old55

Rubbish - elite by hand, fine by foot.

Players that have made significant improvement: Frawley, Sylvia, McKenzie, Dunn, Garland, Jurrah, Martin, Jamar, Bail You could add Bartram and Rivers who've regained their best form after troubles But there's also a number of players who haven't developed too

Nathan Jones: 4 contested possessions / 31, 2 tackles - nice gig if you can get it. If he bumped into Clint Jones in a nightclub it'd be the first time.

Surely the question is who (or what) do we want to trade in, before who do we want to trade out?

Has Donald Trump called you yet to help him with Libya?

.. as a triple premiership player. Who here would rather hear that Tom Scully signed a one-year extension with us than that he is waiting until the end of the year to sign any contract?

OK - at Collingwood you've got 3 different scenarios right now: 1. Dane Swan: signed out of GWS reach 2. Scott Pendlebury: signed one-year extension, still in GWS reach 3. Dale Thomas: not signed, still in GWS reach How is that a pointer to a definitive result for any of our players including Tom Scully? There's uncertainty even at Collingwood - the richest club with the brightest current prospects for success.

Macdonald, Warnock, Rivers - each individual is justifiably in the team, but they make a horrible combination. Add Bartram in there and the Saints F50 will be a black hole - it'll never come back out.

So by that "logic" Jack Watts', James McDonald's and Daniel Bell's contract negotiations would all have taken the same form and had the same outcome last year?

1. invention of the wheel

Apparently Dale Thomas is starring this season and Nathan Jones stats look similar: http://www.pro-stats.com.au/psw/web/compare_players?tid1=109&pid1=2006117&year1=2011&tid2=104&pid2=2006047&year2=2011 Jones needs to continue to work on his defensive game - more tackles, more 1%s.

might want to try edit arithmetic too ...

It's not just his salary - at Collingwood they spend double what we spend on their FD. If we talked to him we'd need to ask him what does he need in the FD to deliver a premiership. I'd expect him to say that he needs more than we are currently providing - possibly millions of dollars more. For example are we going to Arizona next year? I would be keen to canvas MM's interest but both sides need to go in with eyes wide open. The worst thing that could happen is to take him on and end up with him saying we couldn't provide the resources necessary for him to win a flag - maybe we need to find that out anyway.

Do we need to take our own sand? Are you sure it's OK to take that on board the plane? Or can we draw the line back here?

Here I thought it was Naitanui that Watts wasn't supposed to be as good as and this week was the big clash? But it's now apparently Hurley. Oh well, as long as Watts is supposed to be not as good as someone I guess that's all that matters ...

That bloke McLean at Carlton - he's playing for the Blue Ants isn't he - maybe we could trade for him?

Chris Connolly has been very quiet lately - when he first joined he was everywhere in the media.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/112267/default.aspx Rogue, me and oh ... Barry Prendergast

Win a flag or two and then be GC's prime adversary which would be a big positive here in a disenchanted Victoria would be a big help.

Back to the topic at hand .... http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/buck-stops-with-me-says-adelaide-boss-20110421-1dqkz.html

It's 50 years since we've won a flag - it's not an accident and it has sapped our supporter base and we doomed to be a poorer club. There'll be more teams so less probability - and other teams the AFL is keen to advantage. The gap between rich and poor clubs will continue widen despite the salary cap - in football department spending and in player retention and acquisition - look at Judd and the fact that no-one will leave Collingwood. Free Agency will hurt poor clubs - it'll be like GWS and GC uncontracted players every year and our current young guns will come into the frame in 2017. We've done the mother of all bottom-outs at the right time - other contenders on the rise have been unable to add young talent because of the GC and GWS draft concessions - we're going to enter an unprecendented and unrepeatable window - we need to take our chances and they may be shorter than they would otherwise have been because of the GC juggernaut. Sure they'll lose players to other clubs but they'll have a core of stars that's incomparable - if you believe our model of list building can deliver fruit then you cannot deny their ascendency - they've got more and better and more concentrated. This is it Nasher - we've got one sting at it - we need to make sure we've got the right staff in place.

We have to do the devlopment time but there's no time for f'ing around. GC are going to have pick 4 this year and pick 1 & 3 in 2012. They are going to have an awesome list and from 2018 will start dominating the competition for 4-5 years. We need to win a flag before then. Free Agency is not going to help us in the long term. It's win a flag before 2018 or never see one in my lifetime.

Where are we? Overall we're in a very good place - we've got the best list we've had in my memory. Gysberts and Tapscott have shown they are quality and Bail has found a niche. Wonna and Martin have stepped back up. Moloney, Rivers, Jones and Bartram are playing good footy. Jamar is a rock. We've got Scully and McKenzie that are automatic selections to come in. Cook and Blease are showing good signs at Casey and we've got Viney in the wings. We've got star potential in Frawley, Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Watts, Jurrah, Morton. I can see 25+ premiership quality players, our bottom 6 will be strong and there'll be competition for spots. We've finally got decent facilities and we can spend some money on out FD. It's going to take time and good direction but we're on the verge of an era.

It's very difficult to judge what sort of job Bailey is doing at this stage - we lack real knowledge about football strategy, we lack real inside information and there's not enough water under the bridge to make an assessment on results - ask me in 2013 and I'll have a better idea on that basis but it still won't be conclusive to we win the flag. I plead guilty to generally supporting the club's position - if we can't trust Stynes' and Schwab's judgement we're screwed, they've got the knowledge and information to make a decision.