DeeSpencer

Let's have some stats to back them up.

Exciting times, really hoping he can use this new found bulk to stick an effective tackle without giving away a free kick.

There's plenty of valid reasons to be critical of Roos. But you can't appoint a successor and then be criticised for stepping back and letting that successor take up some of the workload. There's no way to have Goodwin learn and prepare without it and there's no way for Roos to oversee the program and stay as the head coach for the year if he doesn't have the title, responsibility and pay packet. I remember when Clarkson was sick 2 years ago people from Hawthorn said Clarko hadn't run a training session in years and I bet no one is critical of Clarkson for it. I'm glad Roos is still the senior coach this year and I think it's vital he is and equally vital he spreads his time over a variety of roles and not physically overseeing training drills.

I don't hate the Burgan diaries. I like the bits about what the players are up to in their spare time not just their training. I'm not such a fan of what Matt is up to in his spare time.

Do you even remember in 2013 when Essendon were banned from playing finals, fined and had draft picks removed? It is completely impossible to play an AFL season with 34 players. It's an OH+S issue and could do serious damage to innocent young players. If you want Essendon banned from this season then that's fine by me. I understand that point, even if I don't agree with it. If you agree that they should be able to field some kind of team this year then you have to let them sign top up players to assemble a proper squad.

That's a matter for Crowley and Swan Districts to negotiate, didn't they have a contract? The AFL has to allow Essendon to sign top up players and create rules around that. You can't have a team enter in to a season with 34 players on the list and the majority of them being under developed kids. If players break existing contracts with state or local clubs then they can seek compensation from those players or Essendon but it's not the AFL's fault.

Bit of a worry that he got the lemonade from the bulldogs seemingly as soon as possible once Bevo got there, but he seems to be in a role that will fit his skillset and it's good for McCartney and Goodwin to have a trusted advisor to work with. It's a simple idea but a decent cultural change to process that you can't just teach the right things but you have to actually analyse whether that teaching is working.

Silly idea. Players not getting games can be traded or delisted and picked up as a free agents at the end of the year. Even contracted players manage to force trades if they are starved for opportunity. Loaning makes sense in soccer because there's so many levels of talent and big teams sign more talent than they can develop and hence send them to lower levels. AFL lists are 44 players, 22 get a game each week. Teams usually have at least a few long term and a few short term injuries from the best 30 or so players at any one stage. The point is if you're in the best 30 players you are likely to get opportunities. If you are in the bottom 10 players on any list you are most likely either a young kid still physically maturing or an experienced depth player. There's only a small group of players who are ever truly missing out on opportunities, it would be silly to start shipping those types from club to club.

I feel sorry for the players partners and I feel sorry for the people who received these messages and then out of greed, anger, disappointment or for what other reason decided they should sell them to the media. I also feel bad for any of the decent staff left at women's day who must know that their bosses are so desperate to revive their sinking ship that they will deal with this crap. If it's only the pixelated or obscured images Swan and Cloke will be fine, if their relationships are in trouble then they really only have themselves to blame.

3 times in 2 years if you count Michie, Riley and Newton as trade ins. All 3 of those guys got chance in their first year though and I expect Ben Kennedy will as well. I liked the talk of his good attitude and am keen to see him play in the preseason games. He's another I don't think we will learn too much about between now and then. When I watched training a few years ago it was easy to pick out the good players and the guys who are working hard. The group is a lot more consistent now.

Ref's were terrible. Offensive PI missed, then PI missed the other way on the gutsy 2nd down throw and more. But it makes for a great game when it's physical. GB unlucky with the OT rules and the coin flip. Palmer turned a bad day in to a good finish. Is it nerves or is he found out against the best? Credit to GB defense regardless, Arizona will have to be better running the ball to win the whole lot. Great for Larry Fitzgerald to get the win, hope a few Dees players were watching and learning how sticking with your team can be so rewarding. GB and Rodgers will be back next year if they get the receivers healthy and get Eddie Lacy in a fat camp. Lacy is still a good runner when he's motoring but you can tell he just flounders in the open field when he should punish teams and he doesn't seem to play at a high level for full games yet alone a full season.

Last year: Vince (hammy), Howe (hammy), Trengove (foot), Petracca (ACL), Dawes (something!), Spencer and Terlich were recovering from surgeries. This year: Trengove, Petracca, Vince, Dawes, Frost, Newton, Lumumba, Jetta Pretty similar from what I can recall. Vince is just a finger so he should be ahead of where he was last year. Hopefully Jetta, and Dawes aren't far off full health and Petracca is back on his feet quickly after the 4 weeks. That would drop the numbers down.

Sunday 8.35am Kansas City 16 @ New England 24 Sunday 12.15pm Green Bay 20 @ Arizona 34 Monday 5.05am Seattle 24 @ Carolina 21 Monday 8.40am Pittsburgh 10 @ Denver 20 New England, coach and QB advantage, home field, they just get it done. Arizona v GB, regardless of anything else it's very hard to see how the Pack turn it around so much from when these teams last played. Denver win because Big Ben will get hit down and have to leave the game and Manning will do enough. I don't like either team right now, would back KC and NE to beat both. For whatever reason I just believe more in Wilson and the SeaHawks big game experience than Carolina. The Carolina defense can be amazing but had too many soft days off and their offense is good but I can't imagine them being great in play offs. But this is the game I feel least confident about and I feel like it's going to be a great game, shame I won't watch it!

