Did Brock's last effort warrant his selection this week?
He's a seasoned campaigner and knows more than most about fighting back to gain redemption, so I say yes.
His past 2 games have been at about the level of how he played when he first arrived.
If he is not fit, pick Cachia. If he is fit, he ought to be close to a VFL game if he doesn't play a hell of a lot better.
Why is Cachia ahead of him?
Graham and Cripps are ahead of both of them!
Cachia is the obvious replacement for Brock as he has the in-and-under strength required. Cripps is too young and needs many more games before being seriously considered for a regular senior berth in the 'heat'. Cachia can handle heat. Graham is more an outside mid... good replacement for someone like Lucas.
Cachia is more seasoned and battle ready.....you wonder though with Robbo, Bell, Curnow and then adding Cachia wether we have to many "like" players. If Cripps plays I would prefer he started as the sub and to be honest I wouldnt mind him running out with Juddy in his first game for the expert guidance he would receive allbeit that might be a month away.... Graham deserves a run as he has been very good preseason.....
Very sad news for the young bloke ,and the Storm players involved would be feeling very bad.....just hope new research can find some solutions and give this young man and others some future..
Well deserved for Dylan Buckley and lets hope that form continues vs Essendon.... Youth rarely lets you down......agree Cripps, Graham need to get a nomination to give the club another boost and I'll even throw in Tom Bell...
Reckon he's played too many games...might be too old too.
Plus, he's a hack!
I guess when Bell plays 100 games and qualifies under your award winning formula as a succesful recruit you will claim him as another Wayne Hughes recruiting success......speaking of hacks...
Well deserved for Dylan Buckley and lets hope that form continues vs Essendon.... Youth rarely lets you down......agree Cripps, Graham need to get a nomination to give the club another boost and I'll even throw in Tom Bell...
Bell is too old. Must be under 21 and have played less than 10 games before Jan 1.
Well deserved for Dylan Buckley and lets hope that form continues vs Essendon.... Youth rarely lets you down......agree Cripps, Graham need to get a nomination to give the club another boost and I'll even throw in Tom Bell...
Ive changed my view on Watson over last few months. I think he'll be a good player.
I thought that too until he played a shocker vs Port....his lack of body on body work for a bloke his size is terrible, his U18 rebounding ability hid his lack of defensive ability and its back to basics to get him up to speed and that could be a couple of years away..
Spot on EB.....exactly my thoughts. I went to the Port game thinking Watson had improved immeasurebly, left that game thinking the opposite. He was putrid.
Probably the only bad game though he's played and seems like he might've had an injury. They're all putrid at some stage of their careers.
If you thought he had imrproved, and i'm sure you wouldn't have been imagining it, then you can't just suddenly write him off after one game.
He was bad Jim...that was the old Watson when he first arrived, slow, lacking any defensive plan on his opponents(maybe the coaches fault) and his lack of ability to lay body on Westhoff in particular was U18 kids football stuff.. He arrived late to contests and applied no pressure, when your man is 199cm you need to be pushing/shoving and using your body to upset him. I would have dragged Watson and told to him to stop playing like a wimpy big girl and get physical.....
Ive changed my view on Watson over last few months. I think he'll be a good player.
I thought that too until he played a shocker vs Port....his lack of body on body work for a bloke his size is terrible, his U18 rebounding ability hid his lack of defensive ability and its back to basics to get him up to speed and that could be a couple of years away..
I want to say one thing and that is if you as a supporter don't think robo should be playing you are wrong.When us have a team of soft c...is like we have then you need someone that will get the pill even if there disposal is below average. I'd love to see Garlett,yarran, Murphy Gibbs Lucas and half the rest do what he does,watch last years final then judge him,I'd take another 3 or 4,of him any day.Yaz looked good last night but how many times did he get the hard tough ball, Like it or not at least I'm not one of the sheep
What's the point of winning the ball when more often than you just give the ball back?
I couldn't work out why Robbo was getting the ball so much, well I could he goes hard for it, but when he does he has no opposition, from what I could tell Richmond was dropping a player 40m our goal side of a ball up, not putting pressure on Robbo who would win it and kick long, straight into the waiting players arms, who would then transfer play or run into the guts and boot it over the stoppages head and Richmond would have a running wave into goal.
Don't get me wrong, I love Mitch's attack on the player and the ball, I love how he protects his team mates, but until he makes the long kick 1 out of 10 possessions, instead 7 out of 10 possessions then he is a liability.
My rant on the game now that I've calmed down enough.
Richmond did not win the game, sure they got the four points but Carlton lost it. You cannot have that many easy shots on goal throughout the game for Richmond to say they won. Our woeful kicking lost it end of story.
