deeko

Loved his effort and his hardness. He lacked some polish but was always still a favourite due to his great endeavor. Hope this rubbed off on a few of his team mates.

All the best for the future champ!

Wasn't it last season when reports were Watts to the roos for the second rounder? On what he has done to date that's probably fair value.

We won't get anywhere close to these trades some here are dreaming. Watts just isn't rated by many and people will make offers accordingly.

We have invested so much time in him that what's best for us now is to probably keep him and just plonk him on a HBF and play the swing man role.

I think people should back off the kid. He is the least of our worries and will he a little inconsistent for hos first couple years. Its expected.

Have a look at the so called father son prodigy in Daniher tonight. Didn't get near it or even get near a contest.

Be patient, I know its hard with what we have been through but he will get there

lol

Hogan at CHb, come on man. He is a power forward and was born to play there.

Fitzy isnt going anywhere, and he is blossoming at the perfect time considering Mitch Clark may never play again.

I think Hogan will become a power player no matter what part of the ground he is.

Just trying to get the most value out of the team. Fitz up forward obviously isnt as good as Hogs, not saying that.

Trying to look at what is more valuable to the team, Hogs up forward with a fit Clark & Dawes (fitz then doesn't get a game). Or Fitz up there with Hogs in the backline with Chip & Tmac.

I'm up for trading if a great deal presents however, just for something different, maybe we keep fitz and Hogan goes to CHB.

He played there a bit during the u/18 and he will be gold wherever we play him.

Thoughts?

Great read RPFC as always, I admit though I had to read through twice to make sense of it (from the country so I'm a little slooooow sometimes)

I think that one of Davis, Sellar or god save us Gillies will will stay on as depth for our back line but happy with your order.

Wanted to ask why you are so confident of Sylvia leaving however?

Also, why is PS2 higher than ND61? Surely if we wanted someone we could pick them within the draft first before going to the pre season draft?

Interesting thoughts about Jordie there Baghdad and I agree. He actually had some good games when he started as just a hard in and under player. No one expected him to be a star but he looked like he was going to become a lot better player than he has become.

Basically looking at his stats (thanks footy wire) he showed continual improvement over his first three years as follows:

2009 averaged 14 touches and 3.7 tackles

2010 averaged 18 touches and 6.7 tackles

2011 averaged 20 touches and 6.7 tackles

I still believe he was tagging a lot in 2011 and we a very handy player on our hands where he was stopping players and getting a fair bit of the pill.

2012 averaged 17 touches and 5.8 tackles

2013 averages 16.8 touches and 4.1 tackles.

Since 2011 he is getting less of the pill and laying less tackles.

Dawes wasn't even the Pies best 12 players and look what he's bought to our club, what Maxwell lacks he makes up in leadership, Cols enjoying his best ever season, Nicks a premiership captain.

Great point you make there but I wasn't saying that Maxwell was not a better leader, I have no doubt he has excellent leadership qualities that are greater than Col's.

I just meant as a player that Col is rated better, not by just us (where lets admit, we can tend to dabble on being bias) but even other clubs supporters agree.

Don't know the point of this but Garland everyday of the week.

Even supporters of the filth agree with that

I reckon Jamar is a good enough ruck coach that we should keep him regardless of his onfield perormance.

Agreed, have heard him speak before and he comes across like a very switched on fellow. Was very impressed.

I think he will have a bit to prove when he is back amongst it this year. I believe him being dropped from the leadership group hurt more than most realise.

Also, I would love to keep a veteran on our list who has been there since the beginning and have them leave on there own terms instead of how we have been handling players over the last decade.

Gawn should go past him next year and it would be fantastic if that happens but I still want the Rush there as he is great backup and leader to Maximus.

As for Spencer & Fitzy it's great they are starting to show a bit and going forward I hope they show a bit for another team in exchange for a couple picks upgrades or up and coming mids not getting a look in at another club.

I think they will take the pick...Boyd and trade it on for a senior player. They will get Franklin as FA and a quality mid for Boyd.

...or they will keep Boyd and trade Paton.

That's an interesting point about possibly trading Patton (is it Paton or Patton? don't know). Boyd would have more value on the market I believe with Patton/Paton's history of injuries.

Could you trade someone who they have already invested so much in so early?

If Franklin goes to GWS which I think most have already accepted, does it have to be under F/A? Could he ask for a trade so Hawthorn would get something back?

I thought it might go like Franklin and there first pick (prob 18) to GWS for Pick 1.

Pointless in comparing as they are completely different players. Its like comparing Swan to Pendles where Swan gets it usually more times but Pendles is far more damaging. I'm hoping this is how the two play out in the future.

