Forest Demon

Colin Sylvia has actually been very good since the bye, but don't expect a lot of posters on here to admit it.

Congrats Bater. 100 games of AFL football is an awesome effort. Has the given his all for the club and you couldn't begrudge him asking to go to the Doggies last year after opportunities here dried up, and to his credit he hasn't dropped his bundle after we didn't trade him and seems to have found a role under Neeld.

Case Closed.

If they did say that, it would explain it a little for me, because normally rookie listed players would only be elevated when they were going to play that weekend. But the fact he was elevated before Round 1, strung 4 or 5 excellent performances together at Casey while Melbourne were getting spanked everywhere in the first few rounds and still couldn't crack a game, is still a bit odd.

I'm not into speculating about what Connors and Martin have been getting up to, but if it all hasn't made alarm bells go of in your head then you need a dose of reality. Clubs don't get rid of decent players unless they are real bad eggs.

Odd that they would pull the trigger on upgrading him to the primary list and not give him a game, especially considering his form early in the season for Casey. Would be an interesting question to put to Neeld.

Robbo is clearly all about himself and loves taking about himself...but that's why we loved him

Chris Knights is an interesting one. 2007-2009 he was looking like he was on his way to becoming a real top-liner. Was getting a lot of the ball, used it well, and always kicked a couple of goals. Has stagnated for whatever reason the last few years. He will be 26 next year, so should still have 4 or 5 years left of half decent footy.

Let's just hope the club plays their cards very close to their chest, and put every bit of doubt possible in GWS and GC heads that we are willing to call their bluff, even if we have all intentions of grabbing him regardless. Can't wait for the F/S meeting to occur and Harrington et al come out to announce we will be using our second rounder on Viney and we can end all this speculation and plotting these crazy schemes.

This deserves a thread of it's own. From a couple of snippets out of interviews, I have absolutely no doubt that Cale Morton is not only aware of the [censored] he cops from supporters, but it also impacts negatively on him. (Btw - not trying to point the finger at anyone, as I have said some unpleasant things at times about him)

I used to live not too far from the Lions training ground, and I saw him on at least 10 or 20 times burning around on a tiny little scooter, big helmet on, and with the beard flowing, driving through the streets of East Brisbane. Always used to make me laugh.

You can sugar coat it if you please Macca, but unfortunately that is the truth. I loved Trav as a Demon, and he was sublimely skilled but he let himself down with his mental application at times. Up here in Brisbane, I know they were miffed by his approach to his career. Surely we are allowed to point out negatives in players. It aint all rosy.

Sydney are a marvel with their trading and recycling of players. A lot of it obviously has to do with a culture that has been created at that club and a strong development history, which I don't think is present at Melbourne, or many other clubs for that matter. Probably the team I respect most in the AFL, and we could do a lot worse than looking at how they do things.

With all the talk about our recent drafting, I thought it might be interesting to look at how we have fared at the trade table over the last 5 years given enough time has passed to allow judgement on most of these trades. Also, thought it might be interesting given we have declared that we may be looking to trade actively this year. 2011 In: Mitch Clark Out: Pick 12 (Sam Docherty) in: Pick 52 (Josh Tynan) Out: Matthew Warnock Verdict: obviously it is hard to tell what guys around pick 12 from last year's draft are going to go on to do, but the way Mitch Clark has performed this year and given his relatively young age, this one obviously gets a big tick. As for the Warnock trade, it was always a bit of a nothing trade, but given Warnock looked to have no real future at Melbourne and Tynan even impressed enough over his first pre-season to earn a game in Round 1, this one gets a tick aswell. 2010 In: Pick 53 (Tom McDonald) Out: Kyle Cheney, Pick 66 (Paul Puopolo) Verdict: Cheney seemed like decent depth at Melbourne and when he was traded for a very low pick I was a little suprised. But given Prendergast got this pick about as perfect as he could of given the scarce pickings at that end of the draft, it gets a tick also. Interestingly, Hawthorn also did well picking up Puopolo, so turned out to a bit of a win-win. 2009 In: Pick 11 (Jordan Gysberts) Out: Brock McLean Verdict: a big one at the time, as a player who was earmarked as a future captain of the club was traded. McLean by this stage had slowed to snail's pace and has done very little at Carlton since his move. I still have reservations about the player Gysberts can become, but getting pick 11 for McLean was the perfect case of selling at the right time. 2008 N/A 2007 In: John Meesen Out: Pick 38 (Myke Cook) In: Pick 14 (Jack Grimes) Out: Travis Johnstone Verdict: the Meesen trade didn't work out. For one, Meesen looked out of his depth even at VFL level at times, before injury got to him, and given a mid level pick was given up for him, it is obviously a flop. The Travis Johnstone trade on the other hand was another masterstroke, not only did they get rid of an ageing and mentally flakey individual, but drafted a player who is captain of the club at the age of 22. So overall, in the last 5 years, we have managed to stuff up just 1 trade, which only came at a relatively low cost. At the same time, we have done some very good bigger deals, both trading players out (McLean, Johnstone) and trading players in (Clark). Hopefully that inspires a little confidence going into trade week this year.

