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While the Ins definitely look pretty average on paper, the one thing that you'll get from Bail and Evans is workrate and some run and spread. Happy to see Jetta in too. Watts and Blease need to find some form, and probably best to do that at Casey where they can get a bit of the ball. Would love to see Watts played on the ball or the wing.

Great work with the tweets. Would suggest sending one to Neil Mitchell, just for the ppl that may have missed what was mentioned on his show. Also SEN, if they have an account.

Just sent a msg to the MFC facebook page asking them to post something on their wall regarding training on Friday and letting them know we would be trying to get as many ppl as possible down to support the boys. Not sure if they'll put it up, but definitely worth a try.

Hopefully some of the people that hate Schwab (possibly with good reason), or were handing back their memberships until there was some change at the club can now make it down to training to support the boys.

SEN saying Schwab resigned.

Using the West Coast team sheet from last week, this is how i would like to see us line up: FB Garland (Hill) Frawley (Darling) Jetta (Masten) HB Grimes (Cripps) McDonald (Kennedy) Terlich (Hams) C Trengove (Embley) Viney (Priddis) Nicholson (Gaff) HF Tapscott (Hurn) Clarke (Schofield) Howe (Waters) FF Byrnes (A Selwood) Gawn (Glass) Watts (Brown) R Jamar (Cox) N Jones (S Selwood) Sylvia (Schuey) I Blease Davey M Jones (Sinclair, Butler, Sheppard) S Kent (Dalziell) Ins : Jetta,Tapscott, Gawn, Kent Outs : Gillies, Sellar, Toumpas, Rodan I think we have been too top heavy in the back line, so Gillies goes, replaced by Jetta. I have put Grimes in the back line because i think we could really use his leadership, aggression and understanding of the game down there. Also have the option of putting Watts back there depending on match ups. Sellar hasn't done much so far, so although he is probably underdone, I think it's worth giving Max a go at full forward, giving Jamar a chop out for 5 minutes a quarter. At worst, he is going to cause match up problems for West Coast, and has the potential to kick a couple, while doing better than Sellar as the back up ruck. Toumpas needs a few weeks at Casey to gain some confidence. He has been ok, but would benefit from a few games getting more of the ball, and possibly having a win! Rodan was only in because of Mckenzie's late withdrawal (who I'm assuming won't be right to go) so he stays out. Tapscott and Kent come in, with Kent the sub to offer a bit of X-factor with his pace and skills in the last quarter and a bit. I would have Nicholson running the whole game with Gaff. Also ensure that we look to use Howe and Tapscott to keep Hurn and Waters accountable. Watts to play in the forward line as a lead up target. Big Max in the goal square with Davey or Byrnes at his feet.

LEEHOW

Name the session, I'll be there.

Can anyone explain to me why Watts didn't take every kick-in? I know Dunn can kick, but he is a dumb footballer. He takes too long to kick it in, and then when he does, 95% of the time it's either long to the boundary or long down the middle. Surely it is better to have Watts taking the kick-in, who we know is a superb kick, but is also happy to try and find an open man 40m away. Have Dunn standing in the pocket as the get out kick, who can then kick long if necessary. Watts will make mistakes from time to time kicking in, but i would much rather see him make a mistake looking for a target, which if it comes off will leave us in a good position, than the same old long kick to the boundary.

As much as i would like Xavier Ellis, i highly doubt that Hawthorn would let him go. Think he is pretty highly regarded at the club. LeCras yes, but cannot see any reason for him to leave a successful club. Thomas the same. Buddy too expensive, and if he goes anywhere, which i highly doubt, i think it will be to WA. Nathan Van Berlo is the captain of the Crows, and there is absolutely no way he will leave. As DD36 said, we'd be much better off targeting players from GWS, or the Gold Coast. It's going to be hard for them to fit everyone in.

Byrnes came off in the last quarter with a tight calf, don't think it was anything to worry about. Tynan spent last quarter and a bit with ice on his foot/toe, again, didn't look at all serious. Wouldn't be too worried about the out on the fulls. The boundary line on the grandstand side seemed a lot further in than normal, and it was very windy.

