pm24

Sometimes i think that the criticism of Jack's effectiveness is unfair. Over the past couple of years we have been near the bottom in getting the ball into the forward 50. Despite Jack's lack of toughness at this stage (which is visibly improving), I wonder if any of these articles would be popping up if our midfield was delivering the ball into the forward 50 with greater effectiveness. Essendon has a much more developed midfield, and is at a different stage of their list development to where we are. Therefore, Hurley should be performing better because there are more effective and mature players around him. So many articles like this, fail to mention the context the player is in. Jack has shown an ability to do things Hurley can't, just as Hurley has shown an ability to play in ways that Watt's can't just yet. I would still take Watts over Hurley because the skill set that Watt's possesses is superior to Hurley and you can develop toughness and he's got greater potential than Hurley. Give Jack another pre-season and an extra 3 or 4kgs and we should see significant improvement in his contributions. If there isn't, then we have a real problem.

I don't have any problems with what Schwab did. Just seems to be a dose of "tough love" for Beamer. By making Beamer confess to having a problem with binge drinking in such a public forum it forces him to deal with it as it's not hidden by the four walls of the club. I prefer this type of honesty and openness from the club, rather than trying to just play down or hide these types of incidents. If such a strong stance isn't taken then it not only damages the clubs reputation, but also those brands and businesses associated with the club. In professional sports, incidents like this are about much more than just the person. Jimmy's Reach foundation could also be a little damaged had the club not dealt with this issue strongly. I mean, what sort of example would it set if the President of MFC and founder of the Reach Foundation was seen to be soft towards a young man with a binge drinking issue. It would be completely against what Reach tries to achieve by empowering young people and guiding them away from such negative situations. So, yes if this was some local footy star this would be a harsh punishment, but because this is a professional footballer, who not only represents a club, but a club which other companies and people have invested time and money into, the club needs to act strongly to ensure that it, and those associated with it, are protected. And let's not fool ourselves here, this isn't a 1st or 2nd yr player, this is a Vice Captain of the team with 9 years in professional football. He should know better.

I'm really surprised to see Morton come straight in. I wonder if he'll be used as the sub?

First two games I would count a wins. After that period we would also have Frawley more closer to fully match fit, and possibly Morton back (if there's a spot for him that is). We should beat West Coast, even though it is over in W.A, our list should match there's pretty well, and this time they don't have Mark LeCras. After that, Adelaide and Nth Melb. I think Adelaide will be a tough one given that they've beaten the team that just gave us a towelling. Nth Melbourne should be healthier by the time we play them, but it's also possible we have McKenzie back by then, which to me is a crucial in. So i'm going to go with winning 4/5 with a loss to either Adelaide or Nth, leaving us with a W/L record of 4W 1D 2L at round 8. Then I reckon we can give St Kilda, Carlton, Essendon, Collingwood and Fremantle a real shake and possibly win 2 out of those 5. St Kilda have not been very impressive so far this year, and Lenny Hayes going down for the season is a massive hit for them. We play Freo at home which gives us an edge, and i think Essendon's silver lining may have become slightly dimmer by the time we play them to. I give us a serious chance in all 5 games, but 2 or 3 out of 5 is probably most likely. That would be a decent start to the year if we could be 6W, 1D, 5L after all that. We'd possibly be sitting in the 8 or just outside of it if our record was something like that.

I totally agree with those who've put Jamar as no.1. If we lose him, our ruck stucks are just not anywhere near competitive enough. So for me it's: 1. Jamar 2. Frawley 3. Green 4. Davey 5. Grimes 6. Sylvia 7. Jurrah 8. Dunn (he won a couple of games for us last year with those 50+metre bombs of his) 9. McKenzie - preseason has shown how much we need his tackling ability 10. Rivers - saves us time and time again floating into gaps in defense.

loaded without a problem for me. I prefer the layout, it's much cleaner than the old one which was just too busy.

