furious d

6- Petterd 5- Martin 4- Frawley 3- Jones 2- Sylvia 1- Moloney

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/scully-worth-an-ablett-afl-20110712-1hc91.html "MELBOURNE would definitely be entitled to Gary Ablett-level special compensation were Tom Scully to accept Greater Western Sydney's written offer to join it on a lucrative, five-year deal, AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson confirmed yesterday." No need to lobby the AFL for special compo if Scully leaves, as Schwab and others have said it was already in the rules. Still not ideal but it's hard to ask for more than Geelong got for Ablett imo. I think the club has handled this whole saga very well, and now, with this confirmation from Anderson, I'm confident about our future either way. I love watching Tom play in the red and blue and would love for him to stay. I think at worst he'll be an A grader who sets a standard for commitment, work ethic and professionalism at whichever club he plays for the next 10 years. If he goes it sets our window back a bit but it might make us better off long term. I know it's a long way off but there's already talk that 2012 could be another superdraft. We could potentially end up with 3 top 20 picks in a very strong draft. But for now a Scully on the list is worth two in the draft.

Got the Dees to runner up in the 2010 version. Lost the big one by 5 goals to St Kilda. Jack Watts won the Coleman with 80 something goals.

Why are you so sure this is a weak or shallow draft? I've heard conflicting reports but mostly that it's too early to tell. Not having a dig, just curious.

I don't think we'd have to pay his whole salary, I think the other club would have to pick up at least the minimum wage and yes I'd gladly pick up the difference. I want 4 delistings to allow Nicho to be upgraded and would prefer to keep Maric, not an easy task. I also think we could do better than a 6th round pick. Maybe a straight swap of our 3rd round pick for GWS's, an upgrade of maybe 6 spots. But Yes I'd even take you're offer.

List management could be made a lot easier for us this year if the players get their way. I believe they want the rookie list abolished and senior lists expanded, to include the rookie spots, in their next EBA. If this gets up we might be able to include Newton and McNamara in our delistings. If it stays how it is some tough decisions might need to be made. If I had to delist 3 out of contract players I'd choose Warnock, Wonna and Maric, but there's options before it comes to that. First I'd offer Bate, Warnock and Dunn for trade. Don't think you'd get much but I'd take anything. Wouldn't care if we had to put a little towards Bate and Dunn's pay for a year as they'd be on bugger all anyway and we're a long way from cap trouble. If that didn't work I'd offer Bate and maybe Dunn the Newton deal. I think Bate would jump at the chance to get to another club via the draft and if noone bites we rookie him at his contracted rate. I think Warnock and Wonna are gone at years end. If we can get one of Bate or Dunn off the senior list Maric might be spared, if we get them both off he's safe. The other thing that could save Maric is GWS getting it's grubby mits on one of our players or an offer from another club for 1 of our players, Port for Spencer for example.

I've been a fan of Bails but I concede it looks increasingly like this will be his final season. I doubt he would have had a line drawn through his name just yet, but when injured players return he'll need to get them up and about very quickly. Only a stellar finish to the year could save him imo. Right now we have the "out" of injuries with regard to media pressure calling for Bailey's head. This pressure can sometimes make a coaches position untenable but we are a long long way from that point. Bailey should be retained until then at the very least. To get the best coach we can for next year the board needs to control the process. Appointing a caretaker now would remove some of that control. If Viney were to take over tomorrow and get the lift for a week or two that often accompanies the appointment of a caretaker, then players return from injury and we naturally improve, it may be impossible to not give him the job. If Bailey is sacked tomorrow it makes it harder to have discreet discussions with the management of experienced senior coaches of other clubs. If results force the board to make up it's mind on Bailey by the time of our next bye, we still have plenty of time to identify some people we'd like to target and go after them, hard. I hope we don't end up interviewing 3 untried applicants. I'd much prefer a proven experienced senior coach. Getting a Malthouse or a Roos would be a major coup for us. I don't believe in the theory that retaining Bailey will "damage" players. Essendon players are showing no signs of the damage of finishing last season under Knights. West coast didn't even need to change coaches to turn it around. Geelongs stunning run of the last few years came of the back of its lowest ebb. My point is that things can turn pretty quickly at a footy club, the hard times are forgotten pretty quickly with a few wins and some belief

