Rogue

HT: Pretty sure I read a quote from the selectors that Haddin is still #1.

Anyone else see this thread title and think 'Shaun Smith'?

If you're not going to play TJ, why draft him? If you are going to play TJ, why would you play him instead of someone like Gysberts or Trengove?

It was posted on Bigfooty in November, 2001: http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-22127.html

...an interesting angle. They play different roles now. McDonald was back in the midfield, while Bruce mostly plays as a flanker. Moving on McDonald gives us room to get games into guys like McKenzie and Gysberts in addition to Scully, Trengove, Moloney, etc. Plus, it's not a question of whether McDonald is playing well at the end of this year, it's what he'll be like at the end of next year.

Yeah, silly thing to say indeed. Even if the journalist asked him if he had been a scapegoat for the team's poor performance it's a poor answer.

They may also be able to field players from second-tier leagues. There was discussion some time ago about this in the press.

We had told him we weren't very interested. He was a young, injury free guy, and yet we were only offering a one year contract. We hadn't been selecting him, and I don't think it's a stretch to figure out we weren't offering him big bucks either. What was he supposed to work out? He had another Club offering him two years and the lure of a role. What's Aker got to do with the price of fish? (This is a rhetorical question to indicate that I think there are no parallels).

- indeed starting on the HFF. I've found the opposite. The same sorts of comments raised in this thread were mentioned by Lonergan in an article talking about his switch to defence that I read not so long ago (for some reason). Apparently he did okay pushing back into defence this year at VFL level, but that's pretty different to playing as a KPD. IMO Martin has shown more as a potential KPD. If Newton plays on, he'll be duking it out for a second ruck/forward spot. Agreed - there are plenty of guys we could run through the middle before Frawley. More likely to go on a wing than anywhere else if we want to push him up the ground.

No. The latter three are on the rookie list so they should be separated. The former group are all gone. If we want to use picks in the 50s/PSD pick then we need to delist more.

I'm not sure that specific example is such a good point. The Frawley chase ended (not started) at half-forward and Frawley chased for a long time. If Frawley was lurking at half-forward he wouldn't have been chasing Jetta along the wing towards the half-forward flank.

Trading's done, isn't it..?

We were giving him a one year contract and he wasn't in our best 22. Carlton offered him a longer contract and - I imagine - told him they had a role for him. In any other industry you'd be an idiot not to move, but because it's footy and [some of] the fans are emotionally involved in such a way that they can't view decisions outside of their prism of AFL romanticism he's a fair target of criticism.

I haven't commented in this thread for a long while so a few quick points: I'm not criticising Clarke's strike rate in the latest game because we were in dire trouble early, but it's no surprise his was almost the lowest strike rate of the entire match. IMO he needs to do more in ODIs. Did reforming his game to secure a Test spot mean he lost the sparkle needed for ODIs? Far too often his strike rate is languishing in the 60s. Hodge not playing at least T20 cricket over the past couple of years has been bizarre (particularly when he's been in or around the contracted list of players). Haddin should be scared. Very scared. Not sure about Paine opening though.

He got further in AFL than I could have, and I imagine it's the same for most of us. I know guys who would literally give an arm* to play just one AFL game. That's not to say comments regarding CJ as an AFL player are wrong - just to add some perspective. *I imagine this would be handed (geddit?) over after they played their game.

Kennedy is doing alright at the Swans.

Agreed. Hopgood made the 150 legends or whatever it was. It still annoys me that Wheels missed out and Hopgood got in They don't seem to hate Melbourne. You're on firmer ground trying to argue that they hate Melbourne supporters though

I loved it when he kissed his brother during a match vs West Coast.

I don't mind some chat directly related to the game, but otherwise talk is for the breaks

I went out to Visy in the preseason and thought Martin showed promise versus Essendon. He presented well and got his hands to the footy, but just kept dropping easy marks. Either he can take those marks, in which case he has some potential to be a player up front (along with a ruck relief role, I imagine), or you think he can't take a mark to save himself and therefore he'll never be any good anywhere. Has some positive attributes but needs to find some confidence when he has the footy.

As rpfc said, we're running out of people to delist. It's a choice of pick 50-odd or TMac. Nasher also makes a good point regarding TMac's upside. That said, I liked the look of him as linkman type versus North, I think it was.

Sounds like PJ. Edit: PJ's mobile.

I agree. A couple of years ago I didn't think McDonald would make it to 2010 - it's hard to judge when the end will come. I think I referred to Morton as a potential A-grade Bruce on here before.

Is West any good as a forward or whatever, or is he a #1 ruck prospect?

I'm well aware of that. However, when Dappa Dan said Newton was in the gun for next year it seemed odd since he hasn't even made it past this year. Thus, I let Dappa Dan know that he's out of contract this year, in case DD wasn't aware.