pm24

lets not forget that NicNat is also a full year older than Jack, and was playing in the WAFL while jack was playing school boys footy the year prior to the draft. I see me more potential upside for Jack than i do for NicNat given that.

Natanui has athleticism but Watts has great footy smarts. You could see that by how he seemed like he had all the time in the world when disposing of the ball by hand.

Edit: Just another thing to add, I find the fact that Matthews is being so critical of Watts and praising Natanui ludicrous. Watts is the same age of most of this years draftees thanks to the Gold Coast raiding of 17 year olds. That being said, physically he is the same as this years draft class. Just something for Matthews to think about....but that might be to rationale for him.

Was at the game today and i'd have to say Jack was probably our best forward on the day. Bate was playing great but unfortunately the ankle injury he incurred in the first quarter really hampered him and made him a step slower than usual, which is why i think he wasn't able to get enough space on the leads.

Though Jack didn't kick a goal i can see why he was picked before NicNat. They guy is what, 6'5" and possibly still growing to 6'6" and he was picking the ball up from his ankles as cleanly if not better than some mid-fielders. He had beautiful composure and decision making with his hands and took 3 great leading contested marks. I'm just disappointed he didn't take the shot at goal when he decided to instead handed it off to sylvia (who then went on to kick a shocker). I would have preferred to see Jack lineup from just outside 50 and have a crack!

The problem today was that our forward line structure was shocking. Jack was having to come up to our half back line to get the ball because we had no-one else providing a target. Then by the time we'd moved the ball close to our forward fifty he was behind the play. Our delivery into the forward fifty was also atrocious.

The game was ugly from our boys but i'd have to say that Jack turned out probably one of the best performance of the day on our team.

Oh Dappa Dan i'm just going to have to pull you up on a couple of statistical errors. Jack Watts is now 196cm according to the MFC website (and apparently still growing). Stef Martin is almost a full inch taller at 198cm

With respect, this is why you are not running a football department.

Johnson vs Cox last year = win for Johnson. Jamar vs NicNat last year = HUGE win for Jamar.

Drop Johnson AND Dunn then Watts likely will have to ruck at some point to give Jamar a chop out. Jamar is more likely to get hurt, now or in the future, and even if he doesn't on Saturday, the extra runner becomes redundant as the opposition ruckmen end up dominating. Watts as backup gets smashed by Nicnat, and is dropped the following week to let in.... Johnson.

From any reasonable perspective, Johnson is in the 22... because like any good footy judge knows (including you) the Ruckmen are not competing with the midfielders for a place in the starting side. Johnson becomes redundant when we play, say, the Hawks... Or any other side playing only 1 ruckman, because... wait for it... he's a supporting ruckman. And a good one at that. It's typical 'ology/'land groupthink that suggests Johnson isn't up to it. He's shown plenty of good form in the first half of his career... It's fair to say he's shown more than Jamar did at the same stage, and now Mark is a potential AA. And as for the whole "Jamar's a ruckman/Johnson's a possession getter" thing... Johnson isn't the same quality as Jamar in the taps, but he holds his own. The opposite argument was made AGAINST Jamar a year and a half ago, that he didn't pick up enough possessions. Johnson is a great accumulator for a big man with pace and a kick... if we can get him to play to his strengths, he'll be a sensational asset, and will make our starting ruck division one of the best in the game.

But I won't expect anyone here to agree with this. Never let the facts get in the way of a good witch hunt.

Believe it or not, i agree with you entirely. Johnson is a fantastic compliment ruckmen to Jamar. It means we have one top tap ruckmen who can rest in the forward line, and another possession winning ruckment who is versatile enough to help up forward while being decent enough in the tap to not lose too much.

I think the lineup we have for this week (given the players available) is a great lineup. I can't see any other player who could come in the moment that would be of benefit. Also, worth noting that Joel McDonald could find it tough to get back into this team despite being picked up to be the backline general... Its fantastic to have such a richness of talent after the Daniher years when we had to pesist with blue collar guys like Godfrey and Nathan Brown to fill out the team. They were good hard working players but had no where near the skill level of the guys we have coming through now.

If Clayton was looking at our list trying to decide who to poach, Miller is one of the last he'd look at.

Sad for him but true.

