rjay

...nup, I'm really hoping for an injury to Pannell.

All clubs do it 'steve', not sure why or what advantage they gain if any but we are not alone.

No...it means he had a great season. A champion midfielder he was not.

For me the starting 3 includes Tyson/Petracca as a point of difference. Viney/Jones are both bulls but they don't have the strength (yes Viney can bench press etc) & power of the bigger bodies. It's pure physics in the end. Tyson in particular either extracts or locks down where sometimes bigger opponents get an advantage over the other 2. An even spread works better for me.

Funnily enough I have an old fashioned view on this. It's more important they get the decisions right rather than when, where or what the numbers are...

...I think Macca is a bit of a glass half full guy when talking about players.' He was talking White up last year and he ended up being delisted. I don't think we will ever get the full opinion of guys like McCartney.

Said it in this mornings press conference, just played on SEN. Viney on limited minutes this weekend...

I think we've got enough going for us to make the 8 even top 4 but the lack of experience in the playing group & senior coach could go against us in a serious run at the flag this season.

Notable absentees: Billy Longer, Jack Lonie, Josh Battle, Hugh Goddard * Riewoldt Big loss for the Saints, will struggle without him this year...

I very much doubt he is being paid much more than anyone else. All clubs have to pay out most of their salary cap, ours is no exception. With a salary cap of 12.45 million (minimum spend approx $11.8 million) the money has to be spent somewhere. Hogan would be on good cash, you could expect Petracca just signed a pretty decent deal. If he was unhappy with his deal he wouldn't have signed. We would have more players on or expected to top 600+k than you might think. Not everyone is on the average which is now approaching 400k... In current times the money someone like Lynch could be offered is getting up to around, well figures of around $1.5m have been mentioned. Now that's going to take a big piece of cap space, put that into context with Lever. I think you are unduly worried 'Farmer'...

No Enright, no Mackie, no Lonergan now along with no Henderson for the first part of the season.... Their defensive stocks have taken a smashing over the last couple of years with retirements and injuries add to the problem. Harry T will be a lone hand early in the season and he's rapidly approaching retirement.

Will cost a fair bit over the $1mill I would think & on a long term deal...

I found him a bit arrogant and aloof...but each to there own.

This is the crux of the argument and one I agree fully with... It's how we are building our list now and in my mind the right way to succeed.

I know my 14yo niece has been working out in the gym so she can improve her strength to do what 'Dusty' does. Kids definitely pick up on what they see...

Because I'm a bit bored this week with us not featuring I thought we could get some practice in for the year ahead analysing our opposition. If anyone watched any of the other games last weekend feel free to post your thoughts. I only watched a Q & a bit of tonights game and thought the Saints disposal was really poor. Both teams looked average but who brought the standard down or are either not a real threat? Interested to see how we match up against the Saints next week at Casey...

I really hope we smash this arrogant bunch of tossers in round 3...

If that was deemed misconduct then surely Jacobs needs to go for pushing him into the other players. There was more chance of damage (very, very little) from that incident.

If there's one thing I think we can take from the game it's the field kicking. On a day when conditions weren't conducive to good kicking we really put on a clinic. Who thought we could ever say this a few years back. I know that we didn't have a lot of pressure from North but in the Neeld and early Roos days we would have been lucky to hit the side of a barn on a still day doing circle work at Gosch's... The addition of Hibberd along with Petracca, Oliver, Vince, Salem, Lewis etc not only gives us grunt but it's starting to show in how we use the ball...we looked like a real football side.

Frosty has been tried in the ruck before so it's not a new idea. He's not doing it now for a reason, it didn't work.

Wish it was Nigel...

Give it a break mate... ...put him on the open market and see how unregarded he is...not.

Taylor will start back this year, no Lonergan and Henderson the only other experienced tall defender unlikely to play round one. That's their problem, they are not well balanced across the ground anymore.

We have...it's called Casey Fields.

You're not reading it right...doing a bit of a Robbo. We don't have any match winners over 25. Nathan is a real goer but not someone that will really turn a game on it's head, some expect him to do more than he's capable. Lewis isn't the player he was at Hawthorn, pretty good to have on board though and Bernie has been more than handy for us...None of them are match winners. My point is that when our young guys get more experience there are a few real match winners in the group who will stand up. Then if we lose the un-loseable it will be a shock rather than expected as has been. I trust the list 'Pennant', I think we've recruited well. My only reservation is if they've matured enough yet.