Connolly's assertion that TS is now making headway after 'a few stutters at Melbourne' is just VB inspired commentary. The player continues to stutter and would be expected to improve. The experts at the time were all over him.

National AFL draft is still a lottery

Without context, using initials instead of names is plain stupid.

Just read the article. My stupidity has nothing to do with Connolly's mis-reporting.

Typical boring, lazy journalism. What complete tripe.

I love how they always manage to include Jack Watts but leave out Fumbleton who was selected at pick 2, just one behind and was recently traded for pick 55; it just shows the gap between 1 & 2 is enormous. Doesn't t.

$cully is a very average footballer and if he was still at Melbourne Connolly would have said so, but I guess now he's at GWS we can expect a miracle and will see him soar to the top of the tree.

I love how they always manage to include Jack Watts but leave out Fumbleton who was selected at pick 2, just one behind and was recently traded for pick 55; it just shows the gap between 1 & 2 is enormous. Doesn't t.

$cully is a very average footballer and if he was still at Melbourne Connolly would have said so, but I guess now he's at GWS we can expect a miracle and will see him soar to the top of the tree.

Robbie you have forgotten Connolly is an Essendon supporter. There will be no criticism of Gummby or the bombers!

Robbie you have forgotten Connolly is an Essendon supporter. There will be no criticism of Gummby or the bombers!

Unfortunately, in his haste to defend his team, he lost a heap of credibility last year.

To suggest that Scully is playing better football at GWS than he was here is tripe.

It's typical journalistic flow. The sentence sounded good in his head, so he printed it. Never mind the fact it is incorrect.

On par with some of the tripe CW spews out.

There were about five or six midfielders at GWS (including Adams and Tyson who are now gone) who were better and harder at the football than Scully over the past two years. Connolly wouldn't have the foggiest.

Can't see anything wrong with the article. Scully is making some headway, I don't see Rohan saying he is a star mid or anything else but in the context of the article he is a regular player, some of the others mentioned have come and gone. One didn't even get to game one.

I think many have too thin a skin here.

Scully has done nothing positive at GWS and his pricetag is a joke to say the least

No wonder their better kids are already jumping ship - Tatylor Adams and Dom Tyson is just the start,

Both of them better players than Scully and earning less than 1/10th of the money,

Scully has done nothing positive at GWS and his pricetag is a joke to say the least

Of course it is but that has nothing to do with the article.

Connolly is clearly wrong on Scully. There's no question he hasn't delivered any sort of value to GWS. In fact, his raw stats are demonstrably worse at a time when they should be demonstrably better. That said, I find Connolly to be a pretty fair and balanced journo in the main and put his comments on Scully down to laziness, poor reflection or lack of research.

Of course it is but that has nothing to do with the article.

So does majority of threads on here..

Can't see anything wrong with the article. Scully is making some headway, I don't see Rohan saying he is a star mid or anything else but in the context of the article he is a regular player, some of the others mentioned have come and gone. One didn't even get to game one.

I think many have too thin a skin here.

Scully has done nothing positive at GWS and his pricetag is a joke to say the least

No wonder their better kids are already jumping ship - Tatylor Adams and Dom Tyson is just the start,

Both of them better players than Scully and earning less than 1/10th of the money,

$cully has gone, and being paid that sum, Must cause his team mates Questions, hence they leave.

$cully can play in his swimming pool full of cash, all by himself.

a regular player in a not so good side, yes, some in that list gone already yes,

Not sure there is a real champion potential in that year yet.

And a thick skin would help us all, the $'s still annoy me, but we're better off as a club,

we have had enough troubles, don't need $ problems within the playing group !

i still think $cully should be a very good player.

he has the speed and tenacity. it was interesting to read about how he was utilised at u/18 football compared to afl football - it would seem he was much more of a pure outsider, allowed to run and carry and use his speed from half-back. in the afl he's been much more of an inside mid at melbourne and gws, and tried as a tagger at the latter as well to help build his defensive game.

he worked wonders for us - if we had him, i don't think we'd have clark, dawes, hogan, or barry.

