sylvinator

Looking for positives from yesterday, and another step in the right direction for Jackie Watts. He doesn't lose 50-50 balls like he used to, his intensity is right up, he is starting to use his speed, his disposel retention rate is outstanding and he is improving his on-field presence. The fact of the matter is... our current best 22 is NOT going to take us to a premiership. HOWEVER... our current best 22 + a fully developed Scully, Trengove, Grimes and Watts just might! We need all four of those boys to become stars equivalent to the Pendles, Thomas, Swan and Cloke combination that led Collingwood to a premiership. A lot of pressure on those 4, but from what I've seen from their early development years, the signs are starting to take shape!

Ok so please don't bite my head off... but I was trying to think of maybe a small positive that we could take from Jack Grimes' very cruel injury. Jack Grimes has spent the first 3 seasons of his career in defence. In my opinion, he played their mainly because he's such a quality kid that he could play anywhere on the field excellently. He's disciplined, spoils well and since we lacked any classy runners in defence, it suited the demons to have him there. I believe the rest of the seasons is a great opportunity to find other options for that run out of the defence. Lets try to get Strauss and Blease into the team in the second half of the season, try Rohan Bail there, see how Morton goes, or even a guy like Nicholson or Evans. If we can find 1-2 extra options for run and carry out of defence, then Grimes will no longer be needed in that role and he can move into the midfield! Grimes is a midfielder. He was predominantly midfield as an underager, and has shown in rare moments in the midfield that he can hold his own. But most importantly, as one of our most talented players, I think the midfield is the position that will most play to Grimes' strengths. Like all players, Grimes kicking can be a little shaky when under the immense pressure of playing close to the defensive goal, and with (as we know one of our weaknesses) not many options presenting for him. Let's get a few options running out of defence for 2012: Tapscott, Strauss, Blease, Morton, Bartram.Releasing Grimes into the midfield. Midfield of: Trengove, Grimes, Scully, Gysberts, Sylvia, Davey, Moloney, Jones, Bail, Morton = WOOT WOOT

In my opinion yes. Every team needs a 'get out' option. A big strong player that helps maintain structure when the team starts to struggle a bit. Bailey has openly expressed a desire for this type of player. Jamar has been used in that role at times, but he's too valuable in the ruck

Our long term forward line in taking shape. Watts is really critical to our structure moving forward, so I'm really happy he's progressing nicely. 196cm+ mobile tall options: Watts, Cook, Fitzpatrick 185-192cm medium marking options: Jurrah, Howe, Petterd, Dunn, Green, Bate Small forwards: Wona Flankers who are genuine forward options: Bennel, Maric, Sylvia, Trengove, Davey, Tapscott, Morton. We seem to have an abudance of quality 190cm-ish marking options. In modern footy these players can be used VERY effectively is used in conjunction with good genuine Tall forwards and crumbers, bc they are hard to match up on due to being equally good in the air or at ground level. I also like how much flankers we have who can be really dangerous up forward. I think looking forward the clear missing links are: 1. The genuine Hulk forward in the Chris Dawes mould 2. One more genuine Jeff Garlett-esk crumber

I thought our non-existent injury list couldn't last for long :-(

Agreed. In comes Martin and Newton to try to be flexible ruckman

With Grimes and Trengove out this week, it would seem Joel MacDonald and Jamie Bennel are the logical replacements

His admiration for Brad Green seemed genuine. Our leadership group may not be a bunch of superstars, but all are outstanding preparers and trainers and approach their footy with an outstanding attitude. Very good role models for our younger players who are more talented, but need direction and learn how to get the most out of themselves

13 players in our best 22 with less than 50 afl games. More than half our team under 22 years old.The more games these guys play together the more consistency we will achieve. Should inexperience and youth be used an excuse? of coarse not. Is it a bit of a 'get out clause'... i guess so. But does it help, at least partially, explain our inconsistency, I think so.

