Curry & Beer

typed my post before I saw this - agree 100%

I really resent being called a 'groupthinker' (what is that, Demonland phrase of the week or something) has it occurred to you that maybe a lot of people say the same things because they have independently reached the same conclusion from watching games of football? Those stats are utterly meaningless BTW. What qualifies as effective? What about the amount of pressure you are under and the degree of difficulty of the kick? what about the resultant impact of the disposal (eg having a kick intercepted in your defensive 50)?

no he wouldn't have and had this happened 11 years ago, posters would have said the exact same things in his defense every high draft pick is a superstar until we find out otherwise

Does anybody else just think 'whatever' when reading about beep tests and so forth? Over the years I have noticed zero correlation between blokes who excel on the training track and players who actually do any damage on game day. Case-in-point Bail and the recently departed Nicholson. I would prefer to see the results of testing on brains, skills and guts

we've lost the last NINE season openers... each time a kick in the guts after pre-season optimism.. and a confidence belter for the side It's so important we get over this BS franchise side on the hallowed turf, and for ONCE actually start a season with some momentum

"Veterans Daniel Cross and Heritier Lumumba, formerly at the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood respectively, rated the session as the toughest of their careers." That really is a staggering statement - those blokes have played a combined 23 seasons and 426 games of AFL footy! Few tough training sessions along the way, no doubt!

Yes. I know. That's why I was underlining the cost of getting one. You clearly weren't one of the thousands who were glued to this site (and others) at the time and know exactly what I am talking about. Point is that getting a superstar is costly. Do you disagree with that or are you just another pedant wasting everybody's time?

I'll actually cry if it happens again

I still don't get this 'we played him too early' stuff. Nobody has ever been able to articulate to me exactly HOW quickly going to the senior side somehow 'ruins' a player. Correlation does not imply causation. Nathan Jones came in round 16 of his first year, has played 179 of a possible 184 games since, and has chalked up three blueys.

There's no doubt we tried our absolute best to do so this year - and I expect we will ho hard again next year.. Roosy knows we need to have at least one superstar on the list (sorry Jones). However, it will cost us. Although I was absolutely behind whatever it was they were up to this year, it seems like had Trengove passed the medical we would have lost him, Brayshaw, Frost, Neal-Bullen and O.McDonald all for that one player. It's a gigantic price tag and a big risk.

"You just snared two star midfielders in Christian Petracca and Angus Brayshaw. Finally your midfield actually has some players. Some kind of relief?" That's his FIRST bloody 'question'. There's a difference between 'fair and honest' and 'condescending, obnoxious belittlement'. Nathan Jones says hi BTW, the bloke who has just won three blueys

The misleading thread title that is intended to make you carp your pants when you log on has not gained any affection nor charm after the 5000th time

Anybody else have a problem with the extremely negative tone of Ralph's questions? His technique is apparently to make rude, confrontational 'accusations' (for lack of a better word) and then ask for a response. I wish Roosy was a little more firm and defensive with interviewers who clearly don't have a lot of respect for the MFC.

Well.. with all those marks and all that time forward he kicked 15 goals in 21 games... Happy to swap him for Brayshaw Agree on Grimes

I know I am not alone with the match replay overviews mate! Think I might chuck another one on now.. maybe watch Salem rip out Essendon's heart for about the 5th time :D

as the Dees FB post mentioned today, both Robbo and Davey came in as rookies (they didn't mention James McDonald for some reason!) Three of the very best players we've had in the last 20 years You just never know

"Melbourne now has a full list of 44 players for 2014, including 40 on its primary list and four rookies. Aaron Vandenberg and White join midfielder James Harmes and forward/ruckman Max King as rookies for 2015. Melbourne has now added 11 new players to its squad for next year. Vandenberg and White join father-son choice Billy Stretch (Glenelg); trade period selections Sam Frost (Greater Western Sydney), Jeff Garlett (Carlton), Heritier Lumumba (Collingwood); delisted free agent Ben Newton (Port Adelaide) and NAB AFL Draft picks Angus Brayshaw (Sandringham Dragons), Alex Neal-Bullen (Glenelg), Oscar McDonald (North Ballarat Rebels) and Christian Petracca (Eastern Ranges)." IN: Aaron Vandenberg (Dandenong Stingrays) (ROOKIE LIST) Mitchell White (Ainslie) (ROOKIE LIST) Sam Frost (Greater Western Sydney), Jeff Garlett (Carlton), Heritier Lumumba (Collingwood); Ben Newton (Port Adelaide) (DELISTED FREE AGENT) Angus Brayshaw (Sandringham Dragons), pick3 Alex Neal-Bullen (Glenelg), pick40 Oscar McDonald (North Ballarat Rebels) pick53 Christian Petracca (Eastern Ranges) pick2 Billy Stretch (Glenelg) (Pick 42 FATHER-SON) Out: Dom Barry (retired) Sam Blease (Geelong) Shannon Byrnes (retired) Mitch Clark (Geelong) Mitch Clisby (delisted) Michael Evans (delisted) James Frawley (Hawthorn) Alex Georgiou ® (delisted) Dan Nicholson (delisted) James Strauss (delisted) Luke Tapscott (delisted) (OK, 11 in, 11 out, all neat, phew, now my OCD can let me get on with my life)

no I'm serious mate, you've said your opinion is more valuable than the coaching staff - forget just giving you the voting rights, I really think you should just replace the whole panel on game day and make all the moves. That's how accurate your opinion is.

I think (in very rare cases) a little bit of ballot engineering goes on - like when you know a bloke is leaving the club and you want to do everything you can to make sure he attracts a contract that will qualify for band 1 compensation I've watched a whole bunch of replays lately (in addition of course to seeing each game at least twice during the year) and I have not found myself missing Frawley too much at all. The Adelaide win was our best match for the year and he was seriously worst on ground. On Watts, he is a perfect example. Everybody here still wants him to be Nick Riewoldt - and they feel annoyed and cheated that he isn't. When he puts in a good game he always gets jibbed by demonland in favour of a lovechild such as Viney. Even Jones, who continually wins votes anyway, gets jibbed because he is totally taken for granted on demonland. He does 50-100% more damage than say, Tyson, for the same amount of votes. As I say, there is a huge bias towards youth on here - I am sure AB+CP will get a bunch of votes at some stage in 2015 because they did 1 or 2 good things. I don't think the coaches compile their votes with anywhere near as much bias.

maybe that's because Jetta has this underdog story and people want more from Howe because he looks like he CAN be better.. Viney gets the son of Todd votes and votes purely because he's young, and we like that, it makes us feel nice to have young players in the votes the coaches study the opposition and the gameplan like their doing a phd on it, they know who gets what roles and who does them or not, they know who is carrying an injury etc come on mate you're putting the opinions of the cretins on this board ahead of our actual coaches?

the AFL should just send you a text asking who gets the brownlow

Brayshaw says 'AKKA' not 'ARKER' think he's wrong though

http://www.aflphotos.com.au/galleries/results/?q=collection:AFL%202014%20Training%20-%20Geelong%20Cats%20171114&image_id=353794 surely the official AFL photo would not have been shopped by the photographer - that makes no sense. Interestingly, the photo in question is not shown in this collection - so where is it?

I just keep watching his highlights, looks very ready to line up in round 1 for my money.. very complete and physically mature player.. what were you thinking St.Kilda you muppets

It's pretty much the only indicator that counts in my book