The heart beats true

Is that an offer? I'll throw in my sister and a couple of 'project player' nephews too.

Beamer made a decision over the last few years to stay bulky and try to push through. Name another midfielder with his experience that's gone the same route? Everyone is trimming down and improving their ability to run for 3 hours. He looks like a dinosaur now. I think he'll struggle to get much interest. If GC want him can we trade him for Caddy, or does free agency prohibit it?

By the time he plays in our premiership side he'll be one of the best key position players in the comp. He can work on skills but Tom has great aerobic capacity and the ability to take the game on and those aren't things you can teach.

Not 100% sold on the 'buy in' part. Not sure our current playing group have enough football currency to buy much. What I will say is that I think the players have been told not to worry as much about turnovers and mistakes and just work on possession. I know supporters don't like it when we switch back and forth but our inexperienced or down on confidence players get a lift from having the ball in their hands more often. The switching was really missing in the early bomb it down the line weeks and I think that was when we looked out worst. Neeld is stead fast in his unwillingness to move players when things are going against us. While its frustrating I think he's not giving them a way out and instead seeing who stands up. I know he looked furious at 3/4 time. I don't think he's showing much tactically because it's all about learning about the players first.

Loved being proven wrong about Spence. He just all of a sudden seems to have a bit of a sparkle in his eye like he might just go a bit berserk. The more I see the more I like.

What a joke of a thread. Is he frustrating at times? Yes. Would he be a good player in a side that can kick? Definitely. Give him time next year with bigger bodies around him and better delivery and Col will look a lot better. Honestly some on D'Land think gun players abound at other clubs. You know what's out there? Joel Mac and James Sellar.

Very early he went for a mark and got hurt. Was on the southern stand side and he went off. He grabbed his back the minute he went down. When he came back on his opponent took every opportunity to get into his back and Col was less than impressed. Got into a few scuffles as a result. Will watch the replay tonight and confirm. Huge Saturday night at my place

Left out Nev Jetta too. Saw some real signs from him today.

Focus on the positives, as I saw quite a few: Blease - outstanding game. You can't ask more than that effort from a small forward with no big blokes around him. Big Jake - love his endeavour. At least you know he's trying hard. I reckon he's going to make it. Grimes - good first half. Tom Mac - he learnt not to blaze across goal. He won't be doing that in our premiership year We kicked 12 goals with no forward line at all and an ordinary midfield. Go easy on Sylvia. I think he really hurt his back (again) early in the first quarter and I think the saints went after it at every opportunity from that point on.

Calm down folks. Might not be the end of the world. Tom McD will go to Reiwoldt and Sellar will take Koschitzke. Rather Chip have a rest than get a more serious injury. Bater might play forward and tear them apart! (i'd also like to take this opportunity to remind people that by my calculations this means 8 of our best 18 are not on the G today - let alone best 22. Please take this into consideration when you begin to scream about how shite we are at 4:30 this afternoon)

Ego and status is 90% of politics mate. You'll be fine.

Just go and watch Tom McDonald, Grimes, Trengove, Strauss, Blease, Tappy and Howey. Focus on the future mate. A day at the G, some beers, a pie. Come on! It'll be fun. Go with a positive attitude and you'll be surprised at what you see in the boys.

Jimmi I was making fun of myself there mate. That's what the little winking icon means. It suggests a level of irony and self-deprecation. I'm pretty excited to see how you contribute around here though. You're clearly setting the bar pretty high and I can only hope to meet your lofty standards. I'm sure you won't return comment though, because in your own words 'why take the bait?' (again, note the little winking icon)

For what it's worth the thread was started because I find the AFL statistics fascinating when it comes to experience. I also think that these stats coming from the coach of our footy club are designed to allow people to get a sense of where we are and be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the playing group, regardless of the coach. I'm sorry if it offends you. Maybe we should all return to talking about possible trade scenarios, over analysing Jack Viney or writing songs about the coach?

I was thinking the exact same thing after watching the replay from the weekend CBH. Blokes like Dunn, Bail and Joel Mac looked to have a lot more time and space on the weekend. It proves the theory that they are handy VFL players but can't stand up against more pressure. We looked like a decent side in the first quarter on Sunday but that side would have been annihilated by anyone inside the top 10 teams in the AFL. A coach can't get blood from an inexperienced, talentless, injury prone stone.

So why haven't Hawthorn won a flag since 2008? (and remember I don't want to hear excuses).

Watts can be Goddard-like: Neeld About 2:45 into this weeks 'Coaches Office' Mark makes a very interesting argument about experience and it's impact on success. To paraphrase: • It's all about the experience on the ground, not on the list • 144 games played prior to last round and only 3 of those had been won by a team with less than 65 games average experience (MFC winning 2 of them) • last season we fielded a team with more experience on 6 occasions, which obviously resulted in better performance • we are essentially 2 seasons behind but we clearly have time on our side Thought it was fascinating to see how directly experience effects the results not just for us but across the competition.

I can't think of a single reason why the club would release information that another player dobbed him in. It's got trouble written all over it. I hope Swanny is [censored] and wants out. I'd look the other way while he did whatever he wanted with his free time if he got 40 touches a week in the Red & Blue. And think about the marketing opportunities! We've always had a reputation as 'skiers'

I'm really glad that the club is having a game to honor Brad at the G. He's been a great servant. I'll be there to cheer him on one last time. Thought this photo was a bit of fun: http://instagram.com/p/ODOYyXl30X/ Am I reading to much into it, but is that Bater waving good bye as he exits the building?

I actually think that was his way of showing the playing group just how poor they were. He knew he was gone, the only ones that could do anything about it are the players and they showed absolutely nothing. Staying in the box implied that he was in control when he clearly felt that he wasn't. Good luck to them now. Maybe Bandicoot and co could sign up as Port members. I think they'll enjoy the next few years of sticking the boots into the new coach.

Or, he was a bloke that started his career with a successful team only to spend 75% of it being thumped and constantly under criticism. I thought it was obvious Brad has been told his time is up this year and he was enjoying the last bag of goals he'll kick on the G in front of his family. I was glad he got to do that, and I think anyone that wants to take that away from a 250 game player is mean spirited.

See this comment I have a problem with. I don't genuinely believe that you want Neeld to succeed. I think you'd rather be 'right' about him. Why else draw this rather obvious conclusion for everyone? Can we just give it a rest for a few days? It's boring.

I'm a bit confused about this 'strong hold' that we apparently have. Is this part of the same strong hold that got 13,000 in to see the Freo match? You're kidding yourself if you think that there is any growth for the club in Bentleigh. It's why Hawthorn moved to Waverly. We went to Casey because their is population growth there and we need growth to survive. Shoring up Bentleigh is like Geelong shoring up Colac - a nice idea for the 10,000 that live there but a horrible business decision with no room for expansion.

They are kidding themselves. We are a bad side at the best of times but if you take out 7 of our first 18 (let alone 22) with injury then the argument should be made that this will be a very close game and could go either way. The coach and FD are too new to be let go, most of the players are well aware that they are already playing for their futures. That only leaves those higher up the chain and I can't see ANY foreseeable reason why a Healy would want to put pressure on them, right? Right?

Don't take away the conspiracy theories BH. It's all we have left in 2012.