nutbean

Not to be pedantic... !!! + !!!!!! = !!?????????(wtf)!!!!

The only rider I would put on this is that I am not sure that he will ever reach the value he should be providing. He is lazy with a capital "L".

I will suggest that this is not just an MFC problem. Watch enough games and you will see most teams suffer from this however you are 100% spot on that the more composed footballers you have the less panic kicks that don't clear the defensive 50 you have. It also depends a lot on workrate - the harder a player works to create space the easier it is to exit the defensive 50. This workrate now has evolved to needing to be much higher than say 5 years ago as teams are so more adept at "building the wall" to keep the ball in. Really good teams at exiting their back half have burned us this year as we are so aggressive at pushing up that if the opposition are composed and do find a bit of space they find a way through and get a relatively easy goal over the back.

zika virus ?

I was amused when Buckley said they are getting their own version of Jack Gunston. Howe is a better mark, Gunston is a better kick and they both have similar pace and other skills. The difference ( and it is a doozy) - Gunston works his butt off up and down the field - never stops presenting and will be taking marks in the back pocket and then 2 minutes later be lining up for goal. Howe is lazy lazy lazy. That is exactly why he lasted all of a few games in the forward line. Even in the backline he is still picky about which contests he runs to.

Shouldn't the argument be about good government or bad government rather than big vs small ? Whilst size indeed brings a debate about financial cost and efficiency's there have been good and bad government large and small. To me, too many get caught up in this secondary argument. In this coming election my voting will be decided by policy, not how many people it will take to implement it.

Don't disagree that they weren't brilliant - but you have one person saying " he was good value for the club" and another saying " truly awful" and as commented I think truth lies in between and I would use the term "decidedly average". Had some good games and had some not so good games. I think he is much better suited to the back line but I still see him picking and choosing at which contests he wants to impact. His attitude would be found very wanting in the heat of finals football. I just get amused that there is no middle ground with some - there is only two categories being absolute jet or absolute spud ( hate that word) - Jeremy was neither.

saw these guys at Groovin the moo - didnt know much about them but they were great - i love any band where they can lift the whole drum stand - including the drummer - into the audience and have him drumming on top of the crowd.

Memo is owned by the same bloke as Caravan - it is a truly beautiful old room. Hardtack and I went and saw the reformed Sports there last year - it was a great gig. I have seen plenty of gigs there as well. The acoustics are great and you will really like the place. Parking in StKilda is the only problem. The one venue of this ilk that leaves me a little cold is the flying saucer club in Elsternwich - again - used to be owned by the same bloke. I find with the very low ceiling the acoustics are ordinary and you can hear everyone talking over the music. I love Stephen Cummings - and will be seeing him in a short while at the Caravan Club - but you are right about him - I book tickets not knowing was Stephen Cummings will turn up. When he is good he is really really good ( but I have seen him a couple of times when he was in his own world)

This is what they were referring to in your clip - from one of my all time fav's - the original in laws.

And this is revisionism as well. He did not have two awful seasons before he left us. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

You are right - he does butcher the ball a fair bit. I am not sure if I notice it more because he is such a sweet mover around the field. Quick, aggressive, brave and great evasive skills and then he can just kill the ball.

For those of us old enough to remember - we have had a midseason draft before. Very little need for panic - very few players left clubs for other clubs. The ones that did were players that were "trash and treasure" - ( one clubs trash is another clubs treasure). What did transpire is players from the then VFA got drafted in to fill holes caused by injuries. You may see a parting of the ways with a Cloke, if the Pies have no intention of keeping him. If it is obvious that we are devoid of say leg speed and we have spotted a Casey boy that we think could make a difference then why not ? The other issue is that it could only really be VFL as they would be the only players fit enough and possibly be able to work out a game plan. The game is much more sophisticated than the "old days". What it could mean though is if we think a VFL player could make it with us long term then maybe you get him in on the list mid year with a view to him being gold in the following seasons. There is a problem with the fixed list size. Do you delist a player mid season and how would that work as they would be contracted.

