binman

Spot on. I agree with Eddie - the big clubs shouldn't be penalized for their success. But by the same token they should not get a ridiculously huge leg up by being able to play so many premium games that sponsors just love. It is the ultimate in short termism (and further evidence of them putting short term profit over long term health of the game) for the AFL to argue that maximizing the dollars for the TV rights depends on having the big clubs playing against each other in stand alone marquee time slots. Give all clubs a a crack at those games and over time clubs will improve and there will be more cracking top shelf games and less a gap bewteen the best and worst games. Imagine PJ trying to sell 4:40 twilight games against GWS on Fox to potential sponsors and the corporates (which apparently is where all the money is now for home games)

Great article WJ. Sure it was ugly but we near four goals down at quarter time and only lost by 30 points - against a side that as you say has top 4 pretensions. Against Gold Coast - a side with aspirations for the top 8 - we fell 4 goals behind and fought back to only go down by 8 points.Even against the eagles where we got pummeled, i thought we at least kept fighting. For me this represents a huge step forward as over the last decade so often once we got to 4 goals down we just folded like a pack of cards. To keep fighting and scrapping right to the final siren is at the heart of the culture Roos is trying to instill, hence his comments about ignoring the score board. We better get used to ugly games because there'll be a lot more. But nothing is as ugly as getting flogged by 1403 points as occurred against the bombers last year.

Been some great comedy on DL of late. Big, bad Rob Wilson is DL's new comedy hero - who by the by needs some practice with his punctuation, assuming he meant he has been a member for 34 years rather than GTG as his erudite riposte suggests

At least part of it is that his potential is so obvious.

I love these old threads. A bit scary. Maldon Boys' post on page 27 has proved to be pretty accurate

. Pure comedy gold. Calls people morons and makes a grand statement that he would never be back on DL again. Posts the above not 3 minutes later. Also cant help but make clear he is bh. Just in case people didn't understand his genius. You rascal you with your ability to create new identities. Gold

Good. Now we know.

Comedy Gold. I'm wondering if he is also so quick to tell everyone how he was the first to pick that Nik Nat would be such a great player. He was glowing in his praise of NN in about equal measure to his derisiveness of Watts.

Here we go again indeed. All the usual suspects repeating the same rubbish as if repetition of the same opinion is the key to making a point.

Ahh Ben hur. Is he back? He must be having a nice old laugh about all the watts bashers

Just noticed that in the still from the video above (with Roos talking to Howe and Watts) Vince, who is right in front of them, appears to be smiling. I wonder if he having a chuckle at the serve they are getting

I watched that through my binos at the ground. He gave Watts a fair spray it looked like, pointing this way and that and walked off shaking his head. As you say Watts looked as if he wanted the earth to swallow him up. Jetta was injured so he couldn't sub Watts off. He did the next best thing and started him on the bench and didn't put him back on for 7 minutes. Seriously Viney and JKK embarrassed Watts with the difference in intensity. I am positive Roos will drop him and will not pick him again until he radically changes his approach. I'm not sure he will be able to.

Spot on and i've said before comparing the two atm is an insult to trapper. From Wikepedia: In 2002 he finished equal fourth in Brownlow Medal voting, and in 2005 he won his first Melbourne Best and Fairest Award, the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal, and he led the AFL in total kicks. Johnstone gradually developed into a midfielder possessing terrific vision and skill, who in 2006 for the second year in a row, led the team in the Brownlow Medal, with 11 votes. During the year he accumulated 469 disposals at 21 an outing, which included first for inside 50s (87) and third for rebounds from 50 (55), and was also 5th in tackles (77).

PSP please stop being a panic merchant

I hope this is the last post you are ever allowed to make on Demonland.

I wonder if Neeld might be tempted to tweet some encouraging words.

No backwards steps

To quote Greg Champion - You can get arrested for that - and so you should (stalking not peeing)

We get the point Lamashtu (insert joking emoticon here)

Alcohol not a factor apparently (he was breath tested). Weird though because he seemingly hit 3 cars head on totaling his car and the other 3. Police are continuing to investigate the collision but say it is too early to determine whether speed was a factor. Do they mean how fast the car was travelling?

Wasn't he pulled over in an unregistered Jeep recently (and from memory he doesn't have licensee). Same event or different?

you're under no such restriction

With Trenner, Hoges, Salem and the Toump building themselevs up, Garlo a full pre season, Gawn not gawn, Dawes ready to go round one, one plug and play gun recruit and an early draft pick we will have a great side round 1 next season. can't wait

As i said in a post yesterday: 'One more thing. I'm not being trite but comparing Watts to Trav is an insult to TJ. Yes they both look a little casual, yes both have sublime skills, yes trav wasn't overly physical but i rarely if ever questioned TJ's courage or commitment'

I have hesitated posting anything about JW as i wanted to cool down a bit. On Sunday night i thought he needed to be dropped. Now that i have calmed down a bit, i think he needs to be dropped. I have never seen JW through rose colored glasses and from the beginning have agreed he needs to improve his physicality. That said I have been a great supporter of Wattsy and have defended him many times on Demonland. I expected the penny to drop last year when moved to the half back flank and again thought Roosy might find the key to getting him going. Perhaps he still will but i have to admit the signs are very bad. Watts was hopeless against the Eagles and i posted then i thought he was on thin ice. I only listed to the GWS game on the radio so not really sure how he went in that game. But he was truly woeful on the weekend. Other posters have given enough of examples of why but the one that resonates is Dawes running straight past him in the center of the ground to try (unsuccessfully) and get to a man on the wing. This was Watt's lack of effort and letting his team mates down writ large for all to see. And i'm sure Dawes was making a point by gusting a gut for what was a lost cause (though not for Watts if he had gone hard and early) and i'm equally sure his anger in the post match interview with Burgs was at least in part related to Watts lack of effort throughout the game. Jeez the Leading Teams model must cause Watts nightmares as surely his team mates will let him know their thoughts. There was another example and one that i don't think has been noted thus far. On the half forward flank at the city end (where i was sitting) Ablett had the ball and was running towards goal at right angles to where Watts was (JW was about 15 metres away and on the move). Watts had the perfect opportunity to absolutely pole axe Ablett and force a turnover. He wouldn't have been at any risk of getting hurt as he would have completely blind sided him. Instead he ran to Ablett at half pace, made a weak attempt at tacking which Ablett brushed off and pumped the ball into the goal mouth. My son, who is 11 nailed it later in the day when on another occasion he failed to commit to a tackle he said 'he is so hesitant'. I hate bagging players at the footy and rarely do it. I couldn't help yelling in frustration at him a couple of times. One such time was just after half time when i implored him to change the direction of the match and win it for us, as nothing short of that would have lessened my frustration with him. To be fair he improved his intensity and laid an excellent tackle at the Punt road half back flank on the kid with the white mop. But really too little to late. With Roos having so publicly made clear what his non negotiable are (the basic footy stuff) he has left Roos with little option but to drop him and i expect that is what he will do. Surely if he doesn't it will because Roos has given him an ultimatum and one last chance to turn things around.If he is dropped it will be for quite a long time i reckon and you have to wonder if he has the bottle to force his way back. So depressing. One more thing. I'm not being trite but comparing Watts to Trav is an insult to TrJ. Yes they both look alittle casual, yes both have sublime skills, yes trav wasn't overly physical but i rarely if ever questioned TJ's courage or commitment