Webber

Things we know...... * a week is a long time in football, * desire wins matches, * we have nowhere near the depth or quality of footballers we were beginning to believe, * this week we are the worst team in the AFL, * it's going to be a long season, * next week is going to be very ugly.

Things we know...... * a week is a long time in football, * desire wins matches, * we have nowhere near the depth or quality of footballers we were beginning to believe, * this week we are the worst team in the AFL, * it's going to be a long season, * next week is going to be very ugly.

Easy on with the common sense, P-man. Calling the frenzied reactions to Demonland's newest whipping boy silly is a bit ..... silly. We all know he's slow, disinterested, a rubbish kick, gets caught more than anyone in the AFL, lazy, and probably hurts small animals, so dropping him just seems obvious.

I watched the Casey 'whatever it was' on Friday, and Petracca is indeed exciting, a ballistic player with all the skills. Couple of things though which will mitigate against his immediate debut. He was frequently heaving for breath after making 2 or 3 efforts at the pill, and his touch wasn't quite there. I'm very content with letting him rev up over 2 or 3 weeks of match practice so he can debut at full steam. Brayshaw on the other hand is ready to rip, Lumumba dominated, and Sam Weideman moves, kicks and particularly marks very nicely, albeit against lesser opposition. With more size, age etc I think he's going to be a ripper. And Billy Stretch is such a natural footballer. His reading of the play and quality of use and disposal is elite IMO. As we saw last year, he just needs to get more of it, but that's just time and maturity. The kid's a gun.

Welcome Dom, to the much vaunted position of Demonland whipping boy. You're in very good company. In fact, with your mates you might be able to form a 22 all of your own.

I'm a bit hungry now.

People mature at different rates, psychologically and physically. I was looking at Liam Hulett on Friday, and physically the 'kid' is eighteen going on 28. Clayton Oliver at 18 has the psychology of self-belief in his game right out of the box. Jack Watts is different, he's just begun his 'peak years', where physical maturity meets self belief. Given the innate talent he always had, it's a potent combination. The lesson is for all of us who refuse to accept individual variation and idiosyncracy as something to be tolerated, let alone celebrated. The treatment he has had on here over the years, the personal vilification, has been nothing short of embarrassing at times. And this despite the fact that by all accounts Jack loves the club, is loved at the club, and is a bloody good bloke. Any lesser sportsman would be very bitter about the ridiculous scrutiny that's been directed toward him, but he's just sucked it up, tucked it under his arm, and is now delivering it lace out into the waiting arms of Jesse Hogan. Well done, Jack.

And yet Matt Jones is almost NEVER beaten one on one. Even when he was apparently a turnover merchant last year, his one on one wins were a highlight. Who are you watching?

There is no chance Tyson or Bugg get dropped, for those who have that delusion. Oscar injured, Harmes played poorly. Dunn or Lumumba in for Oscar, Gus for Harmes.

For all those saying we 'stole' the game, that's rubbish. Yes, they kicked badly from their 50 entries into the forward 50, but we butchered it pretty much every one of the 58 times we went in. We had more attacking ball and should have used it better. The result was the fair one. The good news is that we will get better at it, as the last quarter showed. And, we are a team, finally.

Over-egged I reckon.

Mumford won't be rucking for 120 minutes, so I'd say they'll be looking to match his time on ground with Maxy's. The rest shared between Pederson, Frost or whoever.

Excellent piece again WJ. I think the loyal Club supporter phenomenon is a mighty rich and probably untapped source of stories, so it's good to see a play such as this drawing interest. In fact, from an Australian perspective, we haven't even come close to drawing on our obsession with sport as a source for art and drama. Thankfully we don't have anything so tragic as Hillsborough or the Manchester United plane crash as inspiration, but there are so many extraordinary stories out there that speak our identity, it's a shame we haven't yet exploited them.

Great interview again from Flanners, all about genuine personality, something we hear precious little about in the instant gossip world we have now. I remember thinking after the Geelong game last year that we had just seen the future of the MFC in big Maxy. He's got everything that brings people to a club, old and new. I can't wait to watch him this year.

He's a long way from being the utter child that Kyrgios is, but his bitching an moaning yesterday when things weren't going his way was nothing short of infantile. He's a great talent, but that was very hard to watch, and worst of all for a team developing a team-first ethos, singularly attention seeking. I presume he'll be told to pull his head in.

Rubbish, Tyson has been our best midfielder so far.

Actually you have it arse about, Diamond. Patellar tendon repairs were the default standard, and very successful. Hamstring grafts had just begun to become popular because it was felt they could be rehabilitated more quickly and returned to play earlier. If I remember rightly, Schwarta played again less than 6 months from surgery, and ruptured what is now known to be a still avascular graft in his second game back. Hamstring grafts are still the default standard, and nobody plays inside 9 months. That surgeon you ignorantly belittled was obeying the accepted knowledge of the time. Patellar tendon grafts are still used in some circumstances, and have just as good an outcome, btw.

Wasn't caught once today.

Tom McDonald's turnovers are the direct goal difference in this game. And we've seen it before, so it's not hasty judgement, but he simply cannot be left down back. His disposal coming out of the back 50 is a liability. Time for him to shift forward permanently.

Frost is lost. He's not an onballer or a forward. Apparently Oliver can kick. Pederson was outrun, out-thought and out muscled by an 18 year old. He ain't the answer up forward either. Tom McDonald I think is.

Both easy to clinically diagnose so it ain't either, although the drive of the knee into the ground is classic PCL injury mechanism. All impatient armchair speculation really, I'm sure he'll be fine with a scope and a couple of weeks on the bike ?

Apart from the half dozen others I know of who regularly scope and reconstruct AFL players knees. By the sounds, he's got a meniscal tear, which will have been reported by the radiologist, the person who is best qualified to assess the scans, not the orthopaedic surgeon. So guess what? 4 to 6. The only potential fly in that ointment is the possibility of a tibial plateau fracture to go with it. That would be months, so fingers crossed.

There's always an increased risk of hamstring related issues, but in the case of high hamstring like Kent's, ironically less so. Max Gawn is way past any issues with his reconstructed ACL. If he did it again, it would be a circumstance that would rupture an original ACL, or as close to it as doesn't matter. You have to remember binman, that any injury suffered by any player makes that area less than perfect, and in theory more at risk. No player is immune, and mostly it's situations beyond control, substantially inherited (genes). Think Geelong's Menzel vs. Michael Tuck.

Unlikely to be more, but could be less. It's not an injury that comes with inherent risk to further damage, so will depend on how irritable and sore it is to running with lateral movement. Hopefully less.

And hello to the world of diagnostic overservicing. The 'better to be safe than sorry' mania for diagnostic imaging is one of the main reasons our Public Health Service is struggling, all driven by the expectations coming from private medicine. If he doesn't need a scan, he doesn't f***ing need a scan.