Rob Mac......

Gws 25 points up a minute before the end!!!?!

GWS & Sydney level, 8 minutes to go

1 Hawthorn 2 Fremantle 3 Sydney 4 West Coast 5 Adelaide 6 Geelong 7 North Melb 8 Richmond ______________________ 9 Gold Coast 10 Carlton 11 Collingwood 12 Port Adelaide 13 Footscray 14 Essendon 15 Brisbane 16 Melbourne 17 GWS 18 St. Kilda

No Clark/Dawes/Hogan would or will be heinous. But when have we had more depth in forward talls than now? Fitzy at CHF (no rucking); big Maxy at FF (2nd ruck to Spencer); Pedo and Howe in there with JKH or another small. ..and all without disturbing our defense or new midfield. Not fabulous but could be worse for the time being.

Exactly correct Dr G. I spoke with his father about that a few years later.

Good question WJ. I'll say use the healthiest 2 of Hogan/Dawes/Fitzy. Use Watts & Viney, unless others are healthier. Play one of Gawn/Spencer/Jamar. Regrettably dropping Nicho, Barry, Toumpas & King. Probably other changes too.

Whoo , Oh yeah, I remember that theme song again

I think you have a point WJ and would like to add 2c to your Blease/muscle type question please. I'm not the most trained expert, but decades ago graduated 5 years full time study including anatomy, physiology, neurology etc to become a fully qualified chiropractor (they vary) ... then remained a pro guitarist. My brother's a doctor and a friend of some AFL doctors. We're interested. Simply put it's still: animals' slowest most powerful muscles make the reddest meat, the fastest muscles make the whitest meat, eg. birds wing & breast muscles for flight. Humans are basically red muscle except hands which depend on the individuals activities. A bricklayers hands are red muscle, a lead guitarist or violinist has white for speed & finesse. If the guitarist lays bricks or spends hours daily deeply massaging his girlfriend for weeks, his fingers become stronger for slow movements, but guitar speed is greatly reduced. I've tested this. All you need know is that the body has amazing ability to rebuild itself (it's always rebuilding, replacing cells) and does so to help you best accomplish the tasks you most frequently perform. Hopefully you see the analogies. By far, the most efficient best footy training is to duplicate what has to be done in performance (which isn't laps). Near the end of my footy I'd go alone to an empty oval and, to the uninitiated would embarrassingly appear to be going nuts running around going through every movement just as if playing a game! Run a few paces, change direction, sell some candy, jump for an imaginary mark, sprint 40m, bend to pick up the ball, bump an imaginary player, dive for a mark, running all the time; take a few seconds break & it all starts again. I think this is the most efficient training for any player. My game fitness improved out of sight very quickly, less due to the color of muscle being encouraged, but more because there are zillions of muscles in the body, many of which don't get much from "running the tan" or whatever. That's my second training point; the appropriate muscles themselves must be developed in the right way for the tasks required and again that's best accomplished by repeating those tasks at pace, over and over. So I don't care how well Blease (or any player) sprints 300m as long as they're great at 100m, 50m, 20m multiple repeat sprints containing dodging, weaving, bending over, jumping up, kicking, in fact going through all the motions you would during games ... and if Blease can repeat it far more often than in past years, I hope he'd have a chance:- )

I love your optimism. However in 2013 only 34 players polled 10+ votes (under 2 per team & no MFC) MFC got 16 votes; Jones 6, Watts 3. Of the entire 215 vote getters, we had 6!! Franklin & Judd got 5. I want you to win this bet Binman but you're setting the bar higher than necessary to make your point! Roost It would have bet on anything & you're making it that you lose unless Toumpas becomes pretty much elite! 6 votes instead of 10 would seem a fairer bet.

Just to avoid an ambiguous reading Binman: Are you betting he'll poll a total of 10 or more votes in his best 2 out of the next 6 seasons (ie. 5 per season) or must he poll 10 or more per season in at least 2 of the next 6 seasons? Big difference.

Well said Hardtack. Players putting each other down in public and demonlanders posting said put-downs here promotes the opposite mind set to the all for one, one for all team spirit that successful teams have and that Roos especially encourages.

I enter every game wanting to win, but hate being disappointed during the season: ..so realistically I think GWS are ready for a slight move up, while I'm not sure who we'll pass. Possibly Saints, Dogs, maybe someone like Brisbane will fall. So I'll predict a better season with our % substantially rising 25% from 54 to 79%, 3 to 7 wins yet finishing 15th to 17th.

I've been thinking the same as you two for ages. Fitzy's size and speed will be very handy in future, plus he can 2nd ruck.

^^ Point taken rpfc, 36.36% more goals really isn't "almost twice as many"! My memory was off. I'd still vote Garland (over Dawes) for co-captain

Only if it could be done without hurting Grimes, I'd pick Jones & Garland as co-captains next year. Both cut it on-field and Garlands excellent public speaking should be used to save Jones wasting his time ever thinking about that. We shouldn't want anything to change or distract Jones from his excellent playing, the way he's been going. [Players play badly the day after guesting on the footy show because they focused on the show] Yeah Dawes speaks well, but did people notice Fitzy kicked almost twice as many goals per game played as Dawes last season?

Well that's all true, but there's also a negative side to Mark Neeld;)

N. Jones 8 Trengove 4 Grimes 4 Viney 6 McKenzie 4 Evans 4 Kent 3.5 Toumpas 3.5 M. Jones 5 Poor players & leadership + appalling coaching = hopeless structures/plan/tactics/teamwork, I.E. knowing where the F… to go and what the F… to do all the time. Hopefully Roos etc. improves that. We're recruiting midfielders, plus Gawn, Spencer and Fitzy could improve again, further helping the midfield, so nothing to worry about, of course ;-

Nice radio interview with Jack Trengove now. Interviewer mentioned that people talked about a different captain next year. Jack said he was all about the team and would be happy playing as non-captain next year. He seemed genuine, comfortable and a good guy.

Me too OD. A bird in the hand's worth 2 in the bush. Fitzy's come on so well this year, excited about his future and this signing. Thanks Jack F

I disagree with the OP. You could say that about any underperforming player. Trengove is greatly underperforming and a midfield liability.

How can you vote to trade or keep without knowing what you'll get in return? I'd say keep, but I thought & think 2/3 of Beamers problem was Neelds fault, so what would I know?

Thanks for agreeing about Jacks honesty. Yes, his answers didn't appear coached. I'm surprised to be defending him because I hate his softness too, though improving this year (less soft than Davey). Watts is 11Kg lighter than Neitz!! ..he shouldn't be expected to crash & bash quite like Neitz. I thought we'd all agreed MFC's recruiting was hopeless, therefor it's neither his fault being picked #1, nor erroneously picked to be a KP player. IMO Watts is, and should be thought of as, a tall, skinny, fast flanker/winger/utility (and better crumber than most). KP only to cover emergencies. In spite of his fault, he's a unique tallent, still a much better, skilful, faster, more useful player than our captains plus most of the team. Hopefully he'll keep improving here or trade for a top notch bigger bodied a-grade midfielder, nothing less.

I watched the whole show closely and Jacks first comments left me thinking he'll go. His later comment plus my reflection left me thinking he may stay and he was just being absolutely honest, as opposed to flying the flag saying he wants to stay as everyone else does (even if it's Bs). His honesty seemed naive and undiplomatic, but refreshing.

Remember how badly Howe kicked until the beginning of this year (or last, I forget)? He must have really worked on it during that off season.

Correct DL, the suicide doors open backwards. Your "drivebuy" concept is interesting, but I just intended a little sarcastic Los Angeles humour because drive-by shootings were so common