Yes, but whats new?

Agree about King, had us at 5 o'clock in the premiership window and rebuilding.
I could barely watch it, they could hardly contain themselves when discussing which team Gibbs should go to and constantly bringing up our free agents. Am i paranoid?

re: Ellard, full credit to him for making the selectors' decision very very difficult for Rd 1.

Couldn't have done any more the last two weeks.

Smashed in clearances yet still leading at 3/4 time before sending almost the entire bench in for early showers.
Good signs from some of the younger players.
Thomas looked good (although he looks tiny in the Navy Blue).

The umpires are as rusty as the players, some hilarious deliberate OOB paid along with some strange interpretations of too high.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

I thought until last night, all NAB games I have seen were umpired brilliantly. By brilliantly, I mean the umpires largely stayed out fo the camera, only paid very obvious free kicks and let the game flow pretty well.

last night was a reversal straight back to 2012, where it seemed the umpires were hanging around every contest actively looking for a free kick to pay. It was a really disappointing effort from them i thought. It seemed their mindset/approach was a complete reversal from earlier games.

Do you think he doesn't demand the ball because he knows they're going to ignore him and kick it long to Waite?
We need a second forward. Hendo? Levi? Kreuzer? Rowe? Of those only Hendo is a real plus. Kreuzer can't take a mark and his kicking has deserted him. Levi can mark if they kick it to him but his kicking is susppect. Rowe is a class below the others and I think he will play most of his footy in the NB.

So where does that leave us? I think Levi is the key but he has to get the chance. Nobody wants to kick it to him. He needs to reward the ball carrier by kicking the goals he gets instead of fluffing it. Then they might want to give it to him.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

I've been pleasantly surprised by Levi's kicking in the two games.

Agreed was telling friends he would probably shank them and got proven wrong!

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dane's trolling again

He is just too light in the frame for this level, he desperately needs to put some e
Weight on, as he is now he would get out bodied in an u12s game

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We are the maybe blues

It would be helpful if they actually kicked it to Levi's advantage at any stage in the match
I think he is developing and absolutely should be persevered with -kicking has improved - how about using him as other than the long bomb get out of jail kick

Immeasurably better than Rowe and should be preferred to him on all occasions

It's Dwayne being Dwayne, the blokes a Richard head

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We are the maybe blues

Promblem that been around for ages is our use of the ball all over the field.Our kick ins from defence,kicks into fwd line,kicks around the ground to many times to a contest.(turnovers)The good teams have that loose man or fwdline open space to lead i believe we have to change our game plan.This is not anab cup issue this has been happening home awy games.

Exactly what I said...and gladly wrong

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

They didnt seem to look for him.

Couldnt tel on TV if he presented or not.

And bombing it to Waite is not looking for the better option.

Casboult is our best overhead mark by a long way and he's kicking seems to have improved.

As for Rowe...I dont think hes AFL materila. He doesnt seem to have improved in strength or speed after completing a preseason...plodder.

Everitt is a swingman, but he has a similar body type to Waite. So one of them could play back. Not sure if Waite has lost a yard, but he seems to have.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Spot on

A certain player running around for Geelong, taken a few picks after Rowe in the same draft certainly looks like AFL material.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

Surely you aren't implying that our recruiting/drafting record over the past decade hasn't cut the mustard?

I'll have you know that the Livingston's (pick 4), and the Vance's (pick 6) were certainly AFL material - its not their fault that they couldn't play

And its very unfair of you to use the Geelong club as an example of player development.

Not only do they know what they are doing, the cats also have first class leaders driving their young players. Leaders right across the list and on each line.

I recall Chapman on radio last year saying that at the cats they look at the players character and motivation etc and whether they would fit into the Geelong structure, BEFORE they looked at talent and reputation etc....

This is why the Cats won the 2011 flag - after losing their best player (Abblet) and premiership coach (Bomber) at the end of 2010.

You have to get everything spot on in a club to create prolonged success.

But above all, the player leadership must be FIRST class - leading in leaders.

Get that wrong, and everything else collapses or is mediocre on the field

That's were we have been for some time now!

(we gallop around the world in Dubai and Arizona spending a fortune - the cats leaders take small group of young players under their wings over the pre season to Castlemaine and explain to them what is expected of them at senior level. Not only is this great for the young players, the senior players learn a lot about leadership and themselves as well. Harry Taylor was describing this process in an interview recently.)

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Vice President, International Extreme Sarcasm Society (IESS)

I agree. Although the Gold Coast vs. Brisbane game was even worse. Umpires kept paying 'too high' decisions to any player who placed his head anywhere near his opponent.

Was wondering the same thing myself.