furious d

I agree that 4 is not unrealistic, I'll actually be dissapointed if we win less than 4. I think Hardnut was talking worst case scenario's and if we are as bad as we were late last season we'll be lucky to win 2. This place could be in meltdown by the bye if we get off to a bad start and lose some of our early winnable games because we'll struggle to win more than 1 between rd 6-11 if we go into those games with no confidence.

My guess is they're basing their attitude on the draw Macca. It's pretty tough before the bye I agree with Striker, if we can win 5 of our first 11 we should make finals. We could win 8 or 9 of our last 11, it'd be like 87 all over again.

I don't see the connection, other than it's another opportunity for you to push your political views onto the football board. We get it, you're a lib voting, climate sceptic. I don't understand why you feel compelled to remind us every 3rd post.

Fine by me

Don't they have to be activated before a season starts? We have to activate ours before a ball is kicked in anger so I'm not sure anyone recieving picks this year will be able to use them.

I have a bet every year with a Geelong mate over who will finish higher. It used to be $500 a year but after he lost in 2006 he wanted to drop it back to $100. Every year since he's tried to goad me in to raising it back to $500, not planning to take the bait for another season or 2 at least.

I had pick 2 last year and took Goddard, he killed me in the first half of the year. Got to make my first pick count this year. Happy with pick 6. Mid table sounds good to me and I've got my strategy worked out, can't wait for the draft. Does anybody object to the revised scoring system or have other ideas how to do it? Frees killed me last year so I have an ulterior motive but I think it makes sense. It would be good if they had more catergories, contested possessions, clearances and inside 50's for example.

Good post. The top 10 isn't as special as most would think either. After the famous top 3 of Hodge, Ball and Judd came Polak, X Clarke, Sampi, Hale, Bartel, Molan and Sam Power. I've posted in the past that I'd prefer to keep at least 1 compo pick and trade only 1 at most. The only way I'd be keen to trade both would be for something similar to what we've lost. That means a quality young mid worthy of a top 5 pick. They are not on the trade market very often. I don't think Gaff has proven just yet that he is worthy of his top 5 status but if he backs up last season and shopws improvement he could be there by seasons end. We need top end quality in our midfield and if we can't get that through a trade we should take our luck in the draft.

Do you know if this will effect games during the season proper Rhett?

No you didn't Wonna. I got the T-box option and missed the first game saturday night. i had a message on my screen saying tune into pies v dogs at 8:10 as there is no football on now. I rang Telstra and got some overseas numbnut who had no ides what footy was. Jumped on bigfooty and asked those giving score updates what was going on and got this link in reply http://www.foxtel.com.au/whats-on/blackout/default.htm This is February's list, No Melb V Bris live next week. I paid for all the footy live and as far as I'm concerned I've been lied too and ripped off. What guareentee's do I have this won't happen in the season proper. Their own staff are ignorant of the product they are selling which makes assistance impossible. I am really furious about this and I'll be removing all my business from this shitstain of a company.

Sorry to intrude on the big boys board, but as you're talking relegation I thought I might throw my two bob in. Not sure how this keeper thing works but there is a natural progression in keepers anyway. The teams that came up could not keep anyone but get PP's. This would allow them first dibs on blokes they think might step up into the elite bracket. Not sure if it's possible but it would allow older under performing elites to be dropped in favor of the up and comers. I'd be in favor of relegation as it mixes things up and would, over time, help us to get to know more of our fellow posters, and help to ensure the competitions are more even. Having said that, if I were you guys I'd wait and see how our league goes before opening things up. Last season our league didn't have 1 trade done that I'm aware of as there was only a few of us playing and our starting players were too valuable to trade. 3/4's of the players were tied up in inactive teams. Half our new league haven't even identified themselves yet and I'm already worried it could be another fizzer. I'll admit I kept an eye on your comp last year and it looked like fun if you can get it working properly. If I were you guys I wouldn't even consider it until you're sure our league is working.

How about dropping the weighting for frees for and against and and score % to half a point. Gives 6 full points and 3 half points up for grabs. 7.5 total so not likely to be too many draws.

Not sure if this has been covered and can't be shagged reading through the whole thread. How much damage did the constant speculation do last year? The Ablett saga the year before certainly seemed to effect Geelong, even with a rock solid culture and coming off 3 consecutive GF's for 2 premierships. Things appeared tense from the outside, we know Gary and Bomber weren't even talking. They didn't drop far but they had their worst year of the past 5. Our culture was nowhere near as strong as Geelong, how much of a role did the constsnt speculation have in the eventual unravelling that led to 186? I'm not suggesting it was the sole cause of our annus horribillis, I think that started when Wellman left, but it was certainly a factor. It's been a blight on the game and I'm glad this is the last year of these concessions, even happier that we're immune. It will be interesting to see who the media concetrate on this year and how their club handles it. Pendles or Hurley would make nice GWS targets, both even. No love for either club. There is only one club I'd really wish this upon though, that's why I've been telling anyone that will listen that Gibbs is gone.

