furious d

Cook wasn't drafted to play 3rd or 4th tall, ever. He's a KPP. The question on Darling was could he ever become a KPP at AFL level. It's a question that won't have to be asked at West Coast for a few years yet. The kid will have time to build his body while learning the ropes as 3rd or 4th tall, but it's not certain he'll ever end up a KPP. We were desperate to draft a KPP and whichever option we went for was going to take time. Darling may have given us something now but he was never going to hold down FF in his first few seasons. My guess is that BP saw Cook as the better long term KPP prospect. Time will tell if he was right. The hindsight experts are claiming victory way too early. If Cook ends up a KPP and Darling doesn't BP will have been 100% correct.

I don't agree with timD and others that Stynes should be removed, but I think it's important they should be able to express their concerns without being burnt at the stake. If we are to be a successful organisation people should not be afraid to ask the hard questions. If these questions had been asked and addressed last year we may not have got to the point of 186. We need to grow up a bit, it's not necessary to question someones moral fibre or label them a coward for raising a concern they have. We only get one shot at a premiership with this list that has been patiently rebuilt, and I for one don't want to blow it because of over sentimentality. If we are going to win a flag we need a functional board and admin working with the footy dept. I think it's pretty clear this wasn't the case last year. It seems to me the problems from last year are being resolved, Sugar Healy being the final piece of the puzzle. Jimmy has realised his limits and so has the board. He clearly had too much on his plate last year. I'm happy for Jim to remain President for as long as he wishes and is able, the positives he brings to the club far outweigh the difficulties presented by his illness. His workload will need to be monitored and support given where necessary but I'm sure McLardy and co are aware of that now.

Nice report So39. I went down for a look this morning. First time so I can't compare it to previous sessions, but I'll add a couple of random observations. -Loved the amount of physical stuff going on. Plenty of body contact and pressure during the drills. Players were sheparding for each other and looking to make space, basic stuff but we've been horrible at it the last few years. Late in the session Frawley and Clark had a bit of a wrestle. Clark had been killing Sellars in a drill where they'd burst from the goalsquare while one of the coaches kicked it in from CHF. Sellars took a knock and went off for a bit and Chippa moved onto Clark and started to bump him off the ball. After one or two Clark responded and before long they had each other by the scruff of the neck and were going at it about as hard as you can in modern footy. By the end of it a shredded orange vest lay on the ground but I couldn't remember who had been wearing it. Loved this from our big bloke bookends, neither will take a backward step. -Bartram and Tapscott couldn't be far off the main group, they were very strong in their running and were told to ease up a bit more than once, Jurrah looked to be struggling a bit with the running but they did a lot of it. I think he'll be pleasantly surprised by what he's able to do in games with his increased fitness. Jack Viney looks physically ready to play AFL now, his biceps are thicker than my thighs were at 17. -Clark is excactly what our forward line needed. His body work was excellent today. He was consistently able to push off his opponent and get a few yards on the lead against everyone but Frawley. Chippa gave him a much tougher contest. -Plenty of blokes out there looking fitter than they've ever been. Gys looked fine to me, was still pushing hard late in the session and his face was barely pink. Bate's transformation is signifigant, completely different body shape. Howe is cut, don't know if he's any bigger but I'd guess his skin folds are down considerably. It's finally starting to look like there's more men out there than boys.

You may be right, but if he can't get a game this year then he probably never will. I think Sellar, like Clark, was drafted to fill a hole in Neeld's planned structure. If he doesn't walk into our 22 and is unable to fill that hole he won't play many games for the Dees. I'm not saying he'll play every game but if he can't stamp himself into the 22 by seasons end he'll be pushing fecal matter uphill to be retained on our list beyond 2013. It's now or never for Sellar.

Cheers, it's not up on the Age website for me for some reason so thanks for the link.

Where?

Good idea this, should be very competitive. 51,663.

I'm in as well. I'd be up for ultimate footy again too.

I really don't want to be a prude or whatever but could we keep it to the footy. There are plenty of political discussion boards around. Demonology became unreadable because of the constant political bickering and I'd really hate to see this place ruined as well.

I bought a Tbox yesterday. Pretty happy with it so far but it's only been set up for 15 hours. According to the AFL's broadcast guide all games will be live on Tbox http://www.afl.com.a...51/default.aspx $300 up front and the only costs from then are for movie rentals and $30/month during footy season for foxtel. Long term I think it has to be the cheapest way. Plus you get internet channels including Deetv. Edit: Forgot to mention, instead of the $300 upfront you can go on a plan and pay monthly. I think she said it was $11p/m but I'm not 100% sure.

