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I hate saying this and I am often critical of people who say this (therefore I am a hypocrite), but I can't but feel that the fact that Jurrah is Indigenous that the whole Jurrah being "lazy" thing is overplayed due to stereotypes that exist. No one has said this, but I can't help but feel undercurrent is there.

This might be equal to what you're saying, but I think the realisation of his weaknesses have caused people to only see his weaknesses and forget about his strengths. The suggestion from some that he "won't make it" is completely outrageous - he kicked 40 goals in a year where he demonstrated that he's got a way to go to reaching his ceiling. Surely the absolute worst case is that he plateaus from where he is now - even if that happens, 40 goals a year is good output. Reality is he's a couple of years in to his career; he's got a tonne of time to work on those weaknesses. I'm still very optimistic.

Nice to see so much respect being shown for Aussie... and even if they are supposed to be "jokes", I'm afraid they're in rather poor taste. Call me a humorless prcik if you like, but in this case I'm happy to wear it; the guy has had a hell of a time over the past 12 months.

O is for O'Dwyer, a player who used to punch people in the head for fun. We need another.

Don't sweat it OD.....too many posters have a PC hair-trigger over-reaction

Geeezz Does he owe you money or something. I assume you played AFL footy and you were an A grader????? Get off the lads back. He was our best player this year in a poor side What else do you want from him?????

The Exception Rule There is an exception to every rule. Except that rule. Which would be the exception to the 'exception rule.' Thus validating the exception rule. This is patented to rpfc Inc. and any reproduction must acquire the written authorisation of rpfc Inc.

If we turn back the clock 12 months Bailey and the club were pushing Liam Jurrah to the media and members to continue building the Hype around our club. The isuue we faced through the season Liam was pitted against the best defenders in the competition with little support or protection. By mid year he looked done flat, maybe the management of Liam could have been handled better with a few more rests through out the year. On his fitness, we have to manage him. I have no issues with him working on a dedicated training program designed for Liam. We all know his ability and the last thing we want to do is push him to hard if his body isn't ready for it. As long as he is ready to join the main group by January he will be Ok and considering he will go into 2012 as our third or fourth forward and not our primary focal point get ready for an exciting year.

I think the idea that Moloney and Jones can't qualify as premiership midfielders is equally incorrect as the idea that they can lead a premiership midfield.

The discussion of Jurrah is interesting. When someone first plays for us we look to see what they can do. Jurrah could do a lot and we fell in love. The longer a player plays the more we notice his weaknesses. Jurrah has a few and some are starting to doubt, perhaps fairly. Many have become familiar with what he can do and don't rate it as highly as they did. That's a mistake.

The failure rate of the projects I listed would be worse than the failure rate of those similar to LJ or Manson. Look, you are trying to say that some projects are harder than others, and - thinly veiled - we are talking about indigenous players here. What I am saying is that the draft is full of kids that may not make it - the Rookie Draft even more so - I don't like the idea of lumping players together purely based on where they come from, the cultural enviroment, or - god forbid - the colour of their skin. Everyone is different, and as Martin Flanagan has written so eloquently - LJ is a strong young man carving his own path. I would hope that Barry and Co. will judge the merits of recruiting Manson on their discussions with him, his family, and the level of his talent. The rest is just pseudo-intellectual social commentary. I know that sounds harsh, but I mean it in the nicest way possible.

correct - one of them has played 175 games and had his prime years in a brilliant side, the other two have played 35/50 in a shizen side, with their best years to come i'd like to see Johnson playing key position for Melbourne as a 21/22 year old, getting belted for the last few years.. just like i cant wait to see 26 year old Jurah/Petterd in a top 4 side use your noggin FCS

The concept "Jurrah... will he make it?" is about two years too late! What a gift to football!!!! Sit back and enjoy the ride. Who carese how many qualifying times he runs for 400m in November? Does anyone still doubt he is a freak? Yes, there are areas he can develop... but it ain't 'get ball,score goal'

