rjay

To get off Watts for a minute, it's good to hear that Sheahan did his job well and kept Skinner quite last night. Developing well for a young rookie with a heap of talent.

Thanks for the updates guys, not often I turn off the football on TV but the game was so boring and the commentary average at best. Watts and Gysberts, that's good to hear. I noticed at one point Sheahan was moved on to Skinner, how did he go?

They've missed out on Hurley so the pressure will be on ED to keep Cloke or Pendlebury, should make for an interesting year. Carlton haven't dodged a bullet yet either.

I think you are close but Tapscott won't play as he hasn't had any match practice to date (first game or half game tomorrow at Casey) and although positions don't count so much in the modern game I think Garland is more likely to play up the ground around HBF.Sellar may get a game, interesting against the hawks they played him on Gunston rather then the more obvious Hale probably to see how he could match up against a medium forward and he did ok. Match ups will be important particularly with Brown out, will we play Rivers and Sellar in the same side? Can Sellar take a medium forward?

Funny, I thought Collingwood were happy for Neeld to be interviewed for coaching positions. It wasn't exactly a secret. A bit of revisionism going on here me thinks, Geelong were the better team and Collingwood are making excuses, and speaking of excuses I can't get over Hawthorn thinking the prelim loss cost them a flag. Has anyone noticed how Caroline seems to have changed her tune a bit this season after the boss has fed her a few stories, she has become very AFL friendly.

This kid can play a bit, unlucky to fall through the draft, lucky for us to pick him up as a rookie but still a skinny tall at this stage. Be interesting to watch him over the next season or so.

Don't worry too much about him, another year out of the game and he becomes less relevant. The next few years it will be Acker who?

Yes RR that's exactly what I am saying, maybe not clearly enough.

He may have had some trade value when another club thought they could turn him around, make something of him, develop his potential but the further he goes the less likely that is.

"Football Industry"

Probably a couple of years too late.

Yes mate, let's save money for all clubs and let Emma run the draft. Of course it is simplistic and I'm sure a lot of work goes in behind the scenes as I'm equally as sure that Emmas list comes from her contacts within the recruiting industry. But it is this consensus that maybe will see someone like Jack Darling fall through to the 20's and also why any club would have picked up Scully at 1, it would have been a very courageous move not to.

Some talk about hindsight, and it is a wonderful thing but something that has always grated on me about Tom Scully was his use of langauge, and in particular when he talked of the "football industry". I would have thought if the interview and testing procedures were thorough this would have come up and rung some alarm bells. To me he would always go for the money because this is how he viewed football, in a dispassionate way. The same thorough interview and testing procedures would have seen us at least talk to Martin and get an inside perspective on him and a comparison to the other top picks, surely we did that. If it is true that we didn't look any furter than Scully and Trengove then we could have saved a bit of cash and disbanded the recruiting department and gone with whatever Emma Quale predicted, wouldn't have been much different.

Scott Clayton and the Gold Coast FD would need to be drug tested if they went for that one.

An inspiration to all, RIP Jimmy.

That is exactly what I am saying, maybe didn't express it well enough but "we are not at that level yet", one step at a time.

Hawthorns short game only works with elite kicks they have and is yet to stand up against good high pressure football. Let's see how it stands up during the season. More touches, more chance for error a bit like the early Adelaide teams that tried keepings off football and changed when Blight came in. I think (well I hope) you would be doing Neeld a disservice to think that long down the line is the only plan. He did talk of the overseas experience in team sports of the best teams being able to switch plans mid game if need be, we are not at that level yet.

Funny, I just heard a Carlton caller on radio wanting to sack Ratten after todays NAB loss and watch them turn on Buckley if things don't go well at Eddie land. Supporters come in many shapes and sizes and every club has their fair share and mix.

Might do a Malcolm Blight.

Agreed the senior players have a lot to answer for. I can still visualise times when Watts in his first couple of seasons was in good position being ignored by a senior teammate who burned him, was it incompetance, ingnorance, jealousy, playing for themselves. It certainly wasn't the action of senior players who had the interests of the team and the development of younger players at heart. If a player keeps presenting and gets burned often enough then it's no wonder he may start to think it's not a worthwhile endevour and after a while his work ratewill be questioned.

Who cares? I guess a lot of people. I'm interested but at the end of the day it's only an opinion. I don't mind a good argument about the top 5 or so or best in position but the rest is not worth the time. As a Melbourne supporter I haven't had a lot to waste my time on since Robbie. So, as I've said early on it's Ablett for me at 1 but I can see where a lot are marking up Buddy, he's certainly up there in the most watchable list. I love watching Adam Goodes play, I think Pendlebury uses the ball and sets up play better than anyone and apart from that I could care less.

We have several senior players who don't have the ability to show the way to the several new players showing serious ability.

He is pretty close to the mark here, we have so many players that are the great unknowns. If Morton, Blease, Tapscott, Bail, Watts, Gysberts, Howe, Petterd Jurrah, Garland, Jones, Trengove,and any of the other younger players I have forgotten to mention don't step up this year then we fall back in the pack. The senior players have taken us to where we are now. Grimes is a player, needs to get on the park, Frawley at the moment is the only genuine top liner with maybe Jamar. As Terry asked where is our run and spread coming from, we get Viney next year but he doesn't give us that, he's another inside mid. It has to come from Blease, Morton, Grimes and Bail with some help from Petterd, Howe and probably Watts, then we really need to draft well with the compo picks. The thing with Watts is that when he gets the ball it ends up in a teammates hands, he is an elite user and decision maker who just needs to get more ball. In my eyes we can only take 2 or 3 of Moloney, Magna, Couch, Silvia and Jones into the same team otherwise we are unbalanced. Jones has earned his place with his pre season form, Magna gets in and under but at this stage his ball usage is sub par.

A bit like Kosi at St.Kilda to me Col lacks the peripheral vision, awareness and decision making skills that would take him to the elite level. He has everything else going for him and will turn it on from time to time but expectations for him are too high in my view. In a good team he could fill a role and create a lot of damage forward with an occassional run midfield a bit like Chapman does at Geelong.

After this season I would think there are no more excuses, big gains this season, maybe AA in his 5th after he was coming from a long way back with his first.