Monday March 12 for me, cheers.

Cool, league's full. The only night I know I'm definately not availabe for the draft is the Saturday night on Labour day weekend, the 10th of March. Any other time is good for me. I think it would be better to hold it as late as possible, with dates filling up we need to sort it out as soon as possible. Thought I might list team names and their coaches demonland username near the top of the thread for easy reference, will fill in the gaps as you identify yourselves. Dave's Demons_______robbo king's brother Stonecutters__________Jastone CamBruceGoneMad____ cbgsmu______________ Dark Days____________brunoc Dees forever__________Dees Disgruntled Goats______Dr. Mubutu flying eyeballs_________furious d Galahs_______________GM666 IWAP's all-stars________IWAP jiagars________________ Mega_Watts___________Mega_Watts NEELDS ARMY________BIG JIM Saigon Saints__________robbo king Toon Army____________Striker475 Van Diemen___________demonblood

This is a good suggestion imo, what do others think? Would 2 UF threads on the board for most of the season be too much. Last year league 2 was almost like supercoach with unlimited trades of fringe players, we definately need to get a conversation going this year

Sounds good IWAP. What time limit do you have on picks? As Jackattack says it's best to keep it short.

Never said Neeld was putting pressure on Jack, didn't read it that way at all. The post was in response to people suggesting Jack will or should spend time on a wing or hbf. I'm not sure Neeld will see that as the best way to develop Jack. IMO he'll want Jack taking marks and contesting in the forward line and learning to do what KPF's do, not peeling off for easy kicks at half back. Just my opinion, we'll see in a few weeks.

Definately a surprise selection on draft day, there's been a bit of speculation about what role James will play. A great discussion in one of the training report threads between AoB and rpfc and a few others had him pegged in for the backline but there were differences over what role he might play. If one of the mods could be bothered it would be a great addition to this thread. I was interested to see this article this morning. ''What James Sellar brings is someone who … he's six foot four, he's 23 years of age and is a ready-made player who can play at either end of the ground, which is really what our list requires at the moment, someone who can come in and do that,'' Neeld said. ''And we've been really clear with James in the conversations that he'll play at either end of the ground, depending on what that week serves up.'' Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/watts-moving-forward-in-demons-reshuffle-20120209-1rwvw.html#ixzz1lvU88LXl So Sellar will be a swingman apparently. I thought he'd be more likely to succeed for us if we settled him into one well defined role, like a Zac Dawson as AoB proposed. All will be revealed in a couple of weeks and I can't wait. Good luck to James, it will definately be a win for us if he can cement himself in the 22.

''My plan is to play Jack Watts forward,'' Neeld said. ''When he was drafted he was certainly drafted as a key position prospect Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/watts-moving-forward-in-demons-reshuffle-20120209-1rwvw.html#ixzz1lvNm7MGD Freak and STMJ should be happy with this. To me this says Neeld isn't going to allow Watts to cruise on his strengths and get cheap ball like Bailey did. He will challenge Watts to become the player we need. Bails probably had no choice to be fair, Jack needed confidence and to get his hands on the ball. Our lack of competition for spots in the 22 was a major factor in that.

I'm a fan of Jack Jack's effort in the leadership thread Quality work.

Morton

The old leaders have slumped their shoulders and stared at their feet when things aren't going well on field, they've whinged and moaned when the ball isn't kicked to them, they've clearly squibbed body contact and feigned injury, they've been out on the town when they should be in bed, they've giggled through their response to the most humiliating defeat of the last 30+ years, and they've declared themselves fit only to come of at 1/2 time with doughnuts in the stats column. Maybe the kids don't respect them that much anymore.

It doesn't matter who possesses the pick, it is tied to the finishing position of the club that first recieved it. The pick the crows recieved for Davis was traded to GWS for Crouch in the mini draft. This pick is still directly after the crows first pick even though GWS has it now. If we trade our floating first round pick the other club still gets the pick after us. It holds no more value for lower placed clubs. We'd be mad not to activate this pick asap. If everything goes to plan it will become less valuable each year. I hope we activate both and use at least one, don't mind if we trade one, but Viney and another first rounder in a strong draft will help set us up long term. I also don't like our chances of getting involved in the mini draft this year, especially if Port, GC or Bris get a PP. Pointy end picks are a lot more valuable than what we have to offer.

Keen to go again but league 2 was a fizzer last year. Only a handful of us were playing and it made trades near imossible. Please dont sign up if you only want to do the draft, it ruins it for the rest of us.