Jaded No More

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.

West Coast's midfield was shite today, and we smashed it in the ruck, hence we won the midfield battle. What today showed, is that if we can get the midfield up and running to the point where we are able to compete against real quality, then we'll be right to go, because we have the cattle at both ends of the ground (minus Watts and Aussie up forward and Garland down back!) to manufacture a win. Today was also a really good show of Bailey's game plan. For the first time this year, we were the hunters. We went out there and we were the ones applying all the pressure, meaning we could control the tempo and movement of the ball. So for the first time in two years, we were able to move the ball quickly using a combination of short kicks/handballs and then the long kick inside 50 (or a goal from outside 50), our half forwards pushed back at the right time, ensuring we always had a forward target to kick to, we played the wings and the corridors equally well. In short, we did not look like the dumbest collection of players ever put together on a football field. Oh and Grimes officially became a star :D

Way too early to be making any sort of call on him, just as it is too early to be judging Watts, but a few of things really stood out today with Naitanui. For one, he is the biggest 19 year old I have ever seen in my life. Surely he is at least 100kg, so from a physical point of view, there is no more development to come. He seemed very lost in the contests and had that lack of awareness in terms of positioning himself. Now obviously that is something you learn with experience, but I think Watts showed a lot of natural smarts in his first three matches, and a much better awareness and understanding of the game. Thirdly, his skills looked like they need plenty of work and polish. He is an amazingly quickly and agile guy for his size, but he comes with a huge risk. If he can't polish his skills he'll struggle for impact, and if he lacks smarts and awareness, well we know you can't teach that. He is either going to be an absolute star, or a very tall, average player and that is the risk that West Coast took. I'm glad we didn't, because put simply, we cannot afford to make mistakes like that. Watts is a small risk- high return. Naitanui is a big risk- huge return. Finally, that hair makes him look like a palm tree and/or an upside down toilet brush. So distracting! :D

Just watched the replay, so I'm doing the votes a bit late 6- Grimes (Stood up in the last, and pretty much was the difference in that quarter. Star!) 5- McLean (Did the hard stuff, some clever touches, plenty of contested possessions. Good return to form) 4- Warnock (Criminally underrated) 3- Jamar (Huge rucking effort) 2- Jones 1- Green I controversially left out Bruce, who worked very hard today, but I just felt that he was not as instrumental in the really critical moments. Rivers, Frawley and Davey stiff as well.

The amount of times Morton gets free, makes good position standing around waving his hands in the air, only to be ignored, is ridiculous.