Touhy needs to remember what got him a regular game, that's hard at the player giving no space all the time, stop worrying about a run off position, Martin is a dangerous forward and that match up could have really hurt us if Richmond used it.
Warnock, if a bum like Vickery gets in your face like that again the punch him in the face. Carlton players hang your head in shame for not getting around Warnock as well. Sure it was a dumb kick but if someone gets into a team mate like that then he gets taken care of. I don't think I've seen a do nothing waste of space like Vickery talk so much $hit. I loved Buckley pushing him back into the ground with a look of distaste. Dylans gets another game just for that.
Buckley, I don't know what was keeping him from playing last season but he needs to play now, pace, kicking and mongrel. Perfect ingredients.
Agree on Buckley.......like the agro back at Vickery who is all bluff, if that had been Jonothan Brown and not Warnock then Vickery would have been on the ground with his head getting squeezed Barry Hall/Scott Thompson like and Vickery looking over his shoulder for the rest of the game. You need a big enforcer to deal with wannabes like Vickery...Rowe was too nice, Watson wouldnt be any better and White who does have a go isnt big enough....Ryder from Essendon usually pulls the some crape with our players like Vickery and intimidates them. re: Buckley...ripper game IMO...pace, agro and passion for the jumper...pity he isnt 200cm....
I would like to see us teach Rowe to be a solid defender. He shows he might come good eventually. If Watson can mark, lets teach him to be a big forward target maybe.
Fair points Mants.....I dont like panic dropping of players after one game and I tend to agree that Rowe needs another chance, no doubt he was ordinary and lost one on one contests, lacked awareness but you could also argue he never gets a decent run of games to learn from those mistakes and get the pace of the game. He always looks half a yard off the pace and like he is playing SANFL footy instead of AFL....because of his age he is seen as a readymade but he isnt a AFL readymade like he came from another AFL cub and already had some idea of the speed and awareness required at senior AFL level.
I was critical and had him in my worst players but then you sit back with a cooler head and look at the options and there are not many....rehash an undersized McInnes ,hope Watson is over his injury but he was worse than Rowe vs Westhoff from Port, or throw a kid like Giles into the deep end. Maybe Rowe does get another go and you have Giles on the bench as a learning experience/backup if required player but dont put it on the kid to play a full game just to give him a taste for the future.
if we fare as poorly as it seems we may, there WILL be light at the end of the tunnel. One of the top picks this year is a lad called Wright who plays for Calder. He moves very well for a very tall guy and he rucks quite decently. He is a probable top 5 pick. Oh, I forgot to mention, he has hands with super glue on the fingers.
Do we want a ruckman with our first pick given the trend these days is to steal readymades rather than waste time developing these big blokes on your own list.....the next Tom Boyd/Jon Patton is where I see our first pick going
Must admit that things are not looking promising. Essendon have structural problems but seem to be able to overcome them even against good sides. We have structural problems and we can't find solutions against anyone. That is frustrating.
We are lucky that Ryder looks like being out, but I wouldn't be banking on that: they seem to get up much better for these games than we do for the moment. Midfields: if we let them run around unmolested, as we did for almost a half against Richmond, they will pound us. As for our goal kicking.... I would play Robbo on their old timer: Essendon loose drive when father time isn't getting the ball.
Agree...Robbo on Fletcher has worked well in the past, the old bloke doesnt know what to do with Robbo, it would be a bit like playing on Mark "Jacko" Jackson..expect the unexpected from Robbo who plays that annoying role very well.
Carlisle and Daniher rucking will help us, with Bellchambers out long term and Ryder injured it will stuff their structure up and make life easier for Jamo and crew down back not having a twin towers forward setup to face unless the bombers promote Fraser Thurlow who is their rookie ruckman. Solid lump of a kid is Thurlow and takes a good mark but isnt quick and should not pose problems for Warnock.
Be won in the middle, we wont be able to stop their tall forwards so denying them forward entries is what its all about and that means winning the clearances and having more of the footy.
Howlett and Hocking will probably get Murphy and Gibbs so we need a win there and Curnow will probably get Watson...need another win.
I think Ryder was injured so Warnock and whoever(Wood perhaps) might have it easier.....
Robbo and Bell need to hit and tackle hard and Jarrod Waite needs a big game.
It Blues vs Dons so its 50/50 IMO.. regardless of form , we can win this game with careful planning and application.
Walker back and up forward and I would play Henderson up forward to win the game and forget about trying to save the game by sending players back and forward every 5 minutes..all out attack would be my tactics...
