I can't agree with you. The battle between Carlton and Hawthorn over Thornton confirms my thoughts, and the thoughts of those below, that he is a star.

I also don't agree that we're bottom three in the comp for backlines, nor that we need to recruit more key defenders this year. I'd rather see them recruit forwards. In fact, I was of the opinion during last year's trade period that we should have traded Walker to the Eagles instead of Kennedy, and the efforts up forward this year have done nothing to change my mind on that.

I do agree with you, however, that our ability to finally apply midfield pressure has had the biggest impact - and the Collingwood game was the start of it. It was marvellous to see our defenders smash the Collingwood forwards after the assisting kicks were hurried, while Fevola smashed Harry O'Brien (who I believe played a reasonable game) because the assisting kicks to him were unpressured.

You say thorton takes the third best foward and provides very little tun. You couldnt be further from the truth. He was on Steve Johson all game last week and although he got beaten the coach trusted him to win. For the last 5 years he was been given jobs on far better and bigger players than him as we had nobody better. We have bigger and better players now so he can be let loose on the 3rd foward. He killes them and then creates alot of run off them. If you ask me before he got injured he was top 3 in the bnf.

Hes a medium sized player than had midfielder abilities and can play taller than himself. Hes the most experianced player down back and he provides alot of leadership to young stars in the making like Bower and Jamo (Jamo might already be a star hes so good).

We dont need to draft any more defenders as we have Austin playing in the twos who is a quality player. What we need to do it develope what we have into a power house defence which i believe we have the persoal already to do.

i think as supporters we are all frustrated and pissed off that the blues have taken so long to re - develop and sides like lions,swans,crows and port can rebuild so quickly. ALL I WANT NOW IS TO BE COMPETITIVE WITH WHAT WE HAVE and that is a very young,not big and strong enough yet to deal with the big hard hitting sides. Our backline at the moment if it was able to play together would be (backs - THORNTON JAMIESON O'HAILPIN
half backs - WALKER BOWER GRIGG ,GIBBS OR SCOTLAND..also cloke can drop back to help out defense .WAITE needs to play up forward and put some pressure on the other sides defense and take some pressure of fev each week. WAITES disposal and decision making under pressure out of the backline shows HE IS A FORWARD... carazzo gets the ball heaps but doesnt flippin stay on his man on the rebound..TOO LOOSE..

understandable, but the weekend (again) was proof that our team are to slow and don't think before they act. it easy to just blaze away with the football and bomb it forward. i was doing that in primary school. these blokes are fiddling about with the football. and bower found out the hard way what happends when u take to long to dispose of the footy. no one talks to each other. all his team mates just let him get smashed. everyone is worriesd about number one. everytime someone got the ball i was waiting for them to get smashed. no shepards, soft soft soft.....
oh and its funny how judd was best on ground for us. obviously his brain is switched onto the level that geelong play at cause he could actually read the bloody play!
long way to go guys before we see the boys win a premiership. stevens is still a bit soft cause of his neck injury last year. and the moment these boys play as a group and run lines together we might see somethin good. not all is lost but lots of work is needed to make this team the great old dark navy blue again.

You're wrong. Thornton was definitely off his game against Geelong, there's no doubting that, but he is our #3 defender and does a good job of it. Furthermore, in Jamison, Waite, Bower and Thornton, there is the makings of a premier backline.

The problem against Geelong was that they are so effective at rebounding that the defenders were always caught one-on-one. It is a fact that defending against turnovers and rebounds is harder because there is no midfield pressure from that sort of play.

It is, in fact, our forward-line which is thin. We lack a legitimate #2 forward, and if you believe that any of Betts, Wiggins and Fisher can fill that role in a premiership team, you're deluded. Wiggins could be a great #4 forward, but not #2. Fisher is so cold at the moment that he'd be dropped if we had someone to replace him with. Edwards still has a long way to go. Hartlett, unfortunately, injures his hamstrings every few games, and it's hard to be optimistic about his longevity. In the original plan, our #2 forward was going to be Josh Kennedy - and losing him was the price we were going to have to pay for Chris Judd. What we need to do is play Kreuzer as a Koschitzke type. We'll be able to find a two-pronged ruck attack from Cloke, Hampson, Aisake and Jacobs, but we need forwards.