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Supporters carry on when average players are traded. Supporters carry on when a 2016 AA player is recontracted. FMD

The guy was all Australian last year and was badly affected by a hamstring injury this year (not a knee, so more unfortunate than injury prone). How the hell he could have been considered to be "cruising on his own reputation" is way beyond me.

Some exaggerating going on here... he did find time to towel-up Paddy Ryder in his All Australian year. While he was nowhere near his best after the injury, he was nowhere near as bad as you’re suggesting.

Simple fact is ,if we are good enough we can win anywhere. If you all think we are good enough then winning in Alice and Darwin is a good possibiilty.

Horrible time. I HATE 3.20pm starts.

Trade Week is finished ENYAW. Sail away.

Round 1, 1994. Gave the Cats with an Ablett a canning.

How dull is the Richmond v Carlton opener every year?

Give me ten players who should be paid more.

Good one Max!

Any kiddies reading Demonland, please don't take this literally! ProperDee means (I hope) "hasn't done any harm to his ability to play football very well".

Playing Adel and Freo In NT is a [censored] joke. We should be playing another Victorian team otherwise what’s the advantage? The club needs to end this stupid sponsorship ASAP!!

WOOHOOO potentially round 2 vs brisbane and now Round 8 vs the suns at the GABBA!!! As a Queensland member this will probably be the best year of my life

No issues with that. Home game on our home ground. A great way to start the season and test ourselves. Will be a huge turnout. Very happy.

Oh, I thought Max was disgruntled because the club traded Watts. Guess not.

The majority of the matches he’s missed in that time though are because he was playing at Casey. Jamar kept him out of the team for the better part of six years. When Gawn did get a run during that time, it was playing mainly as a deep forward.

Brownlow and Coaches votes in round one too... lazy b@st@rd.

It's certainly becoming easier to change clubs, or be given the arz, but why bring it up in every thread? It's a statement of intent at a minimum, and I think we ought to be damn pleased about it. Should we dredge up some of the doomsday posts regarding a player walkout following the pushing of Watts? Nah, lets not.

Still do.

The alternative view is that games against interstate clubs played at the MCG draw smaller crowds than games played there against Victorian teams. Smaller crowds means less revenue and a worse atmosphere which discourages the Free-to-Air broadcaster from wanting to broadcast such games in prime time. So, if you look at the bigger picture, the commercial value of the NT deal (direct revenue plus the commercial advantage of playing Victorian teams at the MCG) may be more valuable to the club overall than the alternative. Of course I would prefer not having to play home games away from the MCG, but reality bites.

Thrilled with a home game against the Cats in round 1. Its a brilliant test for us and there's sure to be a massive crowd which will be fantastic exposure for the club. Hopefully there's also a couple Friday night games in store for us.

So the drug cheats get rewarded with a friday night game. makes me sick, lets hope the crows belt them Surely Cats V Dees would have been ideal for Sat night at the G? and not two average sides who won't make finals (hawks v pies)? anyway - still cant wait for the game! thank god its at the G! Viney will tag Ablett and Selwood at the same time. Run Gary into the MCG turf and break Ducky Selwood's spirit like usual

I reject that analysis because it is based on a flawed premise that you can pretend that you might not trade a player you are determined to trade. MFC decided to trade Watts. He wanted to stay. MFC had to make it crystal clear to him that he we wanted to trade him - we were "upfront, open, and honest with Jack Watts from the very start." It's not practical or ethical to then pretend that we might not do a deal. There's many ways it can go wrong if you do: Reject Port's offer - Watts and his supporters think he's now a good chance to stay when in reality he's not Alternatively Watt's and his manager know he's going to be traded - it's not in Watts best interest to play along and disadvantage the club he's being traded to Port don't blink and a worse deal is all that's available in the end Watt's many supporters are misled about what is really happening and are rightfully even more upset All for some possible small trade increment. It's more practical and ethical to be transparent as MFC were.

