Goodvibes

Welcome back Brad. His father coached state under age teams up here in QLD. It's in his blood!

So when the successor is announced who will be the first poster to go with the Roos_to_Simpson or Roos_to_Burns username that were all the rage on bigfooty for a while. I think Scully_to_Watts might be dead in the water. Aish_to_Hogan might still be a chance . . . .

I guess the question that remains is will he get better? He's consistently improved each year and really established himself over the past two season. I still see him as a B+ midfielder. Can he become a truly elite top 10 midfielder in the comp?

Something you want to tell us Redleg?

My first up close sighting of him was on the Gold Coast in one of the Nab games. In the related thread I commented that there was a moment where he'd been put under pressure and had his weight on the back foot and had to quickly regain his position and prepare for contact. I thought the opposition player was favourite to get to the contest first. Toumpas not only regained his balance, he committed his body low to the contest, got there first and then spun away untouched. He won't become Archer but he doesn't lack ticker.

Way to keep a lid on it!

I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting the number one defender by about round 4. He's better than Dawes and Fitzpatrick and Clark will probably take time to return to his best. Don't underestimate what Hogan is capable of at AFL level from round 1. I understand those who are concerned about the hype and the expectations but unlike Watts and the other great white hopes of the past, Hogan has already given us a taste of what is to come against grown men.

I hope you're right, I really rate him. As BH says, our best bet is coin.

Our best bet is convincing Adams to nominate Melbourne as his preferred team and then getting the deal done. We've got lots of salary cap space and Paul Roos. What else can we add to our sales pitch?

I thought we had.

Our midfield is in such a dire state that I hope he does both. Trade out pick 2 for Swallow or an equivalent and then find a B grade mid (or two) with our second or third rounder/s who emerge Kennedy style as genuine A graders.

I think Sloane, Gaff, Selwood and Shuey are unrealistic. Adams, Swallow, Martin and obviously the draftees are all potentially obtainable. My order would be: Swallow Adams Aish/Freeman/Kelly/Sheed Martin

Demonland feels like groundhog day sometimes. Weren't we here a couple of weeks ago?

Don't forget Casey Sibosado.

Hogan kills someone.

I'm starting to think we might actually get one. Why? We haven't heard anything public out of the MFC about the PP since the Roos announcement press conference. If Jackson and Roos thought it was in trouble they would have gone public. They haven't. I think they know how this one is going to turn out.

Now that was a little petty.

Call me petty but I didn't like some of the things that came from Jolly's mouth after he left Melbourne.

I'm more open to this one than most. I can see why he fell out of favour with Hardwick. I can see why Hardwick preferred the grunt of King. I think he's at the right age, has the experience and hunger to make a go of a second chance. He was travelling pretty well in 2011. And he's better than any small forward we've got. Whether there's still a role for a small forward in 2014 is the question.

Jamar looks very close to shot to me. Jolly looked worse this year. I'm not sure about this one.

Talk of top 8 is ridiculous. If we're going to be serious we've got to give ourselves the double chance and finish top 4.

Jack, I'm expecting my Paul Roos honeymoon period to wear off in a couple of days. Just let me enjoy those days!

I was a little tongue and cheek with the Hodge call. If we can nab Swallow and Adams I would be over the moon.

I'll see what I can do. I quite like your 22 but we're still an elite kick off the half back line away from finals footy in 2014. Can you devise a plan to deliver Hodge?

I think you might need to see the game again. that was the tip of the iceberg. Everything you said about Carlton is correct. It was the second greatest tank of all time. They too should have been punished. I quite like your tanking definition and I'm sure I'll borrow from it (with your permission of course) when debating with opposition supporters but (without wanting to sound like BH) my eyes tell me that the football departments of Melbourne and Carlton made gameday moves designed to lose rather than win. That's tanking.