Rhino Richards

Well said.

The rich get richer..the poor get the picture, the draft wont ever help you when you finish so low. Apologies to Midnight Oil

Robbo has had a great story at this club. But he is not one of the greats. Actually people on this site have a habit of grant further contracts to players who are past. As you have said he is on his "last legs" why would you waste another yesr on him? We are not a charity.

Good stuff Rojik. I'd offer you a peace pipe but if you follow your early analogy....have you given up smoking as well. Lets hope we achieve the objective.

I think the wrong message was given to Riley when he took over from ND. Hence the 5 wins in 2007. I agree with your development programme that has been certainly in full swing since late 2007. Indeed why change?

No tags on Goodes and Kirk. BTW, I saw in the Green Guide that the game is being replayed on Sunday night at 10.30pm on Ch 7. Do they often do that with interstate games that are only shown on Foxtel live?

Nothing like a history revisionist. At the end of Rd 18 2004, MFC were on top of the ladder. One of the principal reasons was the domination of J White in the ruck and he did so single handedly. The others were Scott Thompson and David Neitz. Both got injured toward the end of the season. White did begin to feel the strain of the long year and after a significant layoff with injury Jolly returned and in limited game time showed little form to justify his spot. Jolly cracked the sads about not getting more game time with White having been in such good form. Yet he did little that year but sulk on and off the field. His form was so deplorable that he got dropped and a very green and inexperienced Jamar was elevated (too soon) as the needed second ruck option to support White. At the end of the year Jolly with one year left on the contract wanted to leave MFC. MFC traded Jolly to Sydney for pick #15. Its interesting to note that in first few years at Sydney Jolly saw more pine than woodcutter. ND was out to try and win a flag and did not have the luxury of telling his AA and primary ruckman to take the year off. Jolly's little tantrum forced MFC to play Jamar well before time. Jolly had shown little then and in his early years at Sydney that he could be a reliable first ruck. Hardly a lose lose decision at all when you deal with the facts.

Exactly

On that we agree in spades.

I thought that about alot of your posts!

:D Fish? Fish?

Would we take him with our 2nd round pick?

Robbo is either on or eligible for inclusion on the veteran's list. I dont think the number of wins will affect him.

Try Burma Actually you are being quite unfair. Bruce has been rewarded for his consistency and durability. McLean did not win it and its unfair that Bruce is maligned despite his achievement. I think Bruce will give it a shake again this year. BTW, McLean has played nearly every game this year but will he win it by a mile this year? Oh that right he has been injured.

Richmond would do something like that. Its called list management suicide. WALK AWAY then...quickly. The best way to get experience in the midfield is to give the existing players game time not waste picks on age weary hacks that look good on paper. Haselby offers us nothing but a false quick fix that wont fix anything. And guess what he got injured toward the end of the season....again? We wasted pick 20 on that. It should be a salient lesson for you.

Prisnall is neither proven quality at Essendon or Geelong. At this point, he is a capable player in the AFL but no star. Prisnall did not want to come to Melbourne. We got either Blease or Strauss. Get over it.

I dont think so and you have just argued my point. Well done. That's not a good profile at all. Cotchin has been a success and is probably in the top two at Richmond. He's a gun and he is only 19/20. Wallace failed for other reasons besides Cotchin. Not that you would realise. Back under your stone now

Agree. Its been coming for a while.

Possibly some merit in that. I think there are many in that position. I dont think that is the thrust of the argument. I think it harks back to your paragraph about the LT outlook. If the footy club believe he is doing the right thing and they understand that the given the extent of the clean out and re build that has been done then they should extend his contract by another year to ensure that he is making coaching decisions for the LT future of the list rather than battling a week to week survival proposition. Its important that he coaches with LT perspective and not for the short term and compromise the Clubs interests. I think you can add the media effect on the longer it takes to re sign or sack Bailey. It does have a distabilising impact on the Club on the field and off the field as well.

Agree with Col fourth. Grimes fifth, Frawley sixth, Warnock seventh, McLean eighth

Yes you are. Arrogance was not the major problem at Richmond. Incompetence from the coaching through to the recruiting and list management. See where poor list management gets you Donny!! Pavlich played a blinder against us but there were 20 other squibs playing for them that day. Many of those have gone but there list is young. BTW, you could do well being Rhino Richards but its a big leap for you. The way you have gone recently Donny I would give you 2 PPs in the first round and a PP in the 2nd round just to make your arguments near competitive in the future. Merry Christmas anyway.

You haven't got a clue what Stynes is actually thinking. He, Schwab and Connolly are far shrewder people than you would realise. From the MFC perspective, its the same position and the same outcome if we win 5 games...in fact its worse. That is all that counts Its more meaningful that all those players have an elite teammate like Scully to assist them. The upside is considerably reduced and the opportunity wasted. There are four more games that are at risk because of the present poor form of the opposition...Swans, Richmond, North and Freo. If Sandilands and Pac play there are some clues how we beat Freo? Richmond would the last 7 out of 9 in 2008 and did that give them anymore belief? It didn't and the 2010 season can be planned and implemented regardless of the outcomes of 2009. Given how young the side will be next year its likely to be challenging again to competitive throughout the season If the issue is insolvency then the MFC would have folded in the 1980's. The AFL own the licence that is the MFC and is the ultimate guarantor of the debts. MFC is not trading insolvently. I dont deny the issue. But once again you have the core facts wrong and droawing inccorrrect conclusions. The AFL have already said that Tassie is the 19th team (whatever that means). They are at least 5 years away from consideration for the AFL in any form. By that time MFC should be heading up the ladder even more so with Scully.

All these bad years become a blur!

Thanks, what's your source? Footywire.com? Your figures seem a truer reflection of things. I checked the match stats off http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/2007.html Wont do that again. And they would seem to be wrong.

FWIW, Bailey should be credited for make some hard strategic decisions following the collapse of the sides performances in 2007. Many of the cuts Bailey made were obvious and necessary. The delists in 2007 and 2008 were hardly surprising as they werent part of the future. But for record Brown and Pickett announced their retirements prior to the end of 2007. Bailey inherited contracts for fading stars like Neitz, White and Yze. He did the right thing and slowly and respectively removed them from the lists unless their bodies gave up before. If culture was a be a big issue with Bailey then TJ was an obvious casualty but the Club did well getting a first round pick in Grimes. I probably got more out of the fact that the Club were quick to remove Carroll from the list. It showed what would and would not be tolerated. And TJ was never going to deliver immediate results as the No 1 midfielder heavily tagged and overweight and sloppy attitude of Sampi would not have sold a membership. There was nothing tempting there. With the exception of TJ all the retirements and delists were obvious and none of them had any trade or AFL value. And next year will be a litmus test Bailey and some of the players. There are a few who have to deliver but who wont. And if Bailey is here for an extended time then he will have to make some hard decisions on some of the talented youth who dont fit the picture at MFC. Then there can be a rightful comparison with the trades for Jolly, Simmonds etc. Mind you we traded Simmonds because we had Jolly come through. Jolly cracked the sads because he could not get game time against White the then AA ruckman. Jolly was ready to walk on the Club. The Club took the sensible decision at the time. Its easy in hindsight to be critical without understanding the facts and issues at the time. And I am sure Bailey if he survives will have trades/delists that potentially bite him back. Its the nature of AFL. However I hope Bailey holds his nerve and makes the hard decisions that are necessary. There are more to come.