Goodvibes

McLean for Pick 11 is the only tangible change. How about the intangibles? I supported our push to secure picks 1 and 2 but have grown increasingly uncomfortable with what transpired over the last 8 weeks of the season. I'm equally adept at justifying McLean's exit and I had already reconciled a possible Davey departure but I'm genuinely concerned about the ramifications of the way the club conducted itself during the second half of 2009. I've told myself that a couple of early victories in 2010 will have the players looking forward and certainly not dwellng on the events of the previous season but I'm not convinced. I've got a lot of repect for Dean Bailey but I'm not sure the playing list can ride the tanking rollercoaster without having some reservations or questions about their boss. Some will suggest that the smart players will see that losing has been in their best interests. I worry about the not so smart players. We took tanking to embarrassing new depths. Comparisons with Carlton are way off the money. I'm not suggesting we're in trouble and I'm not suggesting a player revolt is on the cards, I'm purely suggesting that it's way too early to assume that the club has successfully negotiated any tanking-related fallout that could come its way. I'm no different to any Dees supporter who salivates over the prospect of Scully, Trengove as well as pick 11 and 18 and whatever comes out of PSD 1 but I do know that the flippant, throwaway forum demands for the club to lose games of AFL football are much easier to deal with in the virtual world. In the real world, however, we're talking about a club who's greatest assets are their players and those players happen to be human. And unfortunately humans usually possess human emotions. How many of us have put ourselves in the boots of a 2009 MFC footballer? How would you feel running out on the ground, giving your absolute best, running yourself into the ground and have your coach make clear decisions that are making it more difficult than it should be to win. You've lost all year and finally it looks like victory is within sight and you see the very backbone of your defence thrown forward, your key forward chucked into the ruck and your best onballers taken away from the centre square. Your Liam Jurrah, you've never even heard of the word 'tanking' and you're wondering why your coach is resting you on the pine when you've just kicked 4 incredible goals. It's too easy to simply say that every single player would realise that these losses are a necessary evil. We can't wait for Trengove and Scully to get to our club because we know they're born winners. They're apparently very smart lads. How would they view the events of 2009? What does Jack Watts make of his new club? Does he still respect his first senior coach? I'll probably be seen as naive or precious after this post but the future of this club is in the hands of a collection of very talented young players. Talented young players who are easily influenced - influenced by their parents, friends, mates at other clubs and maybe guys like Robbo and McLean who they looked up to. I wonder what these influences think about the MFC after the events of 2009. I'm happy we've got picks 1 and 2 and am confident we have the makings of a premiership team but it's becoming tiresome seeing anyone who raises a few doubts in regards to the methods we've used to obtain this bright future, get shot down in flames.

I'm not sure what is more exciting - Davey signing up or the return of The Finks!!!

Thanks mate, that was fantastic stuff.

Playing more games at Etihad certainly won't help.

Yep, they added him a month ago.

He'll be fine. If he was a centimetre shorter though I'd be worried.

A Gold Coast poscode and a poo-load of cash.

And we won't get the priority pick either will we Freak? Hang on a minute . . . .

The only way I'd change my stance (take the 2 best, which happen to be midfielders) is if we were to trade in a Boak or a Pearce from Port and not give away pick 1 or 2 in the process. If we were getting Scully and Boak/Pearce then I'd almost be tempted to look at Butcher if his good form continues and he impresses at draft campl

Mousey, everything the football department has said during the year indicates that we're looking for an elite midfielder and a big, pack breaking key forward. The complicated part comes when we consider the notion of 'best available'. If Butcher was in the top two U18 players in the league, I'm pretty certain we'd take him. If he's clearly got enough deficiencies in his game, we're more likely to take the next best player which in this draft happens to be a midfielder. If a ruckman was rated one of the best two in the draft we could just as easily be tempted to take the ruckman. If Watts, Naitanui, Scully, Trengove, Morabito, Cotchin, Vickery, Kreuzer, Ziebell and Rich were all available in this draft I'd be interested to see how people would rank them based on their respective U18 football. Having said all that if all of Scully, Trengove, Butcher and any random ruckman were ranked evenly, I'd still take two midfielders with picks 1 and 2. The emergence of Jurrah and the potential for Garland or Martin to go forward with the successful return of Rivers and the on-going improvement of Frawley and Warnock gives me enough confidence in our forward options. Watts obviously has to show why he was so highly rated but unlike the keyboard heroes over at BigFooty, I'm confident he will. Scully and Trengove would be my picks but I wouldn't rule out Morabito and Rohan. Has Butcher left his run too late? A Sidebottom/McLean like display at the end of the U18 season might just yet sway a few Demonlanders, including myself.

I love the excitment Robbo brings as much as the next Dees fan and have marvelled at his 'airtime' regularly but I think his demise has more to do with his 'prostrateonthegroundtime'. I know "the game has changed" has become a bit cliched but in the case of Robbo it's on the money. Careful analysis reveals that he scores less than 1 in 3 times a forward 50 entry is directed towards him. Anyone care to guess how many goals are scored the other way when he fails to complete a mark?

Yeah, I figured he has one game left. He has some obvious weaknesses but he's starting to look very composed in traffic. He's a bonus as far as I'm concerned. He'll be a very intersting one to watch over the next couple of seasons.

