Cranky Franky

I love Jared Rivers & hope he does well this year but I am concerned that he seems to go out of his way to give a spray to opposition players time after time. He should concentrate on playing good football & winning games. When he's won a premiership & a B&F then he can go & give as many sprays as he likes. At the moment he just looks like a goose.

These guys have been around almost 10 years and yet they absolutely ALWAYS manage to get soft tissue leg injuries during pre season training. Heven't our medicos learn't ANYTHING about managing these 2. I am very frustrated.

Call me pedantic but its a serious matter. If Steph Martin can add another 4cm in 2010 he will be our No 1 Ruckman

A few years the height of our players changed overnight. Robbo who had been 184 for years went to 187 & Brad Miller went from 192 to 194. Now I get the 09 guide book & guess what? Col Garland has shrunk from 191 to 189 & Miller is back to 192. Newton has lost 3cm while Macnamara & Buckley have both lost 1cm from last year & but Jamar is up 1cm to 198. The big surprise packet is Stef Martin who over the break has grown 4cm to be at 200cm. Is it something in the Casey water ????

I really hope the club got it right with these 2. They are critical to the Club's improvement. Watts was an obvious choice and nobody is going to shoot Prendergast if Jetta, Bennell & Bail don't make it. Blease & Strauss are high picks in a Superdraft which means they might have been around top 10 in an average year. They were taken ahaed of very well credentialled players particularly some KPP's. Lets hope they turn out more like Scott Thompson & Adem Yze rather than Aaron Rogers & Luke Molan.

Baker was a much better player than people think. He became one of the best ruckmen in the competition. Played for Victoria & won a B&F. Was a terrific pack mark & dangerous up forward ie 127 games& 112 goals which is close to double the goal rate of Jeff White. Unfortunately at his peak he did his knee, never really recovered & that was it, career over.

Sadly the problem for is not form or ability its the fact that he is unable to adapt. Adem look at the tapes of your senior games this year. Every time you get the ball instead of doing the team thing you are trying to snap for goal from any angle or distance. Footy is like evolution adapt or become extinct.

Like the dinosaurs you adapt or become extinct. Talent wise Yze could play for another 3 years. Unfortunately he seems incapable of adapting his game so he can continue playing. Against Richmond he just got the ball & snapped for goal regardless of the situation instead of doing the team thing & kicking to advantage. I thought Bailey had treated him very harshly but unfortunately when he got another chance he kept doing the same dumb things. Bye bye Adem.

I see that Morton & Yze have been dropped & Jamar & Whelan have been brought in. I have no problem with Yze & Morton as they were poor last week however Jamar's elevation is a totally dumb decision given that the Swans only have Jolly as a ruckman backed up by part timer Roberts -Thompson. This means we will be top heavy & the Swans will run us ragged. Valenti is an emergency. With Moloney injured we badly needed another on baller who will tackle & be at the bottom of every pack so Valenti should of been a lay down misere. Bode is not worth his place in the side but I can understand the coach playing him & Chris Johnson for a few games to see if they are up to it. But Jamar in the side instead of Valenti ---dumb dumb dumb.

Your argument is full of holes YM - statistics mean very little in this era because players chip it backwards & forwards just like a training drill. Hoppy was a tagger which means if he only got 3 touches but kept Paul Kelly or Greg Williams to under 10 kicks he had done a great job. Look at the stats for taggers like Steven Baker, Josh Carr - they are often very low.

I'm sorry but that is incorrect. Simmonds did not want to leave - he was offered as trade bait because we needed a key defender (Craig Ellis) so he was part of a 3 way swap. Simmonds may not have been AA but he was first ruck for the Dream Team which is close. He is probably paid half as much as Whitey & is not far behind him in value to the team plus he is 2 years younger. Jolly is a big physical ruckman who goes down & kicks goals & is probably one of the form big men of the last 2 years. We did have a choice with Scott Thompson because the year he left a Melbourne team finished last so he had no leverage - in fact if you go over the records he is quoted as saying that if a deal could not be done he would have stayed at Melbourne but Daniher decided he wanted Moloney & the rest is history.

