DemonDave

Depending on condition Forkem, $200-300 for a full set if theyre good, a bit more if they're mint, ie they are not stored held together by a rubber band and none of the corners are dinged. Also assume no comic moustaches have been drawn on anyone in is era that didnt have some kind of facial hair.

Tapscott fits that bill doesnt he? We havent drafted a lot of players in the main draft under 192cm the last couple of years, so purely through phyical developement stages all of those kids are going to be seen as 'skinny'. Looking at Heppell theres still nothing of him but he handled himself superbly this year.

Would James McDonald have been drafted/rookie'd under todays stringent analysing at draft camps? From all reports he was a shy and retiring country kid. Football skills have to come before any personality traits when selecting a kid. For every Steve Johnson there is a Rod Owen, players with freakish abilities that may or not apply themselves and succeed at league level. I gues sometimes clubs have to take a punt as West Coast did with Darling. If he messes up this off-season and ends up in jail there will be a lot of people who say 'I knew this would happen', or he could go on to have a trouble free, premiership playing, leading goalkicker award career. Risk vs Reward.

Collingwood have done a series of cards the last couple of years for their premium level memberships. Theyve generally contained past players 'Legends Series', 'Captains' etc. Many end up on ebay as non-collectors have no use for them. Hawthorn also from time to time provide cards with some memberships, and this year also released a fantastic box set featuring all their premiership players and signatures from eight of them. It was quite pricey at $2K, but I would snap up a Melbourne equivalent in a heartbeat. As for trading cards nowadays, theres two main players, select and teamcoach. Select release two series each year, one priced at around $3 that has pretty basic cards and the odd 'chase' card, whereas their second series is more higher end and can contain draft pick autograph cards, amongst other things. Teamcoach is more a top-trumps kind of card game online. I still get more pleasure from tracking down a rare Ivor Warne Smith card than a draft signature of Lucas Cook though!

If we win the flag next year, would the OP begrudge Dean Bailey coming into the rooms to congratulate some of the young players he helped nurture?

I posted this in the Neil Craig thread, but this is how I read it; "Neeld said there would be at least eight full-time coaches at the club next season, which “stacks up very well with the best clubs going around”. So I make the organisational structure (in terms of who they are reporting to) to crudely look something like this: MFC Board \/ CEO (Cameron Schwab) / Football Director (Lyon (for now)) \/ Director of Sports Performance (Neil Craig) \/ Senior Coach (Neeld) / Elite Performance Manager (Misson) / General Manager Player Devt & Strategy (Viney) \/ Backline Coach (Rawlings / Midfield Coach (Royal) / Forward Coach (yet to be apptd??) \/ Backs Asst Coach (?) / Mids Asst Coach (Greaves) Devt Fwd Line Coach (Satterley) And also: General Mgr Club Devt (Connolly) Football Manager (Mahoney) Developement Coach (O'Donnell) Innovations Coach (Dunbar) General Manager List Devt (Harrington) Recruitment Manager (Prendergast) Who i dont know where they fit in in terms of who they are reportable to (as the above would be). That leaves forwards coach and assitant to backline coach vacant...

So our coaching structure is now only missing a forwards coach (and possibly an assistant backline coach) if I'm reading all the appts correctly?

This quote from a story on MFC website: "Neeld said there would be at least eight full-time coaches at the club next season, which “stacks up very well with the best clubs going around”. So I make the organisational structure (in terms of who they are reporting to) to crudely look something like this: MFC Board \/ CEO (Cameron Schwab) / Football Director (Lyon (for now)) \/ Director of Sports Performance (Neil Craig) \/ Senior Coach (Neeld) / Elite Performance Manager (Misson) / General Manager Player Devt & Strategy (Viney) \/ Backline Coach (Rawlings / Midfield Coach (Royal) / Forward Coach (yet to be apptd??) \/ Backs Asst Coach (?) / Mids Asst Coach (Greaves) Devt Fwd Line Coach (Satterley) And also: General Mgr Club Devt (Connolly) Football Manager (Mahoney) Developement Coach (O'Donnell) Innovations Coach (Dunbar) General Manager List Devt (Harrington) Recruitment Manager (Prendergast) Who i dont know where they fit in in terms of who they are reportable to (as the above would be). They're going to need bigger offices at AAMi and the G!

