poita

Other than the inclusion of Viney and a new tall defender, our team this week will be very similar the one from round 23 last year, just a few changes on the edges. Hopefully they have learned some lessons from what was as poor a performance in a big game as I can remember.

Rance is up there with Ablett as the most overrated player in the competition. How often does he play on and beat the best forwards in the competition? There is no great skill in playing off the opposition's 5th or 6th best forward. Plus I'm still dirty on him for his dog hit on Watts a few years ago.

Brilliant, brilliant news. Tom is an absolute gun and four years is the minimum contract length I was hoping for. That will see him right through the prime of his career, and will hopefully ensure he is a Demon for life. Well done to all involved. Now for Oscar and Gus.

Collingwood, Sydney & GWS are the key games. We may have to win two or more of those to challenge for top 4 in a season in which the bottom five clubs are really poor. If we pinch one of the Adelaide, Port, West Coast and Geelong road games we will be doing well. Our percentage is great at the moment, but it can change quickly with one bad game. You would hope we would win (and win well) against Fremantle, St Kilda, Bulldogs and Gold Coast. We need five more wins to guarantee a finals spot, and that should be straight forward if we can keep our best players around. Hopefully the team can keep pushing beyond that and lock in a home elimination final at the very least.

Dom is out of the team because he is not in our top 3-4 midfielders any more, and because he doesn't have a secondary role that he can play (unlike Brayshaw, Salem & Petracca). But as soon as we have an injury in the midfield, there is no question in my mind that he will come straight back in. Longer term I would imagine that the coaches see him as a possible replacement for Lewis or Vince across half back. Clearly he needs to tidy up his decision making a little, but he reads the play well and gets himself to the right spots.

I hope we don't over complicate the issue, or try to be too clever as we did with the forward line earlier in the season. I'm not a massive fan, but Frost surely has to be next in line. Tell him to defend as his first, second and third priorities, and take the first option when he has the ball, and he'll be fine. It is not his job to be taking on five opponents and running 60 metres every time he gets the ball.

I can't see Balic getting a game at AFL level until he shows he can play decent midfield minutes. As Goodwin has shown with Tyson & Garlett, he wants players who can play a variety of roles. Balic won't get a senior game playing as a permanent half forward in the VFL. I have no issue with the decision to recruit Balic, particularly on a one year deal, but he seems a fair way down the queue for senior selection at present.

The biggest difference is the structure. Against Hawthorn we had Hogan playing as the only tall forward, and he spent half the game outside 50. Against Richmond, we had Hogan and Weideman - Hogan was all over the place again, and Weideman barely made it to a contest inside 50 all night. It is hardly surprising that we would win the ball in the middle or across half back and look up and see nobody to kick to. Hence we went backwards and sideways until we were forced into a long kick down the line, or were caught in possession. Now we look up and you are pretty much assured of having at least two of McDonald, Hogan and Smith (or even Gawn) providing a target. The midfielders can play with a lot more confidence and flair because they know what they will get in front of them. Further, the likes of Melksham, Fritsch and Hannan are now getting the 4th, 5th or 6th best defender, which makes a big difference. In the past couple of weeks we have forced players such as Simpson and Laird to be accountable for an opponent, generally one who is bigger and stronger, and that has taken away from their attacking games. The midfield is running much deeper with strong contributions from Brayshaw, Harmes and Salem, and the defence is finally clicking now that players such as Frost and Hunt (who are inconsistent defensively) are out of the team, but it all stems from the forward line for me. I am convinced that we would gone close to beating Hawthorn, and perhaps Richmond as well, if we had picked the right side for those games.

Well done to David Neitz, on a very well deserved honour. For me, Garry Lyon should have been inducted before Neitz. I think Lyon's leadership and his record in big games was superior to Neitz, but obviously his achievements are clouded by the injuries over the last 4-5 years of his career. Prior to that he was as good as any player in the league. I agree with the opening poster that our golden era is severely under-represented in the Hall of Fame, particularly in comparison to Hawthorn's team of the 1980s. Hopefully with the current team on the rise, that oversight is rectified over the next few years.

I'm not surprised that the NRL coverage outrates the AFL equivalent - it is a far better production, notwithstanding the much better atmosphere that most AFL games have. The other advantage that the NRL has is that night games finish before 10pm, whereas Friday night AFL games are often pushing 11pm. The AFL needs to realise that even the biggest AFL team accounts for less than 10% of the total membership, and presumably the same proportion of the viewing audience. Hence a game between any two clubs will never be of direct interest to more than 20% of all viewers. It is far better to appeal to the other 80% (or more) by finding the best games to show each week, rather than being fixated on the more popular teams. I suspect the NRL do this better, and clearly having a floating fixture helps.

