Jaded No More

When have I ever disagreed with that? Robbo needs to do more, just as he needs to be acknowledged for his current efforts and the fact that his game on Saturday was a big reason we won, just as it has been for many years. No, I'm judging him over his career. You say you judge him over a 3 year period, in which he came second in our B&F off half a season, and was consistently dominant. He is unfit, and that has been made public by CC numerous times. He spent parts of pre-season recovering from surgery, and did no speed training. Of course when he runs out there he is 100% accountable, and he has never ever not put in the effort. That is what being accountable means. It doesn't mean you do what is physically impossible. If he physically cannot run or is struggling to kick because of his ankle, well there is little he can do to fix that right now (unless we choose to rest him). But he'll still run all day long and he'll still be on the bottom of every pack and he'll still get you 7 clearances. But you refuse to mention that, you just look at him and say he's too slow and can't kick. Well he definitely could kick yesterday, when he wasn't the lone hand in the middle, and had time and support around him, which is what he'll hopefully have in the future. He can't do it alone, but what a difference a winning ruckman and a good physical display from the rest of the team makes. It gave Brock a lot more space to work with, and some of his kicks were at their brilliant best. But when he is doing it on his own, with little space to work with and we don't apply the pressure on the opposition, Brock has much less time to dispose of the ball and cannot rely on his pace to burn off an opponent, particularly given his lack of pre-season. As I've said time and time again, get him some support and he'll show you his worth, just as he did yesterday, and in 2008 and when he won us a final in 2006. Last week he was terrible, no doubt, and the vultures were out in force. It's good to know that our FD is less short-sighted and judges players on more than a few poor showings. I wonder what you'll say when he once again gets a top 5 finish in the B&F.

Can he take all of his shots on the run from 65m out? I'll never understand how he nails those, but misses from 20m out on a slight angle, given he is generally a very good kick. Although it's not as weird as Stefan Martin nailing snaps across his body from the boundary, but not being able to kick from right in front. By the way, I'm thinking Jamar might be our man. His snap was inspirational!

Port can still make the 8, we can still get Scully. I know which team I'm backing to win. Hopefully Sylvia and Davey get suspended (never thought I'd say that!), Watts is back in the side for some much needed experience, and we go down by 2-3 goals. Just as long as we keep up the tackling and intensity, because that was brilliant to watch.

Absolutely correct. He is a bit of an enigma. He does a lot of stupid things that come across as selfish, but he has been a brilliant player over the years and has pulled our sorry arses over the line more times than I can remember. In terrible years, with no support, he was our leading goal kicker, and in good years, he stood up (particularly in finals) to deliver some devastating blows to the opposition. For a small guy, with average pace, he has an amazing leap and is one of the best overhead marks going around. He is also one of the very very few players in the team that you can count on to do something special and lift when required. Yes it is infuriating when he goes to ground, pretends he has been shot and refuses to chase, but FMD go find another player on our list who right now can contribute 4 goals while taking away the opposition's best defender (who is generally much bigger than him). He also regularly enjoys ripping Scarlett a new one, which is a joy to watch

I watched the replay last night, and in many of those contests it was Lynch doing the rucking and Warnock was trying to stop his opponent (in this case Naitanui), from being the third man up. This sort of thing happens thousands of times over any given weekend, both in centre bounces and ball ups. He wasn't scragging him behind play, pulling his arm down or pushing him out. Most times, he rested his forearm against his side, just to let him know "I'm here, so don't try anything". There was little wrong with it, and it has nothing to do with Naitanui, who let's face it, even when not impended, barely managed to contest the ruck even at centre bounces. Malcolm Blight, while talking [censored] for most of the game, was correct when he said that Naitanui was used to being the biggest and tallest guy on the ground, but that he is now playing AFL and it's time to start jumping and getting physical. He will no doubt learn to do that with time.

Rubbish. I said that he needs to do more than he currently does, and I was happy for him to be dropped for a lack of second efforts. To not acknowledge that he is improving in that area, just goes to show that when you pick a player you don't like, you just run with the same wave of thoughts regardless of whether the position changes. Go watch the replay, and we can discuss how many times Robbo did the right thing with the 2nd effort, and how many times he didn't. He cost us a goal by staying down too long, which was terrible and he has got to stop the acting up, but he also did plenty of chasing. Can we assume that Brock hasn't all of a sudden become too slow and too poor a kick/decision maker to be a good player? There are plenty of evidence to support my argument that Brock is unfit and hasn't done a pre-season. He had a shocking game last week, which I acknowledged and would have been fine if a decision to drop him was made, but thankfully we didn't. By the way, did you know that he copped a corked thigh during the game, yet still fought it out to be one of our best? Brock has shown more often than not that he is a great player, who leaves nothing on that field. Your continual bashing of him is just so ridiculous and based on your poor long-term memory. Stop judging players on one game, or one single effort. By doing that, you are pretty much in the same boat as people who write off first year players after 3 games!

McDonald is the 5th spot. Captains always go.

You reckon it's because it was Naitanui, or because Warnock's job is to keep his man (who at the time was Naitanui) out of the contest? Either way, it was good play and Naitanui should get used to it. He is stronger than Warnock anyways, or at least equal in strength. Could have fought harder to push him off, and didn't. Welcome to the big league. Watts will receive the same treatment, and needs to learn to cope as well.

And he says I play favourites... At least I acknowledge Robbo's downfalls, all you do Rhino is find every negative under the sun and go on attacking those you don't like. Will you at least acknowledge Robbo's brave dive on the ball, just as I've said that he needs to get better with his second efforts and stop the acting up? Good to see you give some support to Brock this week though... back on the bandwagon are we?

