Striker475

Just looked it up on TAB Sportsbet, Suns are $5.50 to win by less than 39.

He's not signed til he's signed. Although I think the arguments for him staying are right up there after his pre-season press conference personally. I'm fine with waiting til the end of the season and hope that neither Carro or Hutchie get their grimy paws on any tidbit of info to blow the issue up.

I like the bugler - once. Doesn't need to be more than that. I think the flag idea is a bad one though. Especially after Friday night - had no idea what was going on initially (sitting on the other side of the ground) and then once we realised it felt like a knock-off of Collingwood unfortunately. The flags and such on the Olympic Stand are good too.

Charged in a Spanish court. Don't know why... Here's the image from the paper.

I'll second that. I'm guessing Sylvia's ankle is okay? Haven't heard any mention of it, he did run the game out on it but more curiousity. And hopefully Dunn getting smacked in the face caused him to shave that terrible 'stache of his.

He's head of the Aboriginal development program too. There's more to his role than just on-field, so there's no way he'll be leaving.

Haha. Yeah, he was good in '09. But last year strikes out for the reason that we actually started to win a few games. I was much more ambivalent about it before then - in fact, Aaron Davey was who I watched the Dees for during the draft-pick days, as no matter how bad we were you could always count on him to do something magical. But last year he seemed to go missing more and more, even when we were winning and playing well despite losing (the Bulldogs game being the standout example in my mind, watching him do nothing at all and come off the ground looking frustrated as hell every time he was interchanged).

I opened it, because I wanted to see what the hell you actually posted.

Name me one game he's blown apart since the start of 2010. Because I honestly can't.

The more I think about it the more I like the idea of chucking him back in the forward line. He's absolutely zero impact right now, even against a side like Brisbane. Don't know if Fold Coast have a tagger worth a damn though, so it'll be interesting this week.

We keep seeing it. The best tagger of the opposing side goes straight to Aaron. Sometimes it's a legitimate tag, others (see: last Sunday) it's those suspect rather heavy tags. The issue is, Davey can't break a tag. I haven't seen him tear a game open like he used to for probably 2 seasons. Cannot remember the last time. What the hell do we do about it? In 2 or 3 years where you have Scully, Trengove and Gysberts running around he may not attract the tough tag and have a better shot, but in 3 years he's 30. He seems to have lost a metre or two of pace and is totally ineffective right now. While I did see calls for those around him to bump the tagger and give him some protection, in the end it is Davey who has to stand up. Honestly, I think Bailey should look at dropping him once we have Scull and Jordie fit again. Yes, I know, it's a big step, but right now he's useless. Either that or play him up forward again for a while crumbing under Jurrah/Martin rather than as a midfielder in and around the contest.

I feel terrible for saying this, but if Gold Coast odds hit the $8 mark I'm going to put a tenner on it. Yes, I know it's betting against your club. But the way we played those odds are too good to refuse.

McLean is useless. Also, I remember on debut last year that people compared Gysberts to James Hird. Watching him yesterday (first I've seen him play) makes me like the thought - always in and around the contest, always looking to move forward, always dangerous and smooth. Doesn't seem as hard into a contested ball a la Judd or Sylvia, but seems to always come up with it.

Who's the fifth? Watts, Viney, Trengove, Grimes...

Jared Rivers won the award and was promptly rubbish for 3 seasons. Ain't an indicator. And honestly, sending him back to the VFL would be poor for two reasons. First - who would you seriously replace him with? Maric and Jetta have been proven to be rubbish, he's better around the ground right now than Petterd and I wouldn't let Newton anywhere near the side still. When we have one of Scully or Jordie fit, it's a different situation, but right now I am quite happy simply letting him play.

I saw this. Honestly the more I think about this game the more it worries me. While I KNOW that we have at LEAST an extra year in many cases on all the GC kids, at the same time I have to wonder. The GC and Melbourne do have the seniors-showing-the-way and the huge number of kids in common. I'm thankful though that in many respects the Melbourne players have at least a year on a lot of the kids. That raw talent is there, but the bulk is not for them. Neither is the team cohesion...yet. But with the form the Dees are in we're still at risk. Yes, we won. But it wasn't a great win in any aspect. We should win, but it'll be a very interesting game. The second round later in the season is more likely to be the risk though.

