Curry & Beer

I have to say I am genuinely surprised at the number of posters in this thread who seem to consider Watts to be a 'soft' player. IMO that perception is one fabricated out of nothing by the media (whom we are all aware like to stick the boot into us at every possible opportunity) and opposition supporters (no need to explain that one). I have watched 5 replays of games since the conclusion of this season (obviously I saw them at the time also) and I cannot recall a single instance where I thought to myself 'gee you should have gone harder there Jack'. I have also noticed some real agro around the contests, which nobody ever mentions. With regard to his general play the vast majority of the time he exhibits brains, class and effort, and very rarely does he get beaten or make a bad mistake in a variety of situations. I just watched the mauling of GWS, and though he wasn't prolific, did a number of truly outstanding efforts, including contested marks, winning the contested ball and using it properly, and working his way through traffic. If you distilled his highlight reel down to a few minutes he would look a million bucks. The bloke really does have the full set IMO. Even if the criticism of his hardness is valid, I don't understand why that is placed at such a premium. Recent KPP we have had that would run through a brick wall if asked were Brad Miller and Nathan Carroll. Give me one decent half of Jack Watts football over anything those blokes did their whole careers. As mentioned by others, the kid racked up 34 touches across half-back in a side that got belted, away from home, by the eventual premiers by over 100 points. That is anything but ordinary. Though it is painful to admit, I think that only Clark, Jones, Howe and perhaps Trengove, Blease, Grimes and Sylvia are in his category in terms of raw talent for the game. Between 2003 and 2009 we drafted 6 players from the first 5 picks - it has not worked out well for us so far but i'll be damned if Watts isn't a genuine contender to become the star we all crave so badly. I cannot wait to see him in '13.

You do have to question the assumption that Viney, Hogan and Pick4 are going to be good players when we've just thrown a bunch of previous first round draft picks out with the trash. The ones we have kept, Sylvia, Watts, Trengove etc have not yet fully delivered on their supposed potential either. I don't like it, but that's the facts of the matter. If this year's draftee kids become quality it won't be for a while anyway. It also needs to be said that the 5 players we have nabbed from other clubs are not exactly big name trades along the lines of Goddard, Lake etc. Let's face it they are journeymen, some of whom are near the end. It is hard for me to see a huge improvement in '13 given these list changes, but there definitely is some chance that it will all click together. I do support what they they have done, but my expectations are low.

Age: 21yr 7mth Games: 55 Height: 196cm Weight: 91kg 2012 BnF: 16th (15 games) What are our expectations of the man this upcoming season? It seems to me that there is a general consensus he will remain as a backman, due to the arrival of Dawes and Pederson. I have been reasonably impressed with his development thus far, there is no doubt that there has been a bunch of excellent games amongst that 55 - however, I have to be honest and say that I think we all expected that he would be making a few more waves after four years at the club. He has had a few injury concerns, although nothing too extreme since he has lined up for 52 of our last 66 outings. It should also be noted that he is relatively young, in fact there are only 9 players on the list younger than him (not inc. this year's draftees). I don't see why he cannot play a forward line role this year, good luck to enemy coaches matching up him, Clark, Dawes and Pedo, I think he could run riot as a 3rd/4th target up there. Don't get me wrong, I have seen enough of his talents to have a lot of confidence in him, but it has to be said that at this stage he is a bit of a disappointment in terms of the actual damage he's done. Thoughts?

they are not 10 year olds every man is responsible for his own actions

Tony Soprano and Nucky Thompson were there too

At the moment we have Selwood at the Cats, Judd at Carlton and Van Berlo, Tippet and Dangerfield at the crows all facing scrutiny. Very good timing for us and our little issue.

I'm with you OP - lack of hardness, lack of experience, no forward structure, Neeld has gone and addressed all these things

I think the devil has changed his number from 666 to 31 Personally I think we should put the 31 guernsey in a locked box and drop it in the ocean

anything's possible 2008 51 Neville Jetta 2006 46 Colin Garland 1999 50 Matthew Whelan 2005 60 Clint Bartram

thanks all

so that means we need to fill 8 more spots? surely we won't be drafting as deep as pick 106?