I think the administrative error was realising that they'd somehow still kept Mitch Morton on their list and he still kept turning up to collect his paycheck on the way to his home away from home in Craigieburn.

Interestingly in an article by Sam Landsberger in todays Sun, the last paragraph stated "Viney is not eligible to be drafted until next year, but has committed to a three year deal with the Dees under the father son rule from 2013. Which perhaps could be correlated with the five year deal mentioned in the Age as being for this year and next in development and then three years on our main list.

Story in todays Age that Viney has signed a five year deal with us, I wasnt aware of the length of the deal before this, and that he will split his football next year between Carey Grammar and Casey. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dragons-charge-to-tac-cup-victory-20110925-1krrj.html

I dont quite see the 'potential superstar' in Dawes that others seem to, he's a role player in a very well drilled side. I fear that once he's out of that system as a big banana, he will fall short of expectations (see any player from the Melbourne Storm that has been developed from scratch and then left to chase the big money in the last five years). Compare his averages to Brad Green this year: Marks avg - Green 5.0/Dawes 4.4 Goals avg - 1.8/1.5 Disposals avg - 15.9/13.7 I know they're not like for like, but its widely perceived Green had a disappointing season.

Not technically a trade/delisting issue, but according to todays Age, Emma Quayle believes highly touted Casey defender Tim Mohr is likely to be one of the players GWS take as a pre-listed player (ie. They get a free hit on guys not on lists who have previously nominated for drafts, think Krakouer, Mzungu last year).

A great idea. Lets hope this time next year theyre not on the bus as theyre too busy getting ready for a cut-throat final..

So do you think our coaching sub-committee went straight to the collingwood staff list, looked at who their assistants were and simply picked one from there because they were so desparate for Collingwoods IP and didnt consider anyone else?

A massive issue for mine as well. When was the last time one of our players was listed Top 20 in Mike SHeahans 'Top 50' players? (yes I know its only one journos opinion but its usually a pretty fair reflection of where the comp is at). Or finished top five/ten in the Brownlow? When you think of certain eras, you think of the 'star' at the time, be it Barassi, Alves, Flower, Lyon,Stynes etc. But thats about where the line stops. Who would be considered our 'star' player today? And what about four years ago? Eight years ago?

What about Greg Hutchison and Mark Riley?

From the preacher to the teacher, to the err..He's a teacher too isnt he the new guy?

I think 'stealing IP' from clubs is an overrated, erroneous term. Did we get 'loads of IP' from when Royal came from St Kilda, West from the Dogs or Connolly/O'Donnell from Freo? Or even Viney from Adelaide via Hawthorn for that matter. I can hardly see any tangible evidence of this. Game plans and tactics and strategies change drastically by the year, clubs have to adapt and react to trends quickly. This was a flailing of the Bailey ethos, trying to implement a game plan that worked circa 2007 with a bunch of players that were just not comparable.

I did hear he was a bit excited about it too...

Malthouse was interviewed shortly after all the pressers on SEN and said the same thing happened with Chris or Brad Scott (i dunno which one is which!) once he got appointed at North, it was untenable to have a senior coach of another side sitting in his coaches box. I agree with him. I think the timing was great in that it happened when not much else was going on in the football world, as strange as that sounds during the finals. Kudos for getting the coach they wanted, and having the media not catch wind of it until just as it happened last night.

I think the collars a great throwback to our past. If the OP is so adamant it must go, put up a poll so that all of us 'fashionistas' can vote on it. You'll find you're in a very slender minority.

Can someone please call Matty Knights, and tell him to stop faxing his resume to the club. This position is now filled.

Its not often the senior journalist at a paper sticks his neck on the line and says 'this person is going to be the coach'. I give his hunches more clout than the ambulance chasing, rubbish bin hiding journos of the ilk of Barrett and Hutchison. Still, time will tell!

Burns retired in 2008 which means he's only been out of the game 3 years now, is that enough of a coaching apprenticeship?