old55

Pretty much everyone, me included, was right behing the get Judd, only a few were doubtful. If Judd had come to Melbourne we may well have been worse off in the long run. We'd have traded something like Carlton did e.g. pick 4 (Morton), good young tall (e.g. Frawley), pick 21 (Maric) We'd have immediately improved and would not have had access to such early picks and priority picks in 2008 and 2009. If we'd acquired Judd, hypothetically just focusing on top 20 picks: plus: Judd / 2008: Rich? / 2009: Butcher? minus: Morton, Maric, Frawley / 2008: Watts, Blease (prio) / 2009: Scully (prio), Trengove, Tapscott Could throw in Jurrah to the minuses too. The timing was much better for the Blues coming at the end of their bottoming out cycle so the flow on cost in lost early picks was much, much less.

My understanding is Daniher was a big fan of Warnock and was instrumental in getting him onto our list from Sandringham.

Let's not downplay the importance of Jack Watts - I reckon we need him to become a dominant KPF for us to win a flag. And there's every chance he will - he's got the size, speed and skills. Dominant KPFs usually come in the top 5 picks in the draft - I don't expect us to have any of them prior to our next push for a flag - and even if we did, in some years e.g. 2009 there's no suitably qualified KPFs. I'm completely happy with our choices, if we didn't pick Watts we'd have no-one coming through and very limited opportunities to address it. West Coast are in different position, they have Josh Kennedy - another top 5 pick, and didn't have the opportunity to pick Watts. They have Naitanui who has every chance of being a very dominant ruckman. Dominant ruckmen come from the rookie list more often than from the draft top 5. I'm very happy to have Watts in the hand and source a dominant ruckman elsewhere - maybe we've already got him in Jamar, Spencer or Gawn. (Jamar/Spencer/Gawn/trade for a ruckman/rookie a ruckman) + Watts > Naitanui + nothing

Yes, I am banking this.

Wekk 1 after Hawthorn it's slit wrists and sack Bailey. Now finals is a possiblity ... The truth is somewhere in between and we'll continue to be up and down like the proverbial ...

An Eagles fan on BigFooty had the user name "Lynch drops another mark" when the Eagles were at the peak of their powers.

I think it was a potentially dangerous tackle and very close to a "spear". It definitely warranted investigation, the AFL needs to highlight that driving players into the ground like that is a no-no. NRL officianados say it would've been closely scrutinised in the NRL.

Gold Coast probably noticed too.

Brock's been a pro in all the media I've heard since he decided to leave and since he left. He did donate that money to the Demons too. I wont be booing him but I also wont be wishing him luck at Carlton

Agree, it's ordinary. Odds are wrong - we should be very good things at the line..

We drafted Healey in 2008 because we liked him - he had no chance to show that in 2009 due to injury so it's completely understandable to give him a chance. The FD clearly rate Hughes in the changing game, they met their obligation redrafting him and have gone further - I'll back them. It'a been well covered that the Meesen and Newton moves delivered Gawn and Fitzpatrick while retaing our reputation with player managers and players as a club to be trusted. It's not that hard to understand

Agree - let's not hit the panic button Todd Viney was plagued by hammys early and got past it - it can be done

No the sweetest victory is the one fully deserved because we are the better side.

I like your team Nasher. I'm just swapping Maric for Spencer and rucking Martin. I unconvinced we can go with Jamar and Spencer. I think we need to set a small defender for the future. Pace, decent overhead and a good kick a key factors. Last year's GF had Kelly and Baker doing a great job. Junior could do it but he's not the future (and he's not a good kick), Bennell hasn't inspired us defensively, Cheney may lack pace, Bartram's kicking lets him down. I'd like to slot Strauss in there. We need to get our experience into the starting midfield. B: Strauss Warnock Rivers MacDonald Frawley Grimes M: Jamar Bruce McDonald Davey Moloney Green F: Sylvia Bate Trengove Maric Miller Petterd I: Martin Jones Scully McKenzie.

30 minutes per day per team is a lot of looking when you multiply it by 100 working days in a season and that's a conservative number of days. I reckon I could write an article of comparable quality on all of the 16 teams with just one week's TOTAL research and get my facts right. The quality and superficiality of football journalism is appaling.

It's his full-time job - how hard is it to know 700 players? And he's got all sorts of resources like the AFL Yearbook etc at his disposal. The article is not a shocker on knowledge of players level and is better than many. But it's inexcusable to misrepresent easy to check facts.

Agreed, or when Carlton start to challenge in the next few years ... 2005 - 4 wins 15th 2004 - 3.5 wins 16th 2003 - 4.5 wins 16th That's 11 wins and 2 draws also

I think your TV is probably showing local time whereas Perth time is 3 hours earlier.

55

Presumably 10 year players can still be a "vet" so only half their salary counts in the TPP, this will help the retaining club.

Official AFL info here: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/89810/default.aspx FA applies to players with 8 years service Restricted FA only applies to top 10 players with 8 years service Unrestricted FA for all players with 10 years service independent of whether they're top 10

Agree, that's the key part, it's impossible to control non-TPP payments like Judd/Vi$y but if we can match the TPP payment and retain the player then that's a good safeguard. Not perfect because clubs with a lot of "outside" payments can afford to pay less inside the TPP and therefore have more room but it's a good restriction. Also the compensatory "new" pick according to a formula, presumably the same or similar to the GC/GWS formula, is good. If we have to have it, which according to the AFL we do, then I think it's a great outcome.

Winning the 2013 Qualifying Final is "critical" Winning this game is "desirable"

A niggly in Tappy's hippy cartilegy ???

They were boasting that leading up to last year's finals too. Then Pendles broke his leg and the wheels came off.