I don't think we had any choice at the time, our list was in terrible shape. Who would you have kept around in 08/09? White, Yze, Wheat, Robbo, Whelan, they were all done. Pick 14 for TJ was a win for us. I would have liked to see Junior get another year and I'd prefer Bruce never left but the club was right to only offer a year imo. We are coming from a very long way back, it was always going to take some time to get that internal competition strong and Bailey missed his chance at the end of last year. There's one pinned on the bigfooty Melbourne board. It's a very handy resource, it'd be nice to have one here. Apologies to Deestroy over at bf for the blatant plagiarism but here's the list. Contracted to End of 2012 Rohan Bail Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Jamie Bennell Sam Blease Lucas Cook Troy Davis Lynden Dunn Colin Garland Brad Green (Upgraded to Veterans List) Jeremy Howe Mark Jamar Neville Jetta Nathan Jones Liam Jurrah Tom McDonald Jordan McKenzie Brent Moloney Ricky Petterd Jared Rivers Jake Spencer James Strauss Michael Evans (2nd year Rookie) Kelvin Lawrence (2nd year Rookie) Daniel Nicholson (2nd year Rookie) He also has Joel Mac and Beaker Fitzpatrick as out of contract now. My guess is Joel got one year and Beaker 2, so Joel would most likely be out of contract this year.

I think that we are unlikely to play finals next year but it's possible if a few things go our way. Individual form and injuries are a large part of this. Assuming that anyone out of form or not playing their role will find themselves at Casey next year, who are the 5 players you think need to play 20+ games in 2012, and be in reasonable form if we are to be any chance of making finals? For me- 1. Jamar - still our most importat player imo. Spencer may prove decent backup but I'd prefer not to take the chance. Vital for structure and gives the mids confidence. Hopefully others can learn to use him as well as Moloney does. 2. Moloney - we won't be a serious premiership threat until younger players can reduce our reliance on Beamer. When Brent is our third best mid we will be a top 4 team. That won't be 2012 but we desperately need him on the park atm. 3. Clark - the big fella was brought in for a reason. We have a plethora of medium forwards but no one to stand under the high ball in or crash a pack. If he can manage to kick a few himself while creating opportunities around him we will finally have a functioning forward line. 4. Frawley - if Sellar can cement a spot in the backline it could be a massive bonus for us, but if Frawley misses a chunk of the season it would be a disaster. The lynchpin of our defence for the next 10 years, it looks solid when his name's in there and shaky when it's not. 5. Davey - I could have gone for Brad Green here but due to our lack of small forwards and the rumours that Aaron is being primed for that role, I gave him the nod. If he can hold down a small forward spot next year it will do wonders for our forward structure. I don't think both are crucial to our success but we need some experience on the park. We need a better contribution from our senior players all round next year. Unlucky- Grimes - love Frank, will be an A grader if he can get his body right. Would love to see him in the midfield. Sylvia - frustrates the hell out of me; has improved recently but still needs to be more consistent. I hope Neeld can raise the bar for Col. Green - see Davey explanation. Boring selections I know, but our experienced players need to stand up and ease the pressure on the kids a bit for us to have a good year. The fringe player I'd most like to see cement a spot in the 22 by seasons end would be Sammy Blease. We need pace and some outside run and he could provide it.

If we can manage to break that long premiership drought this decade I have no doubt that many of us will look back at 186 as a turning point for the club. Rebuilds rarely have linear improvement year on year, there are ups and downs along the way. This past year was a massive letdown but it couldn't have happened at a better time in our rebuild. We were never going to be serious contenders before 2013. This rebuild has been beautifully planned, what remains in doubt is the execution. The way I read our strategy over the past few years is- 2008 and 2009- maximise draft participation or drive the Sherman. 2010 and 2011- games into youngsters during compromised drafts. This was also the period to assess Bailey. He was always going to struggle to keep his job, only consistent improvement in these 2 years could save him. He failed, we move on. The dark blessing in the monumental failure of 186 is that it has destroyed any complacency in the club with regards to what's needed to make this rebuild a successful one. The FD was completely rebuilt in the off season. It should be noted that this is the Stynes board's first time at appointing a coach and a major FD overhaul. Nobody can claim they didn't give the Gardner boards appointments a chance. 2012- For me this is the most important year so far. No more compromised drafts, it's judgement time. More than half the list is out of contract at seasons end. To add to the pressure mature aged, big bodied rookies have been brought in to compete for spots now. Bailey may have used the word competitive a lot but Neeld has instantly conjured a lot of internal competition within the list that seems to have been lacking. 2013-I think this is where we hoped to be in the mix for top 4. Losing $cumbag may have set us back a bit but I still don't see it as impossible. I've seen a few comments around that the rebuild has failed and our kids aren't as good as we hoped they'd be. Personally I think it's still way too early to make judgements like that. Last year we went backwards largely because of the contribution of our senior players. If Green and Davey can regain form, Moloney and Rivers can maintain their form, Sylvia can find some consistency and Jamar can stay on the park, we WILL make the 8.

