Bang Bang Bang

Almost the final nail in the coffin. Respect to those still trying to water down the situation but this news has just about done it for me! Thanks for the memories Tom. I'll miss your sprints out of packs and floating kicks to the opposition. B)

I saw that, was gonna post it here but I think we are clutching at straws. Then again he is his best mate....

I know Caro isn't hugely popular, but it seems strange of her to suddenly say it's a done deal/certain etc when all year she has been sitting on the fence. The article worries me, but it won't be long before Scully's future is made official. In fact, I've been glued to the computer all day waiting for news. Maybe the thread should be locked until an announcement is made, I'm sick of checking back every 5 minutes to see the same old faces arguing ;-)

Hutchy last year said Gary Ablett would stay at Geelong, literally a day before Ablett strutted out in his new Gold Coast polo!

Well I think it's pretty safe to say now that Tom has not made a concrete decision on where he will be next year. Therefore, all the speculation about it being a "done deal" throughout the year from Ox, Ralph, Eddie etc was almost certainly a load of bollocks. That's not to say he will be with us next year and these journos will claim to have been right all along if he takes the $$$ on offer.

I hope Scully re-signs for 1 year, just for the laughs.

Based on Garry's words on FC tonight, Tom is yet to make up his mind and may yet stay at the Dees.

Agreed. I'd expect confirmation of his departure within a couple of days should he decide to take the money. If he stays, then it might drag out a couple of weeks... that's how long it took Sylvia to put pen to paper anyway. The longer it goes on the more chance we have of keeping him, IMO. Although it is only Monday morning, plenty of time for a GWS announcement!

Two things are killing us at the moment. The first is conversion. We're missing bread and butter shots at goal while Port have been pulling goals out of their backside. The second is ridiculous umpiring in favour of the home side. How does Sam Blease get legged AND get a clear handpass away, yet still give away a free for HTB. Absolute horse [censored]. We should still win from here. Bate's having a blinder!

Nice kick from Boak on the siren after yet another soft free. Umps are killing us, not that it's really worth kicking a fuss up about. Entertaining game so far.

We haven't really had a "big thing" (i.e. genuine superstar) in donkey's years. However, I would be extremely surprised if Jack Watts isn't taking the [censored] out of the competition in 3 years time. Agree that a dark horse could be Jeremy Howe. From the rest of the comp, I think Dustin Martin is going to be something very special for the Tiges.

Gaff is an absolute gun, every bit as good as Scully and Trengove. Those who are throwing Morton and/or Davey around as part of a possible deal are kidding themselves. If he was to leave (and I doubt he will), you'd have to fork out a top 5 pick.

I reckon if Scully was already signed, sealed and delivered to GWS; then the club would be well aware of this and would NOT be playing him in dead rubber matches like today. Especially with Todd Viney at the helm. For that reason, I think we're still some chance of keeping him. Gut feel says he'll sign with GWS in the coming weeks though. As for Scully the player, I think we're all judging him a little harsher than we normally would given the circumstances. I think he played a reasonable game today and is progressing quite well for a 2nd year player. I'd expect a big 2012 from him. If we pay him 700k to stay put then the fans will be expecting a lot from him in the coming years.

Looked good, not sure if he'll be able to get a permanent gig while Frawley, Rivers and Garland are around, but he looked at ease out there. Impressive debut. We seem to have a knack of producing kids who star in their first game.

Just wondering what people think about the decision to make Howe sub today. Was it a good move - given he came on and gave us an immediate spark? Or was it a bad move - given the guy was clearly too good in the air for the Suns defenders and was virtually wasted for 3 quarters? Regardless of the decision I'm a big Howe fan. Can see him kicking 50+ next year if he gets a full season. Why can't he?

6 - Blease 5 - Garland 4 - Green 3 - Bennell 2 - Moloney 1 - Jones

18,036. The perfect weather and prospects of an easy kill will get a few bandwagoners through the gate.

Lot of respect for the Swans after today. Compare the spirit and intensity they showed to our infamous "performance" a few weeks back. Obviously a game of footy isn't going to heal the pain Jarrad McVeigh and his wife are feeling, but I hope their win today brought a smile to their face. Good on ya Swannies. Best win of the season.

This would be the work of C.Schwab, wouldn't it? If he is capable of pulling in that kind of kanga, then he can't be doing that bad a job!

Not an overly inspiring committee, IMO. Garry was always going to be on it, then you have the great man who is very ill, and a bunch of blokes with no football experience. I suppose it just confirms that Garry will be calling the shots.

6 - Sylvia 5 - Jones 4 - Garland 3 - Trengove 2 - Bennell 1 - Moloney (no major impact, but couldn't think of anyone else)

Yeah you're probably right, but rewind 12 months and Essendon were a very similar boat to what we find ourselves in now. 2010 was their 6th consecutive year out of the final 8, they had a rubbish gameplan with a rubbish coach and I'm sure a lot of their fans were wondering when things would ever look up. 12 months on and they will play finals. Probably won't do much, but Hird (as much as we hate to admit it) has got them back on the right track. Edit: I forgot they made the 8 in 2009... but they may as well not have bothered with the way the Crows slaughtered them.

Has looked better at AFL level than he has at Casey. Did some great things today. That run out of defense in the third quarter that nearly resulted in a Jurrah goal was probably the highlight of the game.

No player on our list (and very few in the league) are capable of dominating the way Sylvia did today. Sure, he doesn't do it every week, and he is coming off some lukewarm form, but you don't trade away players of his quality if you can avoid it. On Grand Final day do you want Colin Sylvia playing for your team, or the opposition?

Disappointing result because I was expecting to win today, a couple of key moments go our way and we win and get the 4 points. But alas, we didn't. The 4 points are meaningless in the overall scheme of things anyway. It's never fun losing to Richmond, but they had more confidence coming into today and were lucky enough to be 7 points up when the siren went. It was a pretty even contest. Annnnyway, I was hoping to at least see some positives that can be brought into 2012 and I think I got what I wanted. Blease was really impressive, his kicking is excellent and his pace breath-taking. Was a long wait with this kid but I think he'll repay us in spades. Bennell played a good game, great pace, ball use and went hard at the pill and the man. Well done JB. Morton was good I thought. Although some will disagree. Ball use pretty good. Once again our senior players let us down at crucial moments, in particular Davey who would have to be some chance of not being at MFC next year. Chin up guys, a couple of soft wins to finish the year, a new coach to weed out the dead wood, and we may see big improvement in 2012. If Essendon can do it, then so can we.