Please correct my errors, as far as I can tell, from our 2012 list of 46 players inc rookies, we have had 15 players depart: Moloney, Brent Green, Brad Rivers, Jared Martin, Stefan Morton, Cale Gysberts, Jordan Matthew Bate, Ricky Petterd, Jamie Bennell, Liam Jurrah Lucas Cook Jai Sheahan, Leigh Williams Kelvin Lawrence Clint Bartram and so far we have 8 new players: Pederson Dawes Rodan Gillies Byrnes Hogan Viney Barry With the following picks in the ND NAB AFL Draft order as at October 26, 2012 4. Melbourne (GWS compensation - Tom Scully) 49. Melbourne (FA compensation - net result for Brent Moloney and Jared Rivers) 53. Melbourne 70. Melbourne 73. Melbourne 74. Melbourne 88. Melbourne 106. Melbourne 124. Melbourne Does this mean we have to use all 7 of these picks, or 6 plus 1 in the PSD in order to get back to a total of 46? What is the story with the rookie list, am I correct in saying that only Magner and Couch are listed as rookies? REMAINING LIST (31) 40 Jamar, Mark 12 Sylvia, Colin 11 Clark, Mitchell 2 Jones, Nathan 8 Frawley, James 16 Grimes, Jack 38 Howe, Jeremy 4 Watts, Jack 9 Trengove, Jack 25 McDonald, Tom 36 Davey, Aaron 20 Garland, Colin 13 McKenzie, Jordie 17 Blease, Sam 28 Macdonald, Joel 44 Bail, Rohan 42 Spencer, Jake 39 Jetta, Neville 26 Nicholson, Daniel 30 Sellar, James 14 Dunn, Lynden 49 Magner, James ® 35 Tapscott, Luke 19 Strauss, James 37 Gawn, Max 48 Fitzpatrick, Jack 46 Tynan, Josh 43 Taggert, Rory 50 Evans, Michael 41 Davis, Troy 47 Couch, Thomas ®

so sad, so unfair. I thought he was starting to come good before his injury, there was a patch in late 2010 where he really was playing quality back pocket footy that reminded me of the great Matthew Whelan. Poor bloke lost his old man when he was about 19 too, hard luck mate. Thanks for your efforts.

ok so now he's known as 'giggles' Hogan

yep, they were the contentious 2, along with Joel Mac, Bail and Magner. I rate all 5 of those exclusions, although Bail, Nicho and Magner to me are just Godfreys. Plenty of heart and work ethic but huge deficiencies in class. Joel Mac I guess is similar, but I am a sucker for any player that hits bodies and the contest the way he does. For this reason I understand Tappy being in the side, I just haven't seen too many special efforts from him thus far. I went with Jetta because I really see something in the kid, like some special efforts he put in last year including that moment he ran back to spoil a much bigger opponent, knowing he would be poleaxed and managed to work the ball to a teammate (Clark?), creating a goal from absolutely nothing. Showed rare balls, awareness and class. I have to say though that I had huge hopes for his old teammate in JB, and boy did that not pan out. As for Davey, I refuse to believe he is finished. I'm backing him to return to form this year, probably in a role nobody expects. The fact that he is still there when 14 others have been shown the door says to me that Neeld has plans for him. I say this on the hope that we have a fully functional side where a player like Davey can play a role that suits him best (read: not being a no.1 focus that is tagged out of games as in previous years). In any case we all know that we will have about 5 players unavailable each week so all these players will get their chance. I am starting to get extremely excited to see what this new look side is going to do.

OK, so 14 15 players gone from last year, 8 in so far, plus pick 4 BARTRAM NICHOLSON FRAWLEY GARLAND WATTS McDONALD GRIMES BLEASE McKENZIE TRENGOVE BYRNES DAWES HOWE PEDERSON CLARK RODAN JAMAR SYLVIA JONES JETTA DAVEY VINEY PICK 4 Depth: Macdonald, Joel Bail, Rohan Nicholson, Daniel Magner, James Tapscott, Luke Gillies, Tom Sellar, James Dunn, Lynden Spencer, Jake *EDITED FOR UPDATE*

yes, I am hoping this is similar to the recreational drug testing farce -public shows dissatisfaction with an aspect of the game -AFL puts in a process to be seen to be do something -outcome is pre-determined to do nothing (we looked into it and everything's fine, folks) Aker said that at the Dogs, he and a few others would always be the ones selected for 'random' drug tests - the AFL knowing that way they get 100% clearance rates of negative tests if they stuck to the blokes they knew didnt do drugs

thanks all - great news. If we a cop a blow I would much rather it next draft, it would sting really bad right now

I've missed all this.. 128 posts.. no time to read.. can somebody nutshell it for me?

actually I did need write it, your comment was stupid. 'I want to play finals now' that's great mate. I would like to win the flag now. We are talking about the reality of the situation here. You don't want to wait 3-4 years for players to mature well there is no way around that one is there. So maybe you should think through your own posts before criticising others

ah yeah cheers gee 10.00 is a pretty good bet, I would have thouight it be more like 5.00

scuse me mate I can't see those odds on the site can you point me in the right direction please?

OP is right in his basic analysis - it is very obvious that our forwardline was our biggest issue last year. It is very clear that Neeld has sought to immediately address this issue with forwardline recruits (who also add general experience to the group). If 1+1 end up equalling two then things could pan out for us. However, it has to be noted that on 'net gain' terms our average amount of talent-per-player has not increased. Essentially we are talking swapping Rivers, Moloney, Morton, Green and Bate for a bunch of mediocre recruits. I also wonder what effect this tanking carp is going to have on everybody, it could be huge. I place the blame for that solely and squarely on Brock McLean and Caroline Wilson.

training the house down never seen the boys so fit 19 weeks of rubbish til round one.. sigh