He's the guy you'd take if there's nothing else left, because at least he might show a bit of leadership to the kids.

I disagree with you on this one. Miller would be valuable to a young developing team like the gold coast because he can play at both ends of the ground. He has been reasonably effective up back and forward. Remember that game he closed down Barry Hall when we were actually challenging for the finals. He's also a big body (which they'll need) and can be a leader in the club. He's not going to be the type of player they'd throw stupid amounts of money at, but he'd be a valuable pick up for a team like the Gold Coast. Hell they picked up Daniel Harris from North Melb and he was pretty much their version of miller anyway.

I'm really looking forward to the game this weekend. This team just keeps getting more and more exciting.

Good to see they're running with the two ruckmen again. I thought Johnson did a decent job last week, particularly when he dove to cleanly pick up a sliding forward fifty entry (read the play beautifully), before giving off a perfect handball to Green for the Goal.

I think Johnson is really underrated and is the perfect 2nd ruckman/roaming forward for this team.

i know the swap makes sense but i still think Dunn has played well enought to keep his spot. In saying that i don't know who else we could have dropped. The back-line and midfield are pretty set these days so it's just the forward line, ruck and bench spots up for grabs.

Wet Toast haven't won a last quarter all year. I don't think we have lost one.

We should beat 'em.

Unfortunately we have lost one last quarter and it was another team we were favoured to beat - Nth Melbourne outscored us 5 goals to 3 in the last Q.

I'm really hoping we don't see the same thing happen this week.

His Goal was fantastic. Even my father-in-law (a passionate bulldog supporter) had to acknowledge how good it was on the day.

He just bursted through, clean pick up, and an awesome finish.

lol just showing my newness to this forum, when I referred to Mighty Demon i was actually referring to the post by Rojik of the Arctic who has the status of Mighty Demon.

You guys should check out Dean Bailey's podcast on SEN from the Saturday 8/05/2010. He was asked if Jack Watts will ever be a power forward, and bailey basically went on to say the same thing that Mighty Demon just said. Jack will be what Jack is...highlighting his speed, mobility, agility etc etc.

Is that what we did? For certain?

I've not heard it confirmed anywhere, but I've also not heard anyone mention an injury.

My understanding was that he was rested from the North Melb game due to general soreness.

This is also the reason that he didn't play for Casey that weekend. It was stated in the match report in the Herald Sun.

I've copied what it said below:

Scoreboard:

NORTH MELBOURNE 3.3 8.7 10.12 15.14 (104)

MELBOURNE 2.1 3.3 9.4 12.6 (78)

Goals: North Melbourne: D Hale 3 S Wright 3 D Wells 2 L Anthony 2 A Swallow B Harvey B Warren H McIntosh T Goldstein. Melbourne: B Green 4 R Petterd 2 C Bartram C Sylvia J Trengove L Dunn M Bate M Jamar.

Best: North Melbourne: A Swallow S Thompson M Firrito D Wells L Anthony L Adams B Rawlings. Melbourne: C Bruce B Green J Grimes L Dunn N Jones A Davey.

Injuries: North Melbourne: L Hansen (nose). Melbourne: R Petterd (shoulder) J McKenzie general soreness) replaced in selected side by J Rivers.

Hey guys, first time poster here, but been reading the forum for a while.

I think Bailey's interview on SEN gives almost a guarantee that Danny Hughes will get another game given he actually said something along the lines of "it'll be great to see how he goes next week".

I'm not sure i'd like to see Dunn dropped. The guy has the most marks on our team for the season to date and is providing a consistent target across the half forward line. His disposal has been patchy, but he should have had at least 2 goals on the weekend (if that touched call in the 4th Q went our way), and he also did well in forcing the ball to the goal square in difficult conditions with a couple of other snaps towards goal.

Dunn also has a bit of mongrel in him, which this team needs. His mobility and height (he's 6'4")along with Bate's on the forward line is an asset to our team. He may not have kicked a bag of goals, but our forward line isn't set up like that anyway. We need multiple contributors each game to be competitive and he can at least be one of those.

I don't know who'd be dropped but i think Dunn has done enough to warrant another game. I wouldn't be surprised if a guy is dropped for Watts on the pure basis that he needs to be rested, just like we did with Jordie McKenzie.