deanox

interesting he hasnt started yet. i saw him around the redlegs social club before the richmond game in round 22. he was wearing an official badge and an mfc tie, looked like he was at work really...

i have heard that as well and it interests me to know that CAC apparently rates grimes higher than any of the other 3 at the pointy end of the draft (kreuzer, masten, cotchin)...

my problem is that you can't just simply dump 22 year olds every year because they havnt shown that they will attain elite status. you always lose a few older blokes, and its always clear that a coupld of youngens are clearly not up to afl, you can only have so much list turnover at a time. dunn may not make it, but he is still at a point in his career where he could turn it up a notch. he could be a very handy part of a team, and if he steps up and he has the players around him will be good enough. he may not make it. but there are players who need to be moved on first, and i think thats the reason we hang onto players, not because we think they are the shizzle. disclaimer: many people here think players are the shizzle, and i am a perfect example RE i think bell might make it. each to their own in general, but some players shouldnt be allowed near a footy.

i think that is the best, and should be the one we use (i emailled the club about it). however, i dont think we should have a white border around the monogram on the jumper. i believe that, while this looks great on paper and at close distances, would actually become really blurry at the ground or on tv and you lose the definition (ie you have two lines not one). this is a pet hate of mine on all afl jumpers, i think it makes them messier and makes more of a clash for everyone.

i thought he did a great job as a tagger this year. he clearly isnt going to make it as a tall forward, his body on body is not good enough against strong opponents, and his marking is not up to scratch, overhead or under pressure. people often say that to teach a player where to go in the midfield one of the best ways is to make them follow the best players. given that dunn had no midfield experience it seems that this is exactly what he had been doing. and not only did he follow them around, he managed to nullify them more often than not. dunn has a lot to learn, as said in this thread already, it is not good enough to be just a stopper these days, but you need to get a bit of it as well. hopefully what we saw this year was the coaching staff believing that dunn needed to learn a) how to play in the midfield, and b ) how to stop his opponent before he attempted c) getting the ball and hurting your opponent. hopefully dunn can learn to use his height and size to his advantage by pushing forward and making opposition midfielders accountable when we have the ball. he managed to get a few touches around the stoppages etc, but he needs to be able to push away from his opponent and become a spare man when needed but also be able to still be accountable for your man in the case of a turnover. on this forum this appears to be an underrated skill. dunn was wary of pushing forward for a reason, it is a ploy that can backfire quickly, leaving your man, often the oppositions key play maker, free in the centre if the ball is turned over, which seemed to happen a lot when we were going forward this year. it doesnt surprise me he wasnt keen to go running around where ever he wanted. summary: found a new role, excelled in it for his first few attempts, but needs to improve a lot if he wants to be a player who deserves his spot each week.

fixed.

i rate bell but i think id take that trade. at this stage i dont believe bell is ever going to be one of your top 10 players. i believe he could be a good solid contributor, and could well be part of this team for a lnog time, but the sounds of this adam thompson indicate that he could be a star. if bails thinks so it would be a sensible trade.

i think the people here who have tagged him as slow have gone down the 'oh he is an inside midfielder? he must be slow and we have too many of those.' line. which is obvious not very acurate.

im pretty sure it was a widely held hope around here, search for 'four horsemen' and see if you find anything... as for the forward part, that is something i have read around here recently but cant remember ever seeing in any official report. in fact i thought he wasw a defender playing in country SA who had never had a proper coach until he got to the mfc...i could be wrong bu i would love to read something official. has anyone got a wisby report?

why has he had limited opportunities? because from the wisby reports, which are normally fairly reasonable, he sounds fantastic.

everyone wants more pace in the midfield and bell has pace...

i still think bell will have an important role at the club over the next 5 or so years. if we can get a good deal for him in a trade he will go, but he wont be delisted.

would have been close to the carey league imo if he had of kept going the way he was...

ah the early 90's. if ever we should have won a flag. schwartz was flying, lyon at FF, david neitz was our star CHB, so good in fact that carey singled out him and jackovich as his toughest opponents. if we had of kept them all on the park we would have been a force, but you're right, 3 knee recos ended schwartzs run, and he was never quite the same. lyon had a dodgy back that he eventually succumbed too, and neitz got thrown forward to cover them both. we could have won it in 94, especially if we didnt have to travel to perth in the prelim, but that is part of finishing 7th. who ever says the old system wasn't as good as the new system just needs to look at the finals from that year. we were good enough to knock carlton off week 1 and were rewarded with a home final. gary lyon went nuts against the doggies and kicked a bag. any chances of a dynasty went out the window with the injuries. other teams get a few years together with their best players, we only got the 1 and schwartz and neitz were still very young.

i agree with you somewhat although I have not noticed it to the detriment of the team. ie its not like his man gets away from him and he gets beaten. it seems to be more in attack that he gets lost, not sure whether to sit back or run forward and ending up standing somewhere in between...

a 20 KPD shows some promise and some poise at the top level. Body still isnt quite there but seems to have some smarts, a good punch and reasonable closing speed. i have no problems with him getting 2 years, and I think that he is the type of player that will keep getting better as he gets older and stronger. surprised by the amount of people who want to write them off so young.

ok i'll say it once more. pay attention this time because even though it is very obvious, you clearly dont get it. We pay carroll next year whether he plays or not. if we want to have a young kid on the list instead of carroll, we can pay carroll out now, and then pay for the young kid. the extra cost is only the cost of the draftee, because we would have been paying carroll to waste away like yze did this year. which means the only money that could be 'saved' is the cost of the draftee.

and in the end that probably is a good reason why he didnt come to us isnt it?

So do you agree with me about where are these figures coming from? is it a journalistic problem or is it a bigger debt than we have been led to believe?

yze and white were in good form when their last contract was signed also. the problem with giving older blokes contracts is that they deteriorate at a different rate to 23 year olds, and they cost more.

he followed an improvement line and the brisbane game was his best. we all knew what he was capable off. the brisbane game set a new standard and i expect to see him play like that next season. apparently he can take contested marks. apparently he can take pack marks. apparently he can run around and slot them from 55 on the boundary. now he needs to do those things every week. i was sorely dissapointed when post-brisbane game i saw him looking to give off instead of having shots from 45-50. did he forget he can do it? all he needs to do to stay at the club is have another year like this. but i will be dissapointed with anything less than 40 goals, and quite a few more pack marks. cameo appearances are not good enough for a CHF. hopefully this year was his 'get back on track' year, after losing his way, possibly due to positional changes, the past 2. a big preseason hopefully next year can be a 'break out year'

f_d i am trying to work out the same thing. I thought we were 3 mil (or so) in debt before this year, and we were expecting it to blow out to 5 mil with this years loss... i cant work out how we can make a profit and go backwards. at the end of last year we were not $5 mil in debt, or at least we didnt advertise that we were...

if geelong only offer him a 1 year contract he will be interested in moving clubs, especially if we offer him more. 1 year goes against everything geelong have claimed in the media about expecting him to be part of the future, and recovering and standing by him.

while i understand what you are saying, and it does seem that way, i really believe that you cannot place that type of risk on 'what you think' or on what WCE, who will be getting shafted in this deal perhaps, say... if we make this trade, we need to confirm with freo who they will take in the draft (preferably in writing) and we need to be happy with either of the other two, knowing we get warnock as well. if freo want rich, and we dont want niknat, then this trade does not happen, even if we believe WCE will take nat leaving us watts, because there is the chance we get screwed. also, has watts nominated? are nomination dates before or after trade week?