BP wasn't in charge in 2007 from memory, pretty sure Watts was his first pick as head recruiter. There's only been 66 regular season games since BP took over. It's still a bit early to judge. BP didn't pick Maric, his late first/early second rounders have been Blease, Strauss and Tapscott. All have had to deal with injuries in their short careers but all have shown glimpses of what they could be. Cook is a skinny KPP and they take a bit of time. It's pretty hard to assess BP's peformance thus far, probably need another 2 years.

Agree with others, would like to see us add some pace. I have no idea but I like the sound of Murray Newman, has pace, uses the ball well and can kick a goal. Kicked 6 in his only colts game in WA, then played seniors for the rest of the year and did well. Will start as a small forward but should end up a mid if he can build his tank. I think WC might take him before we get the chance. If we miss Newman I hope we can nab Marley Williams or Haiden Schloithe with one of our picks in the 50's. I really think we need more competition for the small forward role. All 3 are said to be decent at tackling and forward pressure which is pretty much essential these days. Tynan is rated lower in most phantoms I've seen and I liked him for pick 52, he's quick with decent disposal which should be our theme for this draft. Depending how the cards fall the mids I like, in no particular order, are Kerridge, Merrett, Woodward, Waldhunter and Nelson. Having said that I'll be happy with whoever we end up with. I've learnt not to second guess BP's picks after 30, he has an excellent strike rate

Thought the Manson fans might like this write up in Knightmare's latest phantom on Bigfooty. Personally I'm not sold, he has some great attributes but plenty of flaws to his game. We do seem to be doing our homework though by all accounts, so if we do pick him I'll be satisfied that BP, MN et al know what they're doing. BP has pretty good form the last few years with picks in the 30's and beyond. Howe 33, Davis 50 and McDonald 53 last year, Gawn 34, and Fitzpatrick 50 in 2009 and Bennell 35, Jetta 51 and Bail 64 in 2008. Can't complain about that strike rate.

I think next years draft and the contract status of a lot of our fringe players also had an effect on the clubs strategy for this draft. Next year we have a swag of players coming out of contract and potentially 3 first round picks in the least compromised draft for a few years, and its also considered to be a strong draft. This year we had relatively few players coming out of contract in a weak draft that GWS gets to rape. I remember posting in the preseason that if Martin and Maric both had good years it was going to be very difficult to find 3 delistings from our uncontracteds. We were never going to have more than a few selections in this draft.

Nev Jetta. Not the most gifted bloke on our list, but is an honest worker and will be prepared to do whatever he's asked. I could see Neeld taking a liking to Nev.

I'm pretty sure we get an automatic upgrade before the season starts because we've only got the 1 vet. Nicho and Evans will be competing for that spot during preseason.

Can anyone tell me why these podcasts never work for me. I click on them and it takes me to where i already am.

What other club was going to offer $6mill? He was made an offer he couldn't refuse and I don't begrudge him for taking it. The reason I will verbally abuse him loudly for the rest of his career is for his deliberate attempt to sully the name of our club in his PR exercise prior to leaving. A constant stream of "confidants" slamming the professionalism of the MFC in the media to give him an out that isn't just about the money. As I posted at the time, these stories were coming from somewhere. As little respect as I have for journalists, I don't believe they made the claims out of thin air, someone in the $cully camp was drip feeding them. He calls us unprofessional then joins this rabble, karma's a [censored], hey Tom.

Was just reading a bigfooty thread about Waylen. Apparently measurements taken at the combine were 191.4cm, 77.4 kg, and according to Wall-e his test results were " Has relatively poor skin folds (needs weight work obviously), hand span is very good, wing span is elite, standing vert is solid, running verticle is elite, running non-preferrd is average. Very good speed first 5 meters, good second 5, last 10 is ok. Average repeat sprints, no endurance or agility work." Never seen him play and have no idea how he plays, but if those measurements are correct he's a long way from being an AFL KPF. Not saying he couldn't get there but you'd think he'd need another 10-15 kg minimum and probably a lot of work on his motor. Sounds like another skinny kid who won't be ready for a few years and may end up another medium sized forward with a leap on him. How many of those do we need?

Easier said than done unless you're prepared to pay overs. Try as we might there are no freebies

The quality mids will come next year, with the quality picks

Established stars don't fall off trees. Next year GWS will still have their chequebook out and I doubt anyone will consider us yet if they're chasing a flag. The mini draft is not a surefire way to star quality. If these mini drafts were held in the last few years Dan Rich, John Butcher and Jack Darling would have all been in the mix, but all slid before their draft. Even then we're no certainty to win a pick as several clubs could have more to offer than us. I'm not necessarily against either option but both are speculative at this stage and neither are completely in our control. If we activate both picks we may end up having to use them in the draft and I'm happy with that outcome as well.