Goodvibes

I haven't read our code of conduct lately but surely this kind of talk deserves a ban!

Pitchfork I understand you're hurting and the prospect of losing one of this forum's stars is unthinkable but talk of moving on is clearly your way of protecting yourself from what you see as the inevitable hurt. Defense mechanisms of this nature will only delay the inevitable so why not look on the bright side? He loves this forum, his family loves this forum. He's made alot of friends in a short time at Demonland. He's be crazy to leave us just as we're realizing our potential. BTW thanks for the report Kongwaker

I refuse to believe that ADC is gone. He had big raps on him before he came to Demonland. His work ethic since arriving has been phenomenal with 557 post in less than a season. His ability to work from forum thread to forum thread has been impressive. His singled-minded approach (bordering on obsession) sets him apart from his peers. I've even heard rumours from his school mates that he avoided any manual labour as a child to ensure that his typing hands remained in pristine condition. Despite some concerns regarding his grammatical skills, he's certainly shown signs of joining the elite posters - maybe one day he'll Yze Magic-like levels of cyberspace celebrity. He more than makes up for his lack of polish with sheer persistence. He's not afraid of hard work and never gives up. Whilst a little disturbed by his propensity to focus on the man and not the ball, I'll put that down to his youthful exuberance. Until I see evidence of him conversing with GWS posters on a GWS forum I remain in the glass is half full camp who see ADC as a pivitol piece in our march towards the ultimate prize.

This might be the first thing in almost 1600 posts of yours that I agree with. Losing Scully would be huge. I think the "no player is bigger than the club" is nice and all and helps those who are pre-empting his loss and are working on creating appropriate defense mechanisms. Best case scenario if he leaves is getting a couple of half decent compo picks and finding a player his equal and having to wait an extra 3 years for that player to develop to his level - but finding someone who brings his rare combination of pace, endurance, professionalism, leadership and skill will be unlikley. I remember being pretty excited when our official sportsbet odds had us as clear favourites to win the race for Judd. The odds of Scully leaving Melbourne are disturbingly similar. Could two favourites in row get rolled? Here's hoping.

Beautiful Jack. Thanks for that.

They're all guessing. This from Wilson: "There are several points worth making here. The first – and most significant – is that, in the view of this columnist, Scully will remain at Melbourne. Despite the strangely worded, unconvincing and reactionary statement released yesterday by his management, which in reality told us nothing, the fact is, he just doesn't seem the type to make such a radical move." And this from Sheahan: "Tom Scully, the young man entrusted with Barassi's No. 31 jumper 12 months ago, will create an impact of similar proportions if he leaves at the end of this year for Greater Western Sydney, as is probable, if not already done." Who would you back in - Wilson or Sheahan?

I'm trying to be positive about this situation. All of the obvious and current negativity will be turned on its head when Scully signs to remain a demon. The message he would send his team-mates, the supporters of this club and the broader footballing public would be huge. Bailey, Stynes, Schwab and Connolly have become increasingly positive about our future and bullish regarding our premiership credentials in the media of late and Tom's commitment would solidify the premiership focus of this young group and announce to our rivals that belief within the group is strong. If the deal GWS offers is considered by all and sundry as "too good for anyone to refuse", how impressive would it be for Scully to do exactly that and how much harder would it be for the next young demon star to walk away when contract discussion again rears its ugly head? Call me naive but as a new father, working fulltime as an experienced teacher and barely covering my mortgage repayments on a basic house that's a 60 minutes commute away from my workplace, the difference between 4 million and 6 million over the next 6 years seems a little irrelevant if I was close to the people I love. I think I could settle for just 4 million dollars.

Would you be modelling our latest jumper design if you'd already signed to wear the colours of another team 12 months later?

If I was Scully and I hadn't yet signed and I discovered that GWS had played a role in adding fuel to the fire regarding his contract situation, I'd be signing on the dotted line for Melbourne tomorrow. The pressure this latest speculation has placed on him is enormous. I'd be [censored].