I think when the injuries came the coaches felt oblidged to give our experienced depth first crack. We needed to know if they were up to it and for me the answer is an emphatic no. Time to swing the axe and blood some kids. Gawn was excellent at Werribee today and must play. He'd provide at least as much as Newton at FF and a hell of a lot more in the ruck. Howe is another that has earned a call up and Blease, Strauss and McDonald could all be considered on todays form. In- Trengove, Scully, Gawn, Howe, Blease, Strauss Out- Newton, Bate, Bennell, Morton, Warnock, Nicholson

I didn't see Scully after 3/4 time, think he may have been rested in the last. Could possibly come back in but will take a couple of weeks to get full fitness and touch. Up to the footy dept to decide if an underdone Scully is better than other options. Personally I'd like to see him play, maybe sub him off at 3/4 time if we still have the option. Gawn may not look it but he's very strong imo. Held his ground well at boundary throw ins and around the ground ball ups against Hudson. His body work was excellent and I thought he won the ruck duel although Hudson was good around the ground. Some sublime tap work to hit Scully on the [censored] at full pace on several occasions was the most exciting thing for me today. Is this the first time these two have played together or did they team up as juniors. Just curious because they seem to work very well together already. They'll be an awesome combo down the track. Gawns skills and coordination are miles ahead of Spencer. Howe was excellent today. He's runs, chases, takes a good grab and hits the scoreboard. Thought he might be a flashy type from his youtube vids after he was drafted but he worked hard all day and was one of Caseys better players. Blease played well, took the game on at every opportunity and seems to be moving freely. Beautiful chase down of Djerrkura in the third and some blistering runs, the kid is very quick. His kicking was off early but improved as the game went on. I don't know if 3 debutantes is too much in 1 week but I'd much rather lose getting games into Gawn, Howe and Blease than Bate, Newton or Macdonald. Tom McDonald could surprise for a game before long. I'd prefer him to Warnock to be honest. His hands are excellent and he looked pretty composed under pressure at VFL level anyway. Solid kick, looks a player imo. Davis was good too. For a kid with a limited preperation he competed hard and did some really good things.

Is this the first game Scully and Gawn have played together? Already seem to have a great understanding between them. 3 late goals and it's Willy by 17 at 3/4 time

Who is 52 for Casey, KC? I hope it's Davis, he's looked ok. Was standing at the wrong end that half but Scullys been ok, Howe's been good, Gawn is getting plenty of taps, Blease was good in the second and Strauss looks good with the ball in his hands. Tom McDonald has excellent hands and a fair bit of toe for a big bloke

Someone on another thread said this game is more important to our future than last night. Looking at some of the potential matchups they might be right. Gawn V Hudson Howe v Gilbee Blease v Djerrkura McDonald v Hahn Strauss v Sherman Massive test for some of our kids against hardened mature bodies with plenty of AFL experience. On top of that Scully returns. My plans for this arvo have just changed, can't miss this. Can anyone tell me if this is at the main Werribee oval, the one near the river, can't find the address.

I doubt we'll delist more than 2. Other spots will be freed up by trading for upgraded picks or in a promise to rookie if noone else picks them up like we did with Juice. As I said Juice and MacNamara won't be re-rookied.

I thought I heard somewhere that rookie elevations count toward the minimum 3 picks you must have in the draft. It's nigh on impossible to keep abreast of the constantly changing and mutating beast that is the AFL rule book. The out of contract players this year according to the "contracts thread" on bigfooty are Fitzpatrick, Gawn, Green, Maric, Martin, Morton, Scully, Sylvia, Warnock and Wonaemirri. I remember posting somewhere at the end of last season that if Martin and Maric did enough to save their carrers this year we'd struggle to find 3 delistings, and both deserve new contracts on current form. Wonna and Warnock would be the 2 most likely from that list imo. We'll need to be creative. I'd trade any of Bate, Dunn, Macdonald, Warnock or Wonna for an upgrade from pick 50 to 49. If any of them were prepared to take a chance in the draft I'd be happy to Rookie list them, even the uncontracted ones. Juice and McNamara will free up a few spots

How exactly are we "well behind other clubs in what we can offer players"?

I think it's about $20 for a guest pass into the redlegs area Mousey, Punt rd end. Access to the Hassett room which has players not playing that day speak at half time and retired players usually in attendance on QB. Make sure you attend the post match function as well, good chance to chat with players and other supporters.