Olly is a tough, relentless and courageous. I have seen him all the way from juniors in echuca. He is also however a butcher by foot and makes some shadey decisions.

His type are a lot more common than a class act of Jimmy.

Still I love the way Olly goes about his footy.

However ill alway love jimmy more as he is ours.

Lets get around him!

I was super excited watching him play his best game. He looks like a praimantus a bit but loved really well.

All we need now is to get Clark, Jamar and Hogan all fit and firing so we can somehow package Fitzy up for a decent mid.

Jack Hannath is hardly setting the world on fire. He moves worse than Jamar and gets less than half of Jamars effective hit outs.

The love he gets on here continually surprises me.

Cheeky little bump here.

I thought Jack showed a lot tonight and it was easiest his best game in the glorious red and blue.

Just wanted to get people's thoughts on him. He looked a lot more confident tonight and seems to be improving each week.

If Mitch gets fit, Watts continues up forward with Dawes and Hoges what will become of Fitzy?

If he keeps getting better I think its a great problem to have

Hopefully he could spur him on and make a player out of him. It's what we've been waiting for for years! I've got no doubt Roos could do this.

In all seriousness I actually think Col has been having a crack. I posted in another thread that removing the smacking against the bombers he is averaging close to 20 touches and a goal a game. In the season we are having I am not sure what more people can expect from him.

Still, if we are after a role model for Col as some seem to think he needs Chocco would be super. The true example being his work this season with Martin.

Dusty was heading down a worse path than our boy Colin and is playing some fantastic footy atm

Chocco took him under his wing and Dusty is looking the goods this season so far.

Why does eveyone want Choco?? Didn't do wonders at GWS and was the master teacher and coach of the esteemed D.Bailey

I think GWS have gone backwards since he left. They seemed to have a crack a bit more last year than this

The only thing that has stopped me from ruling Craig out of the top job on a permanent basis is just what his involvement with Neeld was like. How much input did he have? How much did Neeld listen and take it on board? How much did Neeld value what Craig used to say to him? I recall a comment made by Neeld to an assistant, something like "you give me the stats, and leave the f***ing coaching to me" or similar (can't remember exactly what it was in regards).

I have heard a very similar (possibly the same) story here with a statsman copping an ear full from him. Neeld in his first year would go absolutely mental in the box and everyone was afraid to hand on the info to him or talk about the findings.

Apparently he had improved this year but the damage was done.

The players obviously got similar treatment and whilst I don't agree with that approach they are paid professionals and should be able to still give it there all.

The people doing the stats are volunteers however and don't deserve that.

I always believed that would be the case. If he turns the club around in the second half of the season it would be difficult to say no to him.

Shouldn't be if we have another lined up already as I believe he is still contracted in the existing (non coaching) role with us.

While Neeld followed his brief it seems his implementation of it was too one dimensional. His results really are appalling, and I for one, was prepared to give him a couple more weeks to see how he went against the Saints and Dogs but clearly the price in lost everything was too high.

I am the opposite here.

It's clear he had lost the playing group and who knows what would happen if he was still there at the end of the year.

We had to get rid of him before these games in case of the chance we actually pinched the 4 points in one.

Imagine the vultures out there in the press then after we sack him after finally getting a win on the board!

I'd take a loss within 5 goals, that's how low my expectations are.

I do still believe however our list has talent to be competitive when inspired.

I think Paul would be a godsend

2. He has a point about being hired to do a job over 3 years and only got half of that time. Regardless of our ladder position, win/loss ratio, etc, etc, if you are told you have 3 years to achieve something, all your planning and preparation is based on that timeframe. If your plan is on track, of course you're not going to have results in half the time. There would've been an expectation that Malthouse would win a flag at Carlton within a certain period - just because it isn't going to be this year doesn't mean he's failing. But, if he had KPI's to meet at carious milestone points and was considerably under achieving, then you have to take responsibility for that.

I believe he did have a 3 year plan and he was still following his 3 year plan.

I can't believe however he honestly believes that it is on track. There is no way he would have been expecting these continue beltings, not just losses but absolute floggings during his second year and that is simply why we had to get rid of him as his plan has failed in every way.

Thanks Pennant as always, fantastic work!

Imagine the quinella of Kennett as president and Matthews as coach.

Is that to much ego for one club to handle?

On a positive note the best thing about this round is that we have a BYE.

So u c there are some positives this round and it hasn't even started yet.

I'm still worried about this week, the bye will be fresh and is definitely due for a win.