Does he have the class of disposal to be a primarily outside player?

I think his strength is getting to more contests and creating an extra number for his side more often.

It's a vague strength and not influential enough to justify his salary.

Fortunately the Demons embarked on a campaign to exaggerate $cully's value, and as a result we ended up with a very good trade. The $cully situation reflected poorly on Melbourne and fitted neatly with the "Demon shambles" narrative, but in the long run, fingers crossed, we probably dodged a bullet.

So far I see a consistent pattern. TS has always accumulated praise in the off season. I recall on this forum many witness reports of his powerhouse presence in pre season training and the same now at GWS to go along with his near legendary reputation at junior levels. Yet when it comes to actually playing for premiership points football he hasn't fired a decent shot yet in four seasons. I 'm not sitting on the fence with him. He will be a B grade midfielder at best for the rest of his career.

Scully has done nothing positive at GWS and his pricetag is a joke to say the least

No wonder their better kids are already jumping ship - Tatylor Adams and Dom Tyson is just the start,

Both of them better players than Scully and earning less than 1/10th of the money,

That's not true, he had several really good games this year particularly in the final 2/3 of the season. Definitely not worth the ridiculous pricetag though

Given the compo we received, and cash saved, I'm actually pleased Scully left the club.

That said, GWS reckon he's going to have a break out season next year. Something confirmed by Kevin Sheedy when I spoke to him at the taxi queue at Sydney Airport only last week.

To date, he's not delivered any value to GWS though. They clearly paid far too much for him.

That's not true, he had several really good games this year particularly in the final 2/3 of the season. Definitely not worth the ridiculous pricetag though

I wouldn't say he had several really good games. Stuck in the midst of NSW, I see all the GWS games on TV. From that perspective I would only say he had several reasonable games and a lot of substandard ones. But I think we are all agreed his salary is totally out of proportion to his value to the team.

Given the compo we received, and cash saved, I'm actually pleased Scully left the club.

That said, GWS reckon he's going to have a break out season next year. Something confirmed by Kevin Sheedy when I spoke to him at the taxi queue at Sydney Airport only last week.

To date, he's not delivered any value to GWS though. They clearly paid far too much for him.

sheedy would say that wouldn't he?

That's not true, he had several really good games this year particularly in the final 2/3 of the season. Definitely not worth the ridiculous pricetag though

As a number one pick Scully has been a diabolical failure. Let's compare him in year 4 to other early picks.

Scully 18 ave. disposals

Murphy 25.6

Cotchin 24.1

Pendlebury 25.8

Judd 22.3 (not a noted high possession ball winner)

Boak 21.8

Masten 21.7

Selwood 28.2

Rich 21.7

Deledio 24.5

However you want to twist it, turn it, shape it he's been a hopeless pick one, and terrible for GWS, especially given the cost to get him.

He has every chance to turn things around and become high production, but let's not put too finer point on it right now he equates to a pick 20-30 mid. His mate Ryan Bastinac, who was pick 21, has had a better career to date.

Fortunately the Demons embarked on a campaign to exaggerate $cully's value, and as a result we ended up with a very good trade. The $cully situation reflected poorly on Melbourne and fitted neatly with the "Demon shambles" narrative, but in the long run, fingers crossed, we probably dodged a bullet.

How did it reflect a "Demon shambles" narrative Tommy Tea?

The AFL created the rules, made sure that it was completely impossible for us to come close to matching the GWS offer by even thwarting our chances of setting up a third party deal and then decided the so called "compensation" which has resulted in our reaping the benefit two years down the track and four years after we drafted the little sh[censored].

We are no more a shambles than Geelong who couldn't keep Ablett or Hawthorn with Buddy. In fact, our compo for the little tu[censored] was better than they both got.