Demon Blood

Having torn an Medial & ACL in seperate incidents, you can walk on an ACL no problems but it hurts as soon as you change direction... where as a Medial you can't put weight on or walk properly for a couple of days, feels so much more painful than an ACL but it heals pretty quick and doesnt need surgery. If he has a low grade (grade 1) then it will be 2 weeks of water walking/running before he gets back on the track... probably 4-5 weeks before full training but you never know with younger guys as they can heal faster. Like Diamond said, bone bruising or some sort of fracture to the Tibia or Patella all still possible given it was an impact injury. Fingers crossed its only a short time out and he is back firing soon.

Pick 6 is very interesting in this draft as there is no clear difference between a player you could pick at 6 to one at 15. This may be the draft where clubs draft for need not best available as it is really hard to say who the best available is at that pick. My preferred picks (if available) at pick 6: Aaron Francis - I think he could be the best in the draft, very Goddard-like in his flexibility but probably more Key Position than Goddard. At 192cm, 89kg if he can play through the midfield he would be perfect for us and the "Tall" mids we are after. Likely Gone at our pick. Charlie Curnow - This years potential Jake Stringer, would have been in No1 frame if not for injury. He is a big-bodied mid who can play forward, has done really well up front for the Falcons this year out of necessity. At 191cm and 95kg he is very much in the same physical mold of Stringer and has a similar style of play. I know people have expressed concerns about kicking on the left foot but that can be taught, what is harder to teach is that constant will to push up on the contest to create pressure and chase to tackle. If we are after competitors then he is one we have to go for. Rhys Mathieson - A really smart inside mid who reads the ball better than most players. Kicking is average and he isnt a big bodied monster but thats what i like about him. The fact he isnt the biggest (ie: doesnt win it with pure strength) means he has to be smarter to win the ball and thats what he does. High possession accumulator who would fit in very nicely with Viney/Brayshaw on the inside as he is slightly different to both of them. Darcy Parish - Outside mid who hits targets like Josh Kelly/Christian Salem did in their draft year. He reminds me a bit of a more outside Brayshaw in that he isnt the best at any one thing but doesnt have many chinks in the armor. He is clean in traffic but isnt a contested ball nut like Brayshaw was. Others to consider if we trade pick 6 and end up later in the 1st round. Riley Bonner - lovely left foot kick running off HBF. May not be needed now it has come out that we want Melsham to play off the HBF. Josh Dunkley - if not a Swans f/s he is a big-bodied inside mid who is a real competitor. Just my thoughts on what i have seen of these guys at TAC & U18's carnival.

Read JJT post below... Not sure how he has done it with a couple of clubs, it is his offseason so i doubt he will be running around when he is more likely to be on footy trip. Plus, if this was true it would have been reported as the media love a JW story. Mahoney & Connors have essentially said, about a week ago, he will only leave for a very good offer (a-la the JT trade with Richmond last year). JJT is 100% on the mark, isnt in the country, carry on.

No... we are not improving our list with that trade. Griffiths is a fringe 22 player at best for the Tigers and would not be an upgrade on Dawes or Pederson. While Pick 12 in this shallow draft is unlikely to net you a player close to Tyson's ability. Why would we entertain a trade for a player who in 2 years has finished 2nd (2014) and 13th (2015) in our B&F. Was clearly struggling with injury in 2015 as well.

I like Riley Bonner. Absolute booming left foot kick, but has a right foot as well, would be a weapon off HBF but he needs to work on his defensive side (a lot like Salem has to) and needs to bulk up a bit. Currently slated to go a around our 2nd pick and would be worth it. We wont have a chance at getting Ben Keays (mid) or Eric Hipwood (KPF), both will be academy selections for the Lions. Tucker should be available at our 1st pick if we are going for lefty's.

