DeeSpencer

He was a first round pick and in just a small section of game he showed skills, toughness and a fair bit of poise. You could make an offer now then gamble on his year. Or wait and see. But barring a career threatening injury this year I'd be guessing he'd still be worth a second round pick and a lucrative contract at the end of next season. His ability to play half back is the reason I'd be very keen.

I missed it. The thing that I thought was going to make it truly terrible was that is wasn't just two 2 and 12 teams but a predictable result. Jax thing they have their QB and are at home. They needed to win and had motive to win. Once Tenn lost to the Jets they had to tank this one. They are now heavy rivals with Tampa for the number 1 pick. You'd have to think the Raiders (as the third 2 win team) would back Carr in and trade it to either Tenn or Tampa as well. Anyway, that's for another day. Feeling pretty confident this week: Green Bay - See above re Tampa Detroit - Clausen might give the Bears a kick along, but this team has packed it in for the year New England Could've tipped Philly, Buffalo, Seattle or Denver (Dalton melts in Prime Time) as well.

That's what Saty always says anyway! Good old Herbert

It requires a leap of faith, but if you disregard anything he did before these last two seasons (as I believe judging ruckman under 23 is pretty much irrelevant) then his career consists of: 5 games this year where he; smashed Hickey and had 9 tackles, got towelled by a triple threat of Eagles rucks, battled on against Mumford in the wet, beat Warnock silly and had 5 marks, played under heavy duress (ankle injury) against Gold Coast where he shouldn't have even played but we had no alternative. 8 games last year where he had a crack and threw his weight around unfortunately not too cleverly against the Saints when he got himself suspended. In marking contests he still battles. If he doesn't improve his coordination against better rucks he wont be of much use around the ground as clearly he's a poor kick. But he's definitely good at scrapping around the packs and has laid some big tackles. He's not Watts in that regard. Watts has never done this:

Except it's not. Benefits of Melbourne: - Lives in Melb - Plays with his brother - 1 year under Roos before an untried coach - No guarantees about winning games Benefits of Sydney - Success! - Isn't at a basketcase of a club - Plays with superstars - Lives in Bondi - Coached for the foreseeable future by a Premiership coach Then there's the matter of the trade. Sydney might still be banned from signing free agents or trading for players. In which case they might scoff at our likely offer (if Zac shows something similar to his 2014 form) of a 2nd round pick (which is hopefully later than earlier in the 20's). They might walk him through to the PSD out of spite and he might then end up at another club. Maybe the saints, where training at Seaford wouldn't be so bad for a Mt Eliza boy.

Yes!

I've seen a couple of sessions of him but not extensive periods. He has a bit of a shuffling run, doesn't strike me as a speedy type. Looks like his body needs work as well but so do most of the 80 or so picked ahead of him. Kicking seems legit though. Low, hard and accurate left foot. I'd say speed, fitness and injury concerns would be one knock on him. Probably the rest needs more vision and games to work out. Does he read the play? Does he run to link up well? Does he consistently make good decisions. It's hard to tell that from training (where most of that is scripted) and 2 minutes of highlights.

Well I guess now I know why we've been struggling for so long. No wonder the boys are on the high fat diet after a few hits of ganja before training.

I hope we are targeting every good young (and some old) player who are out of contract and even some whom aren't. I had some mail that Zac struggled with the move to Sydney. Had a girlfriend he didn't want to leave who he hadn't gotten much time with before he was drafted. The mail was that once he played the couple of senior games and as things went on he acclimatised. To be honest if we got him I'm not sure it would be a huge poaching exercise. I think if he plays games and settles well then he'll sign on at Sydney. It's a great club, we can only hope after this year we'll have closed the gap somewhat. But if he still wants to be in Melbourne (the city) as well as struggles for a game then I really hope he picks Melbourne as his destination.

It's only 80cents an hour so all the more spending money for you on the sausages! A bit of a hassle that it's not free but no time limit and it's a nice to see the people on the tan track or go the gardens and walk across the river (which is nice) and freeway (not as nice but still somewhat interesting and it's a safe bridge/overpass so don't be worried.). As much as I'd love us to have a permanent base that is our own an asset I think the club, players and us as fans are pretty spoilt to train where we do. Especially when you know the Saints are in Seaford and Essendon at the airport.

Which forum am I on? Why are there 2 of the same things? Can someone summarise the differences?

Well that's the good part about adding one more player after each win. Say we've won 2 games, maybe it's round 5 or 6 and so we've added Nath Jones and Dom Tyson to Flower. We then win a game where Watts has 25 touches and 3 goals including the match winner, but so far in the season Watts' has been his usual self. Do we then give it to Watts or the ever consistent Cross or Viney? Bit fiddly to keep adding one by one but I love the idea that the best on ground votes in a winning game can also include a poll option for who is due to be added to the banner. And people can choose like the rising star nomination to go for the body of work or for the best individual game or whichever balance they like.

I guess he kind of didn't get a good run last year. Concussed in game 1. Post concussive in game 2. Soaking wet day in game 3 then only back at the end of the year. But I think he needed that spell at Casey. He can't be in and out of the team whilst doing some good things but not nailing the basics. Like a cricketer with a shaky technique he needs to sort out his marking so he can be reliable at senior level.

I have an idea: We leave it how it is until the season stars. Then with every win we add a person to the banner. It can be based on how overall deserving they were or it can be if they are best on ground and a key part of winning that game. Then as the season goes on hopefully we have lots of faces on the banner.

