mo64

Sorry MFC4Life, but this old chestnut of "how many players from team A would get a game with team B?" is a bugbear of mine, because you're purely basing your assumptions on 2007 form, and not on actual talent. For example, put an underachieving Richard Tambling into the 2007 Geelong team, and I'm sure his output would equal, if not surpass that of Shannon Byrnes. Conversely, how would Shannon Byrnes go in a struggling Richmond team? If you did this exercise after 2006, when Melbourne finished 5th and Geelong missed the finals, what would your answer be? 12 months down the track and the lists have hardly changed. Melbourne has a year which is decimated by injury, has coaching issues, and the players confidence is low. Geelong goes through the year almost injury free, and the players are full of confidence. If you asked the question, how does Geelong's top 6 players compare to ours, it's a no-brainer. Geelong's top 6 are far superior to ours. But if you compared players 11-22 from the respective best 22's, from a pure talent perspective, any Melbourne player could displace a Geelong counterpart.

How do you define "superstar"? Who were rated as superstars in the season prior to the Swans and Geelong winning their flags? Nobody thought that the Swans would make the finals in 2005, and Geelong didn't make the finals in 2006, and their supporters were bemoaning their slow midfield.

When I saw the name Loyal Forward, I was expecting an article on Russell Robertson's decision to stay at the club rather than sign with the Dogs.

If I recall correctly, they weren't drafted in the same year. We promised their dying mother that we would draft the other one if he was still available. We ended using a top 10 pick for him, which he was never worth.

Every other club knew about Warnock as well. I thought we learnt our lessons from the Cockatoo-Collins, when we overpaid to get the other brother to the club. The names Jay Viney and Brian Stynes also come to mind. To solve the problem, let's ship Matthew Warnock off to Freo. I do agree that we have a massive ruck problem. This is hindsight recruiting, but if I was critical of our recruiting, I would've traded our pick 37 to the Kangas for Brad Moran. Meesen wasn't even a 1st choice ruckman for Norwood. Played predominently as a forward.

Do you realise that there is no brother-brother rule? We didn't draft him because like every other club including Freo, we didn't believe that he was worth a 1st round draft pick. With our only selection prior to Robbie Warnock being picked, we picked up Nathan Jones. Have a whinge about that!

Just to add to your argument, we have actually recruited Simmonds and Jolly over the past 10 years.

I'm with Rhino on this one. Do people really believe that 'cloak of darkness' training sessions by our senior players is a better preparation for round 1, than full scaled practice matches against AFL opposition? What will your excuse be if we lose round 1 against a depleted Hawthorn?

These sort of comments are ridiculous, and purely hindsight drafting. For starters, dozens of kids get invited to training, and the clubs make an assessment of based on what they see. Can't you grasp the fact that maybe Alwyn Davey realised, after training with us, that there were facets of his game that he needed to improve? All credit to the kid for his improvement. Secondly, after a stellar TAC Cup season, Sam Mitchell was overlooked by every club, and wasn't even rookie listed. After a great season at Box Hill, the Hawks drafted him with a pick in the 30's. Again, well done to him for proving ALL the recruiters wrong.

Over the past half dozen years, our coaching staff (not recruiting officers) have had a fixation with a particular type of player. Maybe that was the year when we were looking for hard bodied midfielders. Sometimes it seems that coaches or recruiting staff can focus on the negatives of a player if they're not the prototype of the modern footballer (6ft 2 massive engine). Peter Bell definitely doesn't fit the prototype. As you say, we're all armchair experts, but my gripe that year, was that in what was considered a bumper draft, we only had 3 picks, and Warnock was elevated off the rookie list. That was the year when we needed to cull, but players like Ferguson, Godfrey and Bizzell were still under contract. Poor list management i'm afraid.

You're spot on. If we're 0-4, nobody will remember who we lost to in the NAB Cup!!! And are you a bookmaker Jaded? What odds are you offering on your last statement? I'm guessing $1.05.

Yep, we were fit and firing by round 22 last year, when we beat Carlton. Problem was that it was only our 6th win for the year! I'd rather see us flying out of the blocks like the Kangaroos and Adelaide did last year, than take the Swans approach of gradual improvement. History shows that we are a confidence team. We can string wins together, but equally we can string losses together. I'd feel more confident if everyone was fit and firing now in readiness to take on a depleted Hawthorn team in round 1 (no Hodge, Lewis or Crawford).

I tend to take a dimmer view that the side that we hope resembles our round 1 team, will be underdone. I don't take any solace out of the fact that we're giving game time to the likes of Warnock. And I'd be more encouraged if our ruckmen started to show something. This is the one area where we definitely need to improve.

It's no different to Greg Swann leaving Collingwood to join Carlton. It p#ssed off McGuire big time, to the extent that Eddie won't talk to Swann. But that's the business world. If Trigg sees us as a challenge that'll look good on his CV, I doubt that Adelaide will stop him leaving.

On a more serious note, it was rumoured on SEN this morning that Adelaide CEO Steven Trigg is on the short list of 4-5 candidates. Hopefully, I'm not wasting Nasher's time with this rumour.

Well said RR. Do we alienate a person who has given so much of his life to the club with little financial recompense? For supporters to say that his actions as an honourary president where "unforgivable", is unforgivable in my book!

Welcome aboard lodski. Now that the niceties are out of the way, as a platinum member, I gather that you actually take an interest in the club? FYI, Jack Grimes was our 2nd pick in last year's national draft, and no. 14 overall. In essence, he's what we got for trading Travis Johnstone to Brisbane.

Not according to the following webite: http://www.injuryupdate.com.au/afl.php My guesstimates on our injury situation were totally wrong, and I apologise for any distress I have caused.

Tony Eshaug is overqualified compared to the other candidates.

If it's not his decision, there's a fair chance that the AFL are pulling a few strings. If that's the case, you'd hope that they've got a well credentialed ready made replacement lined up.

Agree about Moloney, but can't say i've got any worries about the expectations on Morton. It's not as if many of us are actually going to see him play this week.

I'm assuming you're talking about TJ. His kick off one step annoyed the crap out of me. It's effectiveness was overrated. Looked great when it hit a target. Put his poor teammate under pressure when it didn't.

You make a good point CHAMP. There really isn't anyone that stands out, and that included TJ when he was there. For mine, the player with the best execution and decision making when it comes to disposal is Jared Rivers. He may have an awkward kicking style, but it's effective. Next would be Brock McLean, and in his short career, Ricky Petterd.

I can't believe that so many people have Bell as an untouchable. We're a lot worse off than I thought. FWI, I'll take old55's list and his rider about potential untouchables.

Demoncoast, my prognosis (I'm an internet messageboard physician) has stated that the following players won't play in the seniors in round 1. Some may play for Sandy in order to get some match fitness: Rivers Bruce Petterd Dunn Bartram Wheatley Grimes Whelan C. Johnson Moloney ? That's 25% of our senior list, which is a bad prognosis IMO. Come round 1, let's see who's closer to mark.