It might be a big call, but I think Watts will be the best player from the draft in 2-3 years time. At the moment, Hill and Hurley are streaks ahead of him, but watch out for a fully developed 100kg, 2.7sec over 20m, Jack Watts

With Gawn clearly 2-3 years away from senior footy, if Jamar went down Robbie Campbell would be heavily relied on. He is now back from injury, drafting him could prove valuable.

Spenser and Fitzpatrick injured suck for their development... but won't impact the senior team. Neither was close to selection. Grimes is a big loss. sucks!

Need to protect Mark Jamar, he is such a gun. And if Dunn is going to recapture the form of late 2010, he needs to go back to being defensive forward who kicks goals, rather than 192cm ruckman. Martin brought back in for Bate perhaps? Bennel second best on ground in VFL is great attitude to getting sent back to VFL, so if Grimes in injured... Rivers is in the leadership group and is definitely best 18, so he comes straight back in Morton needs to get in the best in the VFL for 2 weeks in a row before being re-considered OUT: Warnock (unlucky), Bate, Grimes (Inj) IN: Rivers, Martin, Bennel

No idea whether or not he's broken his foot, but Colin Garland broke his navicular bone, spent a year out of footy, and is now playing some awesome footy. Not necessarily career ending

I'm hoping Martin played well. We need to protect our number 1 asset- Mark Jamar.

It's not that hard when you use your noggen. Players in (in my opinion) our best 22 with less than 50 AFL games: Bail, Bennel, Garland, Grimes, Gysberts, Jurrah, McKenzie, Petterd, Scully, Tapscott, Trengove, Watts, Wonaemirri. That's 13 out of 22. Then look at the players with less than 50 AFL games who are right on the cusp of pushing into our best 22 + those still developing: Maric, Jetta, Martin + Blease, Strauss, Gawn, Fitzpatrick, Cook, Howe, McDonald, Nicolson, Evans. Add Viney to that group. We are a VERY inexperienced team. We will have our ups and downs.... but look at the bigger picture. In 2 years time we will be ready to peak and all those guys mentioned will be pushing 80-100 games!

BAHAHAHA, you're right delist him. GWS are offering him $1.5m p.a. as a teenager just to have a laugh

Let me guess, suddenly all our youngsters are superstars again. This site is hilarious sometimes. The method of our rebuild and past 3-4 years has been excellent. A bit of patience is required, but in 2-3 years we will be a force. Will people stop making judgments week to week, and for goodness sakes, try to look at the bigger picture. Because it looks pretty good!

Interesting that I look at the exact same set of facts you describe and form the polar opposite opinion. To my mind, if a recruiter sees a player fully developed vs. a player that may take a few years to develop, it will naturally be in their best interest to take the fully developed player. That player will have an immediate impact at AFL and then the recruiter can point to his employer, with evidence that his players picked are already producing However the better recruiter does not recruit for 1-2 years, he recruits for 10-12 years. In any profession, thinking medium to long term is always critical. Any Joe Blo would have known that Daniel Rich was going to burst onto the AFL scene. And he did in a big way, winning Rising Star award, kicking 65m bullets to Jonno Brown and gaining accolades from the media. However Prenders chose Watts. A 17 years old in VCE who would take 3-4 years at least before being fully developed. In those 3-4 years, as has proven true, Watts would be ridiculed by the media as a 'failed pick' and a 'dud not worthy of number 1'. That reflects badly on Prenders. Do you not think Prenders knew that the criticism would come as Watts built his skills and his body? Will every pick of Prenders be perfect in hindsite? Definitely not. who can be? Darling was passed by every AFL club. BUT... overall Prendergast has drafted for the future, and we will be happy he did so in 2-3 years. Bookmark it.

