DeeSpencer

Missed the official start but no one was ever tipping GB right so its ok? New England New Orleans (with caution) San Diego If in doubt go with the top QB's is my theory. Whether Rivers is a top QB is another question but he was last year and Jared Rivers form my transfer to cousin Phil. Also wanted to tip Minnesota over St Louis in a battle of back up QBs (Cassel is backing up Teddy just in reverse!). I'm a very nervous Bears fan. Bills having so many issues they might just all be a smoke screen and our defense and special teams are awful.

Can't help but think we should've kept him on the books for 2015 as well until after trade period as part of his retirement settlement. Maybe that's what an experienced footy manager would do and Josh Mahoney wouldn't. Agree we have to hear from Mitch and the MFC. The sooner the better. Damian Barrett teaming up with player manager Colin Young makes this all the worse.

We aren't getting any of those players. We will trade our most talented player even if his body and mind have been broken and now are repaired, for at best a 3rd round pick I'd say.

Could well happen. Say he states his desire to return to Perth and with West Coast committed to Naitanui, Lycette (4 year deal), Kennedy and Darling do you think they'd even bother ruining Freo's PSD party?

Trade with Freo seems likely to me but Freo wont want to give up anything for him. They've already signed free agents in Sylvia and Pearce (subbed out yesterday) and traded a late pick for the failed Gumby experiment. Don't expect anything better than a 3rd round pick I'd say. Of course the option is we don't trade, put him in the PSD and pick him (presuming St Kilda stay away). But clubs haven't gone down this route before yet alone with a guy coming back from retirement due to mental health issues.

Major weaknesses from 2014: Skill from half back - Malceski Outside runners who break the lines - Lumumba Key forward - Hogan Midfield depth - Toumpas, Trengove That's from a personnel point of view. It won't represent sustainable improvement unless we have fixed recruiting, development and culture of excellence.

I wouldn't think you'd negatively judge a coach for being sold some anti aging or weight loss wonder drug when you've already been conned in by a guy who's apparently doing miracles with your players. I mean we've all drank the Paul Roos media savvy and hair without too much trouble. Maybe give Goodwin a chance. Think about it if you were an assistant coach and Hirdy has brought Dank in to fine tune the players with 'evidence based' and 'cutting edge' science. Would you toss him out or would you take a few free supplement injections? He was a fantastic player. He's had a valuable apprenticeship in what not to do under Hird in regards to off field stuff but also seen a pretty decent bomber side under Hird, he's then had a year under one of the recent great coaches. The assistant coach pool is pretty low at the moment. I wouldn't write Goodwin off.

He trains hard and prepares like a pro. He's leads the guys on the track. He (reportedly) gets around the younger players and helps them settle in. He (has been) a hard and uncompromising player. It's a fine line between positive player who impacts games which is enough for any player to be captain and player who is borderline best 22. Grimes showed as what he can do against Adel when he was istrumental in the win. Unfortunately it was the only time in the season. If Roos thinks he can be an above average player then he should maintain the co-captaincy. If he think the form we saw this year is more permanent then he should resign the captaincy and go with Jones alone.

Should read given he was moved around due to failing to have consistent impact in any of the initial positions he was tried in. Went wing, half forward, deep forward, half back and finally finished the year back on the wing. Some very good performances - v Saints, v Adel, v Port (2nd half), even v North on the weekend. He played some games that put him in our top 6 but plenty that had him in our bottom 6. That he was never dropped tells me he was always in our best 15 as Roos shuffled the bottom 7 or so with injury and form. I'm slightly annoyed that a going through the motions year gets a top 10 finish in the B+F. But then again Bail and Matt Jones didn't do much more and they are around that mark as well.

But soccer and AFL are probably the two sports where defense and attack are influenced by game style so much. You can extrapolate to baseball and cricket type sports in the way batters bat or the strength of a team. Basketball can be affected by game style a bit but mostly it's personnel. As long as teams force it in to a series of somewhat unrelated half court sets then you aren't sacrificing one for the other in terms of style so much. I do have confidence in the Ross Lyon game style for winning finals and grand finals I think he's been beaten by better sides. Whether that extremely defensive style is a way to develop a young side is a different question. I'm not sure it's been tried too many times before Roos giving it a go now.

I'm disappointed we had games where we couldn't move the ball or score at all. Those games are a waste. But so are games where you lose by 100 no matter what you score. Against a lot of opponents (in the 4 wins and several close losses) we moved the ball and scored. If we do that and score 60 or 100 I don't mind. Whatever gets the wins. I guess my main point is you can't be afraid to take the game on and even if you are sacrificing your scoring power by focusing on defensive structures there has to be attacking in games. No doubt forwards who win one on ones and get to the right spots will help as well. Next year will be a big test.