I still think he is rated pretty highly up here by the Lions. He is a good little small forward, but lets himself down with his set shots sometimes. If he were available at a decent price I definitely wouldn't be against it, but as I said, I still think he is well and truly in their plans.

You just can't stuff a kid around like that. I would imagine if the club went and proposed to Jack he sit out of the draft so we can get 2 better players and pick him up next year, he would tell them to go and get f$%&ed and he would be playing AFL football for someone else next season.

While I wasn't behind the Junior chopping, I was 100% behind only offering Bruce a one year deal and to be honest, he was lucky to get that. Hawthorn didn't do their research as it was clear to all of us watching Cam play each week that he was finished. I think we will go after a couple of experienced guys who we can get reasonably cheap, but I'd hope we won't bother if a 33 year old Cameron Bruce is an indicator the quality on offer.

I am young and have, as far as I know, good eye sight, so if there is the odd game that I find difficult to distinguish teams from one another, especially with the mass of bodies around the ball these days, then I am sure there are many older viewers or others with poorer vision or even people who just have smaller older tvs who are having great difficulty distinguishing. In my line of work, and most lines of work, accessibility is a key goal, which means to make the work usable by as many people as possible, which generally refers to those with disabilities of some sort, and I see no reason why the AFL is any different. And if wearing a light jumper 3 or 4 times a year ensures that, then is it really that bad. If done properly can be a great marketing ploy by the club. There is a reason EPL clubs bring out vastly different away strips pretty much every season, and that is because fans lap it up.

Can we have the message 'Father/Sons are organised prior to Trade Week' emblazoned on the Demonland banner.

Agree with those saying he is doing it to create the Us vs Them mentality. The supporters eat it up. On a side note, I am not a fan of Eddie's at all, but I am really enjoying his show. After the first episode with the Jurrah interview I thought it would struggle, but he has some very interesting guests on there. If you haven't checked it out, I would recommend doing so.

If anyone saw the Adelaide Richmond game on the weekend, could they tell me if they had the same problem I had with the clash of the strips. I am 100% in the 'every team should have a clearly different light or dark clash jumper' camp.

And yes, I think he has had a decent year so far, and has taken to the captaincy well. The only reservation I had with him regarding the captaincy was injury, but so far so good on that front (touch wood).

His disposal has become a bit of a worry, but it is amazing how someone's disposal seems to improve as the team starts winning and having better options available to them. But with Grimesy, I love his ability to work hard all day, gets to the right spots a lot and wins a lot of the ball, rarely loses a one-on-one contest, is a good mark for his size, and he is obviously very serious and dedicated to his footy. Don't think he will be become 'elite' so to speak, but will be a very good player for many years.

I too thought this was going to be a joke until I started reading it. If nothing else, Juice did provide a lot of forum banter and laughs over the journey. And by the looks of it, he is the forum gift that just keeps giving, even after being delisted.

I do agree that the 'Please Never Pick Jake Spencer Again' thread is probably poorly titled and a bit demeaning. But there is definitely a space to have a reasoned discussion on a player's development.