Naitanui out, Pavlich in doubt for western derby

Yep, Johnson got done and took his punishment. He learnt and the club culture got him back on track Name any West Coast player or coach who took their whack on the chin? Nope they all skated through and are left like Kerr to smuggly giggle about it on the Footy Show

Here we go jax - I'll list Freo's 25 and unders again for you, which is the core of the team for next 4-5 years Fyfe Hill Sherridan Sutcliffe Neale C Pearce A Pearce M Walters Z Clarke L Weller C Blakely M De Boer N Suban Crozier They are the best 22 next year players in my mind, 14 of the team for the next 5 years are sitting there learning while at the top of the table! 12 of them are already in the best 22 then you add M Taberner - I have a felling he'll be switched to defence in 2016 B Grey - he'll take Spurrs spot soon Ed Langdon Moller - who is developing slowly as a ruck Apeness - Fingers crossed he'll click in the next 12 months Duffy - he'll take Ballas place All these guys have the potential to be 100+ game players The big ask for Freo is 1 or 2 key forwards Meanwhile Priddis will retire soon and West Coast will go back to being also rans

Madden did not re-invent ruck work. What rubbish. He and Sandi use there body to get position andprotection for their runners. Something NicNat has yet to learn, which is why Sandi beats him every time.

Player Ratings disagree... Nic Nat is 12 (despite not playing last week) and Sandi is 17.

I think jax is struggling with the emotional strain of Derby week perhaps.

Jax, what's happened to you? You've gone all Tim Holt nasty and weird. You used to talk footy. You used to talk Eagles with passion and joy. Now you just sneer and snipe like AR and Holt. Leave that to Hawthorn people and go back to being a footy fan.

And, to use your style of argument... ...all left-handed, right leaning, obtuse thinking, middle of the road experts agree.

I would have Sandi as the best ever. Just goes to show, Jax. You can write longer essays...but I can be more emphatic.

Michael Johson of the Fremanatle FC plead guilty in a court of law to cocaine possession. No club is immune from drugs. This is what the coaches think about drugs. “The biggest threat to player welfare, the coaches said, was gambling (43.75 per cent), with idle time (25 per cent), lack of direction (18.75 per cent) and recreational drugs (12.5 per cent) the other concerns.” The coaches aren’t that serious about recreational drugs are they. I wonder why that is? We have 800 players in the AFL system. In 2013 there were 1,979 drug tests at an average of 2.47 tests per player, per year. Firstly, the chances of actually getting caught are very small. They target some players more than others eg if you’ve been caught previously you are regularly targeted so simple maths tells us that some players may not be tested for 1 or 2 years or possibly even longer. People that say – we don’t have a problem at our club because only 26 players tested positive last year don’t understand the fine print and how numbers and statistics can be skewed to show almost anything that you want them to. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-06-06/positive-dr So what steps are the AFL taking? Below you will find a link to an article that states “It will not matter how many strikes the AFL decrees is the right number to attach to its illicit drugs policy before a player is named publicly, simply because the policy was never designed to “out” a footballer.” “The AFL’s policy, run by private company Dorevitch, does not set out to do anything of the type. It finds enough drug users. In fact it finds way too many. But from there, well, all sorts of things happen which conflict with the definition of a drugs policy.” “Forget the numbers the AFL produces each year. They are just numbers based on very selective testing.” http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-04-09/drugs-policy-strikes-out Drop the comedy and try to add some value.

When Freo falls out of genuine contention in the next few years WC will only just be starting to hit their straps. If Freo don't win a flag this year or next they'll be waiting a few more years for their next opportunity. Make hay while the sun shines because the sun is setting on this era and you don't have any flags to show for it. The next crop looks good but when Pav, Sandi and McPharlin retire you won't be sitting first of the ladder.

Yes, footscray fans know and understand what a drought is.

Also - this list shows all Vic teams except Essendon and Carlton The Blues are in year 20 (they last won in 95 when Freo joined). From 1947 to 1968 was their longest drought. So they are currently 1 year off that drought. The Bombers worst was 19 years - 1965 to 1984. They are currently in year 15 of their current drought. Can't see them breaking that in the next 4 years. So people may say that Freo haven't won a premeriship, but when you look at all clubs you see that droughts are common and can be heart breaking for some clubs. Current clubs in their longest droughts Tigers - 34 Doggies - 60 Crows - 18 Port - 11 Dees - 50 So you think Freo are hurting for not having won a premiership. the Doggies have played in 2 grand finals since they entered in 1925. They haven't played in one since 1961 ..... now that's a drought.

"Nic would be happy to be compared to Sandi at his career end" True, but only because Nic is one of the most humble men you would ever meet and he doesn't put himself ahead of anyone. The footy public will decide after all is said and done and I'm quite certain that Nic will be remembered and spoken about more often than Sandi and I'm also sure that his record will surpass Sandi's. Many commentators have been saying that Nic was very much in contention for #2 ruck in the AA this year prior to his Mums passing so it wouldn't be a surprise to many. Missing these two weeks may cost him now and who knows what his state of mind will be on his return. Goldie is a lock for #1 ruck this year no question. Sandi improving on the Madden model is quite the stretch. Madden reinvented tapping by using his non-preferred hand to palm the ball and his preferred hand to block the opposition ruckman. He could tap with both hands like no-one ever has which made it very difficult to read his taps. Sandi's taps are pretty easy to read and it's well documented. He also kicked a lot of goals and Sandi isn't a big goal kicker. You're drawing a long bow comparing Sandi to Madden and I think most non-Freo supporters would agree. Madden is one of the greatest ruckman the game has ever seen, possibly the best ever. I don't hear Sandi spoken about as one of the greatest ruckmen in history but Cox is.

Who said he was bad? In my opinion he's j not as good at it as he should be. It's been very well documented for many years so I don't know why you're arguing? The link is commentatory about one game and it isn't even the stat that I asked for. I asked to see the stat for total hit outs to advantage as a percentage of total hit outs for season 2014. Here is a link from 1 month ago that states: * Sandi spends more time in the ruck than Nic * Nic averages more hit outs per game than Sandi * WC ruck division is #1 in the league for hit outs to advantage. I'll take a look for some other stats later. Just adding this now while I can still edit the post. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-07-08/the-men-in-the-middle-who-are-your-clubs-centre-square-stars

Didn't Freo lose that game, Johno?

Sani 3 votes...Nic 2 votes. 3 is more than 2.

I don't refer to stats...you mixing me up with Johnno?

You're right he is 24 sorry about that. I googled it quickly but must have read an old page. He's still only played 38 games though and the rest of my argument stands up nonetheless. Dean posted the stats for 2014 and Sinclair beats Sandi in a number of them. Is there really anything more to say on that topic? Few people on this site quote such a varied range of stats on all manner of topics and the occasional mistake will undoubtedly surface. I'm fortunate to be able to quote stats, some of your brethren that criticise me for one mistake in a hundred struggle to type more than 1-2 sentences before getting out of their depth due to the number of characters. They rarely quote a stat or add any value to any debate. They have as much credibility as a sniper on a football field.

Nah - he's bad at hit outs to advantage http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2015-06-06/sandilands-another-record

Hitouts is another stat that some people don't fully understand. Can you pull up the hit outs to advantage percentage stat please. I'm quite sure that Nic's taps are more effective as a % of total taps. It's been very well documented that Sandi doesn't capitalise on his height advantage by winning more taps to advantage.