poita

I've been saying it all year, 90% of what Oscar does is excellent, 10% is atrocious. There is so much positive stuff in his game, he just needs to eliminate the bad stuff, and that will come with experience and confidence. Yesterday he didn't go hard enough at marking contests a couple of times early. Thereafter he was excellent. I fully expect him to play each week, irrespective of match ups. If anything, Frost or Tom can play on the smaller forwards, eg Dickson this week.

I don't expect Lewis to star every week, and am happy for him to just do his bit. However, his bit has to include being accountable for an opponent occasionally, and doing his share of the defensive work. He is sorely lacking in those areas at present.

I'd be happy to give Hulett another year, it's not like we are blessed with key position depth, and he has shown at least as much as Weideman (less talent, but much more heart). Presumably King stays as well, although he should be developing on the rookie list. Not sure about Keilty, but he is not causing much grief on the rookie list. The fact that none of White, Trengove and Kennedy have played this season suggests that all are in big trouble. Trengove is the only one I have any time for, but the coach clearly doesn't rate him. JKH won't make it. VDB is average and constantly injured. Tim Smith is average and his age counts against him. Who knows if McKenna can play, but we can't afford to carry injury prone small forwards (regardless of contract). And finally we get to see the back of that toxic weed, Lumumba. That makes 6 senior players and 2 rookies, before potential trades and retirements. Pedersen clearly stays. Spencer has the next two weeks to save his career. Big question mark over Vince. Happy to trade Kent for a bag of chips. Neal-Bullen can stay.

I'd be more than happy to have Zak on board, but the trade price is key. Hawthorn got Tom Mitchell for pick 14 and a swap of late picks. Jones is not worth that, but I'd certainly grab him for our 2nd round pick, which is currently sitting at 28. That's about what we gave up for Melksham, and I rate Zak higher than Jake. Sydney might be forced to deal at that level, unless North or another team jumps in with an earlier 2nd round pick. PS Supercoach points are not a reason to trade or not trade for players.

I just don't see key position defenders as being our weakness at this point in time. We have one (Tom) who is borderline A grade and two (Frost & Oscar) who are on their way to becoming very good players. Keep in mind that Frost & Oscar have played only 47 & 25 games respectively, they are very inexperienced. Throw in some flexibility from the likes of Hibberd and Joel Smith, and we are okay down there. Sure, May would make us better, but it will be a marginal, short term improvement, for a big cost. I think our midfield still needs more depth, particularly on the outside, and this would be my focus. Plus another marking forward if we can find one.

The complacency of being at home against weaker opposition. The idea of just rocking up and banking 4 points, rather than actually making it happen. In other games we have gone in knowing we are going to have to bust our guts and play well to win. And have performed accordingly. 99% of our problems are in our own heads. If Goodwin can fix these he is a genius.

What a stupid comment. If we had won on Monday night and Dom was best on ground nobody would be questioning his contribution. But we didn't and he wasn't, so it reasonable that the performances of senior players are scrutinised. For me, Dom is one of several key midfielders who is below his best. We can afford to carry one of them, but not three or four as was the case on Monday.

So far Lewis has played one very good game against St Kilda, one very average game against Carlton, and has spent the past three weekends scratching his arse. I can't see how you can judge his importance on that sample. I was thrilled with his recruitment, but he has let us down badly so far.

He is probably now the second best and most important player on our list, behind Gawn, which is incredible given his age and inexperience. Over summer he had to work on running out games better, which he has done. Now he just needs to fix up his kicks to handballs ratio, and he will be a genuine elite player.

Why waste any more time dealing with these pr1cks? There is zero interest in Hibberd from any other club, including Essendon. We have offered a deal that is probably over the odds given Hibberd's age, his 2016 suspension, and his playing history. After caving in to Essendon with Melksham last year, I'll be bitterly disappointed if we do the same thing with Hibberd this year.

As disappointed as I am that Grimes has been booted, I will feel ten times worse if any of Newton, Dawes, Lumumba, Michie, White, and King are still on the list by the end of October. I'd like to think the club knows what it is doing, but these are the same people that gave Terlich a two year contract and then refused to play him, when most people wanted to delist him.

Expect that (a) Dangerfield hasn't had serious injury issues in recent years and (b) Geelong didn't have to get rid of the best young key position player in the competition to land Dangerfield.

Are people blowing their load over Hibberd because they think he fills some desperate need we have, or because someone (albeit a middling player from a crap team) actually chose to come us (read: nobody else wanted him)? The last thing we need is another half back flanker, particularly one who hasn't played a game for 18 months. Offer Essendon a third round pick and move on if they won't deal. They need to free up salary space and we clearly paid overs for Melksham last year.

He has had 12 months to think about things, and get himself in the absolute best shape possible. I am not convinced about Melksham as a footballer, but I would be bitterly disappointed if he is not the hardest worker at the club between now and round 1. He should be absolutely desperate to prove himself to the club and to his teammates.

I'm sure if Lumumba does play on, he'll break a finger nail in round one and miss the next three months. I wonder if he genuinely wants to be here, or is just finding it hard to say no to the million dollars he is due for the next two years. If our football department had any balls they would negotiate a settlement and quietly usher him out the door during the finals series.

Delist: Newton, Terlich, Dawes, Lumumba (or "retire", call it what you like), White (R), King (R), Michie (R). If we need another to go, Matt Jones will suffice. Keep Wagner on the rookie list for another year, as he will be depth at best if they bring Hibberd in. Offer up Kennedy-Harris, Neal-Bullen, and one of Dunn / Garland for peanuts. Look to put JKH on the rookie list if he stays. I will happily keep Grimes, but suspect he will seek opportunities elsewhere. I will happily keep Pedersen as well.

Amazing that the price for Hibberd with his 80 odd so-so games (none for over a year), is about the same as what we paid for Vince (a former B&F winner at Adelaide). All you need is one bad decision (ie overpaying for Melksham last year), and that becomes the new normal.

A four year deal on good money for a 27 year old with less than 100 games of experience and who hasn't played for twelve months? No thanks, unless he comes for free. What exactly he is going to bring that we can't get from Salem and others? We should save ourselves the hassle of dealing with Essendon and move on. Draft a good kid with the pick.

Of course we are inexperienced. We play guys like Michie, Neal-Bullen and Vandenberg who aren't AFL standard. These guys are inexperienced because they aren't good enough to play at this level and therefore don't deserve games.

His game against St Kilda was as bad as any I have seen by an experienced AFL footballer, but I don't think that means we throw him to the kerb. Especially when the next in line is just learning to put his big boy pants on. Unfortunately we have a coach who plays favourites, and form is not a consideration.

Our players just need to learn to tackle better. The Bulldogs were able to get their arms free far too easily last week, then we kept whacking a bloke around the head this week (yes, I know he ducked, it happens, move on). Other times this year we have had a spate of in the backs paid against us because players dive forward in the tackle. We just need to adjust accordingly.

Number of games is a false indicator. Are players like Pedersen and M.Jones inexperienced, or just not good enough to have played more games? I can see that age is a bit more relevant, as a 25 year old will generally make better decisions than an 18 year old.

Of course, he could do his knee on day 1 of next season, in which case we would be two years into a four year contract for no return. It was a bad trade at the time, and this confirms it.

I wish Clayton all the best, but I can't believe we traded up in the draft just to get him when he most likely would have been available at pick 6 anyway. I was rapt with our selections last year, but am fairly underwhelmed by this year's crop.

Shaun Smith looked 40 when he was 25, but he hasn't aged a day since. Good luck to Joel.