I think it's time that fans were treated with respect by the AFl and clubs . It's about time a representative body of the paying public /viewers was formed to take on the AFL over issues like GWS fraudulence, the increasing corporatisation of the game, the rule changes, the woeful umpiring, the disgusting food /beer forced on fans, the ridiculous promotion of products throughout the game, the woeful entertainment on GF day, the ridiculous Etihad deal that is breaking some clubs every time they play there. Millions of dollars, from paying idiots like us, gets flushed away on half-wit schemes like GWS whilst established clubs, Melbourne, Swans, Saints, Dogs and Lions see success become harder to obtain or are forced to move/merge . Community football, local clubs, Auskick etc receive little benefit from the expansion of the AFL. In order to sell more burgers in West Sydney, the goodwill and history of our great club has been eroded and stolen for a fraudulent and artificial franchise. The TS saga aside, this would never have happened had the clubs/fans had a say. If the NSW AFL had put forward it's own proposal for a new team then fine. What I object to most is that the huge headless glutton we call a CORPORATION has stolen an organic culture and replaced it with culture LITE . Most people are too stupid or sated to notice but, as with cricket, this sort of crap will destroy the game. I suggest a symbolic protest during which the fans start bringing their own food and drink to games again and refuse the slop they sell at grounds. The individual players should have their salaries capped at half a million. Twice as much as the PM is more than enough . The argument will come back that kids will choose cricket or basketball over AFL if we cap the salaries. Cricket is already ruined by TV and corporatisation and basketball is broke. Fans of all clubs should rise up and make some simple demands for the benefit of a game we have founded and funded for generations. It's time we stopped the game being run by people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing .

whats wrong with Moloney? he polled well in the brownlow in a crap team and worse midfield, dont see how he can be critised so much personally.

There never was much reason to read the Herald Sun, now there is none

The fish rots at the head. New blood is needed in the AFL high chair because the current bloke is sullying the brand with this mess.

Too many bananas!

He was cementing a spot, or atleast settling in, playing his best football so far. Never set the world of fire. but was improving

Your link didn't work for me HT. This one did ... http://wwos.ninemsn....owcomments=true Good on Thomo. Should be on the back pages of all newspapers that piece. The most disturbing sentence from it ... It is alleged around footy circles that former Collingwood and Brisbane football guru Gubby Allen, has been sworn away from recruiting Collingwood players (specifically Pendlebury) at the request of Eddie McGuire.

Not sure what infuriates me more . The fact that the fat controller treats us all like idiots or the thought that McChins Maguire has done a deal with Grubby Allen to make Collingwood players exempt from being approached by GWS . Reminds me of Sheedys promise to Hird that Essenedon players wouldn't be targeted either .

The Fat Controllers biggest sin is his handling of Clash Jumpers and his insistence on 'predominately white' thought I'd just drop that one in.....

I definitely think some of the theorey behind this is that we were small and got pushed around easily last year. Neeld wants us to be physically stronger. The current 22 (watts and jurrah, howe and green) aren't that sort of player, at least yet. The developing crop (cook, gawn) will take another 2-3 years before they are playing consistant senior footy, and probably another 1-2 before they are physically strong enough. By drafting Seller we add height and strength to the list. Will he play 20 games and be valuable? Who knows. But if we need to fill a gap with a mountain for the purpose of making a contest for Watts and Jurrah to run around near, he can probably do that, and no one else on our list can. And if the opposition does not respect him with a tall and strong opponent, he will likely stand out; against 2nd or 3rd tall defenders he will likely have a height and weight advantage, making him dangerous, even if he is only an average player. And if Seller takes that key defender it means Watts/Jurrah/Howe all step down the ladder to lesser defenders as well. OK so Mitch Clark might be taking this role most of the time, and is the better footballer of the two. But having Seller on the list does two things: one, it gives us versatility if Mitch goes down, or if he has to go into the ruck to cover Jamar, or Seller can go back if required as well. And, two, if he isn't playing AFL, Casey will have a big tall bloke up forward, playing a similar role to Mitch Clark. You may not think that helping Casey in this way is important. But as far as I'm concerned we want the players at Casey to play as similar to the MFC as possible, to make for easier transitions from VFL to AFL levels, and to aid player development. If we have a short forward line at Casey, how will we instigate the same game plan we use at AFL level?

Perhaps I'll just introduce myself as an extremely passionate MFC supporter (not many of us in Sydney), and then observe his reaction.

Honestly, the highlight reel makes me less interested. He's not overly fast by the looks of that footage, and those easy goals where he wheeled around and snapped were just too slow to work at AFL level. He'd be nailed every time he tried it. Likewise, his pack marks were a case of better judgement which is good, but nobody put any body pressure on him. He's not going to get away with that sort of play at the top level. It's good that he's kicking so many goals, but that footage raises a whole lot of questions in my mind.

I am so glad that you had the opportunity to see Luke Molan in AFL senior action so as to be able to asses his capabilities or otherwise. Nobody I know had that opportunity. Was this before he broke his leg in his first preseason, or when he re-broke it, or when he did his shoulder in his VFL comeback? It must be very easy, but only of course when one is an expert, to be hyper-critical of someone who due to freak impact injuries never had a chance to show his wares to the rest of us!