nutbean

Je pris peptides I think a more important question is where do these journo's get their basic journalistic skills from ?

guilty as charged

Spot on - and conjecture with complete absence of knowledge it is ....

get stuffed ( small smiley face)

Injuries is not an excuse - to me it is a valid fact. As mentioned earlier it does depend on who is injured. To not recognise that when it comes to star performers our list at this stage is thin is head in the sand stuff - we have a lot of potential but that should not be confused with depth. Many of players have not arrived yet. The top teams are much better placed to be able cover injuries than we are. You did mention that several team had a worse run with injuries than we did - interesting that only WC is considered a top team and were able to cope with injuries however the seasons of the lesser teams Lions, Suns and Pies was indeed badly affected by injury.

Mr Francis, I don't want to be too pedantic but you claim you have worked over 10,000 hours on this case. I have factored in that you have a life outside this issue sooo.... at 40 hours per week working on this equals 250 weeks. I have estimated that you work 48 weeks in the year. By my very dodgy math you started working on this issue one year before Essendon even started their supplement program. Well done sir...well done.

apologies ( unfortunately Crass is my middle name)

My McLean and Sylvia post to my mind highlights what you say - it was never about too skinny or afl ready bodies.. I remember the conversation around these two at the time - we need "grunt", more "afl ready" footballers - look how that turned out. I am not sure that all the players in the picture would have turned out good players. But seriously, the odds that none of them have reached dizzying heights is not all due to wrong picks. I am absolutely in the development camp and compounding the problem of putting young talent into our cesspool of club ( as it was then).

I dont think the issue is taking on the opponent - to me it is more an issue of taking too long to decide what to do or too long to dispose of the ball. He gets blindsided a bit by coming to halt when deciding what to do with the ball.

agreed - but it is still good to have these guys are playing well so keep making others ahead of them perform. For too long we have had discussions on a player out of form who should be dropped with the replies coming - who would you replace with him ? no-one else is kicking the door down to be selected.

Looking at Trengoves kicking, he doesn't seem to be uncomfortable on his right. I wonder if coaches considered having part of each training session with players only using their opposite foot and hand to dispose - it would be helpful for those predominantly one sided footballersto improve and be comfortable on their non preferred. Too late in a players development to worry about this ? A stupid idea ? (I do recall that Greg Williams was such a gun handballer as he was compensating for his very ordinary foot skills. From mid time at Sydney he spent long hours practicing kicking and by the end of his career he was a very reliable kick - albeit he was never a long kick)

I love that the likes of Terlich and Matt Jones are training out of their skins. These guys have to be to get a game and it means that guys who we consider above them in the pecking order also have to lift their game because of the competition for their spots. I have always believed that when looking at what makes one team better than another - don't look at the first five players picked - look at the last five picked and how they are playing.

are we going to go down that path.. let's do it.. rector ? damn near killed her!!!

I heard Sheehan on the radio yesterday and he was asked if he found it odd that someone of his experience had not been asked to be on the AFL commission. He said not really but did find a little odd that the MFC have not called on him since his exit from the HS in any capacity. He went onto say that there were three of four journo's ( one was Slattery - the other names escape me) who have years of experience and on retirement from their respective papers could have been well utilitsed by clubs but werent

I hope we get to the Hawthorn stage where we don't have put someone into the backline or as a tagger because of questionable disposal - all the hawks are good by foot. It needs to be one of the two key pillars for inclusion in the team - hunger for the contest and ability to make good decisions and good disposal of the ball ( ok - thats three pillars). ( they have one footballer at hawthorn with questionable disposal....used to hang around the MFC changerooms a bit)

I can answer that - he played 31 but as he made seven horcrux's , which meant splitting his soul 7 times - he effectively played 217 games. Life membership at the MFC !

Sylvia and McLean

Well at least when someone asks to explain the 18 year "hiatus" - the video gives a fairly easy to understand explanation

To me Pedo looks really good when he is in the play - he contests well, marks strongly, make good decisions and his foot and hand skills are good ( although he does miss the odd easy kick at goal). Whether he gets lazy, balls watches or is too slow to get to some contests, in the words of Jack Dyer - "he gets to where the ball ain't". Your training report provides hope that if he is in everything now he can continue this into the season proper.

From training reports he has been working on body positioning in marking contests with Weideman and Hulett. ( Dawes does get in good positions to mark - just doesn't complete the deal) I think they could also use him in teaching running patterns in the forward line.

Just finished reading the Herald Sun ( and I am now much the worse for having done so) and the two things I took from the articles are - his playing that game of cricket wasn't known by the Pies - contrary to lots on here, it is certainly not confirmed he broke his finger from the catch - he did a fairly large tumble and came up gingerly rubbing his shoulder

He only started playing on the wing and back line because after his initial early success up forward he was worked out and form dropped off. Would you agree with that assessment ? As I said Howe is not the best or the worst. I suppose why there is some angst as in my eyes when Howe burst onto the scene there was so much promise but he hasn't really delivered on that promise. I think his time in the backline has actually been better than his time forward. He was above average in intercept marking. I just don't think he impacts the game enough. During his time in defense he has not been tight enough to be a lock down defender and doesn't provide enough drive to be a running rebounder. He was recruited to Collingwood as forward with the notion that he can play a similar role to Gunston. The major reason why Gunston is so good is he works his backside off. The huge question mark is will Howe work his backside off ?

Agreed, but there is no pressing need for him to retire. I will suggest he will start rehab and in the meantime I am sure they will utilise him like they are already are. The end of the year decision will take care of itself.

To me he wasn't the best or the worst and for us to move up the ladder we need better. What I will say that in my decades of watching football I have seen footballers who took big marks regularly - Barker, the Birdman, Modra, Knights, our Robbo to mention but a few. I don't think, since I have been watching the game, there has been a footballer who takes big marks as frequently. He was very exciting to watch. However, compare him to a Modra - Modra took a lot of big marks but they were all close to goal so he could convert the mark into a goal. Howe did not take enough of these marks in areas where he could convert and he does not have enough of anything else to his game.

Balme on the radio said they knew about his cricket. (After the event ?)