P-man

Not buying into the Brisbane hype just yet. Midfield has come together nicely but still some question marks at either end of the ground. They will however improve and rise for certain. Gold Coast will finish in the eight and are a serious chance of finishng top four. Saints should be bottom four, but they had no less than 40 injuries last season with key players like Sam Fisher returning this year. A better injury run and I wouldn't rule them out from causing more than a few upsets. Carlton should slide with a list that is pretty ordinary on paper. A lot of faith being placed in Liam Jones of all people. Bottom four is a real possibility. Richmond will slip outside of the eight. They seem to have finally realised that topping up with hacks from other teams is not a recipe for success, but the fruits of that lesson will take a while to show. Large unknowns for me are Adelaide and to a lesser extent Collingwood. The only team I'm certain will fall is the Dogs who are in for a year of pain. It was already going to be tough before they lost their best player. Spoon favourites for mine, which for a club of their size is going to be a tough pill. They should be fine in the long run though. Essendon will hopefully finish last. Where they belong.

WYL, the way of the world is that improvement happens in increments. If you're training a kid to ride a bike, you don't label him a failure if he falls off on his first, second, third go. You give him time to master it. Demanding instant success and talking tough is all well and good but it is distanced from reality. Clubs undertake rebuilds and ours was unlike most others in its scale. We are entering year two of the new MFC. Of course the club will be aiming for finals. But for a team coming off 4 wins, if we make finals this season it won't be a Pass. It will be a High Distinction. With honours. And naked models.

Lance Franklin goes alright. Roughead, Hawkins, Walker, Schulz..

Clark kicks two in a row. "Great story" Someone pass the bucket.

Cats now back in it, but Suns forward pressure has been first class. Will need to be firing on all cylinders rd 1.

Hammer blow for the Dogs if he's out for the year. With Boyd possibly playing more of a defensive role, their next most experienced midfielder this season would be Mitch Wallis with 56 games. Hopefully he returns the same player.

^ Wait until JR gets a sniff of this subject

Shuey or Darling and they have themselves a deal.. Kent is set for a big year me thinks.

So I can believe that T Mac didn't make a single disposal error, as opposed to being "hack central". Good, that's a load off

Hate to be the one to say it, but the flip side is the risk of getting beaten by Freo's second stringers... Practice match or not, you'd want a respectable performance from a full strength side.

Liking Macca already..

I admit I was surprised at just how poor he was.

I absolutely agree that we need to lift the bar on expectations of player performance, but Tyson isn't the best reference point. He was a Pick 3. He isn't the benchmark for players to adapt and perform. Not many have his natural ability.

If you look at the past 10 years as a whole then it'll do your head in. The Jackson-Roos era was a fresh beginning in more ways than one, with one of the biggest being the turnover in the list. In that respect we are really heading into year 2. 14th (8-9 wins) I think is a reasonable pass mark for this season. Pending on the final ladder position, you're then looking at the fringes of the 8 by 2016. Finals then becomes the pass mark for 2017.

14th (out of the bottom four).

haha..taking political discussion outside of the General board mate? Tsk tsk.. A few early wins will certainly do wonders.

Agreed, OD. I'll have a word with the missus tonight and explain the seriousness of the situation.

I dreamt last night that Hird came to us as an assistant coach on a six year contract after getting the ar$e. Even in my dream I was questioning it.

Forgot about Pendles. Feels wrong having that much admiration for a Collingwood player, but he was a Dees supporter so he just ended up at the wrong club. Not his fault

Granted, but surely if it's "highly likely" then it wouldn't take much effort to uncover one solitary example of said funding. There absolutely is something wrong with that, were it to be true. Research driven by private interests is not independent and therefore not worth the paper it is written on. But until there is any evidence of it, your question and attached proposition is baseless. The fact remains that there are examples, like Soon, of self interested companies clouding the debate with ill-conceived views. The unfortunate result is that it appears as a collective we'll be debating this thing and fighting reisistance to action well past the point of being able to do anything about it.

Both Wells and Swallow can get stuffed. I will never like or respect a North Melbourne player, they can all rot. Barlow springs to mind considering his injury history and modest beginnings. Is now one of the premier midfielders in the league. Pavlich is another. Could've gone to the club of his choice throughout his career but stuck fat. Selwood cops a lot for the ducking and earning of free kicks but anyone who doesn't generally admire the way he plays the game needs their head read. Bravery personified. The likes of Hodge and Riewoldt are natural leaders with the talent to match who you'd kill to have at your club.

Yes dc but it's easy to play devil's advocate when you hypothesise without substance. Just about anything can have doubt placed upon it if you reach far enough. Again, what evidence is there of a climate scientist who supports the theory of man made climate change being corporate sponsored? I'm looking for one example and I'm not playing the man, I'm simply asking you to back up what you've said.

lol Pass.

semicolon; problem solved. Think of it as the equivalent of nicotine gum to make the transition from comma to full stop.

Hm, now I'm thinking Dunny too, then Hogan... Ah, the things we do to whittle away a Wednesday afternoon.