Well he is a dud and a waste of a first pick. Though at least he can bounce a football

He was an older selection, thus we picked him up in the PSD. He was a basketballer who converted to footy very late. Before playing his first AFL game, he played something like 10 games in the VFL (then Sandy) as a defender. So while he isn't technically young, he is extremely inexperienced. In fact, he would be as experienced as someone like Jack Watts, given he made a later conversation to footy than Watts, who played both footy and basketball growing up. Martin really is a remarkable player and his ability to learn and adapt so quickly is amazing. Hopefully that ability will transfer to his kicking. (I was very pleased to see him convert his second attempt at goal!)

Ummm JACK WATTS!

Dan I'm not gonna keep going around in circles. I've given you all the evidence I have to support my argument. All you've done is tell me that PJ gets a lot of hitouts sometimes but is not a big physical ruck presence. Wow, I'm impressed. That you are pretty much writing Jamar's influence on Saturday off, by telling me that West Coast's midfield was poor and Brock had a great game, just goes to show that you really are not prepared to accept any argument against PJ. For what it's worth, I'm sure most people would agree that Jamar has been much better this year than PJ. And the fact remains that PJ is not good enough to be first ruck, and is not effective enough as a KPP to be a secondary ruckman. If Martin can learn to pinch-hit in the ruck, and there is no reason why he couldn't, than he is exactly the sort of secondary ruckman that you want in your team, because he can play another position effectively. PJ cannot.

[censored] news about Maric and Strauss, but at least this way they'll be right for a big pre-season, along with Blease and Garland!

<_< Jack Grimes prefers women

On my DVD recorder Foxtel will have a replay of the game sometime during the week, if you've got it.

Have you seen Naitanui? He is 100 kgs already, and just about the tallest player on the ground every week. He would eat Watts for breakfast.

Anyone who judges ruckman on their around-the-ground stat count first, doesn't understand the primary and crucial role of a ruckman. Jamar's 7 disposals and countless of hitouts to advantage, were instrumental yesterday. We scored 7.4 directly from hitouts, so in my book, Jamar had a hand in setting up 12 scoring shots. That is the true value of a ruckman, not running around picking up 20 possessions in the back pocket, most of which are poorly disposed of. Jamar averages twice as many hitouts as PJ per game this year. Averages nearly twice as many tackles per game, and only 4 less disposals per game. And that's off 3 games versus 13. PJ has a LOT of ground to make up before he is anywhere near as effective or influential as Jamar has been this year. Learning to ruck effectively and using his physicality might also help. There is no way he could have done to Naitanui what Jamar did, and with ruckmen getting bigger and taller, that is a very important aspect of the game.

Robbo can play up a bit, and it does get annoying, but he stands up when the game is on the line and has won us plenty off his own boot in the past. We don't have anyone right now capable of replacing his four goal contribution, therefore he stays. Gotta take the good with the bad. By the way Graz, Robbo's second efforts have been much better since he was dropped. One example yesterday was where he dived on a loose ball in the forward pocket, literally sliding across the ground to get under the opponent's feet. It was a great defensive effort, and one that he needs to keep repeating every week.

I'd say Grimes would have loved it as well. 9 games, 8 loses, and to sing the song of the club he grew up barracking for would have been fantastic for him. Probably a moment he dreamt of as a kid, and to know that he had a huge hand in helping us win just makes it so much better. If you look at the vision of them singing the song, you can see Watts in the outer circle singing too!

I hope that's all it is, I really do. You'll forgive me if I'm slightly paranoid about losing young talent to other clubs...

And that is precisely why, a few errors here and there, are nothing to worry about (I agree that concentration and mostly fatigue is the issue, because he has good technique off both feet). Because in his 9th game, that boy stood up in the final quarter, when West Coast was making a run for it, and said "no f'ing way". He was as much of a leader out there as anyone else and he helped to carry us over the line. That is not something you see everyday from someone with such little experience. Can't wait to see what he can do without injury set-backs, with more experience and physical development and when playing on the ball. That is a very good thought!

He is generally standing free in the corridor. Today, there was one instance where he stood on the 50m line dead in the centre of the ground, waving his hands in the air like a nutcase, and nobody kicked to him. Maybe it's because, when he turns sideways, he disappears (edit: didn't see your post condemned... damn it!) In all seriousness, sitting near the bench you see plenty of player interaction, and to be honest I don't see Morton being part of any sort of clique or group (and there are some very obvious ones out there). I mean even today after the game, he was running behind the group as we ran into the rooms. This is just a very shallow observation, and I obviously have no idea what goes on behind closed doors, but from things that I've heard and seen, Morton is not the most popular guy going around. Hopefully this changes quickly, because if he is unhappy and wants to leave, maybe even to play with his brothers (who he lives with), I'll be mighty [censored] off. This kid has every weapon to be a star, and the guys around him need to realise it and embrace it.

His kicking today made me want to pull my hair out. I love love love Jared Rivers, and was pleased to see him return to his best marking days today, but he has got to find his kicking boots again, or just go by hand. Rivers and Warnock and Wheatley (wtf?) all had their encounters with Kennedy today. From memory Kennedy kicked two goals on Warnock, one on Rivers and one on Grimes?

I think the instruction went out to one man, Mark Jamar, and he played him perfectly. Physically dominated him from the first minute, which is exactly what someone like Jamar (huge, limited skills) should be doing every week. By the way, it will be a long time before Naitanui dominates anything (same goes for Watts). He didn't touch the ball for 2 quarters, and couldn't master a kick today.