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Folks I hope nobody minds but this thread has degenerated into a whinge session on a player that transcends its original intention and has become repetitious and boring. I think everyone gets the message that some people have decided, fairly or unfairly (unfairly IMO) that we now have a new whipping boy despite the first NAB CUp game being almost a month away. I believe there's another training session tomorrow but for the time being, I'm applying the Morton button on this subject and closing the thread.

I signed in to read about Mondays Training and found 40 threads about Cale. In the future if anyone mentions Cale Morton can they start a new thread, so most of us can then ignore it.

Yeah, thanks for that Steve. This thread was in danger of becoming a Cale Morton love-fest... Of biblical proportions (cos everything was big in the BIBLE). Or even worse - we could've stayed on topic. thanks for the training reports guys.

I would activate both and if we trade one in trade week then so be it. Get the kids into the system now and not try to be clever about this - we need all the tralent we can get in 2014 onwards and we don't need to wait to get that talent in and ready.

Collingwood did what was best for Collingwood and it was within the AFL rules. What Ball and Collingwood did has always been allowed, because the AFL are being very careful not to trigger a restraint of trade type case. Despite the fact that it doesn't look great on the surface, they're protecting the game - imagine what it'd be like if the court deemed things like the salary cap and the draft as being an illegal restraint of trade? As we've seen with Free Agency, they're making it easier for players like Ball to move to the clubs they want to move to, not harder. As Rhino said, if if it were the MFC there'd have been a massive love-in on the forum about how we were finally ruthless or some other such hyperbole.

Personally, I can't wait for the next training reports thread to be hijacked by how poor Cale was.

Geez a lot of talk again about Morton. FWIW, I reckon Morton still has big potential. I was talking to a couple of mates recently who don't follow the Dees and from the outside their thoughts were that Morton would be a gun at say Collingwood. I was surprised as many on here would be, so pressed further for them to explain. They both for different reasons rated him, but to summarise they saw him with elite qualities you just cannot buy, i.e elite tank, relatively good speed and very good height. Not a bloke to play the Luke Ball role inside, but the perfect outside on-baller (wing, on ball) to kick to and possible run forward and kick a few. Yes and they knew he is not physical at present. When i suggested they had not see enough, they argued they had in recent times and saw a bloke playing in a side against a tidal wave at times, and nobody looks good when that happens. It did get me thinking though, would we regret it if we traded Cale? I remember watching training years ago and saw Jolly miss mark after mark, a bloke with zero confidence despite developing into a good size. He literally took years and years but came good. Too much can happen in development to discount any player I reckon. In Cales case I reckon when his tackles start to stick we will see some real improvement. Thats the biggest weakness in his game and the one I know should turn around.

He has OP. As much as i'd like to see him have a go in the NAB Cup, I'd much much prefer to have him 100% fit when the real stuff starts next year.

With my wealth of experience on this board and imposing post count, I support this suggestion.

A DRINKING GLASS UP AGAINST THE WALL WILL DO IT....!!

Cale's so thin he doesn't even show up in the photos!

RR, what is your issue? My initial comment agreed with both your view (which legally is 100% correct), as well as WYLs view (which is also correct in regards to the draft system being a total waste of time in the Ball case). And in regards to me "trying again", I was just offering a possible solution for the issue at hand. The issue? Ball, within his right, witheld medical documents from all but his chosen Club, entered the draft knowing too well that he would end up there, but the "idea" of the draft is that ALL clubs have the right to chose any player they wish to that has nominated, regardless of back room deals that have taken place. It's not set up for players to dictate what Club they will go to, but Ball, Collingwood and in some regards the AFL, allowed this sort of thing to happen which is a disgrace. :wacko: :wacko:

Of course not!!!! The paperwork is late arriving...Australia Post has misplaced our mail.....

I got down to training this morning. There were a fair few were out on the track but I believe Clark, Sylvia, Tappy, Spencer, Pickles, Viney, Jurrah, McKenzie and one or two others were in the rehab group. Viney and McKenzie did a fair bit of running, Viney really put some quick 300m sprints in and Jordie looks almost ready to rejoin the main group. Now that I've seen the whole group back training in the new year I can honestly see that physically we're a bigger team. Bigger bodies, frame and height. The new draftees have a good build, Tynan in particular. He impressed me and I think he may get a game this year. Plenty of warm up drills and short kicking etc, then some contested handball work with one or two players applying pressure, with quick rotations and fairly constant intensity throughout. Then they did a fairly basic drill, kicking the ball through the wing to running players without any opposition pressure. It required well weighted kicks and timed leads etc. A few did well (Watts has a well weighted kick on him) and others did not. Poor old Cale Morton gets slaughtered on this site, but he was fairly poor I must say. He made the most clangers I saw out of anyone today, seems to be low on confidence, plenty of dribber kicks etc. Although Cale looks to have put more weight on than last year, he is still one of, if not the skinniest in the whole team. For quite a while after this they did some match simulation, but it was quite hard to follow. Royal would randomly kick or handpass the ball to someone in the mid group, where they would then make up to 5 handballs and then kick it long into the forward line. But what was strange was that the forwards seemed to let the backman mark the ball at ease rather than contest. Then the backman would rebound from inside 50 almost straight away, so it was quite focused on getting the ball out of the backline. This meant there wasn't much time to rest between plays, which was good I guess. A bit of goal kicking pratice as well, then I had to leave. Cheers