A word of advice for the AFL...those fixturing times are a mess. If you want to grow the game you need to be attractive to those who are not yet locked in. Start by getting some regularity into timeslots to make it easier for people to know when games will be on. Three different starting times between 7.00 pm and 8.00 pm in just one round of football? And the four day games all with different starting times. Seriously?

Tweener.

I don't care if he has a delayed start to the season proper, we've seen first hand how foot injuries can potentially be career destroying, i'd rather be precautious and have him for the next 10 years than try and get him ready for the season proper. I feel we rushed him back way too early after he hurt his foot late in the season, don't want it to happen again......ever.

Demons by 36 points.

pippi longstockings

That would actually be more than we paid. You are advocating paying more for Lever so that we don't pay overs.

Love these kind of posts. "(Completely irrelevant detail). 'nuff said."

I think we’d all like to see Tim Smith play some games next year but on face value, Crameri would be a clear upgrade.

And you get 30 seconds to take your kick.

The goals are a far bigger target than field targets.

Two more 'home games' in NT. Ridiculous. We are still not a serious football club.

You guys once laughed at Richmond.

Now banned in Sweden for 'racism' - the world has gone mad.

Toff Tots

So happy about this!! We didn't play in QLD this season, so I'll be able to go to some games

I went all the way back to around this time four years ago when poster Fifty-5 raised this long post by Bigfooty poster Quigley who summed up Ben Lennon as follows:- "Ben Lennon DOB 5/7/95 Ht 189 Wt 80 Lennon has been a Twomey love child this year, putting out several articles telling us how great Lennon is and how he is a virtual certainty for the top 10. Play anywhere on the ground, explosive, elite kick yadda yadda yadda. Well personally I do not see it. He looks like the typical second tier Metro kid who finishes the year well and they are talked up out of all proportion. A lot of people on BF have jumped onboard the Lennon love train and it is possible that I am wrong but if he is taken in the top 10 I am going to be shocked. This is not a case where I rate his tools a bit differently to others I just do not see him having those tools to start with. Lets start with probably the big issue. Of the flanker/midfield groups he would sit firmly at or very close to bottom for athleticism and very real questions have to be asked about whether he has the athletic ability to play at AFL level most especially in his preferred HFF role. Lets start physically. 189cm is pretty good for a midfielder but it is getting to be pretty average for a flanker and combine that with short arms and small hands and we are not off to a fantastic start in supposedly his strength area. Another thing which gets talked up is his explosiveness. Well he was bottom 20% (this includes rucks remember) over the first 5m of the 20m sprint and his back half was nothing out of the ordinary leaving him with a time in the 3.20 range. So pace and explosiveness are a cross. I will say that his repeat sprints were better but that only put him up into the average category. I have seen show a good lateral movement to evade tacklers but I have also seen him get nailed by tacklers that I thought he should have been able to step around and so I was interested to see what he scored in the agility test. Bottom 5%. The only players who scored worse than him on the agility test were a few rucks and many of them scored better than him. I will say that I was surprised with the result. I had a big range in my mind where he could go but bottom 5% was well below where I thought he would end up. Beep in the mid 13s was nothing to write home about and a bottom 25% in the 3km was disappointing. A lot of the highlights for Lennon are him taking nice marks so jumping was expected to be decent at the very least. Well he was bottom 10% in the vertical and below 50% in each of the running jumps. If I am honest I will concede that these results surprised me a lot. I did not expect him to be a stand out athlete but I did think he was probably going to be above average. He obviously plays better than he tests but these sort of athletic deficiencies are often found out at AFL level when playing against guys who are just as smart as you are as a footballer and are much superior athletes. So even before we start to look at his game there are big question marks. Okay onto his game and I hear a lot of talk about how great a kick Lennon is. Pin point passes over 50m to hit guys in stride on the chest. Well I have to say that I have missed those ones. I would say that Lennon is a good kick but I am not seeing it as being elite and it is probably a fair way from that. He does have good penetration and can hoof it 55m. His usual approach is to go with long or 3/4 kicks which are most often to contests. He does not tend to look to use short to intermediate targets as much as he should and will probably be instructed to lower his eyes more at AFL level. I do not rate his decision making or vision as being anything more than average for his position. He tends to take obvious targets which is not bad but I do not see him setting up play like Billings say who played a similar role at the Champs. Around goals he could also be better and will miss goals you would like to see him get. He waves the ball a little in his set shot approach but nothing too bad. As with his field kicking he has good range and might actually be better further from goal where the pressure is on him a bit less. Okay I have been very harsh on him up to this time. What does he do well? Well his marking gets a lot of praise and I would tend to agree with that. I think his hands are good (but not great) and he uses his body excellently in marking contests. He is strong through the core and maintains focus and balance really well in body on body situations. He judges the ball in the air pretty well and marks most that come his way. With the ball on the ground he has really clean hands for a flanker and this gives him a bit more time to work with than others. He can swoop and collect at pace and make opportunities. Lennon does have some class about him and good things do often happen when he is involved in the play. This is a little hard to explain but I think he has good football IQ about some things (reading the play, body work, positioning around goal) but I probably couldn't say that about everything (decision making, leading and passing lanes). In most games there will be a wow moment or two which really make you notice him - a spin move out of a pack, a swooping pick up and go etc. Teams have wanted to see him more as a midfielder this year (you can probably hide athletic deficiencies a little more there) and credit too him that he stood up and put up some good numbers there in the TAC. He did not play a heap of games but averaged 25 disposals a game over the year and 28 disposals over the last 4 or 5 games when playing a lot of midfield time. He played as a half forward at the Champs and only managed 12.6 disposals per game which I did not think was a particularly good return. I particularly followed him in the SA game where he matched up on Scharenberg quite a bit and Scharenberg gave him an absolute bath. The difference in ability was very evident in that game and cemented for me that he was not in that class and definitely not a top 10 pick for me. If I was looking at him I would be trying to develop him into a Sidebottom type midfielder who can go forward. Sidebottom is also not the most athletic player in the world and has a similar good but not great kick. Sidebottom's decision making are probably better than Lennon's but you would hope that would come. Lennon's clean hands also allow some prospect that he will develop a decent inside game as he gets more time on ball. I have been pretty harsh on Lennon but I have to stress that I actually don't mind him as a prospect. I just think talk of him being a top 10er should be way off base." ... and that possibly explains why he didn't make Richmond's grand final team and why he's on the outer today.

