hemingway

Hey guys, we are in the final series and playing a final on Friday night and you want to talk about trades. Stay focussed. Who cares about Scully. My only interest is knocking off the Hawks.

An important player for 2019 and beyond. But has to play his role as per game plan and become a disciplined footballer (which I suspect is not his natural inclination). Next year will be make or break for him.

spot on old son

Roos has respect and credibility. Lyon has non. His opinions are irrelevant. It is sad to see what he has become.

He has two sides. Good and bad.

That's great and gives all Dee fans a nice warm inner glow, however, the Club still needs to offer him a contract commensurate with his worth on the market.

Tasteful as ever Biffen

even the MCC Shiraz has gone off.

almost our home ground. at least we win there. the MCG is becoming a cold depressing lifeless concrete mausoleum.

you are excused Daisy. its getting harder and harder for some of us just trying to say the right thing. and when everyone keeps talking in acronyms it makes it even harder

This is a statement more apt coming from Uncle not you Daisy. I thought you were a sensitive, new age bloke

not sold on the coach or the need for balance ? are you pedantic or a man who knows his mind ?. or maybe I have missed your point completely, something that I do all the time. I read so many posts and I scratch my head in wonder over the depth of analysis and detail. I think well, it cant be that complicated, its only a game of footy. In the good old days, we would go along and watch the game, buy a copy of the Herald post match, read Alf Brown's reports of the game, maybe buy a copy of Sporting Globe, watch Pelaco Inquest or World of Sport (depending on whether you won or lost), listen to one of the doyens of the game, agree or disagree on the 3 votes, and forget about the game until League Teams on Thursday night. Those great men of the game who have gone to footy heaven would shake their skulls in wonder and roll over.the other way.

Could be a good thing or a bad thing OD. Breathe of fresh air with a person that has no allegiances and doesn't buy into past myths, stories and accepted ways of doing things or someone who comes in to make his mark and creates distraction, disruption and disharmony. However, we know that there is no good outcome without success on the field. And for that we need, top notch players, a top notch team and a top notch coach. . All these things must be in balance.

Can't imagine what the problem could be Febes. Do you? Perhaps they went to the game on Sun. Perhaps they had to spend an embarrassing few hours with expectant sponsors. Perhaps they prefer to be roosters rather than feather dusters. . Perhaps Simon is not talking to them. Perhaps they are actually passionate Demon supporters.

Fair comment Wise. The biggest hole in our defence was Petty. He was not able to do even the basic negating role, let alone provide any support for others. OM was generally not to bad but at times he looks completely exposed both in the air and on the ground. When the ball comes directly to him one on one, he's generally not too bad and at least gives a 50/50 chance of stopping his opponent marking. However, he still lacks intensity and ferocity at the ball and his opponent. Lever had that in spades. He also had great speed getting to a contest and great intercept ability. We miss that so much. As soon as the opposition move the ball into their forward half quickly our defence inspires no confidence and looks completely exposed as if they have their feet in sand (excluding Jetta). So what to do ? There appears no solution other than to try make the most of a bad situation. Frost must be tried and given some continuity of games. He has height, pace and ability to rebound. He has deficiencies as we all know but so do the other defenders currently in the side. He brings something that we lack. We need to move or drop Lewis who is slow and a complete liability with ball in hand. Reluctantly, I think we need to consider moving TMac back to CHB. I know, I know but we need to do something, as the shambles of our backline allows our opponent to salivate with unbridled relish and indulge in the most hedonistic picnic imaginable. I know nothing about Keilty but unless he has some toe and can do the basic things well, I would not pick him.

Agree, we are a slow side but gee, Harry was incredibly slow both in movement and decision making. Perhaps, this could be partly due to nerves and struggling with the faster pace and intensity of the game, but even so, he appeared to be moving in quick sand. Like Oscar, he seemed to lack energy and intensity, a bit of a relaxed walk in the paddock as if playing school or park footy. He is miles off playing senior footy.

Agree. Also from personal experience, reference checking is not done or poorly done in all organisations whether it be the corner store or large sophisticated organisations.

Spot on.

I call it creative writing or perhaps footy fiction. No doubt Caro is contracted to write a certain number of articles each season. She also has to maintain her profile and distinctive writing style.

Classic Caro, entirely predictable. Did not take long for her to get her angle, contact a few people and write her critique. The stiletto was sharpened and poison pen got to work. She will never praise a decision or action but alway “damn with faint praise”. Her style of writing always suggests he has gleaned information and insights that are credible and accurate. Importantly, this same style means that she is never entirely wrong.

Knees always make me nervous and when I think of what I have seen on the footy field, a little sick at the bottom of my stomach. There on both occasions when David Schwartz broke down. Now that's something you never forget. I just hope Jake had the best surgeon who did the best repair job. Much depends on the skill of the surgeon. He cannot afford to have another reco. Like The Ox, you wonder about the riskiness of his playing style as he jumps and intercepts off balance both on take off and landing. That makes me nervous. The Ox had to reinvent himself and change his playing style. He had to use his increased weight and strength and forget about jumping into or over packs. I suspect that Jake and his recovery team will need to consider the way he plays and whether he modifies his playing style. Whether it's 12 months or less for Jake, lets hope he has a full recovery and successful return to the big time. He is one hell of a talent that we want to see much more of.

Even as a young kid, I loved seeing new kids make their debut for the Dees. Nothing has changed. Its exciting to get that first glimpse of talent, when you think "gee this kid can play." So often a false dawn, merely tantalizing. Occasionally though, we get to see the "real deal" for the first time. Robbie Flower, Garry Lyon, Bayley Fritsch to name a few. Still one of the great things about AFL. So it will be exciting to watch Harry Petty run onto the ground and get his first touch. Let's hope he falls into the successful ""he's got what it takes" South Australian camp and not the "well he had talent, but we never got to see it" camp.

Yep, a top bloke and a top coach.

The unanimous comments of support from posters regarding this news is a great tribute to the footballer and the man. Universally liked and admired.

Having state of the art training facilities is very important.. It may not translate directly into wins on the field but it is another component of building and maintaining a successful club. It shows that the club is ambitious and has a plan to become a successful club. It is about securing your future. Most successful organisations outgrow their original or existing facilities. Outdated facilities eventually have an adverse impact on an organisation. Although we may have good facilities at AAMI, sharing it with a range of other clubs is not ideal. Suggestions are that it has become overcrowded and that we can't get things done without the consent of the other stakeholders. It may be a huge improvement on the Junction Oval, but the AAMI and Gosch's Paddock facility is a poor cousin to Collingwood's Holden Centre and Olympic Oval. Is it practical or sensible to think that we could continue to use the AAMi facilities for another 10 years? Most likely not. The longer we leave it to create our own facility, the harder it will be in 10-20 years time. Having your own facilities, sends a powerful marketing message. It tells all and sundry that it is a professional club. It is a competition between clubs for recruits, players, coaches, sponsors etc. Successful people want to be associated with successful organisations. You need to do everything possible to have the edge on other clubs or at least to be on equal footing. In the 1950s and 60s, players were attracted to play for Melbourne because we trained and played at the MCG. Sure we won premierships but we also had the best training facilities in the League. To get the best out of people you need to have a work environment conducive to high performance. Players and coaches are going to be more motivated and productive if they train and work in the best environment. Location, access, architecture, space, equipment, technology, work areas for coaches and staff, meeting rooms are all components of creating a productive work place. One in which players and staff enjoy using every day. If the Club does not plan to develop and grow in all of its activities, it will eventually whither. We cannot afford to stand still and have all the other clubs with a competitive edge.