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Interesting and thanks for the info. Much can change over the course of a year and judging by comments made this year after certain losses and similar periods of non-competitive and skill-less football as last year, Roos and co have surely come to the understanding that the list still needs a lot of work. In all areas. Looking closely at the six players that have already been moved on, it would be fair to say that Jamar, Bail, McKenzie, Riley and Fitzpatrick offered us very little in the way of 'depth'. One of many problems with our list is that not only do we not have quality depth, we don't even have decent depth. Clearly this was evidenced by Roos' desire to play underdeveloped first year players off the back of very limited pre-seasons in ANB, Stretch and Vandenberg, and a refusal to play those aforementioned, much older and more experienced names. In knowing that, is it not obvious as to why we'd be trying to target out-of-form but talented players like Melksham? Or do posters still struggle to recognise this? Again, I'll remind you that Melksham's 2013 season shits all over anything that Bail, McKenzie and Riley have produced throughout their careers and he possess a skill-set that is greater than theirs. List management and changes at a club like ours is clearly a more difficult and complex process than at most other clubs. We don't have the luxury of only targeting A-grade talent through trade period and then drafting well. We have to target depth, talent, senior leadership, role-playing and we have to nail our drafting. Targeting depth players like Melksham with the scope for improvement is nothing short of a necessity for the MFC at this point in time. After this time next year and if all goes to plan, list changes won't be anywhere near as drastic as what we've witnessed over the past few years. Get our depth right, develop our kids right and keep nailing the draft, bring in a couple more older and more experienced heads to continue to help nurture and bring in at least on A grader into the midfield, (hopefully two) and we'll continue to rise.

Or to spite it either.

PSD is still there waiting to be relevant.

Interesting watching the Brownlow coverage last night. They interviewed a bunch of people including Nat Fyfe's neighbour growing up - Cale Morton. What stood out is that they singled out Fyfe's competitiveness. Morton was the more highly touted junior, but arguably Fyfe was the kid prepared to crawl over broken glass to taste success. Fyfe has a Brownlow and Morton is no longer on an AFL list. I think the club is now onto this.

Bombers look too far along with Worsfold and McKenna now to backtrack. Worsfold has committed by leaving the Crows. I think they are using McCartney and Burns as patsies, to appear as though there is a proper process going on.

Like the other 19 opportunities presented to other clubs that didn't take him? Not saying you didn't see the talent in him prior to the draft, but a lot of it is revisionism at its finest, and like the Wines/Toumpas argument, and many other similar ones, it gives me the shits.

Hope you wiped down your keyboard after posting that hh

Hogan v Schwarz, finally some arguments that aren't about how [censored] we are.

The Demonland members who have been around a while may feel that this exercise has been done before.

Short reply to a lengthy post STMJ, but I'm coming around to the value of Melksham as depth. It probably comes back to what ludicrous offer Essendon requires and I could see the trade being stalled because of it.

Actually go and watch his under 18s video.. its actually quite bad! LolBut it also proves how hard he has worked to get to where is now. Probably skinnier then what Jack Watts was and is now one of the beast midfielders of the competition.

Well, I for one am very appreciative - he gave us good service for years (sans 2014) and then gave us a parting gift...

that's the spirit, olisik................none of this negativity stuff

Tom Mc not a single vote. Ridiculous.

The bombers must be going for a coach that actually knows what he's doing with supplements this time around. They're learning.

Brendan is not going anywhere, Worsfold is the next Coach of the Bombers.

Get the tissues out boys and girls. Welcome to the club, Jake. Let's hope you can recapture that 2013 form.

Geez, I'd be looking for a bit more than that.

FB: Gillies Frawley Cheney HB: Strauss Sellar Bennell C: Morton Gysberts Blease HF: Tapscott Watts Maric FF: Jurrah Cook Wonaeamirri Fol: Fitzpatrick Scully Magner Int: Barry Tynan Taggert Bail

(Re)interrupting this thread to apologise to Faulty and Ethan, and any others, for my cryptic, punctuationless post (24 Sept). Yes, Aberlour is a 'Highlands' single malt, from Aberlour on the River Spey, due north of Edinburgh / due east of Inverness and, yes, I (generally!) reserve it for wins. Hence "lookout 2016!" (positive, positive, positive...) Resume normal transmission.

Oh, what a lovely sentiment... He was genuinely excited for the group over the next few years - always good when someone who has seen great talent tells you that he can see it at the Dees. He must have earned his pay packet at some point during the year according to the Match Committee coming in 16th in the Bluey.

