Jerry Lundergard

We could have used a ruckman giving us first use in the 2nd qtr today, ours didn't get near it.

If he keeps improving at the rate he is going, he could damn near win the whole thing. Unfortunately, he won't be the popular pick over the likes of Palmer, Kreuzer and Cotchin. But which one of them will have played themselves into one the most important and best players on their team by the end of the season? Maybe Palmer.

Bate looks good when running in straight lines, but i doubt he broke any agility records at the AIS elite camps.

He was terrible today, but we will be all thanking him at the end of the season for helping us land the No.1 draft pick.

6. Brock McLean 5. Colin Garland 4. Paul Wheatley 3. Cam Bruce 2. Brad Miller 1. Brad Green

I found this article on TJ on AFL.com, and thought these last couple of paragraphs confirmed what we always thought about the culture of our club under ND's reign. Since moving to the Sunshine state after parting ways with Melbourne at the end of last season, Johnstone has appeared to have a tumultuous relationship with veteran coach Leigh Matthews, but said the atmosphere was designed to bring the best out of each player. "I think they draw it out of you to perform. Like all clubs, you've got set team rules, and I think some clubs might be a bit lenient on it sometimes, but up there, if you're not pulling your weight, and you're not doing the right things, you get pulled into line pretty quickly.

I am already a memeber, but my 3 kids under 5 are not, so i will be buying them all a junior membership next week.

How is our foward line going?

Great call

Who will Garland get this week? Nathan Brown? Very similar palyer to Didak, and very important to the Tigers. Also, i wouldn't mind seeing Dunn play a negating role on Newman, where he can also stay in our F50, and maybe bag a couple of goals.

He is also cited that it was going to be Gardners last game. His head has well and truly disappeared up the proverbial if he thinks that was going to drag an extra 5000 or so through the gates.

I have been trying to get some debate going on this topic in other threads, but have had no real response, so i felt having it's own thread may be a better option. I have previously stated that Dunn is one of my favourite young players. He is a good size, possesses great footy smarts and has a real competetive edge. And although i have been a little dissappointed with his season so far, i think that is more reflective on the new role that DB has him playing. We have all seen him play foward and kick goals, but the reality is that due to his inability to compete in the air will see him never being that key foward we may have drafted him to be. This has led to his new role as a tagger. It has been interesting to read peoples thoughts on him after games, and i am not sure whether everyone has come to the realisation yet that his new role is to stop a gun player from the opposition. IMO this an extremely important role on any side in todays game. You only need to look around at all the great sides in the league in the last few years and they have at least a couple of "stoppers". We have Bartram, who plays on the smaller, quicker players, but we have no one to do the jobs on todays bigger midfielders. So far he has done a couple of good defensive jobs, but I think it is too early to start having a crack at him about his lack of disposals, goals or influence on games as he is only just learning the craft. Cameron Ling was drafted as forward where he played his junior footy, and now plays this role to great effect. I haven't gone back through the stats, but i am pretty sure he would not have got alot of the pill when he first started in this role. The same goes for plyers like Sewell, Kirk, Rawlings, etc. Thoughts?

Due to upcoming concessions for the new teams, it is pretty important for us to get some high draft picks this year.

I would have thought we missed Aaron Daveys influence just as much as they missed Pendleburys.

6. McLean 5. Garland 4. Aussie 3. Green 2. Warnock 1. Jones

I have been banging on for a while now(to deaf ears), that Dunn is being played as a tagger, and therefore has set a role by the coaches and should be judged accordingly. He beat Swan today, did alright on Hayes last week and will continue to get stopping roles because that is obviously a role Bailey has earmarked for him, and one which our team needs. It appears not everyone has figured out what his role is, and are judging him too harshly believing he is not getting enough the pill or kicking bags of goals.

If we had picked up Sylvia with pick 53 and not No.3, would he still be getting a game?

I am interested in everyone's assessment of Dunn. From what i can gather, he is being given a tagging role. With Junior nearing the end, we have no midfield taggers, as Bartram tends to tag half backs/forwards, and is not physically up to tagging bigger midfielders. Every gun side in this competetion have at least a couple of stoppers on their team, and some of them early on in their careers never got much of the pill when they where applying themselves to this role(Kirk, Sewell, Rawlings, Cornes, etc). Dunn tagged Hayes on Sunday, and i think you could mount an argument that out of all the Saints midfiedlers, Hayes had little influence. Although in the context of a 79 point drubbing in which we were smashed in the middle, it means little. My point is though, no matter where we all think Dunn should be played, or how he should be played, if he has been given instructions from the coach to go out and try to stop an opposing influential midfielder, then he should be judged on that shouldn't he?

I have just realised that Watts played all his junior basketball at my old club at Sandy. The head of coaching down there is a Pies supporter and i am going to the game with him on Monday, so i will find out a bit more information about him. He will have seen his development from about the age of 12 or 13 onward from a basketball perspective. It should be interesting hearing what he is like from an athletic and competetive aspect.

Dunn tagged Hayes.

How much longer do we persist with Sylvia? Will Juinor go on? Is Daniel Bell the small defender we need?

I think that's a measured and reasonable assessment Hannabal. It annoys me the amount of criticism of Brock gets on these boards though. I am not sure whether this is due to peoples own expectations of him, or they just think he is a crap footballer. Definitely not a crap footballer in my eyes and would look a hell of alot better with the right mix of midfiedlers around him, and ruckman who could tap it down his throat.

The 2 games this year that we have been predicted to get thumped in (Geelong and Hawks rnd 9), we have gone alright, so i am hopeful this trend continues. However, the Pies will be up for this game big time as we have won the last 4.

More of the same(which is not much), as far as i'm concerned.

Williams had not played much footy and was picked on potential. Watts is already a proven football talent kicking bags of goals in junior footy whilst splitting his sporting commitments with basketball.