Spot on. After a win this place turns senior players are all time greats and youngsters are future hall of famers. If players want to read something positive then we don't ask for much, just a few wins would do it!

Health and age aren't excuses for lacking the skills required to play AFL. Despite years on the list he hasn't improved his marking or kicking techniques to anywhere close to AFL level. They still stand out at training as being below par. With increased fitness and strength from a good preseason he should improve, but he's just too flaky to pick as a key forward I believe. If a preseason improves his ability to compete in the ruck I'd like to see him challenge Pedersen for that second ruck spot

Good old Fitzy. Expert on checksides. Incapable of kicking a fluent drop punt and unable to mark. A 6'6 crumbing forward/ruckman.

So in his 7th preseason Jack Watts finally gets an overuse injury. How nice. That will teach him for trying.

I'd get the signature as soon as I could! But I also feel like it would be counter productive to announce it now when the AFL year is really in off season mode. May as well pick a time that's going to sell some memberships! I'll be surprised if it's not signed by the preseason games and if not then by round 1.

I'm hoping that with another year of development for Viney and Tyson, plus greater depth in the midfield from both younger and older players that we close the gap on clearances and possessions pretty quickly. That will tell me we truly are competing and are matching sides physically which is something we haven't done for a long time. I'd be wrapped if some of those key stats, particularly inside 50's and score differential halved again and if our wins doubled again. We have to show that our midseason run of form that saw us get 4 wins against Adelaide, Ess, Carl and Rich and close losses to Port and the Dogs twice as well as 3 quarters against the Pies is reproducible rather than the first few weeks and the last month or so.

Or just making sure the game against Detroit decides the division and has that extra edge before the playoffs! The NFC play off seedings are right up in the air with two weeks to go. Crazy. Green Bay, Philly etc will be wanting the number 1 seed, but at the same time I think they'll be cheering on Arizona next week and just a happy to have Seattle down in the 5 seed.

Green Bay Pittsburgh New Orleans Who else is excited for some Johnny Football!!! A couple of fine battles for the Mariota Cup in Jets v Tennessee and surely not even Tampa and Lovie would be so silly as to actually beat Carolina now they are on their backup QB.

Besides the expansion teams I try to think of just how many 18 year olds can ever mix it at AFL level in the midfield in year 1. Just from Melbourne and recent history: Scully and Trengove had variable levels of success in year 1. Brock McLean played very well on a wing as the season wore on. Jack Viney was very ready to go and had a good crack at it. From other clubs I tend to disregard the expansion clubs. Joel Selwood is a great example. But then I think of number 1 picks like Goddard and Cooney coming on slowly and Bryce Gibbs used at half back. Jack Macrae is a great example of a more outside type of player in his first year doing well. Toumpy not so much. Whilst Wines is pretty similar in terms of solid body shape but probably lacking endurance when he entered the system. He had a great preseason then worked his way from a predominantly forward role in to bigger and bigger midfield exposure. Petracca has size, speed and class to play well as a forward from day 1. In terms of the midfield though I expect his fitness to hold him back unless he can be like Wines and just be so good that he gets a lot of midfield minutes despite limited overall game time. Angus Brayshaw is hard to tell. He doesn't have the same power in his game or his body as Petracca to say he would be good forward. But he's a great talent and is a competitor, so much so that he's probably the type to just find a way to get in the team. I also think youngsters together are probably a bad combination. So I doubt we will see more than probably 3 players in their first 2 years in the team at once. Maybe 4 with the sub. GWS are the perfect example of so many good young footballers all developing well yet the team not winning. It shows young players look great in terms of skills and highlights, yet somehow get shown up by older, wiser types.

Reasons why JKH was not at training: 1. Had to watch his cousin Ryan play against the Indians 2. Had to stay home to watch the space shuttle launch at the Kennedy centre 3. Is no longer training out of protest until his cousin Neil Patrick can legally get married in Australia 4. Quit the MFC when Roosy named Josh as the best Kennedy 5. Decided if Jack Watts gets 22 games despite never putting in that he may as well take a few weeks off pre Christmas 6. Is using demonland and the club to troll us all 7. Has a low grade infectious illness that could spread through the players and has been told to stay away from the club 8. Has a personal issue 9. Has quit footy to rediscover his cultural heritage by playing cricket with his private school mates in Kew 10. His biceps are now so large he's unable to run from the sheer weight of them

So an 18 year old is meant to go against all his senior team mates and 'change the culture'. You can't blame the 18 year old for the clubs poor leadership. The AFL is a sport where performance enhancing drug testing is probably pretty rare. So players aren't on edge at all. Before Ahmed Saad you go back decades to find the player caught before. It's so much different to cycling or an Olympic sport where drug testing is front and centre. The club brings in a biochemist who starts a program that likely builds up from vitamins to simple peptides to then the experimental stuff that we still don't know if it was against the ASADA/WADA code or not. Every step of the way you can see how the players were lead in to this. It wasn't like Dank turned up one day and went straight for the big gun substances. Instead he won the coaches over with dodgy products, had Danny Corcoran on side, had the Weapon involved. The waiver is a great example of a trick used to get players in to the program. "Here, sign something for your own protection that says this is legal", why would a player not sign that? Personally I haven't worked out why the AFL hasn't just quit ASADA by now and employed their own PED code and testing.