I'm guessing you never played in the ruck. Near impossible with knackered ribs. Maximum Gawn has to be given a chance.

Gawn has to play, especially if Martin is unavailable. Campbell had his first hitout with Casey 2's last week and won't be fit enough. Gawn has been ok with Casey and was only dropped to the seconds last week because the SME was dropped and took his place. Can't go in without a first ruck while a 208cm behemoth runs around for Casey.

I don't think sacking Bailey right now is going to solve anything. Don't like the idea of a caretaker coach for 18 rounds and there's zero chance of signing a Quality coach right now. I've been a big Bailey fan around here and as was mentioned earlier his list management during our rebuild has been excellent. I was happy to see him get his extention last year because I thought he deserved a chance to prove himself as a match day coach capable of delivering a premiership. To be fair to Dean I thought he needed till at least mid season this year before we could make a reasonable judgement and as far as I'm concerned nothings changed. I fully understand the anger around here right now but I don't think we'd gain anything by sacking Bailey instantly. Might not hurt to start considering possible options but I still think Dean's got maybe 6 weeks to turn it around

Be careful what you wish for. I wouldn't be overly keen on playing home games on a Thursday night

I'd back Bartram to have first crack at LeCras. Garland to Kennedy who is too quick for Rivers. I'd play Riv on Darling and hope he can give a decent chop out to Garland while he's at it.

this is rubbish and noone as far as I can see is suggesting that at all. People decided we should [censored] the suns based on the Carlton game and to a lesser extent the bulldogs game. Their expectations came from watching those games but the port game is irrelevant because it doesn't fit the script for sticking the boots into the club. The won't win a game call that was common after we beat them is debunked in a week. Yet people still hold to the absolute nonsense that a 15 goal win was awful. It was awful because of your own preconceived notion that the suns weren't of afl standard. Surely after a win people need to concede their view of the suns may have been wrong

I think I'll reserve judgement on the Watts as sub situation until I see how he reacts against the weagles. If he plays well in the west and continues good form afterwards it will look like a masterstroke by Bails. As much as last week was an opportunity for him to gain confidence it could have also gone the other way. If he had of stunk it up against the suns it could have destroyed what little confidence he has left and the media would've slammed him.

And those who were complaining completely failed to acknowledge the Suns endeavour and motivation against us, especially in that 3rd quarter. They were much better against us than they were against Carlton and they were much better in the last yesterday. They're young and learning to play together as a group but they have a lot of talent and it's going to click for them from time to time. Last week several posters claimed you couldn't count our last quarter because the young GC team couldn't be expected to run out games. 6 goals to 1 in the last yesterday suggests otherwise

So it's the current football departments fault that we haven't won a flag since 64. You do realise that a lot of people have been sacked since then, starting with Norm Smith mid season 65. They certainly didn't accept mediocrity back then and look where that got us. You're more than welcome to expect finals. It's a free country, stick on a top hat and call yourself Abe Lincoln for all I care. The thing is, some of us prefer to base our expectations on reality. I agree that we have the best list we've for years, but the real quality on that list has played less than 50 games, most of it less than 25. That's not accepting mediocrity, it's accepting reality. That's not to say we can't make finals this year, it's possible not probable, and imo irrelevant to our long term premiership aspirations. Gold Coast have a fantastic list if you don't take experience into account, and look how that's worked out for them so far. St Kilda, the Bulldogs and Hawthorn have flown past us because they were rubbish in the early 2000's. they had a 4 year head start on us while the reverand had his crack. I for one don't want us to become a finals contender like we were under Daniher, I want to see us become a premiership contender. Then you finish with a couple of truly weird claims. Firstly, we won't make finals in 2013 if we don't make a bigger effort this year. I would have thought that making a bigger effort in 2013 would have more of an effect on our ability to make finals that year. Then you say being in the 8 now is not good enough, after subjecting us to your diatribe about expecting finals this year. I'm definately in a wee minority around here, but I do see improvement from last year. I don't think we'd have been anywhere near 2-1-1 from 4 ordinary performances last year. We'd probably have lost the Sydney and Brisbane games as well. Young sides will be up and down and there's no doubting we've been in a bit of a trough for the past month but I don't think it's time for panic stations just yet.