year we take the pics so it's hard to judge what he is worth. I disagree thoroughly though that band 1 is 'overs' for Scully, unless we are planning on finishing in the bottom 2 or 3. If we finish last band 1 is pick 2 and pick 9, which is worth more than he is worth, band 2 would be pick 2, which is about right. If we finish 8th though band 1 is pick ~9 and ~12, which is probably just not worth it; Sydney offered pick 6 and 14 for pick 3 in 2009 and were turned down, rightly so considering top 3 in 2009 look well above the rest (bar Fyfe) but it's probably roughly equivalent. If we had band 2 and finished 8th we would get pick ~11 which is clearly not even close.

Lloyd made the coverage almost unbearable for me yesterday, I loathe him more than any other media personality and am not entirely sure why. Was looking forward to channel 10 coverage since most of our games have been on 7 (I hate how they put 5 ads between goals) but I'd take Bruce and Dennis two man circle jerk over Lloyd's 'special comments' any day.

2008 draft looks better IMO, better spread of talent across different positions, most considered it a super draft before anyone had even played. That said the 2009 draft looks good, top 4 (Fyfe-Martin-Scully-Trengove) look to be extremely promising, rest are a little bit behind. We definitely killed this draft, although it helps when you have pick 1 and 2 as well as 4 in the top 18.

Heppell and Conca have both been very good. I'd have Heppell over anyone in that list on performance so far this year. Good on Gyz, don't know if he's a chance of winning it, Shuey and Z.Smith IMO have been fantastic, Smith with consistency for a big man, Shuey with a couple of amazing one off games and some decent form throughout.

We have been the worst at kick-ins in the AFL for so long it's embarrassing. It didn't seem too bad last year because all we did was kick it to Jamar 60m out 10m from the boundary, unfortunately teams have discovered that this is OUR ONLY F**CKING PLAN. I just don't understand how we are still so awful at it...

Hopefully every other club in the AFL folds, that way we would have free reign over all players and be premiers every year!

They wont fold. Infact if they ever get a decent list together for some sustained finals action they will thrive (massive if lol). They have a massive, massive untapped supporter base, due to success in 70's and early 80's I guess, but because they've been [censored] for so long most of these supporters are not members.

Me too my friend. This kid could be anything and he'll probably be the best runner in the AFL in 2 years time, if he can get his kicking to an elite level, well there is no one I'm more excited about.

Good thing is that he should still be able to get on the bike (and hopefully run) so he should still be fairly fit by the time he makes back into the squad. Didn't catch it but Bails was on SEN and said Warnock will be the most likely replacement but Chip should be back by round 2 or 3.

They were filthy that day, although they definitely had the worse of the umpires in the first half. Loved watching Scully run riot against the bulldogs in the last quater, I'll go with that.

Obviously, no one would disagree with that, not everyone can win a premiership though. I really think St.Kilda did all they can, they got unlucky on a few fronts, Lovett, Kosy, many injuries (Roo, Dal Santo, Gardiner off the top of my head). That said our list looks likely to potentially be better than their list, they have a 5-6 players who are real A graders but their bottom few are some of the worst in any of the top 8 teams. Their backline is pretty talentless IMO but have held together due to good teamwork, smart gameplan and a star midfield that helps them out. Hopefully we can develop those top tier stars as well as having a strong bottom 6 in our ~26 players. There is nothing wrong with aiming for what St Kilda did, a 7-8 year tilt at a flag us more than we've had in a long time. Hopefully we can put together a list that can go just a little bit further. Infact even though the Hawks have a premiership and St Kilda don't I'd prefer to take St Kilda's method because it is more likely to give us that ultimate success. A 7-8 year tilt with a good list would have a higher average return in landing you a cup than trying to bradbury into one like Hawthorn.

Giants seems alright to me, I do like the Wolves better though.