Wondered how long it would be before you mentioned that! I think Binman is trying to say that he thinks JW 'can' be our most influential player this year. He is not saying that he has been previously. He has all the tools to do it, and with a bigger body this year, hopefully we will get to see a much improved, harder player. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement, but i think he is heading the right way.

Hogan, Toumpas, Viney and possibly Graham. You must be a happy man BH!!! As am i. Perfect draft so far.

Thanks mate, appreciate your input. Agree with you on Clark, hopefully he can do most of the preseason. Reckon he could be in for a huge year with a bit more support up forward. Think they would be really working on Watts' core strength, so we may not see a noticeable difference in size for a while, but think he will be able to compete better with that added strength. Spoke to Rawlings a few weeks ago and he'll definitely be playing in the backline.

BH, did you get to training yesterday? Would love to hear what you thought if you did.

does anyone know over the last 10 years, how many kids have been drafted from WA? and of those kids, how many ended up going home? i imagine it would be a fairly low percentage. Hogan nominated for the mini-draft, knowing that West Coast and Freo would be extremely unlikely to get him. i don't think we have any problems. and for what its worth, i love the fact that we drafted him. i think he is going to be a superstar of the competition, which we haven't had for a long, long time.

It would be great if he could wait till he was 35, and still have his career, but there is no way he could. My sister is 31 and is a doctor, and she is still studying. If Tom was to start when he was 35, he wouldn't be qualified until his early 40's, and then if he wanted to specialise, there is years more study. There is no way you could have an AFL career and do the amount of work required to become a doctor. As you and HG said, good on him, wouldn't be easy to give up football.

what time on monday will we be put out of our misery?

you are a [censored]. read my whole post, don't just take one line. i said he has only shown it a few times a year, but seemed to be more consistent in the latter part of this year and i hope with a good preseason he can continue that form into next year.

that is exactly what i said mate, you need to read before you post. with an uninterrupted preseason i would hope to see the more consistent form we saw from sylvia in the latter half of the season.

He said most talented player, not best player. I agree that there are better players, but Sylvia is our most talented. Unfortunately we only see it a couple of times a year. He seemed to be more consistent over the latter part of the year, so hopefully with an uninterrupted preseason, we can see it a bit more often next year.

What i don't understand is that the AFL have been doing everything they can to speed the game up, yet instruct the umpires not to call a ball up when a pack of players are over the ball. They seem to wait 10-15 seconds while players throw themselves in, or pretend to make an attempt to get it out. It is clear that the ball is not going to come out, or if it does is going to go 5 metres before we have the same situation again. There was one game i watched this year were the umpires did make a quick decision, and also threw the ball up quickly, and the play was a lot less congested. Unfortunately the next night they were back to normal, and we had scrum after scrum.

jade rawlings said he wants him in the back line, and expects him to play there. think we need his skills down there at the moment. will have a huge preseason in the gym, and i expect a very good year from jack.

had a bit of a chat to jade rawlings when he came into my shop yesterday. one of the things he mentioned was how impressed he was with lynden dunn when he went down back. from what he said, i would expect him and jack watts to stay down there next year. said we defended ok early in the year, but missed players with skills to clear the ball and start attacks. he said that he got along very well with watts, and was really impressed with his form over the 8 weeks before the ankle injury. said that they would absolutely punish the players over the pre-season, and that he was looking forward to working with watts. said he would be working to bulk up, increase his core strength, and mentioned how quick he was, but that he didnt know how to use it properly yet. the bit i liked most was when he said he was hoping for an opportunity to crunch jack and try and get him angry. he spoke of having a good core group, and of having a lot to work with. reckons we're a good chance to get viney second round. will be looking at some older players which everyone probably knows. doesnt play a big role in recruiting, so didnt get much from him there, but expected whitfield and grundy to go 1 and 2 which is great for us. toumpas was one name he did mention.

RIP John Mccarthy. Tragedy is an often misused word, but this is a tragedy, a life cut way too short. A very talented, dedicated and well liked footballer. Will be sadly missed by everyone. Condolences to family, friends and teammates.