Curry & Beer

If you look at the last 3 ladders you'll find that 12 wins probably won't get it done, not with our percentage We'd need to win 9 out of 10 which will not happen Even 8 is crazy

Not to mention he's 32, that's extraordinary!

Jesse White choke choke chokeroo! Cop that pies!

I think what he meant is that the strike rate is low. You've gone back 15 years to produce that list, there has probably been 50 KPF taken in the first round over 15 years, so your list is pretty short with that in mind

but in fairness, it was clear that the Tigers were prepared to take him, meaning he had value to them also

Even though you get him for 5 years less?

OK. What about.. Brayshaw or any other midfielder in the comp?

I'm also going cold on the idea of forking over picks/players and lots of cap space to lure a 'big name' over. In the past I have been strongly for it, but we are now starting to show that a)we can actually develop our kids b)we know how to find imported players that don't 'cost' as much but make an important impact and c) the team as a whole has better effort/professionalism/respect/attention that is not crying out as badly for the services of a genuine elite. Makes it tempting to stay the course, build our own fortress and not go for the big play. Roos is the man though, I have no doubt we were close to landing a big fish last year, and he might go for it again, possibly using Howe in the equation.

Here's a tough one - if you had to choose right now between Brayshaw and Hogan which do you take?

Got Garlett and Lumumba too

Colin Garland (hand) – test Jack Grimes (thumb) – test Jesse Hogan (hamstring) – test Aaron vandenBerg (hamstring) – 2 weeks Christian Salem (hamstring) – 3 weeks Dean Kent (hamstring) – 4 weeks Sam Frost (toe) – 6 weeks Looks like we will be near full strength for about the last 7 matches. Unless more injuries happen. Which they will. WTF Grimes, 9 days ago they said 6-8 weeks... does this mean he is on the cards for the WC game?

but there's nothing in the media - Jack Watts still cops it to this day

I went to 6 or 7 training sessions in the pre-season and it looked very much to me like Petracca, not Brayshaw, was going to be the one to burst onto the scene. Just his physical development and the way he was going about it, he looked absolutely ready. The fact Brayshaw has absolutely killed it makes me very eager to see CP out there next year, can't wait. I posted in the Trengove thread that article about how the Dees put all that work into Hogan while he was injured and are now doing that for CP, I reckon we won't be disappointed come 2016.

how many times this year have we not had at least one forced injury change?

Don't forget the Hulk all rested up for 3 weeks and breathing fire after watching the boys down at the cattery!

I think it is great that we happen to have the bye after that huge victory. It gives the coaches time to instill their achievement into them for another week, build some of that belief. If we had WC straight up and lost badly there is the danger of all that good feeling evaporating quickly. Don't worry, Roos will be using this to his advantage.

big pressure, clouded vision, tough angle, centimetre perfect

good time to re-read this one: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/how-melbourne-built-jesse-hogan-20150427-1mukbm.html In particular this part: "Hogan kept learning during his time out. He sat in on the forwards' meetings, went to watch games with one of the coaches, wrote up reports on other teams' defensive set-ups and studied the players he expected to one day play on. Misson watched him deal with a string of setbacks, developing some resilience and a clearer understanding of how his body worked. He saw him start to realise that all the annoying little exercises the physios were telling him to do three times every day really were helping him. And importantly, the conditioning coaches got to know him better too, learning how hard he could be pushed, at what point he would break down, how they could best challenge him. They're doing the same thing now with Christian Petracca, a few months into his return from a knee reconstruction." Clearly Trengove will be getting some of these 'when life you gives you lemons' lessons right now. I don't understand this 'he's finished' attitude some people have. JT has played 81 games. The most anybody has played from his draft is D.Martin at 119. In the top 20 of that draft, he has actually played the 8th most games. All that has happened is that he's missed two seasons. Every club every year has a couple of season-ending injuries. He's just been unlucky enough to have two years worth. The club would not be carrying him if they thought he was a write-off. They would have shipped him out to get some speculative ruckman on the list or something. I absolutely expect him to be lining up in Round 1, 2016.

Yes but not to the point that everyone should crack it We have seen what they can do - if they can't do it every week yet let's just keep our cool shall we

we beat GWS by 78 in r13, 2012 but if that doesnt count its dockers by 89 points, R13, 2011

I hate the bye 10 more days

I agree. Roos has demonstrated that he picks Dawes every single time he is fit, as well he should. You don't just say OK Jesse nevermind the senior leader premiership CHF, he's going to Casey, it's all on you now. Not how footy clubs work.

we will probably need to win 9 though

My head agrees with your sensible long term approach, but my heart says to chuck everything we can at this match, because if we somehow won it, we'd have started a bonfire and the footy world would shirt its collective dacks