pringle

Sheedy is senile. He constantly talks garbage. In this case he's just combining his usual bs with his marketing prowess.

No mention so far of his foot and hand skills. He mentions that one of his strengths is getting his hands free to dish off but not much else to go on. Can anyone comment? His kicking style doesn't look too flash.

The article says "three straight unsuccessful grand finals". That is correct. They have lost two of them and drawn 1. None were successful.

As long as it doesn't lead to more home games played at that awful nearby basketball stadium and a loss of our connection to the MCG.

Interesting one. He's young (23 yo) but has had a few years in the system and a developed body. Multiple injury setbacks. Maybe needs a bit of a jolt like this. It would be a good story if they rookied him and he worked hard to make it back on their list (he was a father-son selection so would be nice). Interested to hear if anyone here thinks he's worth us punting on as a KPF. Personally I'm not so interested but as I said, I don't get to see him play much.

Says in the paper that Jay Neagle was delisted. I don't really watch too many Essendon games very closely so I can't comment on his abilities too much. But high hopes were once held for him. Does anyone know what led to his delisting? Sounds like it must be attitude problems as he was dumped after "failing to impress" James Hird.

It's sad to see Bruce go, but I don't think it will have any negative impact on our performance next year and it gives a chance for another young prospect to gain experience each week. Thanks Brucey for over 200 great games. We'll miss you.

Arms still skinny. Perhaps bigger in the neck and chest. Hard to tell from that photo.

It's not easy to tell how much muscle growth a player is capable of by looking at their initial body shape when recruited. However we do get a feel for how a player will progress by gauging bulk increases after a pre-season or 2 at the club. It generally becomes obvious by a player's 3rd season, but there is no hard and fast rule. Variables could include (just to pick a few): 1) Injuries that may hamper a player's weights program, 2) Structural weaknesses that may delay progress into heavier lifting until remedial strengthening of other body parts takes place. 3) Variable genetically determined response to exercise between individuals 4) Variable load and work rate of different players (eg. emphasis on endurance in midfielder vs. Power training in a power forward, strong trainer vs lazy etc.) 5) Various techniques used for muscle hypertrohy and their relationship to load of training. For example, training at different times of the year shifts focus using periodization methods (dividing the season into sections or short periods when training focus shifts - eg. Power, strength and endurance training early in pre-season, maintenance training mid season etc.). This is used across the season to maintain a player at their peak. Across a long and demanding season during which the body goes through a repeated cycle of hard endurance running, pounding of muscles and then recovery on a weekly basis, it is almost impossible to maintain a heavy weights program. Most players will not gain much lean muscle mass during a season for this reason. And even in the off season it is hard to dedicate all your time to weights at the expense of endurance work. If every player sat out a year or 2 of football and concentrated purely on hard core resistance training under close supervision without performing much aerobic training, they could all achieve a body size that we would drool over. But these players are also aerobic athletes who require physical attributes such as pace, agility and endurance to ply their trade. Such a regime is not going to assist performance. Indeed it will reduce trained attributes such as agility and endurance and diminish a player's capacity to play at their optimum. All players are genetically different, develop at different rates, mature at different ages, get different injuries at different stages of their development, train at different intensities and respond differently to different training methods. They do so at their own rate and learn to change bad habits in time. Some are held back and some hold themselves back. In the modern age of sports science, (and only as an educated guess) it would not at all surprise me if some weaknesses have been pre-emptively addressed in Watts' first couple of seasons before unleashing him on a heavy and demanding weights program. This would be based on sound biomechanical and medical screening tests. There are also other possibilities such as perhaps planning a larger early emphasis on gaining aerobic fitness in our young key position prospect which would lead to a concomitant decrease in ability to gain muscle bulk. Also, you have to remember that tall skinny kids can put on more weight than their shorter counterparts but still not look as big and muscly. Their weight is distributed over a larger surface. It thus often takes them longer to 'grow into their body' despita gaining appreciable amounts of weight. Anyway, all I'm trying to say is don't jump the gun. There are many reasons why some people take longer than others. Some seem to come into the AFL looking like a ready made massively built man (eg. Tapscott). But even if they're skinny lads to start, most of the guys that are willing and able to put in the effort will eventually get rewarded over time with significant body growth. There's still even some hope for Cale Morton. He is a midfielder who probably does a lot of running as part of his training. That makes it harder to put on weight, but it can be done gradually over time.

???? ???? Wrong thread perhaps??? Everyone here wished him luck. I'm confused.

Good luck to him. He'll love tanning on the CG. Plus the soft sand on the beach to cushion his fall from speccies when he plays kick to kick.

Cheney wasn't shafted. He was unlucky to not get games, but that isn't being shafted. We had too many defenders playing decent footy. No-one really deserved to be dropped for Cheney to come in. He got a couple of games after consistent solid performances at Casey. I for one thought he should have been in the senior side at times during the year based on his consistent Casey performances. But I guess in hindsight we're trying to build a solid and set defensive line. He wasn't in the best 6 defenders at the club. We did him a favour trading him when we could have tried to hold on to him as insurance. Win - win.

