rpfc

They will absolutely ask for Hogan but if it gets that far then the horse has bolted and they will settle for the best deal we are willing to do, which will still be bloody good by the way... rpfc want Fyfe! Or Dangerfield! Please, jebus!

Please take this the best way possible: I just threw up in my mouth a little. If we had only two teams to deal with we could do a deal but it's a bit hard when it is the entire league...

I don't follow the youth football. I can just say that clubs think about these things and they will make sure that there are no 'freebies' given. Clubs will make us pay what we are willing to pay.

I think McKenzie, Riley and Kent are chances. But that's it for this week.

Someone should ask Roos at his next presser about whether he is a 'gun for hire' and how he feels about being portrayed as such.

It's not about where teams 'think' he should go - it's about where teams think the Demons will match their bid. If they think we will pull the trigger at 24, then a team will make us pay that. These are not automatons making these decisions - and nor are they working in the best interests of anyone other than their own - if a club thinks we will take him with 24 - they will make us take him with 24.

That is an undersell. He got terrible delivery and Gawn used his extra 4 inches to great effect on Monday on a couple of occasions. Make no mistake who is more important to the team. I could easily construct a team without Gawn. Dawes is the reason our attack went from an F to a C from the Carlton game onwards.

It hasn't been glaringly bad. That vision of Terlich being left to his fate is damning but being a forward myself I am sympathetic when you are dragged to the backline and you are stuffed and you can't give an acceptable effort. So I will give him the benefit of the doubt for that. I have seen a few games live and I have seen he works very hard to be that lead up target. Where he suffers is when he doesn't have the confidence to mark the ball out in his hands in front of his face and also when he doesn't engage in simple forward target 'plays' such as double leading, zig-zag leading, pushing off opponents before leads, etc. He seems to have a particular desire to stand his ground and take a mark on his 'side' at waist height. It comes off from time to time for some unknown reason and he continues to do it. I think Clint Bizkit has seen this as well from memory... So I will mark him harshly for that because I know that anyone can do these things. Is it a failure of leadership? Yeah, sure. I would say it is on the low end of the richter scale when it comes to leadership failures. And I also will say that he has had games where he has broken out of that and been a monster down there. He just looks like the ultimate confidence forward and if you can get him up and about early he will repay the faith. With all that said - our forwards have received some terrible service all year - it is still spasmodic and slow to come in, and when it does come in it is rarely on the right side for any of our tall-medium forwards. Lastly, there was one poster who wanted to drop Dawes after last week which I think would be met by utter disbelief by Roos and co. down at the Dees. I still think that our troubles, and by extension Frawleys, remain ball use forward of centre - both the lack of it and the delivery of it. And that is why judgement of Frawley is so fraught this season.

He needs to learn how to allow others to get the footy instead of him in transition but his tank and competitive nature is a weapon. He is a good player already and will get better.

Maybe I am just no that concerned with the situation - I don't know why this doesn't bother me. LeBron James has an opt-out clause he can use in a few weeks and he has steadfastly decided not to talk about it. Just because Frawley is not smart enough to give the old 'no comment' doesn't mean I damn him for it. If he stays, he stays. Great. If he goes, we will move on. But unless he has already signed a contract elsewhere like Scully, this just doesn't bother me. If I was in charge of the FA rules I would make it a rule that you can't re-sign until the FA period begins. Just do not see it as a failure of leadership; clubs do it to players all the time and then the club turns around and demands everything of those players they nearly spurned.

Can you please explain to me why 'leaders' at a club have to sign mid-season?

We need a presence! A money losing presence!

I don't think he should 'wait for the ultimate', I think he should wait until Roos has been able to completely imprint his imprimatur on the Football Department before bothering with a 'catch all' PR related piece in The Age. Flag changes on the website, invite discussion there, some of the designs for the future are obvious - I have done a couple of surveys myself related to the emblem and my own personal story of following Melbourne - they are obviously keen to change and focus the messaging. And that is ironic because suddenly throwing out this Yankees vision and inevitable comparison is a failure of messaging and many fans have misinterpreted it or felt it premature and not thought through - such as myself and quite a number in this thread. And that leads me to these particular statements - he has 'a clear plan' that is yet to be 'really investigated'? I think you agree with me more than you think. And 'growing the brand' isn't a plan. It's what should eventuate from the plan. My point is that you can't sell me something you aren't entirely on top of yourself, and GB should have held off on the selling until he has a solid idea of what he is selling (The Plan), and people are willing to listen (we are winning).

