sylvinator

Never going to happen. In retrospect he probably would have gotten a 1 year deal had the club known Bruce would quit, but it's probably mute point bc i doubt Bruce would have quit if the club had McDonald been given a new contract

Next year will be another development year now, we don't have enough experience or leadership. That's 3 or our 7 leaders gone BUT... it might be a good move for the long term... means young players will get more games and will need to step up big time

Unlike what your comment suggests, Barry Prendergast and all other recruiters do NOT have a simple policy of 'best available. full spot.' Prendergast has openly been quoted several times in saying that, of coarse, the club does choose best available, HOWEVER if there are 2 players of similar quality, the club will pick the player who fits their needs and the MFC most. Will Prendergast pick a tall forward at 12 or 33 who is a clearly inferior player to a midfielder available at that pick? Of coarse NOT! For example, that's why last year our first 4 picks were midfielders... because Prendergast only rated 1 tall forward in the best 20 players in the draft, so the midfielders were far superior that the forwards available. If there are two players of similar quality at 12 or 33, one a tall forward, and the other a midfielder, will Prendergast go for the tall forward? Definitely, especially considering Prendergast was quoted just 2 weeks ago saying that the Football Department feels we now have plenty of midfield options coming through, but that we lack a strong tall forward. If club recruiters had an unlimited policy of best available at all costs, then clubs would potentially be left with unbalanced lists

Still early in pre-season, but I think this is the year that we must upgrade a couple of our young leaders to the leadership group. Out: McDonald, Miller In: Grimes, Frawley Jamar is another who is demanding a spot on the leadership group, so perhaps expanding the group from 7 to 8 would be a good idea. Although Sylvia is one of our senior players, I think he's the type of person who is constantly struggling with his personal motivation and drive. I don't think he'll benefit from the added responsibility of being a leader, I think he needs to just focus on getting his body and mind right.

2 points 1. Bruce seems to be being a little over indulgent here wanting more money, considering he's been one of the best paid players at the club for many years, perhaps paid above his market value for up to 5 years. The club has been very good to him money-wise, surely that counts for something. 2. The club seems to be being a little stubborn, and appears to be trying to stand their ground bc of principle, rather than for any pragmatic reason. The reality is that half of Bruce's salary will be outside the cap. That means that even if Bruce gets another huge salary (around 500k for example), only $250K would go towards the cap, which is what mediocre players will be on. I hope the two parties can come to a common ground. Bruce still has 2 (maybe 3) really good years of footy left in him. He's super consistent, always in the top 10 in our B&F, and has been Vice-Captain for a few years, meaning his leadership will be important for a young group coming through.

good effort. Imo we'll almost certainly go a tall forward with at least 1 or the first 2 picks, based on some of the quotes coming from Barry Prendergahst.

I think what you mean to say, it that you'll only listen to the actual recruiters, or the journalists who get their information from the recruiters. There is nothing particularly special about Emma Quayle, she doesn't watch an enourmous amount of underage footy, she gets almost 100% of her information from club recruiters. That makes her worth listening to, but no more than our own Matt Burgan or any other journalists who speak to recruiters.

