DeeSpencer

Yeah I don't like the move especially after getting Dawes and Hogan I really don't think Pedersen is any better than Sellar as a defender. Really we will need to delist guys like Davis or Fitzpatrick who will get to the same level as Pedersen and might have more scope for development. Still it's one player and it is what it is. I'm really not worried about our talls situation. We might end up delisting Davis and Spencer and keeping the rest for the next two years anyway. It's the midfielders where we need aggressive turnover and improvement.

If I was Neeld I'd say that as well. Otherwise he really is screwed

How nice it would be to have pick 1 in this draft and the rights to Tom Boyd who apparently is a bigger badder John Patton and due to our overzealous recruitment of Hogan, Dawes and Clark end up conducting an auction with the dogs and co to trade him for say pick 3 and a ready made midfielder. Nothing surer than us picking the next Tambling at 3 and them getting the next Franklin. But we just couldn't afford to keep Dawes and Clark and develop a top draft pick with Hogan.

Probably. I just don't know where we are at. Nothing the players do seems to be constructive. Maybe after the Carlton game he was happy because we did some defensive work but we practically played without a forward line. The closest to playing his style of game plan was in his first NAB cup against Collingwood at Etihad. Since then we've just been all over the place and so has his message. He's completely lost me and I think he's lost the players as well. They just can't get it right. Dawes in the paper this week said that their GPS numbers were above average in the league. Which confirms something our players are running around like headless chooks. Whilst Geelong are starting to re invent the game again by instead of all diving in after the footy they are letting teams unbalance themselves with over attack at the contests and keeping their space. Simple really when every one says oh look AFL is become a game like rugby where everyone just keeps pilling in like a big scrum. And here comes Chris Scott and he's committed only a few men to the breakdown and has everyone else lining up in defense ready to win the ball back and run off with it. You'd think Neeld would realise that even if you can't win games because players haven't grasped his silly structures that you'd strip it back and at least nail some fundamentals and get tackling, chasing, manning the mark, basic handballing to space and kicking right.

Find me a woman who can play soccer as well as say the A-League or the English championship and you might be started. Soccer is a game that involves a lot of skill, plenty of pace and some fitness and strength. I'm not sure the best female soccer player could get close. Now AFL is a game that requires tremendous speed, strength, fitness and top it off with skill. I'm not convinced any woman will ever have that. For one the lean body mass required to play AFL is amazing. Just to get a woman strong and fast enough would likely mean she's carrying some extra weight. Look at female tennis players, to get strong and fast enough they often look much more bulky on average than the men. Federer and Djokovic are lean athletetes where as Serena Williams, Sharapova and Wozniacki whilst not at all fat are much more bulky. We will never have a proper natural woman good enough to play AFL unless evolution takes a chance and men and women become more equal physically.

Time to play Davey again Id say and Kent or even Bail maybe from the bench? No point having Davey sub each and every week when we are getting smashed

In some ways I feel we are mainly judging him off one game. The ankle injury obvious set him back for the start of the year, he wasn't ready and we rightly didn't stick by him. But the Brisbane game was a huge concern. Offered nothing defensively and then was just a rushed mess with the ball. It's a shame it has to happen but a run at Casey is in his best interest. After that if we can just find enough form for him to play deep it will be great

I can't believe we are stuffing around getting involved in women's football. Some sports are made for different sexes, football is great for blokes and netball for women. Does that mean I hate women's footy of course not. And it's great that women can play. But you don't see Melbourne donating effort to men's netball or men's local footy. So I don't see why we'd support women's football, just a waste of time and effort. That's my 2 cents

I don't. I reckon the guys been lucky to be on an AFL list since he was drafted. And at the moment we need Dawes and Gawn more than him and don't have near enough run to to play another tall. He's playing well but hasn't set demanded selection.I felt for Magner. One more big game and I might feel for Fitzy but I think he'll also get his chance then.

smarter than he looks Beamer

No we are ranked last because the ball never goes in! I bet we are last for inside 50's and if we aren't the stats are skewed by the GWS game!Our forward line are as bad as any other line in our side but does have potential. In fairness none of our line coaches should be judged on performance. What I'd judge them on is who is developing players. At the moment the forward line has Tapscott. The midfield the joneses and the backline Terlich in terms of players who have improved under the leadership of the assistants. Lets see what we get by the end of the year

McGuane is 6'3 at least the same size as Riewoldt and probably plays like a target more than Vickery who gets lost at times. He does good defensive with his background as a defender. I don't think Riewoldt is playing as a defensive forward but trying to play more up the ground as a CHF and getting blanketed by good defenders and therefore is scoring more goals on the ground than from lead and mark. I think we'd miss Garlands run if he actually was giving any. Despite his disposal being shaky I'd like to see what Frawley can do run wise when playing on a lesser player.

