Sportsbet now have the Hawks as favourites to win the NAB cup $4.50

Luckily I put my $12 down a couple of weeks ago when we were at $9.00

St Kilda/Bulldogs will be the two teams to beat this year. Said it a few weeks ago before nab cup started (which doesnt really count) but both are in good form.

Judd is the best thing that's happened to the blues since our last premiership. Losing Kennedy was sad but gaining Judd was well worth it. His role with the blues is different to his role at the eagles for a start, he had cousins and kerr by his side at the eagles, and that is something he doesn't have (yet) at the blues. It's a young and relatively inexperienced midfield at the blues but they're building a very fine midfield around juddy. Eventually it'll free him up to play forward.
Henderson is a great get for us and hopefully he can live up to the expectations the lions had and we now have on him. It'll take time but he can be an ite forward. Losing fevola may have put us back somewhat but hopefully Henderson is up to the challenge. Besides, fucking off fevola was the 2nd best thing the blues have done for our future cause he's a cancer in our club. We weren't winning a flag with an asshole like that. Pricks like fevola, Carey and ablett snr don't really see that they are causing troubles in their clubs.
Hopefully a new era is on the way down at the blues with premierships not too far away!

Judd is the best thing that's happened to the blues since our last premiership.

Losing Kennedy was sad but gaining Judd was well worth it. His role with the blues is different to his role at the eagles for a start, he had cousins and kerr by his side at the eagles, and that is something he doesn't have (yet) at the blues. It's a young and relatively inexperienced midfield at the blues but they're building a very fine midfield around juddy.

Eventually it'll free him up to play forward.

Henderson is a great get for us and hopefully he can live up to the expectations the lions had and we now have on him. It'll take time but he can be an ite forward. Losing fevola may have put us back somewhat but hopefully Henderson is up to the challenge. Besides, fucking off fevola was the 2nd best thing the blues have done for our future cause he's a cancer in our club. We weren't winning a flag with an asshole like that. Pricks like fevola, Carey and ablett snr don't really see that they are causing troubles in their clubs.

Hopefully a new era is on the way down at the blues with premierships not too far away!

Darwi, how do you think Hawthorn will handle their latest injury crisis, particularly in the ruck? I can picture a lot of teams having a field day up against Renouf and ... Lisle?

And is it all just bad luck (obviously you can't prevent a broken leg, for example), or do the Hawks need to take a good, hard look at their training methods, strength and conditioning guys, injury management etc etc etc. as well?

I just heard a lot about Hawthorn's injuries in the media and thought I'd get your views.

Are the preseason practice matches over yet? Round 1 can't come soon enough

2008 was a fluke premiership no matter which way you cut it. 2009 was par for the course. Anything else is just collingwood fans who have jumped ship.

i agree 100%

Are the preseason practice matches over yet? Round 1 can't come soon enough

Amen.

The West Coast match committee meeting ahead of round one promises to be long and exhaustive. John Worsfold and the boys might even have to send out for an extra round of sandwiches as they try to work out how to fit all those who deserve a game into a suddenly imposing forward line.

As it stands, the Eagles have an embarrassment of riches. Against Melbourne in Saturday's practice match, West Coast enjoyed a wide spread of goalkickers, with Ashley Hansen and Mark LeCras each booting three goals, Mitch Brown and Nic Naitanui each booting two and Josh Kennedy finishing with one.

All this with Quinten Lynch and Ben McKinley sitting with their feet up back in Perth.

They can't all fit in the side and forwards coach Peter Sumich, who was in charge of the team last Saturday and therefore the team spokesman, admitting that the match committee had much thinking to do ahead of the long trip to the Gabba to face the Brisbane Lions in the season opener.

The AFL's Match Review Panel might have made the job a little easier, but Kennedy was cleared of any wrongdoing following his clash with Colin Sylvia, which left the Melbourne forward nursing a busted jaw.

So which way should the Eagles go? Kennedy and LeCras would appear to be the first two picked. After a slow 2008 where he landed at West Coast as part of the Chris Judd trade, Kennedy took 110 marks (23 contested) and booted 31 goals last year from centre half-forward and is shaping as the sort of key forward to build a team around.

LeCras was the star last year, with 58 goals as a small forward leaving many to wonder why he failed to earn All Australian selection ahead of the mercurial, but wildly inconsistent Leon Davis of Collingwood.

You'd think Ben McKinley will be OK. He booted 30 goals, down from 42 in 2008, but he is a dangerous third forward, particularly if Kennedy or another player was to attract a double-team.

With Dean Cox still West Coast's no.1 ruckman, John Worsfold needs to determine where Nic Naitanui fits into the mix. The hugely talented Fijian destroyed Hawthorn in one quarter from the forward line last year and is so athletic that it is hard to think of a key defender who could go with him. Playing the resting ruckman in the forward pocket is so 1970s, but the Eagles may go back in time in order to pose huge match-up problems for their opponents.

Lynch is the wildcard for West Coast. He is a huge man and a swingman, with stints up forward, in the ruck and as a ruck-rover. He played every game last year and in fact, has played the last 94. You'd imagine there is a place for him somewhere in the side. Where exactly remains to be seen, which is another weapon in Worsfold's armoury.

Hansen is now 27 and played just nine games last year because of groin and form concerns. It might only have been a practice match, but he couldn't have been more impressive against Melbourne on the weekend and if he doesn't play in round one, he can consider himself unlucky. He'll go back to Swan Districts and likely tear up the WAFL.

Brown has been known as a defender till now, but also showed a bit on Saturday as a forward. With Darren Glass and Shannon Hurn, West Coast already has a couple of big-bodied defenders, hence the temptation to at least see what Brown can offer close to goals. He offers plenty, it would seem, although as Sumich surmised on Saturday, his best place for the time being is still in defence.

But it all represents a welcome change for West Coast, whose success in the 90s and again a few years back was dictated by a stingy defence and just enough talented forwards to eke out a winning score.

Perhaps all out attack is now the mindset of the Eagles, particularly when it comes to winning on the road, which the Eagles were able to do only once last year and not at all the year before.

heya Ambrose Burnside when are you going to make the official 2010 thread of the roos and the wce battling for the wooden spoon whilst the hawks won't be too far behind us official thread?