I am a Caravan Club devotee and have seen RM there a few times. I love Russell Morris - if he never played his old stuff again I wouldn't care - his last two albums are absolutely fantastic. (for those who don't know he has been writing music with Australian history themes.

How exactly are we screwed. Do you believe that the MFC is the only club that have players coming out of contract that are attracting interest from other clubs ? Every club faces this same issue so the MFC, like every other club, has to deal with it. We make him an offer which he accepts or he doesn't. I would suspect that if he wants to move on or the MFC has little desire to keep him for the $'s he is asking or the MFC think they can get a better player for him in a trade then the MFC would get a couple of other clubs interested so you can get some "competitive tension" and therefore get the best deal for our club. We are not "screwed" at all. We are just dealing with the same reality that every club in the league faces.

I'll do a bit of big noting. I was in Spain last year. We went the "water gardens of Dorne" which is the Alcazar in Seville which was magnificent but even more interesting was our trek to Girona an hour and a bit outside Barcelona. A lot of the filming for GOT is done there and they were filming at the time we were there. A lot of the town was cyclone fenced with black fabric so you couldn't see through. The local residents were paid twice the value of any inconvenience to film - so if a TV aerial had to come down - they would pay for aerial going down and going up again and then the same amount again for the approximate cost of doing so. They were also paid 200 euro a day to keep their windows shut. We had a lunch at a local cafe and enquired how much extra money the filming had brought in and he said not a cent. The actors were not allowed off the enclosed area for as much as coffee as they didnt want people to know in the upcoming season who was alive and who wasn't. I asked our guide if Jon Snow was alive or dead - she said dead so I am guessing she didn't know.

The "again" was superfluous therefore making the question rhetorical. In the famous words of Descartes on eating his breakfast - "I waffle therefore I am"

Big rumours going around is that Sansa is preggers by Ramsey...ewww If I was Jon I would be more than a little unhappy with Sansa - if he had known that Little Finger was coming surely his plan may have been different ? Obviously Sansa knew as she was on her gee gee right next to Little Finger. Also Rickon - you are a d!ck - have you not heard of zig zagging ? Also Ramsey was looping arrows up in the air at him for a significant distance - surely you could turn around and look at him firing at you and see where the arrow is going. An arrow from the distance he was shooting , looping, you could take evasive action by watching the single arrow coming at you.( couldn't you ?)

Apocalyptica are playing in Melbourne in September - I will be away unfortunately. They are 3 cello players and a drummer doing metal. I have seen them before and they absolutely go off live - their live videos don't do them justice

Saw them at the last Soundwave ( or second last ) - lord or lord - they sent women's issues back to the stone age. But as you say - no surprises so if you are going to be offended don't go. A question though Rjay - did you show them your boobies ?

OMG....I cannot stop thinking about anything now except all the questions you have asked. OMG

Come now...you must have read my posts - why answer something in one word when i can use 201 words.... Watts has reached my minimum output level ( we know my expectation counts for nothing but you asked). If he maintains this we have a good footballer. If he delivers minimum output as per now - he stays in the team and the list with the proviso that another club doesn't offer us a deal way above his worth .I believe him to be able to deliver way more - not because of improved skill - but because of him lifting his intent even further. (that's as concise as i can get)

This is where I sometimes scratch my head on statistics - I like Bugg's hardness and what he brings to the team but my eyes tell me that his efficiency is just ok.