Garland looked like a mess on Monday saying how poor the players were and to blame them and not Neeld for the failure. This week we will have Sellar, Frawley and Garland to take on Riewoldt, McGuane and Vickery/Edwards (don't think we'll play Davis and I can't see Tigers playing both Edwards and Vickery). As McGuane has been Richmond number 1 forward target I'd send Frawley to blanket him at the same time it's high time Garland shows his leadership early in a game at a crutial time. He did a good job on Franklin way back in the day as a 19 year old, it's time now as a matured footballer for him to not sit in the back pocket. Time to give him Riewoldt. Similarly if he fails I'd lean to Sellar for a go just to see what he can do as a defender on one of the better forwards in the comp. Am I tanking or am I taking an opportunity to see what some players can do when we are rolling out one of the worst midfields or all time. Thoughts?

Tigers play a fast hard running footy. I don't think they are massive hard bodies. Especially with a few outs like tuck and maric! Toumpas should be ok. I just don't get nicholson. Turn over machine who doesn't man up and also dogged a contest. I know he runs but everything else he stuffed up! I doubt Trenners will play that will likely save Bail. I don't see a need for Spencer (unless Jamar out) or Davis.

Thanks for writing all that for no reason. Thomas is a free agent and trading Hogan would send the message that we are [censored]. How about securing Thomas as a free agent and trading Watts for Prestia or even better a second round pick for Prestia

DemonWA you just agreed with everything in my post! I love it! Some sensibility! Except for what you said at the end. I think you are wrong to see us fitting 3 talls and 2 rucks. Cox, niknat and darling are all freaks for there size athletically. The other 2 forwards aren't slow either. I think we will have one ruck and one of Dawes, Hogan or Clark will ruck as well. Which should be Clark. If there's an injury that's where a Fitzy or Pedersen come in. I'd leave Sellar in the backline group. I think the only reason he snuck forward was due to injuries to Dawes, Clark, Gawn and Fitzpatrick at the start of the year. And of course Hogans lack of availability

Why on earth would Spencer have yet another year on contract? Surely he's up at the end of this year? Fitzpatrick is an interesting one but for me offers more going forward than Spencer. I quite like the sound of Jamar as our first ruck for now with Gawn developing and in all likelyhood Clarke becoming our second ruck/forward with Fitzpatrick also learning that role. Pedersen provides cover for that role as well. Plus replace Spencer with another developing ruck either on the main or preferably rookie list. As for why Spencer is playing and Fitzy isn't I think that's a simple thing. Fitzy hasn't had a lot of footy after missing some matches and whilst he's been good at Casey so has Spencer. At the same time whilst Jamar is out they are trying to evaluate whether Spencer has made any improvement. I don't think he has. Also they are careful to not over expose Gawn in the ruck at AFL level (or Fitzy as well). A Gawn and Fitzpatrick combination looks good for the long term but coming up against big body AFL rucks I think could hurt them with the speed of the game as well. When Jamar comes back I think what you will see is a lot of pressure on Gawn from Fitzpatrick for that second ruck /forward spot. Concurrently Gawn will hopefully prove he can withstand time in the ruck and attempt to force Jamar out. As for Fitzpatrick down back we could try him if we were out of options but to me Frawley, McDonald and Sellar provide 3 options for 2 spots with Garland/Dunn competing for 3rd tall (but both can play in one team). I think Sellar and McDonald offer enough as big body defenders and the extra height is really only a luxury if the player is good enough as Carlisle is and Thompson might be. Frawley is contracted for next year and we should focus on fixing our club and getting him reinvested over listening to rumours that are most like BS.

No way. Gorringe will be a player but he isn't what we need right now. If he was going to be a star as a ruck/forward you'd think he'd push ahead of Lynch or May or Dixon for at least a game. He's a ruckman and we've got a good one coming through in Gawn. We need to keep pick 2 and get the best midfielder in the draft. We need to look at Prestia with our second round pick or players who aren't vital to our future like flankers like Watts.