12. Shaun Atley 33. George Horlin-Smith 50. Luke Mitchell 53. Jeremy Howe 81. Jordie McKenzie 96. Jake Spencer I'm feeling pretty confident about my last two!

Careful now, that kind of lateral thinking is frowned upon around here. Groupthink prevails!

It's certainly leftfield and suggested with my tongue reasonably firmly planted in cheek but I'd love to see what happened. I think he'd make alot of ruckmen look very silly (just in the centre square) and he'd carve up around the ground. Who knows what other teams will be throwing up as a relief ruckman with the new interchange rules. The game is changing . . .

There's been alot of talk since the attempt to land Hale about the second ruck/key forward position. I think it's Jurrahtime. I'm talking 85% of the game in the forward 50 and 15% of the time relieving Jamar in the ruck. I'm sure the first instinct of most is, "he's one our most important players, let's not risk injuring him in the middle" but I think with the change to the interchange rule we need to be open to something very leftfield. We've all focused on how different Jurrah is and how he plays on instinct. He could become the Polly Farmer of the new millenium. We'd obsiously try to avoid a scenario where Mumford, Jolly or Sandilands was crashing into him. But picture a scenario where he's flying over the top of the second ruckmen like Pike, Brown or Bradley. He'd kill them in the air and burn them off around the ground. It may not work against every team but it's certainly an option I'd like to see occur. I'm also a big fan of Martin and see him playing down back. If Jurrah was clearly struggling against a big bodied second ruck we could certainly throw him in for a few minutes each quarter. We've heard stories of Jurrah playing in the ruck back home and we've seen his natural desire to go third man up during ball ups in our forward 50. It's time to unleash the Jurrahcane and let him do what he was sent to the big smoke to do - revolutionize our one true Indigenous game!

We've got Taylor commentating. We're 7 points down. This is hilarious.

And here I was thinking I was starting a bandwagon but instead I've just jumped on one. You're a good couple of hours ahead of me in expressing the view that Stefan Martin should not be forgotten. I can feel the momentum. Fullback round 1, bring it on!

That's the spirit. 2009 showed he could go alright against the big opposition forwards. I can certainly understand why the football department tried to create key forward out of him but unfortunatley his natural footy instincts let him down. He's an absolute athlete and whilst his kicking is a concern I was impressed with his cool under pressure and his ability to create with long handballs out of trouble. I can see him being a 2 kick, 10 handball guerilla keeper. Every premiership team needs their, "how did he win a premiership?" player and I think Martin will be ours. Seriously though I think he has the attributes to hold down a key position alongside Frawley and Garland. As much as I love Jared Rivers, I have real concerns about his ability to keep up with the modern game. Anyway how about those potential debutantes . . .

This is a great call and why I keep saying to all of my friends who excitedly talk about Scully, Watts and Trengove that they haven't seen anything yet! A team with Scully, Davey, Blease, Bennell and a rejuvenated Sylvia would be terrifyingly fast. Add the potential for speedy defensive pressure offered by Watts, Jurrah and Wonaemirri (anyon else think he gain a yard or two this year?) and we're creating an unprecedented group of speed demons (pardon the pun). Frawley, Garland and the forgotten man Martin are amongst the most lightning key defenders in the league. Please note my reference to Martin as a key defender. I'm on his bandwagon and am making the big call early that he'll be ahead of Rivers and Warnock by the end of 2011 and will form part of our future premiership back 6! But I digress . . .

Watch this and tell me you're not excited about seeing Blease in action!

When we were riding high after demolishing Sydney earlier this year, various sections of the media were talking up our potential flag credentials. Many compared our approach with Geelong. This was seen at the time to be a sterling endorsement of our direction. Having seen Collingwood win the flag and dismantled Geelong in the process, my question is simple; do we stick with what we're doing or do we adjust to a style and structure that closer resembles Collingwood?

