Rogue

This and the fact that teams like North and Carlton(?) are trying to get all/most of their games at the 'G next season is indeed a concern.

14 H&A games. Haha, the weather was ridiculous that day - the rain was horizontal by the end of the game.

Do you know much about him as a coach? Apart from his playing days I know nothing about West.

I don't care (not to be mean-spirited, it just doesn't bother me at all).

Agreed.

It's really difficult to make a call on captaincy when you're not privy to the inner sanctum. However, Demonland would be pretty dull without idle speculation, so here's mine: McDonald -> Green -> <best of the younger group>

I wasn't disputing the fact that the song was played...

Surely that wasn't the case...

Fwiw, I don't think it's just online. Nice avatar - I have that car thing (it's probably in storage somewhere).

It's time for us to move Wheatley on. Unless we were going to have trouble turning our list over by the required few in the next couple of years - we won't - this year's the year to cut players who aren't part of what we think will be our next successful period. Players who are durable, still performing very well, are very important to the structure, and/or give you leadership are the types to keep. I doubt other Clubs will be lining up for Wheats but he's an outside chance.

Whelan's test better be a heart rate monitor. If he's alive he passes.

It's not even a good troll.

pitmaster, you were asking for it with the topic and first sentence or two Exactly what I thought

Assuming 'that's a fact', think about why that is. He's had ample opportunities to cement himself as the number one ruck at Melbourne. Why hasn't he? Because he hasn't been good enough. Who hasn't acknowledged that he's done well at times? Let us have some perspective though - a swallow doesn't make a summer. In a wooden spoon team two years running who has dire ruck stocks PJ's failed to cement himself as #1 or #2 ruck. Please - quit with the strawman arguments already. Within 10 games? Many have had Jamar ahead of PJ as a ruckman for far longer than that (including me). Sue you? Why the need for the persecution play? I also don't see why you feel the need to characterise those who doesn't share your view on PJ as haters who backflip on their views and come on here purely to whine. You've seen PLENTY to like with PJ? Good for you. I've seen a 25 year old who has been unable to prove himself as a #1 or #2 ruck despite playing in a side with pretty poor ruck stocks, generally up against White in the dying stages of his career and Jamar, who hasn't exactly set the competition alight. Btw, if you want to have a shot at me for coming on here 'PURELY to whine about posters, players, coaches and administrators' do so - or don't intimate it. If you're aiming that at me I think it's rubbish. If not, why mention it in a reply to me?

Pick 2 vs Pick 49 and a win over the Saints - I know which one I want.

The 'top 50' comment is a bit flattering but, as someone else said, I've been surprised by the flak Bate's received this season. In addition to improving on some of the flaws others have raised, I'd like to see Bate hold his overhead marks when on a lead. KA-POW! It's an endurance test. Obviously we're not interested in endurance of players while walking, and the time needed to reach their exhaustion point would be significant, so the pace increases as each level is reached.

Dismissing alternative opinions as 'hatred' because you don't share their view? You can do better than that. Despite a few 'good jobs' on some of the taller ruckman PJ's been unable to cement a spot as our #1 ruckman, despite numerous opportunities. He's also been unable to add another string to his bow, which you need as a #2 ruck.

Bad luck!

What HT said.

Massively disappointing, although as someone said it probably does sum up his career. If Stevens could play after he did his cork we can carry Wheels. It's not like we have that many fit players anyway

I think there was a pretty similar thread last time we played there (or one of the recent times). Anyway, you never need to pre-purchase a reserved seat unless you want to ensure you don't miss out. When you get to the stadium you need to either scan your ticket and take any seat on level 3 or go to the ticket box, show your membership and get a particular level 3 seat allocated to you. Which of these depends on the classification for the match. If it's a walk-up match then you can do the former, if it's a reserved seat match you'll need to do the latter. There'll be signs etc when you get to the game. Hope that helps.

This isn't about HT's sig, but a comment in general - I think it's ridiculous when the signatures are taking up more room than the posts. We're getting a little off-topic, but hey - that's what happens. Recently I was chatting to a guy who by guesstimate would be ~50 years old. He was talking about 'the good old days' of footy, when he regularly attended games which in the era of suburban grounds like Victoria Park. I'd been to a game at the 'G earlier in the day and asked him why he hadn't been to the footy in years. He complained to me about the sanitised culture of football watching these days, and gave me an anecdote about how he and a mate would have to run from Vic Park after a game because a pack of Collingwood supporters wanted to physically assault them (although he probably used the words 'have a bit of a biff' or something like that ). He also talked to me about parking your car near the ground if it had a Melbourne sticker on it. Apparently these were both positive aspects of 'old school' footy - who knew? To be honest, right now I can't really recall any violent altercation I've seen at the footy in the last decade. Sure, it happens (Nathan Jones' dad is one I'm sure most of us have heard about) and it's not unusual to see someone - generally drunk - who seems open to getting into some kind of incident if given the chance. However, I would say that the 'culture' around AFL matches has changed and there's in fact been a decrease in violence. My point? It's easy to talk about an increase in violence and nostalgically look back at the good old days, but is that accurate? Did bashings after footy games in say the 80's get headline news? Putting aside the talk of footy, the only time anyone in my family has been assaulted happened at a metro train station over 10 years ago.

Jamar's worth a decent pick - could well be more than the 'third-rounder' floated by some in this thread.

Hopefully he can find a gig somewhere else. As Bruce said in an interview, it'd be interesting to see what he could do with a pre-season under his belt - I'm sure he could still be useful. I don't like his chances of getting picked up though.

Even criticism that couldn't be defined as a 'pot shot' is likely to be somewhat hurful to a player, particularly when there's lots of it. Apparently the players get told not to read sites like this and that's a good thing. Just as with fans yelling out from the sidelines, the players need to ignore stuff like this (and if they can, avoid it).