Frawley has plenty of speed and is still blanketing his direct opponent weekly but is down on confidence and care factor to try and fix all the other players problems. We don't need to trade him we just need to get the other defenders and mids up to scratch and he'll look like a star again. People were writing off Darren Glass a couple of years back when the Eagles were struggling. Personally I'm not sure there would be a better available player at our second round pick than Prestia. Prestia has obviously shown a bit and was pick 9 so that's the bench mark for what Gold Coast would want. A second round pick and a swap of third rounders might get the deal done. That said I don't want to overspend on a guy just to fill a need position. I'm also at the end of my tether with Watts. I don't see the point of keeping him as a forward unless he gets physical and can put on a tonne of pressure. Mid sized forwards are dying unless they run and rotate like midfielders. We have Clark, Hogan and Dawes for the forward line. Down back he has been a failure this season. Can't defend so really is a lose flanker and just hasn't impacted the contests. If I was replacing Neeld I'd trade Watts for Prestia in a heart beat and get the Watts problem somewhere else. I'd be totally comfortable giving up what others see as the more talented player to get someone who can make a direct impact.

It's damned if you do damned if you don't regarding getting involved. Look at Essendon where the CEO might (and according to the media heavyweights should) be fired for not knowing about the biochemistry research lab in his footy department. If I could say one area that Schwab erred almost undoubtedly it is that the football department has no real leader (unless you count Neeld) and that it has a gaping lack of experience. Craig is fine and Misson and the physio from Collingwood come with high regard but in particular Schwab's reign has been overshadowed by poor player development and poor recruiting and the people in those roles lack experience.

I think the comment about the club being in a state of paralysis after Jimmy's death is a good one. Clearly McLardy was a reluctant leader who took over from Jim and would've hoped things worked out more than actually got in there and monitored things. What we have to realise is that the one group of management/executive that we get to control is the board and it's also the group we can run for. So this years board elections will be a time to put up or shut up. Hopefully we can refine the current board and keep aspects that have made it a commercial success and delivered reasonable facilities for our players. So for all those angry at the board who are you supporting? I know as far as the President goes I'll be supporting whoever is passionate and reasonable. As well I'll be looking for increased football knowledge.

I don't think ideas per se. They are more the senior coaches domain to structure the game plan. He needs to be an effective communicator and be able to explain and teach. As such an experienced stoppage player you'd think he'd have some of that down pat. As much as Brisbane have done wrong of late they've also got Rich, Redden and Rockliff playing pretty good footy as young midfielder. How we'd love 3 like that to bring through with Jones.

I'm all in favour of getting some more champion players around the club. Of course you have to work out if they have passion for coaching and talent in the form of communication and ideas but they also must have a real benefit to the players in terms of confidence. I can't see how Matty Scarlett and Cam Mooney doing some part time mentoring of the bulldogs talls can be anything but a good thing. So as our particular area of need is the midfield I'd be looking for a champion ex midfield to come in as midfield development coach. Two who will likely retire this year are Black and Jude Bolton and both would be perfect to replace one of Royal/Greaves and have some star power impact. Both are super hard working and diligent as well.

Here's the problem. We had a whole bunch of issues last year (half of above) and had all preseason and some agressive list management and come off worse. How can you say with any confidence that Neeld will make us win next year. He's won 1 game so far that I count which was against a poor kicking Essendon. We sucked before the two Jacks and Clark were injured (yes I know they came off interrupted preseasons) but injuries are part of the game. Freo had no Pav, no Sandilands, no Fyfe and embarrased Gold Coast on the road. No doubt Freo are a good side but then Gold Coast destroy us. So not only are we worse than bad we are a whole new category. Say we get a proper CEO and restructure the footy department at the end of the day Neeld is still teaching these guys how to play and he's doing it horribly. The bulldogs aren't winning games but they are playing a consistent style and having a go. Are we so terrible that we can't stand for anything as a team. Neeld wanted us to be the hardest to play against so where is any reflection of that? If we won the tackle count each week or the contested ball or anything I'd understand. Or if we played the kids and said goodbye to those who weren't ever going to make it I'd understand. But right now Neeld hasn't done a thing to save his job.

We need star midfielders. If by some miracle we can get the best out of Toumpas and Viney that helps. Evans looks a likely player. Besides from that we've got Jones and lesser guys like Matt Jones and McKenzie. Sylvia is a proper forward/midfielder but not a real midfielder. Guys like Byrnes, Bail, Tapscott, Blease have to get better. Same with our small defenders. If we did get a priority pick (or even if we dont we could do it with our second round pick) we could consider trading down picks for multiple higher picks. Ie. pick 20 for picks 30 + 40 and get some more players in with reasonable picks. At the same time turnover the list and remove some junk.