I think Strauss and Blease both just need more time. In real terms this is only their 2nd season as both of their rookie seasons were dampened due to injury. The other thing is that Strauss is still learning to play as a back-men as he was a mid-fielder when drafted. However, if he's not showing enough improvement after this year, and can't get into the top 22 next year, then i think it's time to start worrying. Same applies to Blease.

Is this the appropriate time to remind everyone that the player currently regarded as probably the best CHF in the game didn't start to really come-on as a player until he was 21!!! In his 3rd season, Riewoldt was 20, Jack is only 19, and even then reiwoldt still played mainly up the ground. He collected around 16 possessions per game but averaged just 1.4 goals per game. The next season, when he was finally a stronger build, then he started to take the league by storm. Jack is 3cm taller than Riewoldt, which has to be factored into his physical development, and still has two years until he's the same age Riewoldt was when he started taking over. So maybe we're just being a little too hard on the 19yo kid. If he misses round 1, it'll disappointing, but its not the end of the world.

1. Collingwood 2. Bulldogs 3. Geelong 4. St Kilda 5. Hawthorn 6. Fremantle 7. Essendon 8. Carlton 9. Melbourne 10. Sydney 11. Nth Melbourne 12. Adelaide 13. Port Adelaide 14. West Coast 15. Richmond 16. Brisbane 17. Gold Coast

I assume your referring to the one where it sent less than a metre to the right of the right goal post. That wasn't a massive slice. Yeah it came slightly of the side of the boot, but i'd say that people are overreacting in being concerned about his goal kicking when we really have only a small sample size to work with. I mean we could isolate a couple weeks of the season Green had last year and pick out problems with his kicking and get concerned as well.

I've joined as well. Haven't posted for a while, but am certainly keen to get in on the Dreamteam action. Team name is demonsontherise.

This is the one line that schocked me from the fox sports match report: "But Melbourne ruckman Jake Spencer kicked a long-range reply a minute later and the prodigious Jurrah then sparked into action." Apparently is was fifty metres out AND on the run!!! Surely this can't be right for a guy that dropped the ball kicking a set shot.

Just thought i'd repost this because some of you seem to be thinking Cam is still a chance to go to the GC. Collingwood, Brisbane and the GC have just announced a 3 way trade that send Fraser and Brennan to the GC giving them there 8 vet players they wanted. BRUCE, therefore could not be going to the GC.

Bruce won't be going to the gold coast. On Afl Trade Week Radio, Scott Clayton (list mgr at the Suns) has said the last two uncontracted players they'll be signing are Josh Fraser and Jared Brennan. They planned to add just 8 uncontracted players, and these two would give them that 8. So it looks like Melbourne now becomes Bruce's only real option (unless some other team is trying to get him) and Richmond becomes Brad Millers main option.

whoops i started a new thread not realising this one had been amended.

Thanks. Certainly shows that's something is certainly wrong in Brisvegas.

Ok, thanks for that clarification. However, what was the source of Clark wanting to return to Freo????

Really, i never heard this. Where have you heard this from??

I totally agree with this post. I think a lot of people are forgetting that the reason the FD is interested in Hale is for structural purposes. He's proved he can be a competent FF target (and i remember him killing Warnock last year) as well as a competent 2nd ruck to give Jamar a break for 20-25% of the game. Hale's presence would be to allow our leading forwards more space, and give us someone to kick long to so our crumbing forwards can then pounce on the loose ball. Hale also has the height to be a legitimate 2nd ruck and has done enough to show that he can play that role. We don't need hale to be a dominant player, but a role player and this is something he could easily do. If he makes Jurrah, Watts and Greens jobs easier then its a good move. Oh and why do people keep talking about Mitch Clark....why would Brisbane even be interested in moving him??? Why don't we actually talk about players we have a chance of acquiring. Mitch Clark would cost us too much to acquire when there are cheaper options out there.

Read my statement again. I said that he MAY not be apart of our next premiership, and then went on to say that I believe we're about 3 years away from challenging. This means that he would be 29-30 if we held onto him, and by that time Gawn and Fitzpatrick would be 22-23, and I would seriously hope that they would have surpassed Hale by that time. If Gawn and Fitzpatrick come along as well as hoped there'll be no need for Hale in 3-4 years time.

