poita

Glad to see Spencer get another chance, and we don't lose much with those outs, but the remaining ins are woeful. What more does Gysberts need to do to get a run? I thought we were going to give our younger players a run this year, and Port seems a good team to do this against. I thought Watts rolled an ankle, guess we have been mislead on that one too.

Three and a half years on, you just know these dropkicks will get off with a slap on the wrist due to the time taken to bring this matter to trial. Seriously, why was this not dealt with back in 2009?

Gee I'm so glad we took James Strauss ahead of Dayne Beams. What a brilliant decision that has been.

This is exactly why sensible clubs don't sign (almost) 29 year olds to 3 year contracts, unless they are truly elite (which Jamar certainly isn't).

This club has treaded softly for far too long lest it offends some of its gentler players and supporters. I wish Jamie well with his recovery from what is obviously a horrible injury, but the fact remains that he is not AFL standard and giving him another contract out of sympathy is not going to change that fact. The last thing Neeld needs when he is trying to rebuild the club is a list clogger like Bennell spending two years getting back to full fitness.

Thanks for coming Aaron, your contribution this season has been superlative. Paid $400K plus a season for a grand total of 84 disposals this year = roughly $5,000 per disposal, most of which were fairly useless. Unfortunately no other club is stupid enough to take you off our hands for next year.

I'm all for trying blokes in different positions, but I think we have reached the point where most of the recent experiments can be written off as failures. As bad as we were last week, we would have gone very close to beating Richmond with Rivers down back on McGuane and Dunn and Howe playing up forward. Hopefully we will revert to forwards playing forward, backs down back and so on this week. Couch in is a good start, but hopefully we give him a run in the middle, rather than trying to turn him into a back pocket.

There is a bit of chicken and egg around these, although both are equally woeful. Our skills look bad because we don't take the first option and end up putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure. Our decision making looks bad because we don't have the confidence to execute basic skills under pressure and end up second guessing ourselves. Plus the support actions, eg shepherding, blocking, leading, etc that other teams do so well are never displayed by our players.

Jake got eight possessions and made two tackles playing as a number 2 ruckman, in his 10th AFL game. Jamar averages 9.2 disposals and 1.7 tackles (and has kicked the measly 1 goal) in 12 games this year playing as a number 1 ruckman. Jake will probably never be a gun AFL ruckman, but we certainly lost nothing on Saturday by having him in the team ahead of Jamar.

So when next year comes and we are still rubbish, and we have the chance to either use a high pick on JV or another kid, we push him back another 12 months?

I don't really understand the love that some people have for this guy. Anyone who is playing VFL reserves half way through their second year is never going to amount to anything. Retaining duds like Newton, (Luke) Williams and Maric for multiple years has hurt us badly in the past. This club needs to keep turning over the bottom third of its list until it unearths a few decent players.

Good reviews, nice to see some reality in these pieces. If anything, I reckon you have been generous in a few cases, rather than harsh, but giving most players 1 or 2 doesn't sit well with the rose coloured glasses set.

Final Side - In: Bail, Bate, Davey, Macdonald. Out: Green, Tapscott, Blease, Morton, With those ins, you could be excused for thinking we are going for an almighty tank this week.

Terrible luck for Clint and I wish him well in his recovery, but will anyone admit to thinking "Gee I wish Bartram was playing today" at any time during the games against either Essendon or Collingwood? I know I didn't.

Yes, Tommy Mac and Sam Blease are the only two players eligible for the rising star award from our current team. I'm sure we will have a sixth nomination against us next week.