I spoke with someone in our FD before the start of this season, and one thing he pointed out was that 2015 would be a bit rocky, mainly because the team had played bugger all footy together. However, he did say that 2016 was going to be the start of the exciting times for us (implying the team will know each other better after 12 months with each other). Keeping that in mind, and the fact that we've had 6 players gone already, I'd be surprised if there will be too many more list changes, unless the "deal of a lifetime" comes up. While we still need to remove a number of players to improve, we also need stability. The upside of keeping the likes of Matt Jones and Dean Terlich around for another season is that they will play a lot of footy at Casey in 2016, but if needed in the seniors, they will know the role they need to play, and will know the players around them. That's not to say they'll play that role well, but there were games this year where M Jones wasn't a liability. Doing this will then see us needing to move only a handful on at the end of next season, giving all players the opportunity to develop as a team. With AVB being upgraded, we have 5 spots on the list. I'd imagine we will be trying to get two players during the Trade/FA period that will be starting 18, leaving 3 spots to take to the draft. If we find other "starting 18" players wanting to join us, then the likes of MJones/Terlich will be pushed out, otherwise, they'll be with us in 2016.

i'll say it... wouldnt want Franklin

Would that be the form when he was on 'the good stuff?'

I would call it negative and no, it's not the truth. We are secure off the field. While our membership base is low, no argument there, we are doing well financially and are sitting as well as we have in a long time. Our coaching team is very well entrenched. Yes, Roos is finishing up next year but he has improved the list, the culture and our professionalism since he has been here. The players know that Goodwin will be taking over and he is well respected in the industry. He is untried, yes, but that doesn't make it a negative. And we look positive going forward. You can add Jones, Vince, Tyson, McDonald, Salem, Garlett, Vandenberg, Gawn and so forth to that list above as players who will make a big difference for us. We still have plenty of work to do, but the comment I responded to of 'dude, we go for Melbourne' is rubbish. We've come a long way and we are above that sort of stuff.

Sure to grow as a player

There is a little bit of that, but I also think the club is no budging on it's valuation on him with the contract on the table. We know going forward how important the cap room is and, while I'm sure the club are happy for him to stay, he isn't a player we won't compromise the salary cap for.

Is Howe worth more than that?

yes I remember. he was sensational. had speed, size and Viney like attack on the ball. reminded me of Josh Kennedy. I think he is also a naturally good decision maker, doesn't hesitate and choose first option pretty well. Another pre-season, trim down a bit, and who knows how good he could be.

Heard somewhere that if anybody else decides to trump the Cats, danger will only sign a 1 year deal with them and then request a trade. Someone needs to check his privilege. Entitled little gifted [censored]!

Played an important role in our win v Geelong.

Every time I open this thread I'm hoping to read news of another NQR having left the building.

And? We might have been a mess a while back, but not anymore. We're very secure off the field, our coaching team is well entrenched and we are looking positive going forward. Plus we don't have WADA hanging over our heads. No need to be negative for negative's sake.

Any contractual deal regarding WADA, assuming it can be written in by some clever lawyer, would at best only related to our payments being terminated for a guilty finding with suspension. It would do nothing about wasting a spot on our list. Still, IF we do go for him I would sincerely hope that a get out clause is written in his contract. Anything less would be totally amateurish and unacceptable.

Robbo is a pathetic excuse for a journalist. I thought his reputation on her was ill-deserved until I watched him interview Hogan.

The only game he played full time midfield was against WB when Dom Tyson was out. He absolutely dominated! I still remember now he ran through packs like a raging bull and put enormous pressure and tackling around the contests. He was a man possessed! Can't wait till he builds his tank. He will be an absolute beauty!

Yze was a blow. I think underrated in our memories because of his disappointing final year.

I am coming around to this need for culture change. The new players still have a burning hunger to succeed, whereas the older players could well be burnt out by constant failure. Anyway we will have changed 75% of the list by December.

It is rather ironic that a big man like Nic Nat wins the mark of the year when he took just 30 marks in 20 games for an average of just 1.5 per game.One and a half marks a game for a ruck man is rather puny to put it mildly. No doubt his athleticism gained him the award in this case. Howe was superior with his effort. By the way, big Maxy took 57 marks in just 13 games at an average of 4.3.

The body he has now is ridiculous though. I wonder what the hard-work/genetics/good-training-methods ratio is there.

I'm a bit disappointed everyone has failed to piece the jigsaw together. It's clear that Franklin is out of Sydney and a big chance of ending up at the Dees. We got into Dangerfield's ear with the news. He deliberately didn't name a team of preference because he has assured Melbourne that if Buddy signs so will he.

But seriously, Fyfe, what a great winner.

so danger's coming then?

Al knows that one has been playing predominantly as a key forward and the other predominantly as a smaller mid. Hey, that's what Al knows.

Was the Franklin deal the most ridiculous and damaging list management move in recent memory? They signed him for nine years and he looks (somewhat) cooked after two.

Don't mind Tommy Bugg. Can play as a tagger but also win the ball himself.

I'd want Watts' replacement to be an upgrade on Watts, otherwise I wouldn't bother. Bird is more of a competitor, but I think Watts has more tools. Not to mention Bird will be 27 at the start of 2016. This would be a bad, bad trade, IMO. If true, it shows very much that the FD are happy to get rid of Watts for very little.

I think probably the biggest problem with Harry...is the rest of the team What I mean by this is we havent got to the point yet where we really play and run hard forward with BELIEF.....not yet. When we do , and it might start to happen next season as we've seen glimpses , then a player like Lumumba will come into his own.When he strikes out there WILL be options. Often he does and there are none..and then he gets dacked !! We havent quite caught up with harry..not just yet