Carn the Arsenal!!! But seriously stoked with my decision to go overseas this Sunday for 6 weeks. Won't have to watch the painful spectacle of a Collingwood premiership (it is done and dusted I'm afraid) and may also miss the aftermath of gloating toothless wankers calling up SEN. Although I think their excessive glee may just still be smouldering well into the new year.

Yeah I have to say that since that episode Des has been my most hated AFL footballer. In fact, I don't know if I dislike ANY other footballer more in the history of the game. That being said, he is not really worthy of such a passionate opinion being such a [censored]-poor footballer. But still, I just hate the bloke. [censored] off Des. And whoever that Freo supporter was, he can go stick his bigoted opinions where the sun don't shine. There's absolutely no need for that type of racism at the football or anywhere in our society. I hope that bloke lives a sad lonely life and dies a horrible lonely death.

Hey... I never misdiagnosed an ACL. I was non-committal. I told whoever it was (?Riv) that he needs to be examined again as it's often hard to tell straight away. Was it an ACL?

I need operations on both hips. I'm out for this season. May try to make a comeback next year if the surgeon says it's ok. But I'm in serious doubt and more likely than not have played my last game in the red and blue guernsey of Demonland.

I would like to add a little something to this discussion from a medical point of view. I have experience working as a doctor in a major trauma and orthopaedic unit. I have been a VFL club doctor and I'm currently studying to becoming a sports physician. I have a good knowledge of recovery from fractures such as this one. I will not reveal how I know, but I know exactly what type of fracture Sam sustained. And I just want to dispel a myth or two. First of all, Blease did not have a Nathan Brown type of fracture. His fracture was completely different, and though not quite as minor as the club initially tried to make out, it was also not that bad either. There is absolutely no reason that this type of fracture should take away Sam's pace in the long term. It can take time (sometimes a couple of years) to regain full mobility and confidence after such a fracture. But Sam will be absolutely fine down the track and will eventually forget this ever happened. IF he doesn't make it in the AFL, it will be because he is not good enough at playing football. It will NOT be because of physical limitations caused by the fracture. It may very well be that the time and development lost because of the fracture might hinder him in making it in the AFL. But it will be because of lack of football ability, not be because of the physical limitations post fracture. So if you want to take my opinion, I feel that this debate should be about Sam's football skills, not his ability to physically recover the attributes that saw him selected in the top 20 kids in the 2008 ND. Because all of those physical attributes will still be there when he hits his peak in few years time.

Not available, not the right age, doesn't fit into our plans.

Out of the teams at the top end of the ladder, the Doggies are the team I would have most liked to see win the flag this year. They've had very little success in the past and at the beginning of the season they looked in good shape to have a tilt. It is sad to see them have such a poor run of luck this year. They've had a whole raft of crucial injuries at the wrong time of the year and their once proud club champion has succumbed to mother time. But I think there is also something else lacking at the Doggies. You can't put it all down to bad luck. You make your own luck. You build a winning culture over years and years of hard work and self-belief. Unfortunately I don't think the Doggies have "IT". The doggies seemed to have imploded right at the time when they looked capable of finally breaking the shackles of decades of mediocrity. Brad Johnson is an out and out champion of the AFL and it's sad to see him leave without a flag after years of great service to a struggling AFL minnow. To relate that to Melbourne, if we are to win a flag some time in the not too distant future, there is still a LOT more hard work to do in building the ruthlessness and winning culture that is needed to make it to the top of the tree.

And FWIW, I don't think we need to trade him for a ruckman. We have Jamar, Gawn and Fitzpatrick (I know he's a forward, but these days it seems coaches want a forward who can ruck rather than two ruckmen in the team). And until the two younger boys maure I still think PJ is adequate. Hampson and Jacobs are just so-so and nothing to get too excited about. I'd prefer Walker if give the option.

I think so. We weren't really desperate to get rid of either player. They chose to leave after hearing offers from Carlton. Hence I think they were poached. It's interesting to see that not many people would miss Warnock if he left. I know sentiment means nothing in the cut-throat world of AFL footy, but I like his story and the way he worked hard to make it in the AFL as a slower starter. At the beginning of this year people were talking about how strong our defence is with Frawley and Warnock as our two reliable KPD's. However I agree that others seem to have superseded him. If he's ever going to have any trade value it will be this year.

Underwhelmed as well with that "highlights" package.

Brett Ratten quote from his post game press conference: "The group is still young and that's the big thing, the experience is something we want but you can't just inject it into the players to get them another 30 games, but maybe we'll look at getting another tall defender down the track." Given Carlton's recent history of poaching Melbourne players (CJ, McLean), it immediately sprang to my mind that Warnock would be a logical choice for them. Seems to have slipped in the pecking order here at the Dees since Garland, Frawley and Rivers have been performing so well and he may want more opportunities to play regular senior footy. Plus there's the lure of him playing with his brother. If Matty asked to be traded to Carlton (I would if I was him), what would be a fair trade?

Is there a minimum number of draft picks that a club needs to utilize at the ND?

I don't rate the Bullants. Carlton stars or not, we should beat them. I've seen them play 3 times this year and they've not been that impressive.