bing181

23 disposals and 3 goals. Handy.

Comments on one of the Carlton boards (he was with their VFL team, Northern Blues) refer to him as having plenty of talent, but lacking in application. Take with a grain of salt, as much as anything because that's from a couple of years ago, before he joined Werribee.

AFL site: Demons midfielder Jack Viney is facing an uphill battle to return from foot surgery for round one, but Angus Brayshaw will play in a VFL practice match this weekend as he makes his bid to play in the season opener. Kysaiah Pickett should also be in the frame, with the exciting forward to return to Victoria on Sunday after being allowed to travel to Perth for personal reasons due to a family bereavement. Jake Melksham is another that has his eyes set on a round one return, having dealt with a hamstring complaint. Key forward duo Ben Brown (knee) and Sam Weideman (leg) will both miss the opening stages of the season and could still be around two months away in their recoveries. Meanwhile, youngster Aaron Nietschke is set to miss the entire season after cruelly rupturing his ACL for the third time. – Riley Beveridge

I'm a Rivers fan, but thought he was pretty horrible actually defending on Friday. He seemed to be on Aarts, who got away on a number of occasions and ended up being the Tige's highest goal-scorer (3).

Not to mention Europe. 11.30 p.m. start here, might get the first quarter in.

Perhaps not a surprise that it comes from an American.

Yes, though I suspect that the plans are to play them further up the field, delivering into the forward line. (Though what would I know ...)

I think the point here is that if we need cover, he has the AFL experience to just come in and play. He mightn't play brilliantly, but if he can hold down a position reasonably well, it'll be enough. It also means that if we lose another key position player (lord forbid), we won't have to rob Peter to pay Paul by shuffling existing KP's.

Because there's a whole glut of above-average rucks just sitting round waiting for the phone to ring. Of course he's average. Average is fine, and he's at least as good/better ruck alternative than anyone else we have.

Apart from Hunt, whose two high-scoring games skewed the stats, Weidemann had the highest goals/game average last year.

He explained why that happened in the post-season interview he did. Not ideal, but he wasn't the only one across the AFL who struggled with the circumstances they were all in.

Speaking of Europe, this today from one of the local online French news services (which mainly recycles International news in French.) Not the only one either. https://news-24.fr/comment-eddie-mcguire-la-royaute-de-melbourne-a-fait-appel-a-ses-contacts-apres-le-scandale-de-racisme-de-collingwood/

At least the Collingwood players get it: "We acknowledge it is not enough to simply show support for the principles of anti-racism and inclusion."

Not if you're on the receiving end.

There's nothing inadvertent about racial discrimination.

Actually, a joint report by two leading academics in the field: Professor Larissa Behrendt and Professor Lindon Coombes, both from the University of Technology in Sydney. Apart from having had a number of roles in the NSW govt., Coombes also worked at that hotbed of lefty radicalism, Price Waterhouse Cooper.

Good to see. This is where the improvement needs to come, not so much the newer draftees.

Hunt never "owned" anything, which is one of the reasons he was moved forward. Good on the club in being proactive in trying to find other positions for them - but all players have their limitations, and Hunt and Harmes are depth with a couple of tricks, and will never be anything more. Of course, all clubs need depth, so hoping they can establish themselves, wherever they play.

"In team sport I have always believed champion players make champion coaches, not vice versa ..." Leigh Matthews

It's because of attitudes like this that people drive their cars into trees rather than confront the reality and seriousness of mental illness and get the help they need.

Most of our woes in a nutshell IMHO.

And just to add ... no accident that the one area of our game where we're consistently doing well is in the backline - where we have both experience and in May and Lever, leadership.

Great post Binman. You see similar evidence when looking at changing coaches mid-season. After all, if it's all down to the coach, or even mostly down to the coach, changing the head coach of a losing team mid-season should see things pick up. Not so it seems. This from a study of sacking coaches mid-season in the Spanish soccer league: "The empirical analysis shows that the shock effect of a turnover has a positive impact on team performance in the short term. Results reveal no impact of coach turnover in the long term. The favourable short-term impact on team performance of a coach turnover is followed by continued gradual worsening of results. The turnover effect is non-existent when the comparison between the new coach and the old coach is done over 10, 15 or 20 matches before and after termination." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236043349_Coach_Mid-Season_Replacement_and_Team_Performance_in_Professional_Soccer

Isn't executable - not with who we have on the park at the moment. No accident that we used our 2 first-round picks for players who can hit a target by foot.

This.