Point taken and this exercise this of course is just fantasy However its not unrealistic to think we could of had James Kelly, Travis, Simmonds, Jolly, Sewell and Scott Thompson (and probably Alwyn Davey) all in the team this year and I think the main reason we missed both Judd & Nick Stevens was that they had no faith in the future of the Club

I have taken some liberties with the team that could have been. We could have taken Fevola in 98 instead of Lamb & in 99 Simon Black (T Longmuir) & Adam Hunter rather than P Wheatley & also in 01 Campbell Brown & Nick Del Santo instead of S Armstrong & L Molan & in 2000 Johncock was available ahead of D Breese. James Kelly ended up at Geelong as part of the Grgic/Bizzell deal & there was a possibility of a trade between Ryan Ferguson for Brad Sewell. I am also assuming we kept Simmonds, Jolly, Travis & Scott Thompson & am making the realistic assumption that with a half decent side Chris Judd would of come to us last year. Whelan Rivers J Kelly Johncock A Hunter Campbell Brown Judd Simon Black Travis Johnstone Del Santo Robertson Woanemirri Simmonds Fevola Davey Jolly Sewell Scott Thompson I'change - Mclean, Green, Miller, Bruce

There is no doubt all 3 of them have OP - another year down the drain & the Clubs future down the drain as well. The club is playing ducks & drakes about information with their injuries but I reckon it is crystal clear. Interesting that both Scott Thompson & Jolly had niggling injuries at Melbourne but since leaving have played almost every game. I will be interested to see about Travis Johnstone - averaged about 15 games a year with us & has only missed 1 since at Brissie.

You are spot on Matey. Garland's last game was probably his best but he was still flogged - Farmer beat him at almost every contest & could have kicked 5 on him. He squibbed a chest mark & punched instead which cost us a goal. Bell is in terrible form & has gone backwards yet still gets picked. Bartram is the one who has got away scott free - his form is woeful. We have replaced the Daniher love children with the Bailey love children. Adelaide will win by 15 goals.

The key point is that we are in danger of not winning a game in 08 & destroying the club - we just have to WIN.. Play the best 22 & give the supporters a win or we will not have a club.

I'll have to explain it to you since you don't understand the term. All coaches have certain favourites which is why some players have to change clubs becuse certain coaches won't give them a go refer Tom Hafey & L Fowler G Neesham & P Bell & R Barrassi A McDonald & A Joyce. Some coaches stick with their best 22 regardless (not a bad idea when winning) & other coaches tend to pick players on form. My point is that having made it clear that Yze, Holland & others were not guaranteed a spot in the senior side he cannot keep persevering with players out of form. Including the pre season we have now lost 10 on the trot so do away with names & reputations & go with form players.

Well everyone is just terrific - I can't work out why we keep getting beaten by 10 goals every week. We must be watching the wrong game Dunn's highlight was getting outmarked by the 178cm Hooper & I repeat that Jamar, Mclean & Bartram were woeful

I was glad to see Bailey drop Yze & make other players perform at Sandy to justify their place which is something Daniher rarely did but Bailey is now in danger of replacing ND's love children with his own version. Bartram has been terrible in the last few games, Dunn has been lazy and unnacountable & Jamar is so bad that we may as well play with only 1 ruckman. Davey has played 1 good game this year & Mclean & Robbo have been poor. Its time to bring in players who have shown good form at Sandringham. If Bailey is fair dinkum Holland, Yze & Bate should come in this week.

Very handy footballer, half forward /winger. Light but a prodigious left foot kick. Nephew of Michael Graham one of SA's all time greats who we were trying to bring to Mmelbourne.

Cam Howatt is an A Grade Turnover Merchant - the Richmond version of Daniel Ward. Every second disposal goes straight to the opposition

Yes I would take a punt on Whitnall. The reason is that we would not have to give up anything ie he would be free & would play for match payments. He showed in a couple of games last year that he could still be useful. If he could hold down CHB for a year while Frawley got more experience it would be terrific. There is no gamble here because he is costing us nothing so it is worth a punt.

Thats all very well but the Judd /Connors camp is treating the public like idiots. I mean whats this rubbish about eliminating one club at a time - it sounds like a juvenile edition of Big Brother. He obviously knows where he wants to go so get on with it you pratts. I hope this all blows up in their face like the Nick Stevens affair or even better it could end up like Jade Rawlings.

The fact that we have very few hard nuts in the team might get Pickett another season. It might be ok to turn up to pre season training overweight when you are 25 but you cannot get away with it at 30. They could offer Pickett a one year performance based contract with very rigouros fitness & weight guidelines he has to meet.

The reason there is a lack of forward options is exactly because by the time Wheatley & Carrol have spent 5 minutes chipping it backwards and forwards to each other all the opposition players have flooded backwards