nutbean

Well.. i saw something that i didn't think i would ever see. Saw the Brewster Brothers on Saturday night and it was about 2/3's music and the other third a "narrator" asking them questions. They covered their beginnings all the way through to present. Rick Brewster spent his whole Angels carreer wearing the dark glasses and standing like a statue playing guitar - zero facial expressions. John Brewster talked about their beginnings and they started life in a jug band ! With that the two brothers jumped off the stage with John playing guitar and Rick playing the washboard and (and harmonising vocals) jumping around banging on his washboard totally out of control. As they finished a couple of songs. Rick just announced to the crowd " bet you never thought you'd see Rick Brewster doing that !" - he was dead right.

I must be missing something... I actually don't understand the argument on Hall, Lynch,Hunter, Dawes and Cloke. If anything they actually prove you point ( excepting Dawes and Hunter). Hall in his premiership year (2005) took a massive 206 marks and kicked 80 goals ! He was AA, and AFLCA player of the year (2nd in their B&F) Lynch in his premiership year (2006) took 143 marks and kicked 65 goals ( 7th in their B&F) Cloke took a whopping 171 marks in his premiership year of 2010 and kicked 38 goals but also kicked 40 behinds Hunter still kicked 29 goals in their premiership year but was a swingman at both ends of the ground Dawes was second fiddle to Cloke and he still kicked 30 goals for the year. Big power forwards like Hall, Lynch, Jono Brown, Franklin, Roughead and Hawkins have been instrumental in getting their teams premierships.

I did the school boy giggle every time i heard the head of WADA's name mentioned - Dick Pound

My mate calls me two-diks as he is adamant that I couldn't be that stupid with just one.

Same them last time around - they were great - played for almost 3 hours - ( Robert Smith has never worn shorts nor has ever felt sand between his toes). I am going to an interesting gig on Saturday night - The Brewster Brothers ( Angels ) are doing a introspective, talking about their journey and in particular the journey of the Angels , interspersed with film clips and some documentary stuff and a little bit of live acoustic music from them. Should be great.

Interesting article in the Herald Sun this morning - Scott Cummings and Glenn Jakovich stating that the constant travel took a year or two off their careers. Jakovivch talked about a couple of players who started at the same time as him getting two extra years through not travelling as much as they were Melbourne based. Both said that the travel burden was less than ideal on their bodies and the article referenced Jesse's back stress fractures. Scott Cummings suggested that if Jesse was to move he would need to have a "business class" travel clause in his contract.

All the conjecture had a huge impact on Dangerfield last year.......

okay - I can't help myself. We can have varying opinions on him staying or going. - but to dismiss Hogan with he can just be "replaced and won't win us a flag" - seriously.......

Further to this - I think I will no longer open this thread as reading at least 8 months of self flagellation is bound to bad for ones health...

The one thing I learned from the Scully debacle is I have plenty of time to get anxious/depressed/distraught if the worse case eventuates and he leaves. As I know nothing and as know one else knows little more, until there is something concrete I will assume he is staying and enjoy the ride.

just a point of order - don't all players fly around the country to play football anyway - it doesn't interfere with preparation - clubs take flying it into account when mapping out their preparations. ( and yes - it may mean that his preparation is slightly different to other players but these days players have different weekly preparations anyway and there is no longer a one size fits all)

We actually have bemoaned in the past not having a plan B but I have noticed that both Watts and Hogan spend time up the field and although Gawn has pushed forward this year he did so more than i have seen before on Saturday. That makes us unpredictable. When it does get crowded up forward and Jesse can struggle in a very closed forward line they have moved him up the ground to very good affect. I would much prefer him kicking lots of goals but against Richmond and Collingwood where he didnt really impact the scoreboard greatly he took 10 and 9 marks and thats because he went further up the ground. ( even spending the last parts of quarters as a defender) Good coaching for mine ...

I actually like him when rotates between FF and CHF as he does work very hard at CHF and moves around well - he is currently 9th in the league for marks and i would suggest that many of those have been taken further up the field.

You bxstxrd...my Dad loved that Red Datsun and to me it will always be a Ferrari

I'm a fan - I recall the Roos information vividly - you shared something that seemed most unlikely at time. I would prefer you say more but that's just me.

ok...but what position do you see the steak knives playing going forward ?

Before we get the numbnuts suggesting that we offer Terlich, Grimes and a set of steak knives for Prestia - has there been any suggestion of who would be offered up or do you have any opinion ?

You can make an early call - I prefer to keep my powder dry - today and now he is not a superstar and he is not a generational player. However at the end of the day I firmly suspect that in a couple of years I am going to be saying exactly the same thing as you are saying now. So for this reason alone, heaven and earth must be moved to keep him.

Many have commented that besides the StKilda game Hogan has had a slow start to the season. Besides the StKilda where he tore them apart I think he has been solid - he has taken the most marks for our club and he draws two defenders when he is deep every week. Whilst it is too early to go with a superstar tag or a once in a generation footballer for Hogan, early evidence is that we have something very very special and I am thoroughly uncomfortable with the thought that our number one forward for possibly the next 10 years may end up somewhere else.

Even looking over the list with this in mind - I still call meaningless list - we have Josh Hill of Eagles and Bulldogs famed rated better than Pavlich over the last 5 years ?

ahhh ! makes sense but I have just looked at the rankings for the first time - they are meaningless nonsense - James Kelly has been brilliant for all his career - he has tapered for his last year at Geelong and is now playing for $'s at Essendon. He is rated worse than Lynden Dunn. And Hogan topped our goalkicking and was high in contested marks in the league in his first season and has been ok this year yet is ranked worse than Pedersen. Whatever formula they are using for those rankings - it must have gaping holes in it. Sir..the defense rests....

I haven't looked at them but if they have Maric at 51 and Gawn at 167 and Pedersen at 266 and Hogan at 277 then they clearly are meaningless.

He may well come good but to pay big bucks for a name because you missed out on other big names is folly IMO. We do have a fair idea of the top paid players in the league - tell me that Boyd fits in with them. As another example of paying for potential - if Cripps of Carlton got into the top echelon of paid players - I would have no problem. you are paying for potential but he also has enough exposed form to warrant paying for that potential.

Whilst I will comment on the likeness of certain players and say that Franklin, Ablett and Dangerfield deserve to be paid as the marquee players in the AFL I don't get into debate of actual figures a player does get paid. I made the exception with Boyd because he is now in the top 10 best paid players in the league and it was based on pure potential. I am not saying that Boyd won't come good but to date he has shown little. As to Hogan, I won't comment on what he should be paid but surely you would agree that he has shown infinitely more than Boyd. We would be paying Hogan on his upside but we also have some insight as to what we believe he can deliver he has shown us that in some nice patches. Can you say the same about Boyd ?

$1m a season is a pretty expensive price tag for notional excitement and hope. franklin I get, danger and Ablett I get - that much for a player that could be ? Not for me thanks....