Radar Detector

The Hawks seem to go ok without one...

Best revenge would be a win this week and a raid on their talented homesick kids in 18 months time. Doubt it will cost $1m per season to lure some away from tumbleweed stadium. Edit: Beat me to it Philthy!.

Personally, I hope we only look for this type of player in the rookie draft as we will have high picks in a supposed super draft. We have plenty of players of Magner's calibre on the list, what we need is more cream. And a lot of it.

There would be plenty in that sort of boat by your reasoning. Including many 'Land favourites like Ro Bail, for instance, who has barely fired a shot all year. IMO Morton has shown plenty more over his entire career (he was pretty impressive early days and is nearly 1.5 years younger) but I don't hear any cries to delist Bail. Bennell, Jetta, Dunn, Bate, Petterd and Joel Mac would all be higher up the delisting queue as would Spencer. And Green will most likely retire. So I don't see why we wouldn't wait to see how much improvement Morton has in him under Neeld when we're likely to make plenty of changes anyway.

Cale's biggest problem is that his 3 clangers per game are usually so bad they make you want to tear your eyeballs out. But he is clearly improving his workrate and desire for the contest and is also getting a fair bit of the ball...I think what Cale brings to the team is worth building on and persevering with... PS i know stats can tell a lot of half truths but despite averaging 3 clangers per game (third most in the team and approximately the same as Chip, Jones and Mitch Clark, for instance) he is also ahead of many of our better users for disposal efficiency (Trengove, Howe, Tapscott, for example).

Current superstar? No. But it's hard to disagree with these sentiments:

There are a select few players in the AFL capable of truly brilliant things that for whatever reason do not turn it on consistently. Despite this, they are often described as superstars. Nik Nat and Cyril Rioli are two such players. Both these guys have supreme talents but do not impact games often enough to warrant the superstar tag YET. It's one thing to marvel at their abilities - which I defy anyone to dispute - but superstar is a big stretch that I'm not prepared to concede until they mix brilliance with consistency (a la Buddy Franklin and Gary Ablett Sr, for example).

His talents are unquestionable and his game last night was awesome. But in 64 games playing as an on-baller this was only the THIRD TIME IN HIS CAREER he's hit 20 touches. And his kicking is iffy. He could become anything but the hype exceeds his output to date IMO.

Could not agree more with this comment. "like" doesn't do it justice.

Need them both with Cloke and Dawes this week. Those guys are too big for Riv and Garlo

One thing I don't understand in all this commentary is that I would actually have said Grimes is in ok form... And aside from Jones and Clark nobody else has put their hand up anyway.

Sellar looks completely out of his depth as a CHF but competes ok in the ruck. I'm surprised he wasn't used as a tall defender yesterday minding one of the ruck-forwards then going into the taps for a few minutes each quarter. Reckon we should try that with Ryder / Bellchambers and maybe free McDonald to have a run as a tall forward.

Bit tough on Rivers, has been very good again this year. Bit easy on Jamar too, has been largely ineffective at ruck contests and a liability around th ground. Others all fair.

Has no athleticism, no confidence by foot and is too predictable. Russian is a pure tap ruck man who doesn't get much footy around the ground so if his taps become ineffective, he has very little value.

What's the definition of insanity again? Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.. On a serious note, I refuse to believe we are incapable of matching it with teams like West Coast. I am not expecting a win - quite a way from that actually - but I still feel our list has enormous latent potential that just needs to be harnessed.

I agree. He has the athleticism to go with NicNat and if he does, we have a tall enough defence to cover the Eagles forwards IMO. Frawley, Sellar, Garland/Rivers, Martin vs Kennedy, Lynch, Darling, Cox/NicNat

How will I celebrate a Demons flag? Do you mean before or after I wake up?

Unfortunately "others were sucked in too" is not a satisfactory defence. What I highlighted in my earlier post is that others who have done substantial due diligence considered Ben and EW to be bad news. If our guys aren't doing the requisite work before making decisions that impact the very survival of the club I love, they shouldn't be there.

Ben Polis, from my understanding, is Energy Watch. A mate of mine at work had a comprehensive dig into the company from a financial point of view and met Ben a few times. His comments to me we're that Ben is mentally unstable and that he can't see how the business can possibly commit to $2m per year for five years with its cashflow and growth profile. He didn't see any way that the sponsorship could see out the full three years. Have been very nervous about this from the start and more so because we're being so selective over sponsor number 2. The club should have looked deeper into the business as this will have enormous ramifications for us.

I really feel for Aaron Davey. I don't actually care whether or not he was the one who said things to Jason Mifsud, that's not the point. It may have been true at the time he said them but issues may have been addressed by the time Caro got hold of it - that's why media personalities (true journos OR commentators) must check the facts at the time the story goes to print. People should be entitled to have private conversations without them ending up in the media. People should also be entitled to change their minds. Two things are undeniable. If Thomas had done his homework, this never would have become an issue. Likewise if Mifsud had kept quiet. I have no problem with Aaron airing grievances in a private forum, it's healthy to get stuff off your chest sometimes. I'm also comfortable with him changing his story as the facts change. He is being hung out to dry by others simply trying to big note themselves for personal gain which I think is horrifically unfair. What good could Mifsud have possibly thought would come of telling Thomas? It is tand reach of confidence and lack of discretion that is the issue for me, not what was originally said then perhaps ultimately changed.

We didn't recruit a bunch of skinny kids with the expectation of winning a flag in 2012. And unforseen circumstances (e.g. Scully) have pushed our window back a little. But thankfully more patient heads are running the club than most on here. None of us want to be waiting forever but a lot of the recent draft picks will end up very good footballers. FWIW, our midfield - perpetually our biggest weakness - looked bad on the weekend for precisely the reason most of you guys are up in arms. We had too many tough inside mids who can't spread or dispose of the footy. Could've used a couple more skilful "Brighton Grammar" types. The hole in our leadership has meant that recruiters have literally had to build a list from scratch. Look at the spread of types we've drafted over the last few years and I haven't even listed all the picks... Grunt mids (Jetta, McKenzie, Trengove, Tapscott, Taggert) Taller mids who will take longer to develop (Morton, Gysberts) Running mids (Bail, Scully, Blease) Flankers (Grimes, Bennell, Jurrah,Strauss, Howe, Tynan) KPPs (Watts, Cook, Fitz, McDonald, Davis, Clark, Sellar) Rucks (Martin, Fitz, Gawn) We haven't had the luxury of focussing on particular types because we've needed new types all over the field.

The love for Magner is a bit over the top for me. Agree he was our best yesterday and was great in pre-season but to list him as an untouchable is way over the top. His disposal is utterly woeful. Until we get a bunch of mids who can BOTH get the footy and dispose of it properly we will continue to get beaten.

Of the small forwards today, Davey at least showed some enthusiasm on the chase. Blease was disgusting defensively and should be first dropped IMO. Davey wasn't great but the skill level generally is a bigger issue. He and Watts were the only ones that looked like hitting a target all day.

To an extent though, the Swans' approach is great at minimising their downside but also limits their upside. They may not look like falling out of the eight but neither do they look like they'll win a flag any time soon... And you need to have a pretty solid list to begin with to go down the top up route. That's not to diminish the Swans, they're great at identifying undervalued talent, but that approach just wouldn't have worked for us. It may however start to come into play now. PS We've done the "consistently good" thing under Northey and to an extent Daniher but I'd rather take the higher risk approach and try to nab a flag.

Agree with both these. And how on earth is Hurley ranked higher than Josh Kennedy - who doesn't even make the cut!! Would saddle him up in red & blue in a heartbeat.