I'm really talking about a premiership winning structure - that's what we're here for. We need to maximise our strengths and I think if we can free Frawley to play an attacking role in the backline that will give us a real boost. It might be the difference between top 4 and flag.

I think you would just get a vague platitude. And give this thread the life support it doesn't deserve. I say - pull the plug until we hear some solid news.

I have been a Cale supporter to this point... In relation to my training report, Cale was getting quite a bit of the ball deep in defence (I suggest the coaches wanted it this way) and he had a few bloopers with short kicks. Nothing critical, mind you, but reminiscent of a few in games we remember. FACT: Cale is unreliable when kicking from 15 to 40 metres... He needs to improve in that facet of his game and we supporters want to see the improvement now!

I'm a big fan of the 2s and 9s. If only Tingay could have played more...

I'm not really expecting many (any?) free agency moves initially but after a couple of years it will start to be seen as the norm. I was also surprised by the players outside of the top 25% being unrestricted free agents as initially I thought it was only restricted free agency and was restricted to the top 25% of earners. Ultimately I can see this forcing more clubs into trade situations which is a good thing as clubs are too reluctant to engage in trades where both sides really win - it is usually only players for draft picks rather than player A for player B. The clubs will still need to work within the salary cap and this is where the AFL needs to strictly enforce this (including no 3rd party deals). The AFLPA and player managers can argue this is restricting their capacity to earn however the facts are there are already many industries/professions which preclude you from working/obtaining a wage or salary outisde of your contracted employment. At the end of the day I don't think it will have a massive effect on our game other than to make it easier for a Luke Ball to get to his club of choice without all the stuffing around - this also takes it out of St. Kilda's (in this situations) hands as they can't stop him from leaving and will still be compensated somewhat should he go. The reason I see it having minimal effect though is that most players will want to ensure that their original club is not dudded, such as in the Judd situation where he obviously had a preference to go to Carlton but wanted to ensure the Eagles weren't shafted. It just gives the player greater leverage in the negotiations. Suffice to say it will be very interesting to see how this all plays out and hopefully we don't see players only wanting to go to the big 6 or 7 clubs to the detriment of the clubs like us, North, Dogs, Saints etc.

I think you secretly barrack for Collingwood Rhino. I know about medical records. I have had to use my own at certain times. Yes they belong to Luke but as a proffessional footballer he is diluting the integrity of the National Draft by shielding them. Did the AFL make any issue of this? Nope he got to wear he wanted. As dodgy as Ju$$. Luke won. The draft was made to look stupid.

No 9 takes alot of beating for mine. Absolute guns in Dixon, Alan Johnson, Neita and JT (Honourable meantions to Laurie Fowler and Darren Cuthbertson...) Gippy.

Arg. All this Cale Morton talk annoys me. The boy played his first 4 years of football in the crappest team ever. His confidence is completely shot. Give him some time to get his confidence back up and he will be fine. The end.

Respectfully Steve, I don't agree. For my part I'm disappointed that our pick 4 has been spent on a player which plays like a girl in the Brownies. Thats all. At the least he could show some vigour. Some tenacity. Some, go where angels fear. Not too much, just some. Just enough to get the hackles raising the 'druff.

Whilst much of this thread was prospective, and opinions were, as per every sample group, divided, hindsight is a wonderful thing. But remember, he was suffering rather badly from OP, and our medical / physio / fitness staff (at least at that time) had a pretty poor record in managing that. Had we picked him and he only managed a handful; of games,,how many would have backed up BP's decision? None too many I would imagine. Collingwood got lucky / had the team to get him through it and he became and effective player in a good midfield. Would he have been as effective in a slower and less mature midfield? Again, one can only speculate. It is over - time to move on on this one.

Yeah thats on my list as well. I was thinking if there's a few of us who want similar games we could buy a couple each and trade the others to each other. I had my eyes on a couple of games around 1990-1992 but am going to go through their catalogue and see what else I may want (maybe a couple from 2000 also).

Isn't that what he said?

Wow, I must be getting too old. I have never in my life said that a woman with a hot body has a "good frame". It actually doesn't make much sense when you think about it. If that made you cringe KIL, I think you better lock yourself in your room, with no computer access whatsoever.