nutbean

Yes and no - sends a poor message. " we are out first week of the finals so come and see them off whilst you still have a chance".

Didn't watch the Pies on the weekend ? He was very good and had a significant impact. (18 marks worth of impact) I always believed that Howe had the ability to be a footballer but was just too lazy - picked and choosed which contests to go to. I laughed when the Pies suggested he would be their "Gunston" as Gunston is one of the hardest working players in the AFL. However, he has had a good season as a half back and to say otherwise smacks of pure denigration based on him not being at our club anymore.

I am not suggesting that Jesse Hogan doesn't has visible bouts of angst - usually at himself. I have not seen a selfish side to his football yet ( handballing off to ANB in the goal square on Sunday ?) and whilst he has a touch of arrogance - I have seen that directed towards opposition rather than team mates. To suggest he may become more of an impediment than a benefit to our club ? - and I don't see the necessity for a "life changing experience" - I think that is hyperbole - I just don't see it.

The same was levelled at Buddy Franklin at his time at Hawthorn - highly individualistic - a couple of premierships. Even at the Swans - Barry Hall was getting himself suspended and even his best years was guilty of giving away needless free kicks - a premiership. You could label both of those "selfish". ( I will also say that drawing the connection between these players and not winning a premiership is a very long bow - Gary Ablett senior played like 10 men in the 1988 grand final and could hardly be faulted for Geelong not winning that day. Tony Lockett played in consistently poor teams and almost took home the big prize with the Swans. And secondly - if you want to draw a connection with brilliant resumes and poor attitudes and not winning premierships then by your logic shouldn't Robbie Flower have about half a dozen premierships to his name ?) I also think you being very harsh on his attitude. He absolutely can do better in the body language stakes but even with his kicking yips did he stop presenting on Sunday ? 13 marks of which 5 were contested would tell you otherwise. He is in his second season of football and there is a lot of room for improvement. I wouldn't be quite as panicked on Hogan yet.

Seriously ? Without any insight there is only one answer. It is the same reason at various times you saw Petracca and Kent coming off the back of the square at centre bounces and why we see Watts sitting in the backline towards the end of a quarter. Coaches instructions ?

I agree. Interested in your take on development - how much weight do you give to the development team ( and the work they have done) since Roos has come to the club. My feeling has been that in the past we have taken draft picks and said "sink or swim" whereas the Roos era has been about further education.

Just as easy to say - Judging drafting on the output of players who are no older than 21 is premature in the extreme.

Correct - I also thought the Tyson not getting rid of the ball was tough too. He evaded and then got squarely tackled from behind - if the tackle had been good then he was gorn... but again - you have to be tackled properly and the tackler tackled from behind getting into Tyson's back when taking him down.

I wanted to give you a double like for suggesting a poster is a "nong"

I think the umpiring has been horrifically inconsistent and i put it down to one thing that will never change. Three umpires. The reality is that interpretation will always vary when there are 3 umpires. How many times are we seeing the umpire not paying a free kick right in front of him only to have an umpire 30 metres away calling it. How many times to we see identical incidents having polar opposite rulings - that is because it is a different umpire calling the decisions.

I am not convinced it was a wet/dry problem. I think it was a work rate problem and as you said - " the one meter handballs". it was not only the 1 meter handballs - it was the one meter handballs to a person standing still with no obvious outlet. I didn't think we fumbled all that much - we just made really poor decisions, were blind to free players and disposed really poorly by foot. And give Carlton their due - they completely outworked us.

Too static with not enough intelligent running.

I don't disagree with most of your assessment on the list- some can be argued. I have a problem with the loss we had to have. We know what our best looks like and whilst unrealistic, there is never a loss we should have, Even add a touch a of realism - Geelong at Geelong is a tough ask but we should not lose to the likes of Carlton st the G.

So when we had 206 kicks to 225 handballs against hawthorn - I wonder if it that was a dumb game plan ? Handballing is not a bad game plan but bad handballing that either miss the target or are to a stationary player who doesn't have a moving teammate to move it to is a bad game plan.

Two weeks back after a very long lay off - self explanatory.

I will pick you up on the obvious contradiction - when Hogan plays, how can the forward look congested when you criticize him for running too far up the ground ? There has been some criticism of him not kicking enough goals and i do see him pushing up the ground. The criticism of him running up the ground should be leveled at the coaches as he, in all likelyhood, is playing to instruction. He was poor last week and still took 6 marks - some around the centre of the ground. I think Hogan looks much better when he is on the move and I still believe he will be a better CHF than a full forward. I dont worry about him not kicking bags of goals - although he should nail the goals that he missed last week.

You are so wrong. Derwayne is like a dementor - ( when he speaks I feel like i will never be happy again) . However - the Stretch goal is spine tingling...

You should have quoted Rjay's second sentence and then it is not a nonsense. The likes of Dunn and Garland were in the leadership because it was a choice of them or ummm...errrr... well basically it was choice of them or no one. We are still the youngest list - look at who are top 10 in the demonland votes are (Note- leadership group is not only about being best on the field but is part of the equation). 2 x 21 year olds, 1 x 22, 1 x 23, 1x 24, 1 x 25, 1 x 26 - then you have Jones at 28 and Vince at 30. This looks great for the future but can present problems for the present. Dunn and Garland were in the leadership group as they were mature and the were pickings very slim.

I believe you may forgotten where you are .....

Why would he come in Melbourne ? He would be second in line behind Gawn. Ruckman move on for more opportunity. Witts would try to get to a club where he has a chance of being number one ruckman.

exactly this - we weren't ready in 1987. We weren't ready but we beat the doggies anyway and made the finals and then we weren't ready. We weren't ready in the elimination final but we smacked North by 100 plus points. We seriously weren't ready against the Swans because we only smacked them by 70 plus points. We missed out on a Grand Final berth by 2 points and a kick after the siren. Who thought we were ready to beat the Hawks two weeks ago ? We are young and relatively inexperienced but the first step to winning any game is being "ready" to win. After too many years of poor performances - I am ready for us to win this week and the next week. If we make the finals I am ready to face every game knowing that if we play our best we will win.

Demonland is like a car crash - it's horrifying yet I cannot look away...

It is a hard gig being a second string ruckman. Unless you are forward/ruckman more than a ruckman you will struggle at the Dees to get time unless ...I dont even want to say it. That is the beauty of a Pederson (when he plays well) or the Leigh Brown type of footballer. They are positional footballers who can ruck. I dont mind it when Big Max goes forward for a rest but he is a ruckman first and foremost and needs to spend 3/4 's of a game on the ground and rucking.

I think that Omac and to a lesser extent Frost are a case of staying strong to the game plan whether or not the players are quite ready. I think that Omac has a long way to go however he shows the attributes that is valued by the coaching staff. I think that the coaching staff are willing to live with Frost's turnovers or running into trouble because he is always wanting to take the game on. IMO Dunn and Garland are probably more reliable than either of the two mentioned however both Dunn and Garland's major flaw is they are not play on and move the ball on at all costs footballers. Tmac, Omac and Frost are the future and the way we want to play. Even if they all do not make it long term I think the coaching staff has made it clear what sort of key position defenders the club wants. Key position defenders that can defend but most importantly, can also attack.

I was thinking that Jay Kennedy Harris may be a nice replacement for Jetta when he hangs up his boots as the small defender. JHK does need to learn more about defending but I think he would be good down back. Then I looked up Neville Jetta's age - he is only 26 - why does he seem to have been around forever ?