Inner Demon

Looks a tight one Hannebery v Trengove at this stage for mine. I'd probably give put my money on Hannebery if it was voted today. While JT's arguably been a little more consistent, Hannebery's probably had a couple more big games where he's had a real influence on the contest that might give him the edge in a competition where whoever springs to mind the most is going to get the votes.

He's behind a list of players. Jarrad Grant Ben Nason Taylor Hunt to name a few. Hard to see this award being taken off Dan Hanneberry at this point. Pretty sure the Naitanui hype machine ran out of steam a few weeks ago when it became apparent the single figure possession games weren't "off days" but just the limit of his capabilities.

According to Jesse Hogan from The Age, Newton has come off our Senior List due to Luke Tapscott's return from the Long Term Injury List. There will be no Michael Newton return. Rejoice.

Grimes 2-3.

In: Bail, Jurrah, Sylvia Out: Grimes (inj.), Bartam, Spencer I've really liked Barty this year, but he's fallen away the last couple of weeks, hasn't really performed signifiant shut down roles or impacted upon the game. He doesn't deserve a spot ahead of those incoming. Wow, I just don't know about Spencer... I appreciate he's young, inexperienced, etc. But he appears to have next to no hand-eye coordination. You can't coach that and it doesn't come with experience. Yes, our ruck stocks are thin, but is this the best we can do? I don't think PJ is the answer, Stef Martin has a lot of work to do and Gawn is a couple of years away but perhaps we have to go to the trade well for another ruck. North have more than they know what to do with. I'd take any one of McIntosh, Petrie, Hale & Goldstein in a heartbeat.

Has been amongst our best in first half.

The evidence of both McKenzie & Spencer playing today with only Petterd on LTI answers the question.

You're guessing the football department will somehow give a senior listed player a long term injury in order to give Michael Newton a game?? There's one or two problems with that.

Just to short circuit the 'pick Newton' discussion circling all week. Newton isn't eligible to be selected for MFC. McKenzie is our nominated rookie for the 2nd half of the season and Spencer has occupied the spot with Petterd on LTI list. Regarding the debate on the merits of retaining Newton on the rookie list, I doubt he would agree to be retained as a rookie for a 2nd year. From my perspective, he is playing for his career over the next few months, and that career is unlikely to be with Melbourne. Here are the Michael Newton options after this season: 1) Agree to be retained for another year as a rookie 2) Be promoted to the MFC senior list 3) Enter the draft in a bid to revive career elsewhere I know which of those I see as the most likely.

Thanks for the wrap-up. Two points though. 1 - It is not Bailey who makes the decisions on players coming back from injuries. It is the club doctor/s and physio/s. If you believe you know better than them, well, good luck to you. 2 - Newton is not eligible to be selected for MFC.

Oh good. Well I'm glad that's settled. I hadn't previously realised that everyone grew 3-5cm between 17-20.

Did you just say I was "totally incorrect" in saying that Bohdan is not our head of fitness then publish a list making it quite clear that Joel Hocking is our head of fitness accompanied by a description of when Joel took over that role?? Did you have a stroke??

Bohdan Babiczuk hasn't been our head of fitness for years.

Sounds like LJ has handed off a couple in the goalsquare on top of his 3. Exciting stuff.

Fitzpatrick & Bail busy early. As an aside, there are seriously two "Tigers" teams in the VFL?? That's pretty ridiculous.

Fitzpatrick's got the job as #1 ruckman.

Not sure about one of these commentators, pretty much unintelligible.

Game hasn't started.

That's not what happened. Before anybody blows up about us not having unfettered access to our new facilities - Real Story

Darling's only 190cm. Is that really a 'tall'?? Does anybody here consider Cam Bruce as a 'tall'??

This week's injury report probably puts some dents in most, if not all, of the suggested changes here. Junior is another 2-3 away, Gysberts isn't fit, and the report gave me no confidence whatsoever in Sylvia being right to return. Coming off that shocking performance it's natural to suggest there would be 2-3 changes, but who at Casey has earned a promotion???

Yup.

Depends whether you like watching spirited, inspiring comebacks. If you do, stick to Mighty Ducks, Fox Sports is showing a team show up for 15 minutes of a contest and get flogged by 8 goals.

Perhaps Ricky just hasn't heard yet that Guy McKenna bought a house on the GC last week which is going to be for Gary Ablett.

Doesn't losing highly paid players free up cap space on its own??? Also, the AFL's proposal isn't entirely subjective.