rjay

First practice match of the season, even missed the intra club......the kid is a winner, he will come through. I still remember him winning us the game in Darwin in his first season. A good decision to make him co captain with Grimes, not a mistake. The 2 of them will be champs and we have a few more that will step up.

Funny thing Macca is that Gieschen swears there is no change at finals time, like there is no "rule of the week". We all know the opposite to be true...

Thanks for the report, good to hear that Strauss' comeback was a success.

Agree with you Macca that first he needs to establish himself, I just don't want to see him being a one trick pony and rely on the big grab. I would really like to see him play up the ground and move into the midfield at times, he seems to have the tank and all round game to do it. Being known for his highlight reel and as the new Robbo is not the stuff to build a career on. Having seen him at Casey before his debut and his games since he has shown a lot of other aspects, but as the coach said last night "he needs to be more consistant", more games under the belt with experience and lets hope he is a beauty.

Not comparing him at all Macca, many have labelled him the new Robbo, not me. I just hope he doesn't fall into the same bad habits.

I'm sorry but I just don't share your opinion of Robbo and hope that Howe doesn't fall into the same trap of going for the spectacular at the expense of the team thing. I think Robbo the entertainer took over from Robbo the footballer.

With you on that one, he has much more upside that Robbo.

Yep he usually does play well on him but Buddy towelled him up last year in round 18.

Same in the round robin first games, he made an appearance but Martin and Fitz did a lot of the work.

I would be surprised if Frawley plays more than 1 or 2 quarters this week, he has had a couple of games already this pre season. May be the chance to try Sellar out on Buddy.

Just don't have Alistair Lynch commentate on our games. Lacks credibility.

From memory the leadership group at Geelong had to take Gary aside and talk to him about his work ethic, seems he listened. Watts will be a player, as the coach says he is coming from a fair way back (APS) and has only 40 games under the belt. Maybe Mick is doing his mate Mark a favour and providing an extra bit of needle. One post said he was "scared", that reminds me of the day Greg Healy played with a fractured cheek bone and one of our supporters called him weak and gutless. No one running around in AFL football is scared, they may not all be Jonathan Browns but it takes courage to take the field.

Yep, it is good news and Strauss in particular is a great story coming back from the broken leg that looked like it could have kept him out for a lot of this season if not more.

Spot on, depth is an illusion. What it is is you have 5 players who can replace your 5 last picked players, you can never replace the top 5 otherwise they would already be in the side. The Australian cricket team is a case in point, we were all going on about the wonderful depth of our cricket but when we lost Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist and Haydn what happened. You don't replace champions.

Just not this year.

Even funnier than Spinal Tap.

Great work!

Gary Ablett!

He will be playing round 1 AFL, may not be doing the flash things or getting high stats at the moment but some good blocking for team mates, knock on to Pet, good use of the ball in heavy traffic and pressure. I think Neeld's assesment was on the money, 20 yo 40 game player with a lot of upside who doesn't need to do a lot to influence a game.

It can't be underestimated the experience that players like Smith, Swallow and Hunt got from a season in the VFL. I've been on about this since last year and think it was a big mistake by the AFL not to prepare the GWS guys in the next best comp in the country, but then a lot of what has been happening up there is second rate.

...and Mathew Knights is safe, we haven't spoken to James, Mark who???

I think it is drawing a long bow also, but Bartram played his junior footy with Ocean Grove before heading to Geelong Falcons.

Wouldn't bet on it yet, Hurley and Gibbs are sprouting the same stuff at the moment. Gibbs hasn't heard from GWS? If I were GWS I would be making Hurley an offer that maybe to good to refuse, do they have anything in the bank? your guess is as good as mine.

Agree, the only one of our senior players (over 25's) who is comparable IMO is Jamar. That's why we need the next rung, Frawley, Garland, Jones and co along with the new captains to stand up.

The bit I really like about this is that the AFL are pleased with the trial results in the NAB cup. Good trial, so far we have only played a few 2 x 20min half games unless I've missed something. Looks like it's on the way for 2013.