Tell that to Nath Jones or Dom Tyson who without Vince providing the 3rd competent midfield option would've really worn a lot of attention. Agree it's something to keep in mind for this years trade period that every draft pick represents an opportunity for a really good player who's likely to stay around for a long time. But I don't think you can say Vince was a bad call. I guess all you can do is look at our midfield now as say - Jones, Tyson, Vince, Cross (1 year max?), Viney then the more speculative - Trengove, Toumpas, Watts, Riley, Michie, Matt Jones etc and say what's the priority. Is it getting ready to go guys to support the top line mids or is it getting kids who can build a sustainable unit along with Tyson and Viney. Last year the surety of Vince was too important.This year we have a more stable base to work with.

There's plenty on O'Rourke in other threads. Some think he could be a Dom Tyson like bargain, Personally, I'm not so convinced. Frost is similar to his brother who plays at Coll. Tall, quick athlete. Bit like Tom McDonald. Not so great as a kick. Presuming Frawley leaves it would be nice to have another mature replacement. But not overly convinced about his long term result. 3rd or 4th round pick but we'd want to have some decent small defenders with skills if we are lining up Frost and McDonald in the same team.

It's twice as funny in Swedish

So you suggest we get rid of the 7-10 who can't even get a game and then what 5 or so more in the senior side who aren't up to it. Nice in theory but there aren't 15 decent players to replace them with. I'd rather start with the truly dead wood and work our way up. That said I'm all for trading out some of those underperformers in the senior team if they have value because it means you can find a decent replacement for them.

It's disappointing we didn't see more of Clisby this year. Don't think he was a long term player but I did think he could be slightly better depth than some. Not sure about this soft notion. Got the feeling he was decent at the contest for an undersized defender and he was a good runner from the backline. Kicking not perfect but better than Grimes and Terlich. Overall I'd say he and Terlich were about even so the FD made their choice for the more experienced and bigger guy. Nicholson. Well we were all were seduced by the athleticism but he just doesn't have the talent. Surprised they just did 2 to start with but I guess there's not a heap of benefit going early on some of the others. Wait and see who's out there by way of other delistings and how the drafts are shaking up.

Good news. I think we all know he's likely to have troubles with that knee for the rest of his career but if managed well there's not reason he can't give us quite a few years of really good footy. Anyone got any updates on who else has to have post season surgery? Pedersen with his nose but that's not too big a deal. Gawn, Spencer, Trengove now rehabbing.

Um what???

He's 30. The thought process is often to write players off at that age the first time they have a couple of injuries where the reality is they can play many more years. That said he'll now mainly play half forward and use his game smarts to rack up possessions and kick some goals. I think his days as anything more than a rotational midfielder are coming to an end. So really that's not what we need. If we are going to recruit a 30 year old I'd rather a wingman or a half back giving us big upgrades. I'm pretty sure he'll stay at the Pies anyway.

Yep I know plenty of Jews who make jokes about all sorts of things but they don't joke about the Holocaust and they don't joke about Israel generally. That said 'how many Jews can you fit in a Volkswagon' is an old classic horrendous joke. And there are plenty of child abuse jokes going around, an old staple for those school camp nights when you sit around telling terrible jokes.

But the jokes about paedophiles which is why it's funny and is ok. Just like Viv Michie's joke is not about glassing people which is despicable but about Red Foo which is funny. I understand why people don't like it. I understand it has the potential to upset Rolf Harris' victims. But at the same time I think others would see a once popular celebrity being reduced to a cheap joke, which is more than he deserves. What I don't like is not those who are genuinely upset. But those who see AFL and Mad Monday and jump to conclusions about players behaving badly

Allowing us to add our own player back to our own list. Don't think there's any assistance there!

Geelong have done Ricky Nixon (40odd) and Kim Duthie (16) as well as a Priest and a school kid. Similar takes on the same distasteful joke but at some stage I think people need to think if they were truly offended or just jumping on the moral outrage train.

Let's hope it is. We'd lose that one anyway and have him back for a win in round 2. But we all know we'll probably draw another bottom 6 team in round 1 to get our season off to the usual embarrassing loss or heaven hope a win.

I want us to play with physicality. I want Dawes to check Rance when he's running out of the backline to make him think twice which is what he did early in the season and I've got no trouble with him throwing his weight around off the square. It was a forearm to the upper chest. Yet the AFL decide to see it as a strike to the head. These players get crunched in every pack be it marking or on the deck. Huge tackles and collisions with force. We will probably be soft and just take the weak but I wish out of principle we challenged this one. There's no risk of an extra week. It's not at all a strike.