P-man

...what? How are you in any position to be making that judgement? You don't even know the individual he's talking about. You seem to want to categorise people into neat little boxes. Life is rarely that simple.

The best thing I can say about Dawes is that he feels like a Dees player. He has totally embraced the club from the moment he arrived which is to his credit. Now he just needs to stop getting injured..

...due to ongoing injury and Freo having one of the best midfields in the competition. Of course things sound more facepalm worthy when you leave out details such as that. I see no harm in having some confidence in new players. God knows we've had little else, so I think to rob the fans of some optimism now is a bit rich. If Michie turns out to be a dud, you reserve the right to wave my post in front of me and I reserve the right to pretend to care.

You better hope Webber doesn't read this post. He don't take kindly to folks talking ill of our "second best midfielder".

Cool?

Whilst it's logical to temper expectation around a player traded for Pick 54, I'm tipping Michie to have more of an immediate impact than Tyson. A quarter and a half of his first game almost pales into irrelevance when judging him. Such a big build up after having to wait so long, his nerves would have been all over the place. Freo fans are genuinely not happy to see him go, and they're pretty harsh judges over in Perth. On the vision I've seen he's clearly good in tight, quick hands, makes good decisions, and importantly he is a unit and a half. If he isn't there in Round 1 I'll be very surprised.

Assuming this isn't being plucked from your rectum, this is very good news.

On top of that, his highlights from that match look as good as anything we saw from the bulk of our midfielders this season.

The irony of your post would be quite something if you happened to be using a wi-fi connection.

This is one instance where I wouldn't trust the stats. He peaked in 2012 no doubt, but look at his stats from last year. Couldn't get on the field and when he did he had no impact. He's a fluffer. Can't kick to save his life. Can't convert. One sided. One dimensional. Spud. Who now plays for North.

Respect your opinion mate but I simply can't see the sense in this. Clark is our best forward, by some margin. There's no way you'd take him out of the forward line altogether.

richyrich could be a f-l-o-g alias.

I get the concept, but I have to dispute the premise. Hugely presumptuous to think there won't be another top 10 pick. There almost certainly will. Plus the list is still being built, with the midfield being added to again next year. This is not "the list". Not yet, The optimism around here is a good thing, a great thing, but there seems to be an EXPECTATION of a miracle turnaround seeping in. Roos needs time to fix this mess.

Based on Roos' presser and the language he used when speaking about Grimes, I'll be very surprised if he is not at least one of the players with C next to his name in 2014.

I agree that some people seem to have been charmed by Dawesy The biggest cross against him is the first part, i.e. not getting on the field. Certainly he has leadership qualities, but only when he can play 22 games and have a genuine, consistent influence should he be discussed as a captain option. For now it's premature to say the least.

Geeze it would be tough on Frawley to leave him out of the LG. Also wouldn't assist the cause of getting him to re-sign, not that it should be the determining factor.

Exactly this, and I expect this is how it will look, with one or two surprises perhaps. IF it was to be one captain, I'd have Jones Captain, Grimes as Vice, but this is unlikely given Roos history. I think in 05 he said they had SIX captains??

Agree with this. Whilst Jamar's HO to advantage stats in the last couple of years won't be flattering, he hasn't had the cattle around him to help. He's still our best tap ruckman, and the bolstered midfield will make him look a lot better. Mind you, I say this with firm recollections of him tapping the ball down the throat of the opposition time and time again, so it's a matter of building something resembling the understanding he developed with Moloney. Whilst our first ruck stocks may not be looking too hot due to individual deficiencies, if all of Jamar, Spencer, and Gawn are competing for the one spot rather than two, that creates very healthy competition and the odds are in our favour that one of them will hit full stride next year.

I pretty much like everything Roos has said and done since he's arrived.

I'm not sure I'd even give up Nicholson for him. Nahas is a complete spud. How this has gotten to 4 pages is amazing.

I know we have and I'm not trying to be confrontational with you, merely asking you to defend Abbott's diplomacy that is being criticised, rather than just trying to discredit the sources reporting on it. If you think I'm being delusional that's fine, but I doubt many would agree that the previous government was not placed under at least as much scrutiny as the current one, as I said, due to making themselves more open to such scrutiny. Alot of the criticism being leveled at this government is about their lack of transparency, one of the very things they pledged to increase. Suddenly long standing processes such as the accessibility of incoming government briefs where election policies are analysed are deemed a security risk. Regarding your friend, his electricity bill does not have an item marked "carbon tax". Regardless, if as a small company he is only affected through the cost being passed onto him, he is more than likely in for a rude shock if Abbott's campaign to tear it down is successful. It will be a looong time before he sees a significant drop in his electricity costs, if any, until the issue of rapidly increasing network costs is addressed. Certainly we as household consumers will see practically no difference at all. Anyhow, done for now.

Agreed. Third positional change, third time's the charm? I have noticed some small, incremental improvements in his attack on the footy. Certainly it doesn't appear to be something that is instinctual. Will be very interesting to watch his progress this season.

The previous government was placed under just as much scrutiny by Fairfax pubs, if not more, because Labor weren't in the habit of media blackouts, blunt refusal of FOI requests and media conferences that are finished no sooner than they begin. If anything, Labor was too far in the opposite direction. This bias you are convinced is occurring is merely holding the government to account, which sections of the media not controlled by Murdoch are valiantly attempting to do despite being all but completely shut out by Abbott and his senior ministers, which in and of itself is a disgrace in a modern democracy (if you genuinely do not know about Murdoch's long standing bias and close relationship with Tony Abbott, I can expand, but I reiterate that this is something that is very well known). Please look past your Labor hatred, forget party allegiances, and just look at the facts of Abbott's diplomatic moves. Not the "spin", just the facts. The state of negotiations with Indonesia, the one year deadline for a free trade agreement with China, the language used with regard to Japan being a "best friend". If you wish to defend these, by all means do so. But persistently refuting criticism of them on the basis of some left wing plot to denounce Abbott is not an argument. If you truly believe they're ALL out to get Abbott then you're free to believe that, but you need to be able to provide some basis for those assertions, and you also need to occasionally look at the facts being discussed rather than the sources reporting them. Incidentally, the AIG has come out today and said that repealing the carbon price legislation will likely result in no reduction in the cost of power being passed on, something that pretty much everyone who has invested 5 minutes of research into the matter already knew. Instead the government is looking to opt for something that is far more expensive for far less of an impact on emissions reduction, all under the guise of saving the public hundreds, nay thousands, off their electricity bills, which is of course total [censored] and always has been. I'm really quite amazed that this lie upon which Abbott's campaign was run has been allowed to continue up until now. If Abbott's "mandate" to repeal the legislation was gained at the election, it was gained fraudulently, because the public were plainly lied to on the matter.

PJ observing proceedings......like a boss.

If you're gonna be bullish, now's the time to do it.