Jaded No More

D The players most likely to get poached by other clubs in the coming years, thus we are trying to show them that we can offer them more than just money

I think you are being very harsh and dismissive of Moloney's form over the past two seasons, but each to their own. I know better than to argue with someone who never veers from their own views.

Relations with the Missus at CHB is the danger player to watch. He just loves to surprise you from behind, but push his buttons enough and he'll be out of the game by quarter time.

Sorry. Just really felt the need to contribute to this thread.

True, but he was also our best against Brisbane (say what you like about them, Black and Power are still better than anything we currently have to show), and Hawthorn, and his performance in the third dragged us to a draw against Sydney. He has been consistently good at his job since round 1. I think he deserves a lot of credit for the way he has improved since first coming to the club. Right now, without him, we'd struggle to win an effective clearance.

Regardless of what has happened off field, Beamer has had a sensational year on field thus far. He is so important to us as well, being one of the only big bodies we have left in the middle of the ground. Good to see him respond and not drop his head, that's true leadership right there.

Exactly the points I made last night. Bennell is very much a burst player anyway. He is the perfect sub prototype in that you can throw him down back, in the middle or up forward and watch him burn the track. Having just watched the replay of the last quarter (gotta love being on holidays!), Watts did a few very good things and he just has to keep playing. Dunn on the other hand was pretty poor. Made some poor kicking decisions and didn't go hard enough when required. I'd bring in Petterd for some fresh legs and I think he too would relish the wide spaces.

GC beat the Dogs in clearances last week 35-26. They are actually a good clearance team, which of course doesn't mean we shouldn't be improving our own clearance rate. But given our true inside mids, except for Moloney, are either injured or raw, the improvement is definitely going to come in that area at some stage.

Because unlike your post that actually discusses things nicely with some reasonable explanations, the Freakster as you so aptly call him, just bleats on about crap and beats his chest. It's like watching a gorilla throw his own poo. It's amusing for like 3 minutes then it's kind of disgusting. Also his assertion that Scully is going to be a GWS great makes me want to virtually punch him in the face.

Why not let them spend a day reading Demonland. That'll perk them right up.

You realise that we are the second youngest team in the competition behind GC right? Besides, Carlton played them first up and it was always going to be a different ball game with so many nervous kids in their first hitout. The Dogs only beat them by 70 despite playing them at home, and being possibly a top 4 side. We were just going for 3 quarters, had a great last quarter and won by 90. I get that it was a bit of a boring result and not much to get excited about, but to complain about a 90 point win is simply greedy given where we've been the last 3 years.

I've noticed a trend with established players who have left to the CGS. These players fall into one of 3 categories: 1- Reaching the end of the career and wanting to financially capitalise on their remaining years in the game and prolong their career (Bock, Fraser) 2- Unhappy at current club, feeling on the outer or generally looking for a change of scenery (Brown who was filthy at Hawthorn for trying to trade him, Brennan etc) 3- Achieved everything there is to achieve in football and have lost a bit of passion and interest so decided to fatten up their bank balance (Ablett spent the week attending parties with his GF instead of getting himself right for the weekend. Tell me that isn't someone who has lost a bit of interest?) To me Scully does not fit into any of the above 3 categories. At the end of the day individuals go into a career in football to achieve team success. Money and lifestyle perks definitely help, but nobody wants to get smashed every week and potentially miss out on a premiership for the sake of more money. At least not the motivated ones like Scully. My biggest joy yesterday came from reading Trengove say what a great club Melbourne is. I simply can't see a reason beyond pure greed why Scully would leave.

Forgot to mention Bennell, McKenzie and Jurrah in that 08 crop did you? Drafting is imperfect and will continue to be so for as long as you're dealing with humans. Some come on better than expected, some don't. Some get injured, some don't. Some lose the plot and some rise to the challenge. No club ever has got it right 100% of the time. I think the bleating that goes on here is ridiculously premature and does not take into account the individual physical and mental development of the players in question, nor the fact that they have all played in terrible teams with no senior leadership. Watts would have already shown more if he played for Geelong or Collingwood. Why? because he'd have more support up forward and better supply through the middle and a hell of a lot less pressure to carry the side to a flag. Also, unless you can prove to us without any doubt that Scully is going to GWS please keep your negative opinions to yourself. If your track record is anything to go by, he's about to sign a 10 year deal with us.

Yep and good teams get the job done. We've been ordinary and are sitting 7th, and are out of the top 5 by percentage. We played two good teams and two terrible teams and have only lost 1 game. Give me those sorts of results every month of the season and I'll be happy. Better to be stuck in third and win, than be in first and still lose.

One of the same. Paterson Stadium is Subiaco, just named after a new sponsor.

Agreed. Subiaco is a big ground, so we need as many good runners. Petterd gives us better flexibility up forward with his run and I'd have Bennell as sub, given he is naturally a burst player. His fresh legs on a big ground could be really important to us in this match. Dunn has been just average, and he needs to do more than that to keep his spot. Watts has to stay and develop, and he cannot be a goddamn sub. That decision still baffles me.

From someone who does this for a living, the uniforms look brilliant from top to bottom, striped socks included. We look sharp and polished. Now if we could only play that way!

I give up. This board is draining my life. Enjoy busking in negativity and MFCSS.

Except harder, smarter, a better defender, a better reader of the play and a better leader. But apart from that, he is exactly like Bruce

Good Times Grimes. What a bloody lazy selfish show off B)

So you want him to get smashed and break something, is that it? He runs to the right spots and he takes contested marks. He'll get down on his knees in contests and feed the ball out. What else do you want? I've never encountered this phenomenon before of supporters being obsessed with watching a young player prove he is any good in the way of getting hurt or negligently throwing themselves at a contest. It's absurd and it shows how silly supporters can be, because they look at Hurley and go "ohhhh hard player, smashes bodies" and therefore if Watts doesn't play this style of game he is useless and a drafting mistake.

Dunn is definitely the one that annoys me the most, although he has gotten better in this area. He used to duck, now he just shuts his eyes. I suppose the fact that physically he is very strong helps him in the contest, but he definitely has a tendency to hear footsteps. On the other hand I don't think Bennell is soft, I just think he is such an outside player that he has no idea how to play the packs. He does well quite often in contested marking situations, so he isn't completely adverse to body contact. And while I don't necessarily disagree about the game plan not being suitable for finals, it's encouraging to know that we are up there for contested marks this season. That helps when precision kicking goes out the window under the pressure of finals. We have some very good overhead markers in our side, especially our 'smaller' players like Trengove, Sylvia, Bennell, Grimes and Tapscott.

He took some good contested marks today and put himself in many contests. One of his clearances on the forward 50 arc was exceptional with 4 guys on him. Did you watch the game or are you just another one of those supporters who will continue to put sh*t on him until he kicks 6 goals?

The thing with Sylvia is that he is icing on the cake, he isn't batter. So when we're good and he's good, he's bloody sensational. He can rival Ablett with some of his work in close. It's just that he doesn't do it well enough for long enough on a consistent enough level. If he did, he'd be right up there on Brownlow night, because he certainly catches your eye when he's on.

Pathetic analysis. FFS he played one quarter and apart from one disappointing kick, he did some very nice things. Took a couple of good contested marks, tapped the ball to advantage for a goal, laid some tackles. What the hell did you expect from a tall forward being used as a sub? It was a bloody idiotic decision. If Bailey didn't want him in the team he should have dropped him. To have to sub Jurrah to get Watts on was mind boggling, and no doubt Watts will now have to play for Casey next weekend to make up some match fitness.