rjay

Think yourself lucky you missed the late 60's, the 70's and 80's until Northey showed up. I get really angry at the club at times too and last season I was feral, but you know what in all the time I've been supporting it I think we are finally heading in the right direction. The appointment of the young skippers and leadership group, a coach and coaching group who give me confidence, maybe it is rose coloured glasses but I'm not ready to slash my wrists yet. Ask me if we get another 30 goal flogging but I think that will be the domain of GWS this year.

Going on an early interview when Neeld was first appointed he said that he still catches up with Malcolm Blight (his first coach) whenever he (Blight) is in town and they talk football, he is a mentor and I think you will find Mick is the same. Neeld comes across as a smart man and if he has access to 2 great football brains in Blight and Malthouse I'm sure he will use them. These are not contrived mentors as the Bailey/Mathews thing came across but the real thing, they have a past and have built a relationship.

Robbie Flower

It's not a matter of believing (I accept that it probably was a cold or flu type thing), it's more a matter of the performance and our mid field performance as a whole and I will get to this on a future post. In the modern high possesion game that a mid fielder can't get a touch in a half of football no matter what his problem was beggars belief. To me it pointed to problems in the set up that led to the result of the game. I'm really interesed in the changes Neeld brings and if the mid field functions then even a one legged man will get a touch.

...and the second language of the AFL is?

Who knows what went down, whether he had a cold, the flu, a sore little finger. The only thing I know is that Ling beat him on the day.

It's hard to measure Neeld's overall player philosophy on one sentence in a newspaper article and I know some will point to the decisions made in recruiting this year, but it was a lean year draft wise and we did need to top up a bit with some ready made bodies. As with all these things I think it will be player by player, position by position, year by year. It seems too one dimensional to me to say Neeld just likes hard bodied agreesion over talent.

You can guarantee there will be no lottery system until GWS and Gold Coast are up and running then the AFL will have a brilliant new idea of a lottery type system to stop tanking.

This is really all about GWS topping up after 2 poor seasons and an inablitly to lure top line players to the club due to poor performance and conditions. The AFL will manipulate the rules any way they can to make this club work, wait for the relocation (Bears/Lions) after the current media deal is up.

Moloney?

I've said similar in other posts and believe that his challenge will be to work with others in the mid field and build a strong cohesive unit that play for each other.

You got it.

I think we needed to work harder as a group to break tags, the midfield group to me never worked well as a cohesive unit and were easy targets to pick off.

I have seen him (Moloney) as a flat track bully but you may be right in that he often gets tagged out of the game by the better teams. The problem I have with him is when this happens he doesn't change up his game, he continues to try and bullock through opposition players and you just can't push through guys like Ling, Bartell, Kelly, Hodge, Sewell, Mitchell, Swan, Pendles & co. this is just dumb football. I think he will have a big challenge this year to adapt his playing style and be more team oriented, he will need to think his way through and use his strength to get the ball out to team mates in a better position. It will be interesting to see if he is up for the challenge, I hope he is.

He will also know his strengths and that may be playing more the Maxwell type role as a floater, he does read the play very well as Malthouse pointed out after the Brisbane game and he saved that game for us. There has been a lot of talk about Sellar freeing up Frawley but maybe not. Who knows, it's all speculation at this stage. Personally I think all of our over 25's with the exception of Jamar will have to re define their roles this season, it will be interesting to see who survives.

Actions, forget the words we have heard enough of that in the past. Neeld told it as it was, 18 clubs all working to be elite level in everything they do. I don't need to hear any of the "best pre season ever" rubbish. Let's just play football and the actions will show from the first bounce whether we are on the right track.

Very Funny

Thanks for the photos mate, much appreciated.

Mmmm...looks like the doggies may be in trouble this year.

Yep he is, must have filled out a bit.

Thanks for the report. I think you might mean Taggert who at 188 and 87 is a big kid with a good kick on him, Tynan is a similar height but about 10kg lighter. They seem to be getting mixed up a bit.

...and that is a concern. There's not much to like in our over 25's with the exception of Jamar so a lot is going to hinge on the Frawley, Garland, Grimes, Clark, Jurrah, Jones, Bail etc. group of 22-25's and Trengove, Watts, Blease, Howe, McDonald and co realising their potential. It will also be interesting to see how many of the Gold Coast and GWS kids get poached after their 2 year contracts expire.

I think our match day coaching in the past has been too rigid, when something wasn't working we stuck with the same plan and got the same result, it didn't work. I see Frawley as the cornerstone of our defence however that doesn't mean he shouldn't be moved forward on match day from time if we need to generate some momentum. Even the full back of the century was known to move forward occasionally and to great effect.

All clubs say they draft the best available player and don't draft to fill a position. Whether that's right in practice who knows, your guess is as good as mine.

Where is it misleading? it is a fact, he was picked up in the 2nd round, all clubs passed him up in the first round.