I'm in favour of this move on the pure basis that it helps give our young rucks time to develop, avoiding a scenario where we bring them in too early, only to hurt their longevity in the game (look at what happened to Josh Fraser). It does give us a decent stop-gap forward/ruck option who would be one of the better 2nd ruckmen in the league. We're not looking for a Jamar upgrade here, just someone who can provide some decent tap work and be effective enough up forward when not in the middle. He would be better than a number of no.2 ruckmen in the league. Some other no.2's int he league are: Skipper (hawks), Minson/Roughead (Dogs- though roughead is a great young prospect), Jacobs/Hampson (Carlton), Moran/Griffin (Adelaide), Brown/Fraser/Wood (Collingwood), Bellchambers (Essendon), Blake/West (Geelong), Browne/Vickery (Richmond). That's just some, but where a team doesn't have a young developing ruckmen in the 21-25yo age range coming through, most other no.2 ruckmen appear to be below Hale's standard. I'd rather see Fitzpatrick and Gawn and Spencer get their bodies right, dominate in the VFL then have the chance to move into the seniors rather than potentially being rushed in to cover injuries. He may not be part of our next premiership but i think we're at least 3 years away from challenging for that anyway, so who cares if he's here for two years to help fill some gaps. We're NOT going to win a premiership in the next seasons so I think we think of this move as a chance to help the development of our younger rucks, rather than focus on this hindering their development.

Also for those (like me) that didn't get to see the doco on Sunday night, Channel Nine is doing an encore showing of it at 10.30pm this Wednesday night.

I find it ironic that you are praying for St Jimmy despite the fact you are openly questioning the existence of God. So who are you praying too in that case???

Sylvinator, in this case i'd hate to say it but you are just plain wrong on the reasons why Hale was moved out of the ruck. Here's what they say on the Nth Melbourne site: Darren Crocker 2009 review: With the retirement of Nathan Thompson, it was a perfect fit for Haley to come in and take on the responsibility of our key forward. But he had an indifferent year. His five-goal performance against Fremantle was his best haul. There was a period there when I took over where he was starting to mark the footy again. Against Sydney he took 10 marks but unfortunately kicked four points. Against Hawthorn he took nine marks in the wet down at Launceston. There were glimpses he was actually starting to get back into a little bit of form. Like his whole year, it was just really spasmodic and he couldn't have the consistent impact on games we were hoping for. We're really keen to make sure he can get back to where he was a year or so ago. He's a quality person so I can't see any reason why he can't get back to being a pretty important player for us. So in other words, he was moved into the forward line as part of a structural decision to play the role that Nathan Thompson did. They had a glut of good ruckman, so they chose to try him in the forward line after he lead the teams goal-kicking in 2008. I don't think we would have to give up much to get him either. It's not like he's a required player. And would people stop going on about getting Mitch Clark!!! There's a snowflakes chance in hell that Brisbane would want to move him, and no financial need to do so with Rischitelli, Brennan and others moving.

You might be expecting a bit much from Hale's tackling when he's played at full-forward compared to playing in the middle. Also worth noting that Leigh Brown is 194cm to Hale's 201cm. Brown plays all over the ground as well, giving more opportunities to tackle. Ryder is also 197cm and probably one of the most athletic big men in the game who again spends most of his time in the middle. Again, more opportunities to tackle. Clark is the only one comparable to Hale in terms of height given he is 200cm, yet he also plays more of a roaming ruckmen type role. I'm not sure if your stats are career averages or just from last year, but i fully expect that if Hale played in the centre of the ground and not a full-forward for the Kanagas then he would have had more tackles. Anyway, i'd feel pretty confident the club could get him to improve on his tackling if it was a concern. Regardless, for mine he just ticks the right boxes for our lineup. Can play as a second ruck, go forward and kick goals, is another legitimately big body, and is reasonably mobile to play around the ground. He's worth a shot and would be a real upgrade over pj.