Young Blood

Both Curnows have been cleared to play.

Surely Ed can't get off. He doesn't have the excuse Charlie has. This is already ridiculous. Making exceptions all over the place. We're heading towards soccer where you're allowed to touch the umpires chest or shoulder when pleading a case because its not threatening. Good one AFL.

I get so nervous when I hear others talking about winning games beyond this week. If we don't show up we could just as easily lose by 3-4 goals to the blues and it will all come tumbling down again for the doom and gloom supporters and media. This Carlton team are really dangerous. Regardless of whether the Curnow boys sit out, they possibly have Marchbank and Murphy back. I've watched a few games of theirs this year and they will take more scalps throughout the year. Could be ours if we don't bring the intensity against this young team.

I remember seeing Neeld at a cafe in Northcote shortly after him leaving the dees. I gave him a nod with an sympathetic grin and he just looked at me with those weird crazy twitchy eyes. I feel like he's at home just watching the news of him and Essendon with those same weird crazy twitchy eyes.

Maybe he kicked the ball from half back steve?

Cool You should go write that on every thread!

His stats are starting to move into elite territory as a tall forward. The thing that has stood out most to me this season and was evident on the weekend was his disposal. He hits targets whether its 15 or 40 metres and under pressure too. He generally makes good decisions when he has clean possession. I think the best comparison right now might be Roughead in his prime. He's got similar impact across the ground. Feels like we're starting to see the player he wants to be and he's tracking nicely for that peak prime of mid-late twenties.

He seems to be way off in Herald Sun votes and a few other rankings. It's a bit all over the place. Loved listening to KB get shut down on SEN this afternoon for suggesting that Max got monstered by Nankervis in the Anzac clash. Someone read him the stats. lol

I really don't see a huge difference between these and the Hawkins case. May has obviously pointed out that he was demonstrating to the umpire and had a reason for touching him with little force. What are both Ed and Charlie's reasoning? Neither were accidental. They were both moving the umpire out of their space. I really think both should get a week if the AFL want to be consistent with this one. They have a chance to do so.

So lets say Dom gets dropped. Who moves up to the wing role? I think Lewis and Salem are too important with their roles down back to spend more time further up the ground. Harmes seems to play predominantly wing and a bit of half forward. T-Mac, Trac and Fristch, the latter who has played further up the ground lately are still needed across half forward and deeper. I think we need another creator who plays prodomantly wing. i don't necessarily agree that Dom can't learn to play this position. I think he has lost some of his versatility he showed in his first few years with his marking and tackle. I still think he's an excellent link up player but I'm open to him having a spell for Casey to see what else might work.

Does Charlie touch the umpires hand? There's probably another angle. Either way the way he's gesturing suggests he is brushing his the umps hand away or moving him away. I think this on could be looked at as similar to Tom Hawkins. A deliberate gesture to the umpire to move him out of the space doesn't look good and you even see the umpire almost stumble backwards. Either way I can't see both of them getting off. After May got off there will be pressure to continue the precedent set with the Hawkins case the week prior. Both of these guys are real X factors for this club. I would be happy for either to miss but maybe Charlie more so as we seem to struggle with athletic mid/talls who can push up the ground and impact games across the ground. i think Charlie could be a top 10 player one day. He's got the makings of a star.

ANB must be doing things that are not showing up on the stat sheet. Maybe he's taking an opposition player and running him into the ground? I've watched him closely every game and while he does apply great pressure up forward, the things he was doing so well last year are way down this year. For him to really impact a game he doesn't need to accumulate the ball often but he does need to use it well, more inside 50's, one %'s and even thought he might be putting pressure on closing in (wish we could see those bloody pressure act stats) it would be good to see his tackle numbers increase. I do wonder if the opportunities to play his role well have been effected by Melksham who is similar and not having as much time in the midfield this year. He seems to struggle to stay as involved which may be due to less time in the middle. PS Harmes IS best 22. He has played consistently all year bar the Hawthorn game (where everyone sucked) and is our most physical player at the moment. Has a lot of attributes and keeps improving as a 22 yr old.

I think this season you're seeing teams win games off the back of average football. I thought we came reasonably close to contending with Richmond for three quarters and we played terribly. Sure the opposition this week were average but I guess its a positive we're winning games playing average football. We're just outworking teams without being polished a lot of the time. I don't really know what the benchmark is yet, we haven't seen it yet. Is it the Adelaide game last year? I don't know....

Is he anti Melbourne? Perhaps just anti Gary Lyon. Spends every week day morning with him. The two constantly giving each other s h i t

Yeah he is no ordinary tackler. He didn't stick with some today but his pressure around the ball was excellent especially in the first half, the same half where he made a few mistakes and many on here seem to think he was terrible. I thought he and Oliver were BOG

whose kick was that out of the middle to out wide? perfection

They are getting very easy fwd 50 entries

Hawkins little brush of the hand will be a major talking point along with score review but there always has to be a team the media has to focus on that is down and out/done/discraceful/need to have a long good hard look at themselves etc. You are right we are definitely right there ready to be the whipping boys for another week if we lose. If we win I reckon it might be Freo looking like a huge loss along with all their other drama at the moment.

Will be interested to see the level of strapping Trac has on the finger and how it affects his disposal.

Wait so our ruckman is Lynch? He's had something like 82 hitouts for his whole career. Max will probably break Goldsteins record and get 83 in one season!

Would obviously love him at the club. But I think Lucifer is right in that we would need to give up something pretty substantial to get him. In the end we really had to give up a fair bit for Lever. This guy would be top 10 outside mids in the comp in his prime at 25.

I was talking about this website for posting such arousing videos!

I hope we can get to the point with good depth where we can take on players who have deficiencies but with high upside. I've seen him really dominate games. He's 27 so not super young though. Still if we can gain the luxury of getting cheaper players like him to turn them around for depth/upgrades, why not? On a side note who the f is the guy in the photo who comes up when you google him? some fat white guy.

What a wonderful site