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I hope and pray that his deficiencies in disposal are coachable. If he can correct his kicking he will be an absolute gun key position player (and I'm still of the opinion that he could successfully play a roaming CHF role).

Want to retract this one now, mate? Haha!

Just because bold statements are fun... I reckon this kid is going to be Cyril Rioli, except with more substance and less hype.

No we don't. There is nothing in the Australian constitution that enshrines freedom of speech as a right. The closest thing we have to a right to freedom of speech is that we are a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights... and even that doesn't specifically declare free speech to be an inalienable right.

Add Mitch Clarke to Freo's forward line and they are a much more serious flag threat. Adding a 200cm power forward to a team with an open premiership window is an opportunity not to be sneezed at. Particularly when your head coach is a known "go for the flag and leave the club in a shambles if you miss" kinda guy...

Watched the replay last night. Just reconfirmed that this bloke lays a fierce tackle. He will strike fear into the hearts of opposition players. Viney, Jones and Tyson will enjoy having him around in contested ball situations. The opposition will always be hearing footsteps.

Is it just me or has Vince played better for us than he was at Adelaide? Not up to his best and fairest year, of course, but I reckon he's up a level from where he was the last couple of years.

Lenny was an absolute champion. No idea about his coaching credentials. Of the retiring players this year, I think Maxwell is the most suited to a transition to coaching. I've always thought players with average ability who succeeded through determination and strength of character make better coaches than naturally gifted superstars. Clarkson, Hinkley, guys in that mould.

WOWWEEE BARREL BOY'S ARM HAS JUST BEEN SLICED OFF AFTER BIG BOY MCEVOY BUMPED HIM WHILE TRYING TO SPOIL THE BALL!! BOY OH BOY!! WOWEEEEE!! GET A LOOK AT THAT RICHO!

The laser beams are a much better idea. If a ball "hit the post" it would be incinerated by the laser beam and explode on the spot. There'd be no necessity for a goal review system then. We could fill the balls with fireworks to make sure everyone could see.

They did that in the NAB cup one year. Would make things a lot easier.

Haha! Standard football post. "I think this, and if you don't, then you're stupid!". Super constructive.

You're naming fringe players made to look good in good/great teams, and comparing them to fringe players made to look average in a decidedly average team. For a guy with the name "Dunn" in his username, this is terribly ironic.

Paul says what he needs to say to motivate the group. What he says publicly, what he says privately to the group, and what he thinks to himself, are three separate messages that a master coach like him would never confuse. I've coached people to national championship titles in another sport. I know that what I would describe as a "diabolical" or "unacceptable" performance from them was a very, very small diversion away from perfection (which is required to be the best). What Roos is currently calling "diabolical" would have been described by last years coach as "fairly competitive". We are not that far away.

You guys are hilarious. This thread reads like we're the worst team in the history of football. You remove three absolute shank kicks and three terrible umpiring decisions from that game and we'd have won by three goals. Roos' plan is working. Even with players like Matt Jones and Dan Nicholson on the park, we're playing respectable football. Yeah, it's frustrating when a player butchers a kick, but to have Bernie Vince and Jack Watts both shank a shocker within five minutes isn't bad preparation or bad management or bad training or anything. Those guys are both excellent kicks, 99.5% of the time. It was just straight bad luck. We played, by our new standards, quite poorly, and yet we still almost won. "Quite poorly" under the previous regime was a 100 point plus belting. We're on the right track. The sky is not falling in. We'll be playing finals in a year or two.

There is absolutely no evidence that this is the case. An analysis of free agency moves completed thus far show the spread from/to strong and weak clubs is almost identical.

This is a silly argument. The MCG is the centrepiece of sport for this state. The fact that it was MFC's home ground first means very little. Without the attendances and money generated by the Pies, Hawks, and Tigers, it would not be a quarter of the stadium it is today.

The WVFL has organised free tickets to the Dees vs the Dogs this weekend. Far as I can tell, the tickets give you entry for both the women's game, and the AFL match that follows! You can get two free tickets per person. Get along and cheer on Daisy and the girls as they smash the dogs, before Jonesy and the crew belt their seniors as well! Perhaps young Bobbi will be a father-daughter recruit to the Dees AWFL* team. Here's a link, instructions are there. You have to sign up to the dogs mailing list, and you have to be really patient with the website, but you get two free tickets so you can't complain! *We couldn't call the new women's league WAFL, for obvious reasons, but I don't think we can call it that either!!

That whole team had gone to [censored]. The first year Sando turned up they looked a completely different outfit. They've since been hit hard by administrative incompetence, but they're still a better team than they were when Craig was running the place. I reckon I saw unrealised potential in Sellar. Whether I was right or not, I guess now I'll never know.

I reckon Sellar had all the tools. He would have flourished in the right environment in my opinion.

You're suffering from a fair bit of confirmation bias there mate. List of clubs who have lost a player to free agency (not including delisted free agents for obvious reasons): Hawthorn x 4 Melbourne x 3 Port Adelaide x 2 St Kilda x 2 Adelaide West Coast Geelong Richmond Carlton Collingwood The two teams that have lost the most players are the worst team of the free agency period (that's us) and the best team of the free agency period (the Hawks). Between, you've got losses from three "power clubs" (Geelong, West Coast and Collingwood), two traditionally strong clubs which are currently floundering (Richmond and Carlton), two interstate sides which have looked both great and average-to-terrible in recent times (Port and Adelaide) and two departures from the currently hopeless Saints. There's absolutely nothing in that to suggest that Free Agency is doing anything other than helping established players earn their maximum value, if they choose to forgo team loyalty to do so. Yes, the Dees have been hit hard recently because people leave in search of a finals-bound team, but the Hawks have lost just as many who are, ironically, also in search of a finals-bound team (but one which they can actually get on the park for). Franklin and Daisy, both high-profile players at high profile clubs, have left via free agency. On the evidence currently availble, the system does not unfairly disadvantage lower tier clubs, and in fact, now that you can "bank" the salary cap for a few years, it will become a weapon for the lower tier clubs to use to pry underpaid champions away from champion teams.

In about 1987/8, I was taken to the football by a Dees supporting friend from primary school. We had a ripper day. The son of Geelong-mad mother and Hawthorn father, I picked the Dees. On the balance of the last few years, it's felt like a pretty cruel twist of fate!! Still, bloody love my crappy club.

Not that it matters on the football field, but I don't reckon Chip's the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Doesn't matter how many Lynden Dunn / Neville Jetta / Cameron Pedersen transformations they witness, football fans will continue to make foolish blanket statements. (Also, inb4 "I called them as potential superstars years ago!").

Not sure who mentioned it earlier about Nev's disposal efficiency, but I've just watched the replay and you're dead right. We all know he's not a long kick, but he puts them exactly where he wants them, and is confident enough in his ability to thread them into a pretty tight space. There was one kick into the corridor which he landed on a demon (Grimes, I think) with three bombers around him, but timed it so it was an uncontested mark. That's a handy tool to have at your disposal coming out of the back half, especially when the opposition has flooded back into your 50 and you're chipping it around the back looking for a laser pass into a barely-free forward.