rpfc

Doesn't start till Feb from reports.

Maybe there are many who don't understand how important a good LG is that players can trust and look up to. Although I think there are many Landers just annoyed at the co-captaincy idea and channelling that through the notion of an LG. With that said - my own experience of captain is that you can't win without a strong LG, the better we have become, the more superfluous my role has seemed.

Was it the prevailing view?

He lost his way - that's why we got him for ND60, there are not too many around who think he was worth more than that. Hope he is happier and we can get a few solid years out of him.

It's funny you say that because it is the exact thing I thought when watching training about a month ago. The only other players close to Jones were Tyson and Lumumba with ability to win the footy, keep the footy, and have a sixth sense about what to do with the footy let alone pull off what they wanted to do with it. If Tyson has a 2015 equal to his 2014 - he will have had a fantastic season so Lumumba will provide the bulk of what is different about us through the middle next year.

I hope Geelong lose a lot of games. Aside from that, I hope everyone health and happiness!

The US has dealt with this issue - as Roos has stated, and sue mentions in this thread - the contract parameters need to be changed where players are contracted by the league, therefore they can be moved anywhere. If players take great exception, they can retire, take a two year holiday and came back through the draft. Or they can leave the game. You don't HAVE to play AFL, if professional football is not for you, it's not for you. The AFL has set the precedent with the draft; players get drafted to teams whether they want to go there or not - it is not a great jump to trading them against their will.

All teams have these guys - one in my team infuriates the hell out of me at training but as soon as the whistle goes the switch is flicked...

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-01-16/trading-against-players-will The AFL website is letting their 'journalists' have an opinion on things - this time it is whether players should be traded against their will ie. clubs can trade their contract at their will. This will lead to nothing of course, but it is a huge plank in a more even competition. I know there are a few who agree with Michael Whiting in the link above but I have to say that I have not heard a compelling argument that is congruous with the draft that we have come to be very comfortable with. Jennifer Phelan brings out the populism with 'the players have too much power' but it isn't really that - it's the ability for teams to improve themselves using the only real commodities in footy - the players.

I would take Danger on a mil running on the G for 5 years any day of the week. Yes please!

If that rule began in 2008, the cap has gone up over $2m since then. So $500k then is now equivalent to $625k.

I don't think they will match. We are still waiting for the first club to do that... I think we will still be waiting... In terms of team planning - it would be a massive headache to have a contract on your books designed by another club, it would be easier to take the top 10 pick and move on.

I am glad that they seem to be drumming in a game plan designed to get the ball down the field as quickly as possible (at least that is what I gleaned at the session I went to), in 2014 it seemed we were playing a style to not get thrashed; retain the ball at all costs, minimise risks, rarely trust forwards with one-on-ones, etc. Hopefully we can push the ball up the field quicker by being confident and on the same page, I am certain that is all it takes, of course you have to have confidence in the coach and your teammates of course, and that will be the battle.

When I saw him at training he looked like a 5 year pro, and he looked bored too, like he just wanted to play some football. I think he will struggle a few times in 2015 but he does have star talent, I hope his body lets him play the way he wants to play.

Here is hoping Dangerfield is as awful a person as Frawley is. I, for one, would welcome our new disloyal mercenary! I would toil in underground sugar caves!

Again, I don't know what your problem is with me - how you chose my post out of all the better nonsense I don't know. I don't like pointless snarky asides and TDI has given out more than is deserved, he brings more value to this site than many others, but that isn't an excuse to say anything you want. You once warned me as a mod for the very type of behaviour. And there are plenty of excellent posters on this site, I am not aware of any decent poster that has left. I hope TDI continues and I hope I don't have to read the bitter back-and-forth in future training threads. If that is self-righteous and pompous then DC is right - there is a great deal of thin skin around here.

Ok, so the logic here is that UFAs make up 10 year vets who have already been FA once and players not in a team's top 10 paid players who are OOC after 8 years. So those players would be 28+ year olds that could be your best players and 26+ year olds who are outside your 10 most well paid. Situations like Frawley being UFA won't happen again as teams won't front end contracts anymore - and that is the sole reason Frawley was a UFA - his last year was minuscule compared to previous years when he was prepaid so to speak. I don't think removing UFA compensation is a bad idea, in fact it would mean we, in theory (the AFL loves making this up on their fly), could go after UFAs even if we lost a RFA and it won't affect our compensation. Which I believe is the impetus behind the AFLPA's desire for it.

The only thing to add to TimD's excellent post is to say that this is not a public forum, there is no licence for you to treat posters as you wish - Demonland is privately owned and liable to those selfless few who maintain and moderate it. So I suggest you start to not treat this site as the cess pool you seem to think it is and have some awareness of your own behaviour.

I once came back from the coast with an inflamed Achilles (tendonitis) and my physio said I stressed it out with the sand running (and the screwing around in the water when you are constantly losing your balance). Pick your poison...

Yeah, they are not trolls, or snipers...

You have a point about the FA Cup but, to some managers the FA Cup (and even Europe) can be a hindrance to a team whose sole desire is to be in the Premiership the next season. The league cup is a joke. Relegation keeps interest levels up for the most teams but that is devastating aspect to bring into an uneven league. I really think that the problems we are facing are not horrendous, the are always going to be bad teams - the problem has been there are perennially bad teams and that has jaded some fan bases. Oddly enough, a more lubricated Free Agency with some restrictions for the best teams will allow bad teams to aggressively chase talent and get better.

Welcome. Pull us up on it. When posters have said something reprehensible - let them know, when we are crapping on, point it out. The best posters on here don't involve themselves in the above, and don't deserve to be lumped in to the worst excesses of a few idiots. Please post more, ignore those you find nasty (literally using the Ignore function in your profile) and contribute to this mess. Again, welcome to Demonland - in more ways than one. Once you are a Melbourne supporter - there is no escape...(new slogan?)

I think that is just a situation where plural sounds better than the singular, Goodwin refers to one gameplan: “The majority of the time will be focused on our football game plan and really embedding that.” http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-01-13/schools-in-for-demons In reality, you have one way that you play and a few changes at the edges for different situations, I would call them 'tactics' rather than Plan B but that is in the eye of the beholder I guess. Roos came to the club and lamented that the players had a too many ideas on the way they play football - he had to assure them that the game plan was THE game plan and they wouldn't be practicing a number of different styles.

There is only one other goal for clubs and that is to play in Europe, but that is reserved largely for the clubs competing for the domestic title anyway, all,other clubs are in a hopeless malaise only punctuated by the occasional years of overachievement which belie their actual desires - to win the premiership. Unfortunately, the only time a lowly club has turned into a perennial contender is when a shiekh took the club over and spent a billion dollars. We may look to the U.S. quite a bit, but with good reason; supposed lowly clubs can compete with the bigger clubs and markets. St. Louis, Oakland, Kansas City, and Tampa Bay in the MLB, Seattle, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay (under Gruden), Oakland (up to last few years) in the NFL, and the Spurs, Thunder, Warriors, and the Raptors in the NBA are all examples of 'lesser' markets and supported teams, competing well and winning.

You are describing a generational FB - one of the best the game has ever seen - a high standard that is unfair to hold any FB to, and you mention a teammate of his that also does it, and Mackie does it, and Enright, and Corey. Surely it would be easier for a FB/CHB to help set up play if the entire defence is adept at doing so. Perhaps they were able to do so because their teammates were so adept...