binman

Fair point. But nonetheless I still think there is some real potential in players like sparrow, dunkley, jordon, Lockhart and Bedford. ALao petty, spargo, fritter and baker are all coming into their 3rd season and I included that group in my comments. Add jackson, kozzie and rivers to that group and there is a pretty good core of young players coming through.

Good post, agree with most of it. It us an interesting point you make about 1st and 2nd year players going up a level. Last year was unusual in so far as no first year or even second year players made a real impact at senior level (As opposed to just getting a game) These days at least one normally one would have. And no knock on any of those players. Just the way their development has progressed. If you include this year's draftees to the group that is now entering their 2nd and 3rd years it reasonable to expect a handful will make an impact. And maybe one might really surprise and become a really important player.

At first glance I wondered how they had got a recent photo of me and mixed it up with a shot of dunks. But on closer inspection realised it wasn't me. Easy mistake to make though given how similar our physique are.

Agree. Particularly given how poor they were during last season at reporting injuries (when most fans are interested). Hopefully this reflects a shift.

Exactly the same but different

Robbo had that skill too

That article reads like one of my posts.

I think he can. As you say a natural forward. Good hands, good leading patterns, times his leads well and takes advantage of chances. Will be really helped if we can sort our ball movement and get some nice clean entries inside 50.

He has his own injury issues. Shouldn't be sharing them 'round.

Agree on where we stand in the AFL in terms of info to fans. And dees have been hopeless even by that standard. But may only injured himself last Wednesday i think and I'm pleased with some improvement.

Good. And good on the club for getting the info out. A benefit of a solid block of preseason training is mitigating the impact these sort of hiccups.

Agree we have much riding on him. Super critical player. Interesting question as to whether we are asking him to play in a way he is not physically suited to. I sure hope he is up to it.

But probably doesn't surprise you.(the silence that is). Certainly doesn't surprise me.

A fair bit of supposition there ds.

I think Max and Viney should - and will be - co captains.

Pop, srguably one of the greatest nba coaches, has a built a dynasty at San Antonio on the same principles.

In terms of talent and leadership an interesting situation is evolving at Philly in the NBA. Simmons is one of the most talented players in the world. A lock for the all star team for his career. His skill set is extraordinary. In terms of talent he has been compared to le bron. But the knock on his game is leadership and his refusal to take his game out of his comfort zone by not taking jump shots. On leasership he has been criticized for not stepping up in big games and passing in clutch moments instead of say driving to the hoop. Embid is also supertalented. Incredibly skilled and strong. Not the same knock on his leadership but there are some question marks. There are no other natural leaders. Philly had the talent to win the title last year. They got pipped by the ultimate winner who boasted arguably the best leader in the NBA, Leonard. Leonard was brilliant all finals series and against Philly put his team on his back, culminating in a freak clutch three pointer. Nothing between those two teams talent wise. Leadership was the critical difference. Phillt have the talent (which of coure is critical) but unless Simmons and embid step up and lead their team the way say Giannis does they are not winning it the title this year either.

Blimey, over reaction much. I made it personal by saying 'you sometimes run the risk, it seems to me, of confusing fact and opinion' ? Are you serious ? Pretty mild comment by me Not meant as an insult but even if taken that way certainly not proportionate to those you just threw at me - i don't understand how footy works, i'm a dreamer and group thinker, i make too many excuses and i don't understand how drafting works (nor do the professional recruiters seemingly) - Sheesh. I must have really touched a nerve. And i have no idea what you point you are making about Hassa man, Alves, Wells etc etc (don't worry about elaborating by the by). If you can't engage in a discussion without resort to insult then i won't bother trying to have a reasonable discussion with you. Whatever floats your boat i guess. See ya.

The statistics do no back this comment up. In so far as top 20 draft picks have a significantly statistical greater chance of playing AFL football. The correlation between how high draft picks are with numbers of AFL games played is clear. The higher the pick the higher the likelihood that players reaching 100 games. Whilst numbers of games played is not an exact measure of talent it is not a bad one. Few poor players reach 100 games.

In your opinion. And yes i know that it is given given forums are places to state opinion. But you sometimes run the risk, it seems to me, of confusing fact and opinion.

I'm not sure what your metric for leadership being over rated is. However what I do know is that based on your comments I am of the view you significantly underrate the value and impact of leadership. I would argue that there have been periods in the the time i have followed the dees where we had the talent but lacked the on field leadership to go all the way. I'd also argue there were (much fewer) periods where we had on field leadership that helped us perform better than we would have otherwise would have.

Sorry macca cannot agree at all with this. In fact to be accurate I strongly disagree. Yes talent is critical. No team in any elite sport has any chance of sustained sucess without it. And yes the dees have lacked talent for decades. But on field leadership is a critical element of success. There are any number of examples across all team sports. In footy Hodge at the lions is one such example. He simply would not have got a game last year if it were not for his leadership. Interesting you mention cricket. Paine was brought into the side solely for his leadership. And remains in it because of his leadership. On talent he would struggle to make a second 11 oz team. He doesn't make enough runs and is a good but not great keeper. But such has been his leadership he has been basically guaranteed the job for the foreseeable future. A similar example in cricket was Brearly many tears ago. Crap batsmen, brilliant leader.

Fluff (Jokes, lest you think I was being serious)

I suspect kozzie will be first. Meets a desperate need (crumbling forward wirh x factor), fitness nor such a critical requirement in his position and is built like a bar fridge.

Dusty had, for him, a down year. Came good with a vengeance in the finals. But as a forward really, with low average possession. And an impact player. So not being fully fit not such an issue. For what it's worth I think benell, as a result of his fitness will play a similar role ie a dangerous mid size forward. Lynch took time to build his tank but seemed to cover more ground by the end of the year. Though in all likelihood never reached optimal fitness. And agian an impact platlyer with low average possesions. If he has a big preseason will be huge for them this year. Let's hope our parallel is tmac. Those two might have h was interrupted preseason but most of their list didn't. Which meant the list had a good fitness base and rgwy could better manage the impact of injury than us.