I've always been interested in the top 6 v bottom 6 argument. The theory shouldn't be taken out of context. I think I'm right in saying (and I'm sure H will correct me if I'm wrong) that the top 6 of each team is a solid way of determining who will stil be around come the business end of the season rather than helping decide who will win a one-off game. The Saints clearly had the best 6 going into yesterday's game. Riewoldt, Goddard, Hayes, Fisher, Dal Santo and Montagna are better than Swan, Didak, Pendlebury, Thomas, Maxwell and Cloke. If Collingwood had lost last week I'm sure many would have been pointing to Davis, Toovey, Blair, Macaffer, Leigh Brown and Beams as the reasons. St Kilda's bottom 6 (for arguments sake), Eddy, Peake, Dempster, Jones, McQualter and Baker are clearly weak links particularly when it comes to the quality of their skills, which was viewed by Ross Lyon as one of the key differences between the teams. But the bottom 6 players of each team aren't very different. I thought Leigh Brown struggled in both games despite having a great season. Blair seemed a little overawed and Beams was well down on his usual output in both grand finals. Davis was obviously a major disappointment and Toovey did what he normally does and played a role without starring. It could be easily claimed that Jones, Dempster and McQualter (role players) played an equally significant part in St Kilda's finals campaign. It seems clear that Collingwood won because their structure was more successful than St Kildas and their middle 10 players produced more on the day. Whilst Collingwood's top 6 outperformed their counterparts I don't buy the Riewoldt and Milne having poor games theory. Both were starved of opportunities and with the exception of Roo's brain explosion he worked as tirelessly as he did during the draw. Top 6, bottom 6 and the middle 10 is interesting in theory but when it comes down to it, a solid team-oriented defence and the ability to win the pill have always been the secrets to success. I think if you're top 6 contains 4 elite midfielders and quality key position forward and a quality key position defender then you're well on the way to a flag. At the end of the day, who really cares unless we can apply the lessons of the most recent Grand Final to the team we all support? Put simply, will Watts, Frawley, Scully, Trengove, Sylvia and Grimes develop into one of the best top 6's in the competition? With quality veterens like Green, Jamar and Davey with plenty of footy still in them, core players such as Morton and Jurrah (perhaps deserving of mention in the group above), Garland, McKenzie, Bate, Dunn, Wonaemirri, Petterd and Bennell and a group of exciting, relatively untried youngsters such as Blease, Gysberts, Stauss, Tapscott, Gawn, Fitzpatrick, pick 12 (2010) and possibly Viney in the future, we're obviously heading in the right direction. What we should have learnt, however, from Malthouse this year and Clarkson in 2008 and even Roos in 2005 is that a successful structure and team ethos can overcome more talented teams. Whilst I'm excited like everyone else here at Demonland about the potential of our list, I'm equally excited by our improving off-field situation. Improved facilities, a growing staff and football department and a healthier bottom line are massively important. Surely we've never been better placed in many a decade than we are now.

I heard that he was a member of the KKK!

I'm not sure about Green as captain. I've noticed an unhealthy desire on his behalf to be overly friendly to players like Jack Riewoldt and Matthew Richardson after Richmond games. I've also caught him embracing Russell Robertson more than once. He's way too insular for my liking.

I thought this thread was about mock trades and not mock tirades!!! Seriously, back to business please. I feel like I've stumbled upon an u/12's bigfooty collingwood forum.

Quick question - could we turn Justin Sherman into a small defender and in the process address one of the missing pieces in the Demon puzzle? He certainly has the pace to keep up with the most lightening of small forwards. He'd give us some rebound and help break the lines. He has the pace but does he have the temperament? His kicking isn't as bad as many suggest. New city, new team, new team-mates, new role . . . just a thought.

He's definitely good enough. Right position, right age, right skill set. Right price?