Hannibal

Not up to it.

Phew.

I suspect this is close. I like Clisby, but for whatever reason he seems to be behind at the moment and apparently didn't impress in the intraclub. I like Terlich's courage, speed and ability to find the footy, but his decision making is a concern and he has an excellent capacity to turn the footy over. And I don't rate Strauss. At all. He panics, makes poor decisions and imo isn't hard enough at the footy. I'd favour Terlich over Strauss. But I do like Georgiou, although he may have to wait. We rotated 7 through the back-line against Richmond, so I assume it was one of the mids. All in all though, the competition for spots is the best it's been in a long while and there's cause for optimism.

Things can change quickly... You're now 30, 2 of your 3 favourite players are gone, and you were "really excited about the direction the club is heading". It headed for the kind of disaster rarely seen in sport. But who can blame you ? Most are optimists at heart.

As you should. I was fortunate enough to chat to ROOOOSY for 5-10 minutes earlier in the week and he is scathing of how our young talent was previously treated.

Peter Jackson is expecting around 37K. He's hopeful of more, but that's what we're on target to achieve. I was at a function earlier in the week at the MCG. He considers it a "pathetic" total. He understands the reasons, but it's pathetic nonetheless.

Not many power forwards are at their best in February, especially coming of a minor knee injury. He has a month to get into some good nick and ramp up his running. If he's ready for round 1 great, if not he won't be far away.

I was listening to Nathan Buckley a number of years ago and he was being pressed about Watts V Naitanui. He was asked whether Melbourne had made a mistake. He said we won't know until the end of their careers. It was then put to him that surely we'd know after 5 or 6 ? He said, "No, you really have to evaluate it when they're finished". I thought about what he said and came to the conclusion that he's right. Careers ebb and flow, but any final determination really has to wait until near the end of a career. Watts and Naitanui are now entering their 6th year and even now it's too early to say definitively who'll have the best career.

Agreed. He's a crap mid and his only skill is finishing. Even then he needs to be at his best and in a half decent team.

In reality these players can't be truly judged for 10 years. Saying you'd choose one over the other "any day" is a very premature judgement.

He said "extend".

Nah, it's running. We all know he's a "see ball get ball" footballer, who lacks vision and creativity, but if you aren't a good runner in today's footy you can't compete.

There is no problem with Clark's foot. At all. It's his legs becoming accustomed to increased workloads, which has caused some minor soft tissue concerns. He has to very slowly ramp up his work-rate.

Running is far more of a problem than decision making for Colin.

So much discussion about a dud. In today's footy you have to be able to run.

Do you have a boat up your sleeve ?

Of course he's ready for senior footy, just not next week. He's underdone. But he's more than ready.

They've stopped.

He calls him Pedders.

I think Watts and Toumpas have similar traits. Both have enormous ability, but both lack confidence and both aren't as hard at the contest as they need to be. Roos is the perfect coach to get the best out of them. But I reckon it will be another 5 years before Toumpas remotely looks A-grade or at home in brutal matches against top sides.

You have to love Melbourne supporters. Every club in the competition would take Wines over Toumpas if they were now offered either. Toumpas has great skills and is a very good decision maker. He'll become an excellent AFL player and possibly even A-grade one day. But until he vastly improves his physicality he has a long way to go at AFL level and I won't at all be surprised to see him play a few games at Casey this year.

You need to listen to "pressers" to understand that ?

You're aptly named.

So we all agree. Excellent.

Nup, definitely Melbourne. But if you're a bit slow on the uptake you may have missed that I was talking about years ago.