I'm a bit suss on the Giants as I think they need to fire their GM soon and Eli is 35 and might only have 3-5 years left, but still you're looking at a decent 3-5 years with Eli and Beckham. That alone puts it way above Cleveland. SF is a dumpster fire unless you believe in Kap. Philly, no thanks. You'd have to love Tannehill to go to Miami, but that said Gase will do well with him, if you can do well with Cutler you can make something happen with Tannehill and Jarvis Landry. Tampa probably would've been a good job if you liked Winston but they fired Lovie to hire their OC. Same goes with Tenn and Mariota, I think I'd take him, the number 1 pick (especially if you can trade it) and a more relatively stable and under the radar NFL city than Cleveland.

An 8 day camp with the coaches and support staff, surely all the players will be up there? If Petracca is in his moonboot I think everyone else should be. But I do agree mostly with the idea that if you aren't doing a fair bit of the training at the camp then your chances of playing early are reduced. On the injury front I'll be keen to know if Ben Newton is out doing any running because from the one photo of him boxing on the club twitter he looks super lean and fit.

2/8 1/8 1/8 2/8 3/8. Good job Macca Could find my own tips, had commented on the AFC but didn't do the full list. Shows how open the league is, very little love for Carolina or Arizona and they are in the best position to win the NFC. Similarly I think the Bengals could've won the AFC with a healthy Andy Dalton but no one wanted them for the AFC North. The Pats are the one constant.

Isn't Hue Jackson a sucker for punishment, who in their right mind would sign up to coaching both the Raiders (where he was unfairly sacked) and the Cleveland Browns? Who does that? And he would've been a huge chance for the Giants job apparently. Now he's working for Jonah Hill's character from moneyball and a lawyer with no football experience has control of the 53 man roster.

I've never wanted to punch someone through the screen more than that Bills Defensive Line coach who called out the Hogs. What an idiot. The only thing as remarkable as the Bills making 4 superbowls these days would be them losing all 4 of them to current day NFC East teams.

I don't think they'll have a choice but to pay up, they'll get shamed in to it otherwise. You should be able to find the bet in your bet history if it's online.

Haven't been to training post Xmas, but from the few sessions I did see of him there's nothing much to report which isn't really a bad thing. They do the majority of sessions with all players mixed in together these days, but he has been in the midfield group from what I recall. Brayshaw played mainly forward last year with only spurts in the midfield, I expect the same from Oliver. His fitness looks decent for a kid, he's in the lower group but I haven't seen him struggle, probably on par with Brayshaw's last year. I'm been impressed by his agility and his size and shape. I don't actually expect him to do anything at training that would change expectations between now and the intraclub and NAB challenge games.

Corporate bookies will make more money paying out on Mitchell and Cotchin, advertising the shizen out of it and getting everyone to re invest their profits back in to the 2016 Brownlow pool. The Fairest part of the award involves fair play on the field. I don't see it having to be linked based on the 'fairness' aspect. He'll lose the medal purely on legal reasons of being found guilty of doping. As for the commission delaying the decision, well I understand it. Football is a business whether you like it or not and that means taking care of your customers. There's no point pissing off a bunch of Essendon members and supporters on a day they are already feeling bad about by dropping the Watson news as well. It would also seem silly to strip Jobe of the medal now and everyone having the debate about Mitchell and Cotchin when it's not the most pressing matter.

It's bad, but I'm more concerned that the only player we could trade for had a decent shot of this happening to him. There wasn't another half back flanker/wingman in the right age/game played category who wasn't being investigated for doping? The silver lining is opportunity for Mitch White or Josh Wagner.

Round 23 was a good win to get the monkey off the back at Etihad, to make a statement for the year and also to get one back on GWS, which became even more important now we play them in round 1. But both teams were missing so many I don't think we should overreact to it. Mumford alone drastically changes that game, yet alone any of the other class players from both sides. I think there were some lessons worth taking in terms of backing in the young players, competition for this upcoming season, rotating roles with various players etc. The Geelong game gave me the most excitement. They were injured and rubbish but we controlled that game and with more confidence and talent (we had so many battlers in that day) we could've beaten them convincing. Which means this year we have to raise the standards again and believe we can win away games against top teams.

The AFL can dictate those kind of things as they get all the money and can therefore negotiate with the governments and stadiums. The NFL is controlled by the teams owners who each get a vote on major decisions like that. It's not independent from the teams like the AFL. Teams need a 2/3rds vote to move so the collective group of owners as 'the NFL' do get to decide on who plays where if a team wants to move. But also these almost all rich people who don't like giving away money so I understand why owners want to move if they can't get a good stadium deal that helps them get richer. California does make it very hard with pubic money which is a good thing, then again an NFL team would return some decent cash to a local area. So it's a shame Oakland and San Diego can't work something out. Those teams belong in those cities. St Louis seems like an even bigger stuff up having to rebuild the stadium so soon and with the owner so keen on developing his own stadium in LA. I'd probably vote yes to the Rams moving if I were a fellow owner just because I don't want to see the city of St Louis ripped off paying so much for a stadium.

I forgot to tip the first two games, cost myself a couple! But I'll go: Seattle 20 Vikings 27 Packers 31 Washington 27 NFC North represent.