I agree. Was sitting in the Southern Stand yesterday, there was one contest early on where he just kept going at it and going at it until we had the ball. Unfortunately we stuffed it up kicking for goal, but I had nothing but praise for his effort there. He has got the commitment in and around the contest, and is definitely still a work in progress. There are sure signs though, and the best one still is that contested mark that he took against Hawthorn where he was the only one up against 3 Hawks. I'm keeping the faith.

Good Liam Jurrah - looking more and more like a case of form is temporary, class is permanent Moloney Jamar in the ruck Jones Rivers Gysberts Watts when he was involved Intensity - showing some ticker and getting involved Bad Watts not getting involved Kicking into forward 50 Jamar kicking at goal Green Morton Hardness at the tackle Ugly The goddamn UMPIRING, I was furious by the end of the first quarter The players starting to kick it about in the backline at the 10min mark of the 4th quarter - always seem to do this even though it's only a 2-3 goal margin Lynden Dunn - useless.

They put him on a 5-year contract to the club late last year, with the playing part of said contract from 2013-2015. That's a signal of intent from the club if ever I've seen one. It'd be nice to see the club try to take the Tom Liberatore-Mitch Wallis approach to Jack, where those two have been actively training with the Bulldogs for the last two years and thus at this point have basically been ready to go and challenge for a slot in the side from the word go.

Watts is getting there. I maintain the 3 years of football outlook for a key-position player. See Jack Riewoldt. And honestly, we can't count the 2009 season for Watts - he was at school, not training properly at all. Hell, he's only two months older than Tom Scully. Thus, good signs this year - such as the pack-mark he took on Sunday - are what we want. 2012 he should start to really hit his straps though otherwise I WILL be worried. Couple that worry me though: - Warnock (do not rate him) - Bartram - Davey is beginning to worry me. That said, I don't know about cutting players based on that just yet. Honestly, I think Davey is one of those players that will perform far better as the kids get better. Right now, he's attracting the heaviest of the tagging, but when you have Gysberts/Scully/Trengove/Sylvia becoming your dangermen rather than him he'll be able to get his creativity and silk on. However, at 27 I just don't know whether he will still be playing by the 2014 time frame - he'll be 31 in 2014 and in the twilight of his career at best.

Did they? Well even better. Although I thought they were still vulnerable next year to GWS anyway.

Assuming he got a 2-year contract. Unlikely for him to leave though - he and Jack Trengove are actually best mates from school, living together, families know each other, all that. With Trengove staying, he's far more likely to stay.

Underdeveloped, young players. When you hit 22 or so your metabolism slows thus it makes it easier for you to bulk up - Scull, JT, Watts, Jordie, Bennell, Gysberts, even The Tap are all below that margin (although there's a reason the nickname for Tapscott is Bull!). The guys are just too young to get that sort of size. Hell, I reckon even Lynden Dunn could do with a bit of bulk on him.

I like just calling him The Tap or The Tap Himself.

Forgive me. I have settled down a bit anger-wise...now it's more of the frustration. From where I was sitting it was only PARTLY the Hawthorn pressure. There were a few other keys. 1) The senior guys not standing up. Moloney was the worst of this bunch, but it was Davey, Green (to an extent), Jamar, Jones. These are the guys who are meant to be showing these superstars in the making the way. There was a great article in one of the papers today on Cam Bruce, and how it made the point of whether we would have continued to force Junior's retirement had we known Bruce wouldn't have signed. The performance from that top end today makes me wonder, as Junior really could fire the team if needed. 2) A lack of...fire? Something. The big one was the lack of leading to the kick-outs in the second term. Admittedly, I didn't see the Sydney game, but that was telling for me. Part of it simply struck me of laziness though, not just there but around the ground. There was one situation where there were Melbourne players scattered around the defensive 50 in the third quarter...and NONE OF THEM WERE LEADING. Tapscott ended up hoofing it to Garland, who almost seemed surprised to get the ball. 3) A reliance on small players playing tall. While I know we all love Jurrah taking a huge mark, what was more telling were the four (that I can think of) that he missed, especially the one where he went over the top of Roughead and Roughead took it clean. Jurrah and Petterd are expected to play taller than they are. While I know we don't have the assets to play much else down forward, it means you get the bigger defenders smacking you. 4) In some respects, a lack of simple game awareness and/or courage. One that strikes out was someone (not sure who) kicking the ball to a two-on-one in Melbourne's forward 50, the one being Bennell. Yet the player actually had space ahead of him to run into, possibly enough to take the shot himself. While I know we want to encourage players playing to the team and those sort of situations, you also want players to be able to recognise where they can actually rely on themselves and play their way to score. I'm sure I'll think of more.