Jetta - rising star nomination?

Very harsh on Frawley, Bate, Martin, Davey and Spencer.

I was wondering who was going to be the first.

Congratulations Jaded. I'm officially a sad bastard.

I'm fighting the urge to go to google images and find a procrastination award. Anyway, how bout that Cale Morton.

I think I'm going to print that out and stick it on my wall - does that make me sad?

The question that interests me is whether the team listed below would be a real chance of knocking off Carlton: FF: Wonaemirri Jurrah Maric CHF: Morton Bate Petterd C: Davey Sylvia Green CHB: Bruce Garland Frawley FB: Rivers Warnock Bennell Foll: Jamar McLean Grimes Int: Jones Moloney Martin McDonald Are we that far away from being competitive with a top 4 contender with the best of the 2009 list? Add Watts, Blease, Strauss, Scully, Trengove in the near future . . . you get the gist. Exciting times.

The biggest highlight to come from Sunday's game was Morton. On more than one occasion he initiated body contact and/or welcomed body contact often riding a bump and getting a handball away or protecting the space in a marking contest. This was my biggest concern about his game up until the last couple of weeks. Playing him down back in more contested situations has been a masterstroke. We know the boy has a big engine, we know he has time, we know he's a pretty good kick. Now we know that he's going to become increasingly dangerous when his body fills out. You can sense his confidence has grown a little over the last month. He's starting to feel like he belongs at the highest level against men. If he can start beating shorter players in one on one marking contests (after a couple of more pre-seasons) and out-running bigger opponents, he's going to be a match-up nightmare for opposition coaches. I'd play him across half forward playing quite high and pushing deeper if he feels he has the height (and hopefully soon) the muscle to dominate his opponent. You can imagine in a couple of years the coach of the opposition sending their best defender to Watts. How many defenders will be able to match Watts for height, speed and agility? Bate will require a medium to tall defender with a big engine but as Bate has shown over the last month he's prepared to work up the ground and use the ball well and if the match-up suits play deeper and take contested marks. Once the two best defenders have gone to Watts and Bate, who goes to Jurrah. Again a strong yet speedy defender over 190 cm will be needed. Jurrah will jump over the top of anyone else or run circles around the grorillas. And that's now, before he has two quality pre-seasons. And then we have Morton. The possible match-up nightmares that these four could pose for the opposition make me very very excited. Just as importantly, the athleticism of these four ensures that defencive pressure will never be a problem. Add Sylvia, Petterd, Davey, Maric and Wonaemirri to provide diversity and flexibility and we have every reason to be optimistic about our forward 50 in the very near future. Does Morton have the potential to one day lead this forwardline of ours? The one thing he has shown us over his first two seasons is that he refuses to be pigeon-holed. I'm not going to place any limitations on the type of player he will become and the types of roles he can fulfill.

PSD pick 1 shouldn't be forgotten.

Anyone want to talk about Matthew Bate? I thought he was pretty good today.

I've coached girls for the past 8 years at a high school level. Some of my most enjoyable teaching experiences have come from coaching girls Australian Rules Football. 3 minutes into my first game I had a girl dislocate her kneecap and by the end of the day the ambulance had been called 3 times! I definitely thought that this was not going to be one of my best ideas. 8 years on and I'm coaching a team that has won the South East Queensland title 2 years running and is a couple of games away from their three-peat! The girls go in really hard, are developing some great skills and now have a pathway to follow with U16 and U18 Queensland and South-east Queensland teams available. As much as I enjoy coaching the boys teams, its the girls that generate so much excitement. As a coach you witness rapid improvement and feel that your advice and instructions are really taken on board. I think girls are often encouraged to get involved and then not pushed hard enough. I tell my girls that the thing I can do to show them the highest level of respect is to treat them like boys. I push them hard, demand hard running and put simply, I don't treat them like girls. We train twice a week (like a club team) and we get the most out of our sessions. Seeing the girls get from contest to contest to contest and really learn what "gut running" is all about, is incredibly rewarding and I believe, teaches them a life long lesson. Too often we allow girls to make excuses for themselves physically and opt out when the going gets tough. Initially the idea of playing football was a novelty. Now, it is an integral part of our school culture. The secret to the success our school and teams enjoy is developing a culture where younger girls are encouraged to get involved and learn very quickly from the older, experienced girls what is expected. It's very much a sink or swim environment where those who survive the physical nature of the game during initial training sessions and practice games are well prepared for the serious stuff that lies ahead. Tom Hanks was famous for his, "there's no crying in baseball" quote from 'A League Of Their Own'. I adopted the same principle but exchanged the word crying with squeeling! And I'm pleased to say that it's been quite a few years since I've had to wheel out that old chestnut. Each year the girls get better and better and I sincerely hope that one day there will be an equivalent to the WNBA or W-League that replicates the national leagues of Basketball and Soccer respectivley.

I've spent the best part of the last decade trying to worry less!

I guess that's why I posted it. I thought seeing the 'development of a winning culture' argument applied to a rabble of a team like Richmond after a slopfest of a game on Sunday might be quite revealing for some.