A player being better or worse than I thought should dictate whether a player is in the team and ultimately on the list. And that is where it is so subjective. If I take it as gospel that we tried to offload Watts last year then I can assume that the footy department didn't think he was delivering what he could deliver - he was dropped from the team and put on the trade table. To me each player will be measured differently. To me Gartlett is the far superior small forward to Kent and to my mind they have had similar seasons but I feel Gartlett was axed because he was not working hard enough. I think the expectation of Gartlett is higher than Kent. To me Nev Jetta is a 7/10 player. As long as Jetta performs like a 7/10 player or thereabouts he will stay in the team until a 8/10 player comes along who can take his spot. (I know everyone loves Nev on this site as do I - the reason is you get exactly the same from him week in and week out - the difference between his best and worst is marginal - but he certainly has his weaknesses - he gets burned for speed and doesn't offer enough offense) Ro Bail got lots of games in his first year of Roos because he played to the best of his ability and there was no one better to take his spot. That changed. Dawes is a limited player but in most games plays to his ability and plays his role. He will stay in the team because of this until the likes of more talented footballers like the Weed are ready to take his spot. As a supporter i have completely different expectations of Dawes and Hogan. So Watts has been in and out of the team and on the trade table last year because he was not playing to expectation. This year he has delivered good football consistently and is rightly being applauded. (if i was backwards looking i would ask why it took so long - but that is pointless). But he hasn't lifted his skills this years - they are pretty much the same as they have been since his 2nd or 3rd year. He has lifted his intent. So he has reached a level this year that will earn him a new contract and that is based on his intent. However I think he still has periods where his intent drops off and we still some of the old Jack - I think he can take his game to a new level by maintaining and lifting his intent. Note - one does need shift their expectation based on reality. The Ox's knees reco's meant I expected less of him later in his career. Ox's intent never dropped off - just his ability to do what he did prior to the injuries. Judd's game changed in the last years at Carlton - he was not the same explosive footballer he was earlier as he pace dropped off - but his intent never dropped off. It's all about intent

As to the point of development standards and the players around him - I have always maintained that it is easier to be "complete" at Hawthorn than Melbourne as they absolutely developed players ( which has been completely absent at the MFC up until the Roos era) and it easier to develop with stars around you ( Gunston had 2-3 years as the third string forward behind Roughy and Franklin - yet we rely on a 20 year Hogan to be our number one forward - it speaks volumes for his ability). But you can play the hand you are dealt - and we have had some footballer that have flourished despite our club being a cesspool. I may not have expressed clearly enough because minimum standards is about both physical talent and mental capabilities. But physical talents are much more of a known and what you see early on, in the main doesn't change too much over the career ( after a few preseasons a bigger tank does help to get to more contests and run harder for longer - Oliver will be better in a couple of years) - mental capabilities is a different matter - it affects how hard you go to the contest, your desire to get the contest. To me Nathan Jones will never be elite - I believe his skill set/physical talent is good but he is not exceptional. I believe his mental skills are exceptional ( he has been tagged out of the game occasionally) . So you know that Jones is going to try and deliver 100% every time he runs onto the ground. You cant ask for much more. Watts skills to my mind are exceptional - but he has in previous seasons had mental capability issues - he has picked and chosen which contests to go to - he has not gone hard enough when it is his turn. This have vastly improved this season to a point that he is now playing very good football. If his willingness to get involved dropped off he would be back to how he was in previous seasons - a tease. Therefore this is the minimum i expect of him and if he lifts his intensity even further then because his skills are sublime his output would increase further ( As opposed to Jones - i don't think he can raise his intensity much more and his skills are what his skills are). A player like Watts has a much higher ceiling than Jones. Trapper - what a good question. Time has erased my inconsistent memories of him but he is probably a good comparison to Watts. Over the journey though Travis did win a B&F in 2005, in 2002 was 4th in the brownlow and was pretty good in 2006. So I remember him as doing much more in his career than Watts has to date. Trapper tore opponents apart in many games which Watts hasn't done yet. As to trading out earlier - I can be critical but I am the worst bleeding heart of all time and I would have half the players delisted still on our list as I always believe "they will come good" ! (except Col Sylvia - I realised after his fifth season of "if only he had a full preseason" that no amount of full preseasons was going to get his head right.)