The expectation from me now is that they will take the form of the 2nd half and the hurt of the loss, then go out and punish the lions in 2weeks

Gutted... Tyson was just awesome and after watching Lenny Hayes highlights yesterday I think we may have our own version. N Jones needs to stop thinking he can do it all, he is a cog in the machine Vince is hurting with the hard tag Watts was MIA in the first half but it was no coincidence that we started to turn around in the 3rd as he started to influence the game, need more of that 3rd qtr more often. Dawes has planks for hands and needs to stop leading to a place with 2 extra opposition backs Frawley's kicking wouldn't be out of place on a rugby field with guys flying for the high ball but his lead up work was good Jamar has been enormous for us this season and had another good game against a solid ruck Kent & JKH give us some spark and danger in the fwdline while a lease should be given a couple more games to get into the speed of afl McDonald, Grimes and surprisingly Garland all make me hold my breath with the ball in hand Pedersen just keeps working which is great to see but needs to be more damaging Reily & Tappy, I liked both their games in parts and both show positive signs and Nev Jetta has started to become one of the best small backs we have had since Wheelan. While I'm gutted at the result and the influence of the umpires, I am very pleased to see the boys respond to the Geelong game in such a way but we need to start winning some of these close ones

Makes contact with the head but he got the ball... Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Would think jack was pretty stiff as it looks as if the force of the ball hitting his hand knocks his hand/arm into wingards face.

Terrible game for us but at least i am angry at losing again... last year i lost all feeling towards a 10 goal loss, now i feel an anger and, IMO, you can see the players hurting as well. We have 2 more 'winnable' games in Brisbane & GWS but for the rest i would like to see us compete like we have done against the power and swans. If we win 5 or 6 games for the years its a great improvement on where we have come from. If you said to me at the start of the season that we would be breaking even in disposals (contested & uncontested) per game (-6.6), an effective disposal % of 73.4 and improving our I50 count by +10 over last year (still -11 vs opponent) i would have probably put a $50 on it to say you were wrong. But yet here we are at R16 with those numbers, a clear game plan which will act as the base plan on which to build on and a glimmer of hope with the team progressively improving. It may not be the Port Adelaide turn around we all wanted but its a turn around. Finally, I feel good when I go to the footy knowing that my team is gonna have a dip, this weekend when i head to the G to watch us against the cats i will go with the belief that if we can keep the score low we have a sniff. Its a good feeling to have back again.

5 kicks, 8 handballs, 3 tackles and probably his poorest game for the year. But that could be said about half the team (N Jones, Tyson, Dawes, etc) The game - disappointing performance

Knightmare's mock drafts are usually pretty spot on but usually the week before the draft is the time to read them once he has fully updated all his descriptions, etc. With the amount of detail he puts in (along with a few of the others on BF) he doesnt update a lot of the player descriptions until post the combine. I think if we finish between 15th-13th and given the need for most of the bottom teams to get a KPP (GWS - Ruck; St K - KPF; Bris - KPF; Dogs - KPF/D; Carlton - KPF) we hopefully should get the pick of the midfielders. Like i said before, i would pick Petracca in a heartbeat, but I wouldnt be disappointed if we got Brayshaw as he is a very classy player and would be a handy addition. Pickett is a bit of a luxury pick in my eyes as he is a line breaking HBF, while we definitely need one, my feeling is that we need to get a couple more mids first. Also, given the evenness of this draft we could pick up a quick, outside player with our 2nd round pick (eg: Maishman, Weller, Maynard, Nelson, Clem Smith, etc) plus Billy Stretch is an outside wingman with a pretty nice turn of speed. SCPaige's mock draft was pretty spot on in my eyes with the exception of Pickett to the dogs.

Christian Petracca is the man we want IMO. We still need another midfielder and this guy is what what we have been screaming for since we passed (along with other clubs) on Selwood, Wines, Dunstan et al. The comparison to Sylvia isn't really fair as they are both mid/fwds but thats about where it ends. Petracca has worked extremely hard to move into the midfield this year from just being a mid-sized forward, he has talent but nothing like Col. He has a nice kick, is extremely strong through the core (doesnt get moved easily), great hands and is about 186cm - still growing - so fits in with Roo's admiration of Freo's taller midfield and if he is going down that path. Reminds me of a slightly taller, stonger and cleaner Dunstan in last years champs. I really like Brayshaw and he is by far the classiest mid but he has been playing a very outside role and i find his kicking can sometimes lack penetration. Of the talls Patrick McCartin is my pick, he is very much like Jack Darling as he is an animal for the contest, that said Wright offers a lot more flexibility and Durdin is a 10-year CHB. Like last year, there is an evenness about this draft at the moment but the difference is that a higher pick will give you access to one of the very good KPP's on offer. I think we will have done well in this years draft if we can get Petracca with our 1st round, Maishman with our 2nd round (hopeful as his stock are climbing) and Stretch with 3rd.