Fifty-5 - I think you should channel Jack Watts and be a bit more precise in your kickings. @ding is just an an innocent bystander - not to be confused with @KingDingAling, (and then also bing who chipped in for a like). A-ringa-ding-ding.

with crameri and hartung and any other delisted player for that matter, it is pick 47 that we would be giving up for them. Pick 47 would have landed any delisted player that's been mentioned and we have already thought better of it. Before you say we're sitting back to make a decision at a later date to consider the options, well this draft period if anything we went and got things done that the club wanted. all these fringe players coming up as delisted options, we have already said not to in effect giving up pick 47 for them. Pick 47 will be coming with us on draft night.

From Adam Cooney's mad monday article perhaps? "Hibberds and Melkshams: The animals of the group, rock up feeling the effects of the night before, nude by 12, abusing everyone by 2pm and home by 6pm. Great value."

Because of the Commonwealth games mate, got it straight off the suns website.

I imagine he might go OK if he worked closely with McCartney.

A lot of words to say, "yeah faulty, you are right" And it isnt being picky to correct something that is plainly incorrect, no matter how many words you use to justify it.

I'd rather Ben Lennon...

LOL. Did your homework as usual. One year off with a ban and the other with a bad hip injury. Read the article.

Without agreeing or disagreeing, there's no "slightly" in the trade period. You're dealing with the draft selections that clubs hold. If they want 10 and you've only got 30, you can't compromise and agree to meet in the middle on 20. It's not like a housing auction where bids go can up in increments of $1000. When you're trading picks, there are almost always big gaps between picks/offers.