46 would be close to Casey if there was a ready replacement in form but there isn't. And 31 was pretty bloody solid back there on Monday.

Terrible, small forward line. And robbing the backline of Dunn, please... And the desire to drop Dawes is an utter rejection of what your eyes have seen in the last 6 weeks since he has returned. He has straightened us up immeasurably and as a forward myself I can tell you, the way we have been kicking to him is the only pathetic aspect of our game at the minute. Defenders are hanging off him and hitting his body late from behind and our mids are letting them do it by kicking it on top of his head. Deliver the ball better and then complain about his output.

What work? He hasn't done any of it. The aspect of the club that has been concentrated on is the football side of things. Jackson said we stood for everything but football, and thankfully Jackson and Bartlett and the AFL were able to get Paul Roos and his team to help us concentrate on footy. We are 10 weeks into that and I think we should keep concentrating on that for the time being... The mish-mash of various idea isn't the troubling aspect Billy. We all have our thoughts on commercial awareness and the Casey initiative. The issue is that he throws this out, via Caroline Wilson, as a series of random thought bubbles that resemble the Footy Board here at Demonland. He puts pressure on himself and the club with a reference to his vision of the MFC being an attraction akin to the Yankees in NY, and if; 'Melbourne' is in the song, and the Demons VFL team plays out of a revamped Goschs, and there is an expensive Merch shop in Collins St, and there is a billboard at Swanston St. ...it won't mean it is a strategic plan or even a solid business case for the costs involved. I don't want to hear vague devices like the above. I want to hear what their long term plan is to realise this vision, how much it is going to cost, how we can afford it, and why Casey is being spurned for this well-conceived and thought through plan. Keep your mouth shut until you have got something of substance to announce, defend, and put into practice.

How many Inside 50s did we have? And how slow did we move the footy?

I don't think there is a forward playing today that could have broken that game our way. It was the mids of Collingwood that stole a few inches and got them the win. Gamebreakers are in the middle.

We should target one of the following: Dangerfield, Redden, Rockliff, Sidebottom, Beams, Hannebery, Steven, Fyfe, and Josh Kennedy (Swans). Game breakers are required to win games like the one we strangled on Monday. The bolded are certainly those. The others would be fantastic help for Jones to take that next step.

Yes, their fans won't take us seriously but at least their coaching staff are at least. I agree about the Carlton nonsense - I doubt we will see that from any side this year and hopefully the near-to-medium-term future. If you want to beat Melbourne - you better play your full strength team and you better be ready to win the footy. I didn't think I would be saying that this soon.

I would argue that promising kids are always a part of your 'depth' in any given year. But you are right about what we need, we can't wait to see how Toumpas, Kent, Salem and JKH turn out. We need to get some more help for Jones, Tyson and Viney. Vince and Cross are fantastic but Cross will slow down soon. Tyson and Viney will be young again next year and we shouldn't just assume they will continue as they are going either. I would be targeting a 25 year old midfielder who can come straight into the starting 18 and give us some power running and boldness. But it is going to cost us...

They were promising but their output can be replaced by Riley, McKenzie, Kent, Michie, and maybe even Blease, Tapscott, and Strauss. Especially their output on Monday. I think it is time to reward some form and let Salem and JKH earn their way back.

I think a couple of the kids are stuffed. I am hoping Tyson was just done by McAffer and will be back to his form next week but Salem needs a break and JKH might need one too.

Tyson came back to earth with an almighty thud. McAffer is one hell of a tagger. We will help him out when Viney and Salem are a bit older and running through there they will be smart and tough enough to provide a block and some space. They are a good team and we looked like we were waiting for them to make mistakes with their men committed forward so we could take it through the other wing in some space. But good teams don't let you have too many freebies and they were clinical with their ball use in the second half. Kicking 3 goals doesn't worry me - they only had 2 more to 3 qtr time - it was that sort of game. On to Essendon! I am tipping us!

Couldn't have said it better myself...