Cranky Franky

Mate I loved Tassie J too but suggesting he always made the centre circle - almost to the CHF zone is laying it on a bit thick I reckon. Its 75m from the edge of the goal square to the centre of the MCG & while I'm sure he rugularly kicked out 50 to 60 m I doubt he made the centre square very often unless he had a following wind.

Ah Paul Rowlands another one of a long list of players over the years who looked like they could be anything but who sadly fizzled out : David Code, Stephen Bickford, Michael Reynolds, Glen Swan, John Clennett, Darren Cuthbertson. Memories

Thats not quiet right HB. Phil was 178cm & played back pocket while Tassie Bob was the full back @ around 190cm. Phil played 3 senior games & while he was a great kick he wasn't quiet up to it as a senior player rather than Tassie keeping him out of the team.

It seems we both agree that Williams is good at developing young players. My point was about suggestions that he has some special skill or track record for developing indigenous players. I pointed out that there is nothing special about Williams in that and plenty of coaches (Clarkson, Mathews) also have good records of developing young Indigenous players. You could add Sheedy, Hinkley and Mark Thompson.

Your making this stuff up. You may as well say Clarkson (Franklin, Williams, Rioli) or Leigh Mathews (White, Johnson, McGrath) had "special" talent for developing Indigenous players. Fact is Pearce & the Burgoynes were very talented players & would probably have succeeded anywhere. Im glad we have Mark Williams because he has a reputation of being good at developing young players regardless of their background.

Are you serious "My Observation" ? You may as well say "Max Gawn is listed at 208cm but my observation when he was standing next to Steven May is that he is pushing 215cm" Some of the comments on Demonland are as kooky as the climate deniers or those claiming 5g causes covid. How about we go with the information on his Club's site which lists him at 169 cm.

The only successful father/son combos since I've been watching have bee the Dullards & the Vineys. Lots of fails - Burgmanns, Johnsons, Sullivans, Bourkes. I wouldn't hold my breath on Farmer.

Are you making this up as it doesn't make sense to me. I don't think any Club or coach is better than another one at developing Indigenous players. Surely the skills are in developing young players regardless of their backgrounds.

Its actually a smart selection. In his last game he got 2 Brownlow votes & showed what he is capable of. He was unlucky not to get more games. He is equally at home forward or in defence & can pinch hit in the ruck. Smart investment & costs very little.

In fact Dean, Spalding and Viney came to us in 1987. Stretch came from SA in 1986 and Obst came over in 1990.

Wrong - Warren Dean was from Perth and came over the same year as Spalding and Todd Viney.

Yes I saw him play and 87 goals is good but you need to kick 100+ regularly to be phenomenal. His record is similar to Jackos. He was terrible in the wet or if the ball hit the ground he was hopeless. And it is simplistic to say he was ruined by Jackovich's arrival as they played several games together where both of them & the team did well. When Jackovich arrived Bennett more often played in the fwd pocket than CH FWD.

Agree with most of this but calling Darren Bennett "phenomenal" is way over the top. Coleman was phenomenal ditto Ablett, Jackovich briefly & probably Jurrah for a millisecond. Bennett was very good on his day & sometime spectacular but nowhere near phenomenal.

Dieter first of all I note that you have ignored every question that I ask you. Anyhow you are not making much sense to me - what on earth does "brought up pretending he was white" mean ?? His mother was white & so was most of the rest of his family - see https://www.latinstoriesaustralia.com/blog/2018/6/23/elizabeth-deserbelles Apart from some domestic violence issues early on (which I presume were caused by H's biological father) he seems to have had an ordinary Australian middle class upbringing. And he earned more money from footy than I will ever see in my lifetime. That's a pretty privileged existence far as i can see.

Nice work Dieter - your full argument is WOW. Kindly point out how Harry's experience was more difficult than those of any of the players I mentioned who had real adversity to deal with. And please let me know how Harry hasn't had an extremely priveleged life up to now.

Oh good on you Cards - congratulations on being empathic & super duper Woke unlike us poor yokels. Like most migrants I copped racist taunts through all of primary school & some of high school & we dealt with it & got on with things. My point is Harry has had a privileged upbringing by most standards & I find him to be a serial windbag. I find the stories of David Schwarz, Jimmy Bartel, Adam Goodes, Peter Bell or Aussie Wonnaemirri who all had to overcome difficult situations much more interesting.

Agree 100%. The Muir story was mostly terrific & his background was sad & tragic & he was let down by the AFL & by footy clubs but it skips over & ignores any blame Muir himself had in the matter. I watched Muir belt players left, right & centre including direct opponents & players a long way off the ball. He was genuinely scary & did serious damage.

Yes exactly. Harry is finding out a few truths. Racism is a human condition found everywhere and life can be complicated and unfair. The article notes that his father left Angola to escape a brutal civil war. Harry is probably lucky he didn't grow up in Angola.

Don't agree with you about Lockhart. Is tough & aggressive but is sloppy in execution, slips over, lacks accuracy with foot & hand disposal & doesn't read the play well. Has potential but needs a major improvement in his skill levels to become a regular player.

He cut us to pieces in the season opener.

Your comments about Oscar are the most sensible out of the 400+ that have been posted. My real worry is that most average supporters worked out 5 years ago that Oscar was not up to It yet the highly paid professionals in our Footy Dpt couldn't see the obvious.

Well done AFL. Anything to cut down the congestion. Have stopped watching any AFL apart from Melbourne games as its become an ugly rugby scrum.

If you like them so much show some respect & spell their names correctly - Its Ray Biffin not Biffen and Rhino Richards not Richardson

Why - are you going to tell us that only people who have played at are serious level are qualified to comment about football ?

My 2 favourite Oscar moments. 1 - gets shunted aside by Jack Stevens in the goal square who goes on to kick the sealer. 2. Darwin v Crows. Marks the ball at half back, no Crows within 80 metres of him.He just stands there clueless until nearby Dees supporters start screaming at him to run. After what seems like an eternity a light bulb comes on & he runs off & kicks it.