AFL website has him listed at 88kg and I know thats old. His weight was 92kg at the end of preseason (asked at a training session). Its more about core strength I believe, he has improved this immensely but it is what allows guys like N Riewoldt (96kg) to win contested marks while keeping his motor. Improving his core strength more will not result in a large weight gain but it will allow him to continue his improvement in winning contested ball

IIRC, Jack has only really played 1 game in the midfield which was Rd8 2012 v Swan (we lost by 101 points) and by playing in the midfield i mean that he lined up at the centre bounce. In reality "playing in the midfield" that night was essentially playing as 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th defenders as the I50 count was 71 to 35 (33 scoring shots to 12). Stats for the game: 34 Disposals (18 kicks; 16 HB) 11 Marks (2 contested) 1 tackle 1 free for 1 free against 12 contested possessions (equal 5th on ground) 76.5% disposal efficiency (26 effective disposal - equal BOG) 4 clangers 2 clearances 8 rebound 50s (only 6 dee's players didnt record a R50) 3 1%'ers 150 Supercoach points (2nd behind Kieran Jack) If you dont remember the game, dont go watch it... it was horrible; but Jack and Sam Blease (maybe Garland) were the only good things that arvo for us. Even Neeld recognised Jack's efforts in his special backhanded way when he said something along the lines of "Well when your best midfielder is playing his first game in the middle, you know you are in trouble" Someone might be able to help with that quote. But my main point is that he has never played in the midfield in the AFL so don't write him off. But if you have watched any of the games he played at Sandringham he was used as a midfielder, he only played CHF for Vic Metro and even then he ran through the midfield in parts of games. I believe that we all want Jack to succeed, but we all have different expectations on him which will lead to knockers no matter what but as supporters rather than sitting here doubting him before he has even kicked a ball this season, which is just plain disrespectful, why dont we look at what he is doing on the track (i havent been this pre-season). It does seem from the reports that he is more involved, pushing harder, he has moved up into the "top" group in the running and is generally working harder in training (which is a knock everyone seems to have on him). It is hard being positive after so many years of mediocrity, but finally it feels like we are moving in the right direction. If we are to climb to the top it is guys like Jack, Trenners, Tyson, Toumpas, Mitchie & Viney who are going to be the driving force and guys like Cross & Vince are there to add depth, experience and protection for the younger guys. Sorry for the rant.

DA, Jones was moved around a fair bit and ended up playing a lot on the Wing & HFF in the 2nd half. He really looked good in the centre but i think that the coach may have been protecting a few players in the 2nd half so they dont carry injury into the combine (Jones and Hartung). I had to look up a few numbers after the game to get names and Cavarra's was the first i looked up. While nothing he did stood out as exceptional, he just got to everything and didnt waste it when he had it. He also seemed to be the outlet when the Rangers won the ball in a contest. Not really sure what stats there are on the game but would be interested to see how many "handball receives" he had i counted about 8 in a quarter. He reminds me a bit of Hrovat (probably more due to size as he isnt as physical) but yes for once the stats dont lie, he was fantastic. Yeh I have read that as well which is why i was surprised that he looked a little slow but he admitted in the paper that he pretty much blew up at quarter time so i guess that explains it. There were a couple of other standouts as well: Christian Petracca - Just seems to find the ball and i dont remember him making a mistake. Would be worth a look with a 3rd round pick. Jordan Walker - really noticed him, he would hunt the ball and seemed to use it well. I was talking with a recruiter who was sitting next to me and he said that as the game was such a blowout it would be hard to take a lot from it. He did mention after the game that he thought Cavarra was very stiff not to get to the combine but he felt he would probably be picked up on the rookie list somewhere. Hopefully it is us as i think he would be a good pick up. Not sure if anyone has seen Knightmares latest Phantom Draft over on BF but I would be very pleased if we ended up with the guys he has picked to fall to us. Pick 2 - James Aish Pick 20 - Zac Jones Pick 36 - James Tsitas I really rate Tsitas and from what i have seen of him, he is what we need. Hard as nail, can run all day, monster of physical pressure with his only big knock being his kicking efficiency.