Weideman shouldn't be playing AFL at this point based on his performances to date, so I'm happy for Smith to be taking his chance. The big test will come on QB when Smith will need to hold his own in the ruck against Grundy & Cox. Do we have confidence that he can fight out a nil-all draw in these contests?

That emergency list ?. 7 players from that game didn't play last year, including Hogan & Gawn. Surely we win and win well.

Surely at least one of King and Filipovic is gone at year end. Welcome Austin, hope to see you grace the MCG for the MFC over the next few years.

Just the one year? Looks like she might be on the move in 2020. Do we know who is becoming our second marquee player now that Mel Hickey has gone?

With 4 new sides to come in for 2020, the AFL couldn't really compensate sides for losing players this year. There will be twice as much movement next year, and trying to navigate through that will be almost impossible. That said, giving Geelong extra picks because they were less successful at finding players than North is laughable. What happens if St Kilda don't lure any players next year because they are a basket case - do they get the first 20 picks in the draft? As an aside, there was a rumour in the HS this morning that one of the 2020 expansion clubs is reconsidering joining the league - I assume that would be Gold Coast, but others might have different sides.

I was tempted to say no, but then I look at the bottom end of our list and realise there are at least six players there who will never be AFL footballers. I'd keep Bernie at age 33 on a moderate salary ahead of any of McKenna, Vandenberg, Johnstone, Kennedy-Harris, Bugg, King, or Filipovic. Same goes for Pedersen at age 32 next season when that question is posed shortly.

Dear Simon, the current forward / ruck structure was working fine. Why have you not replaced Weideman with Pedersen, so that he can back up Gawn in the ruck? I get that Smith is in better form, but he can't ruck. Now you'll either go back to your stupid idea of rucking Harmes, or you'll drag McDonald away from the forward line. Both ideas are just plain dumb. Please get your act together before you cost us more wins. Signed, Poita.

Both are outstanding players and will be stars of the competition for many years to come. I'm more than happy with Oliver, but I suspect Cripps might benefit from having some quality around him and from getting a full season in. If the 2013 draft was re-ranked Cripps probably sits top 3 with Kelly & Bontempelli - a fair few clubs would be regretting not taking him with a top 10 pick. Oliver is surely the best player from the 2015 draft by a fair margin - thanks Sydney for matching our bid for Mills.

31 has very little significance to anyone born in the last 50 years. Yes, we know the history, but it has been a very long time since a top player wore it. 2 and 11 are clearly more significant to the recent generations.

I see some parallels with Billy Stretch. Stretch was going along nicely, then the coaching staff tried to add layers to his game, and now he is a complete mess of a footballer. I suspect Hunt is also being told to improve certain parts of his game, and he is torn between playing his natural game and focusing on the advice he has been given. Hopefully he can sort himself out quickly, because he is a crucial part of the team at his best.

The whole concept is a joke really. You would do more to promote the game, and get a better crowd, by scheduling it in any one of 100 country towns across Australia. I am all for the expansion of the game, and am very comfortable with the second Sydney team (less so about the Suns), but China will do nothing other than give the AFL executives another junket to take advantage of.

I wish we were playing Adelaide this week. We have been playing decent football for a few weeks and are ready for a challenge against a strong side. I expect us to beat Carlton, hopefully comfortably, but I worry that by next week we'll have been up for too long. This side is not good at remaining focused for long periods.

Mark Neeld and Essendon were a match made in heaven. Today is a very sad day. Thankfully we have finally moved on from Neeld's legacy, but as the primary architect of our woes, I'm glad he is far, far away from the club and hopefully never to return.

This is a distinct danger game. We should win, and win well, but Carlton will put in for four quarters. Will we?

I've said it before, Petracca needs to start doing the simple things well. He keeps trying to make the big play, when he should be just doing a lot of little things properly. Others have said that he is not team first. I think the opposite is true to a degree - you see him run to 50 metres out with a straight forward shot in front of him, and he will try some ridiculous pass over his shoulder to a teammate which will miss by 5 metres. I'm disappointed that Brayshaw, Salem and Harmes have all gone past him this year. He should be playing decent midfield minutes, but he just doesn't have the endurance to do so.