Never have truer words been spoken. Our poor form does NOT mean all our youngsters are duds, it is bc our senior guys are not performing. Look at the list for 2010 Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Trophy Top 10: 1st Brad Green 295 votes 2nd James Frawley 277 votes 3rd Mark Jamar 231 votes 4th Aaron Davey 194 votes 5th Colin Sylvia 170 votes 6th Cameron Bruce 168 votes 7th Brent Moloney 166 votes 8th Tom Scully 154 votes 9th Colin Garland 149 votes 10th James McDonald 149 votes This year, Bruce and McDonald are gone, Green and Davey are horribly out of form, Scully in injured, Frawley had no pre-season. That's 6 of our best 10 from last year. With a young developing side, we need our senior guys to start, pulling their weight. Our youngster will make it in the end, we just have to be more patient. A crop of Watts, Scully, Trengove, Gybserts, Tapscott, Jurrah, Grimes, Frawlye, Garland, Petterd, Morton, Blease, Bennel, Cook, Mckenzie + Viney will be the envy of the comp in 2 years. Why does that seem obvious to me and not other---- i've just named 15 guys who are still developing themselves as footballers all with great talent. And that's without mentioning Maric, Strauss, Nicolson, Evans, Howe, McDonald, Jetta etc. People should realise how lucky we are that Schwab, Jimmy, Bailey and Conoley and Preders have steadfastly persued this rebuild. This site may be going into meltdown today, but we'll be thanking them all in years to come. I predict that those who want Darling, Rich, Hurley etc for the immediate impact today, will be looking foolish in 2-3 years time when guys like Morton, Watts, Gysberts, Scully, Trengove etc are finally ready to dominate the competition, when we ARE ACTUALLY READY TO COMPETE FOR A FLAG.

This is one of the worst cases of premature e-draft-ulation I have seen. you don't draft for 1 year, you draft for a 12-15 year career. Go on melbournefc.com.au and look at vfl highlights from last week, Cook looks to be a beauty. More importantly he's 196cm, and when him and Watts both hit 100kg in 2-3 years time, we will have 2 super athletic, agile and smart 100kg 196cm twin towers who both have outstanding kicking skills.

Has everybody watched the vfl highlights posted on melbournefc.com.au. 2 things I was pleased to see. 1. Lucas Cook (wearing number 61) looks really clever footballer, can't wait for him to bulk up: SEE in clip at 1.11, 1.32, 3.05, 3.24, 4.00, 6.05 2. Sam Blease (wearing number 47) showing some real zip, something that could really add another dimension to the team: SEE in clip at 1.05, 1.29, 2.34, 3.50 Lucas Cook especially looks like he always does something creative with the ball - all passages of play he either hit a target, set up a goal or kicked one himself. Also noticeable that Spencer and Gawn seem to be progressing nicely. Nice to see Matthew Bate look like he's dominating at VFL level also. I hope he can reinvent himself.

Despite a so-so start to the year, we are 2-1-1. Our next 3 games are: Wet Toast (in Subi), Adelaide (at MCG) and North (at Etihad). 3 very winnable games. And with 10 day breaks before WestCoast and Adelaide games, we should be very fresh. The draw has been very nice to us this season and these next 3 weeks could really set up our season very nicely. We could even be top 4 if we win all those games. Sure that would probably flatter us a lot, but I think 8th-10th is realistic expectation this season. Great opportunity for our young team to play a final.

They could... but not easily. They do have an extra $1m in the cap and lots of young 18 yr olds, but they also have an extra 12 players on their initial list to pay. They also have to pay their senior players a lot more than market value to lure them to play in a Western Sydney (i.e. a cr*phole). Much like Gold Coast, they can probably afford 1x $1.5m p.a., 4-5x $600,000, 2-3X $400,000, with the rest rookies. If they scored themselves Marc Murphy, which would cost at least $1m p.a, and then spent $800k p.a. on Scully, that would be their 2 marque players, and it would jeapardize their ability to lure quality key position talent.

haha. i'm confused, because I read the article and I still can't pinpoint one thing the administration has done wrong according to her.