I think it's actually quite incredible how the recruiters go about their business. The Melbourne recruiters know 99% of what is going to go down on draft day before it happens. They know all the info their is to know about all players. Very rarely will a player be picked up that they don't expect. We also target in on the boys we want and invariably get them. Though it is worth noting that the last 2 drafts we relatively easy for us, with such high draft picks. In 2008: The pick- who we wanted- who we got - Pick 1- Jack Watts- Jack Watts - Pick 17- Sam Blease, Lewis Johnston, or (if those 2 were gone) James Strauss- Sam Blease - pick 19- James Strauss- James Strauss - pick 35- Jamie Redden or Jamie Bennel- Jamie Bennel - pick 51- Luke Rounds, Neville Jetta (or Michael Walters)- Neville Jetta - pick 64- Rohan Bail- Rohan Bail Also... although not much skill to it, we obviously got who we were targeting pick 1 PSD (Jurrah) and pick 1 rookie (McKenzie) Essentially, in the National draft, we got 5 out of the 6 boys we were really targeting, only missing out of Redden, who went pick 25 (10 places higher than our pick 35), but got Bennel regardless who is a beauty! SOURCE: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/breakfast-with-the-star-makers/story-e6frf9mf-1111118183298 In 2009: The pick- who we wanted- who we got - pick 1- Tom Scully- Tom Scully - pick 2- Jack Trengove- Jack Trengove - pick 11- Melksham, Gysberts or Lucas- Gysberts - pick 18- Tapscott or Max Gawn- Tapscott - pick 34- Jack Fitzpatrick- Max Gawn - Pick 50- Troy Taylor- Jack Fitzpatrick Essentially we got all the players we were targeting pre-draft, except who Melksham (who went 1 pick earlier than us), but I rate Gysberts better anyways, and Troy Taylor (we rated Fitzpatrick higher and didn't think he'd still be there at 50). Taylor is missing this pre-season because he's gone home bc he can't handle the stress on the afl environment... bullet dodged there. SOURCE- the MFC 'draft event'. We were actually told 30 minutes before the draft, who we were going to take, and it worked out 99% right. We were told it was going to be out of Melksham, Gysberts or Lucas at pick 11. When Essendon took Melksham, Gysberts was the obvious choice (Lucas went 1 pick after to Carlton). We were then told at pick 18 we were hoping Tapscott would slide, but if not Gawn would be our man. We couldn't believe our luck with Tapscott. We were then told pick 34 was set aside for Jack Fitzpatrick, however when Gawn was still available at 34, we had to take him, and then luckily Fitzpatrick was there again at 50. We can definitely sleep easy at night that Barry Prendergast knows exactly where each and every players is going to go, and has his boys with big X's on their backs. Even in retrospect every one of his calls were pretty spot on. Perhaps the only 2 changes to make, where retrospect helps, perhaps they should have trusted their guts and taken Redden at 19, instead of Strauss, also they were tossing up between Jetta and Walters, in retrospect I think Walters might have been the better call. But that's really being technical.

If you re-read my post, I never called you a keyboard warrior. Just that the no-it-all posters from last year ridiculed Gysberts at pick 11 as being way too high. And yes... all of us on demonland are keyboard warriors to some extent, however some posters profess their opinions as being gospel more than others do.

Probably have to agree

We're all 100% entitled to our opinions on players and where we rate them... But... your comment is what the keyboard warriors said about Gysberts last year. None of the bigfooty-style phantom drafts had him in the top 20. But we picked him at 11 and apparently several other clubs were keen to pick him up from pick 13-18.

Gysberts wasn't in any phantom drafts within the top 20 before the national draft. Those who weren't in the know rated him pick 20-30. That means bugger all at the end of the day, and the people in the know make their rankings of players very meticulously and seriously.

He was hated at Hawthorn for being a crap bloke. Apparently all the players were happy when he got delisted. On face value, u don't want to bring cancerous players like that into the club. On the other hand, it is possible that being delisted was the real kick up the bum he needed. Maybe he now realises he isn't god's gift to footy. If the club rates him, might be worth our 5th pick in the rookie draft. Definitely not the national draft, the guy doesn't deserve a spot on the senior list yet.

Sam Blease was a similar type to Kieran Harper in a lot of ways. Some of his plays in the national championships were actualy scarily good. But he only averaged 12-14 possies a game. With Blease, Bennel and Bail as overside speedy finishers, would someone steady and skillful be preferable (Smedts/Heppel/Smith type)

Incredible that he weighs 90kg but still looks like a rake. I reckon he must be about 195cm these days as well. Get this kid to 100kg, and maintain his running and overhead marking ability, and we'll actually have a superstar on our hands.

In the videa on afl.com.au, which shows some footage of our guys coming back to training, there is a shot of Tom McNamara on the bike next to Joel MacDonald, Jetta and Morton. Not sure if that is a shot from yesterday's training, but if it is, I wouldn't be surprised in Tommy McNamara were rookie listed this year, like Newton and Meesan were last year. We have 5 spots to fill on the rookie list, so using one for Tommy would be a good idea imo. He's still very young

In my opinion it might be better for us to go a safer option (like Billy Smedts, where it's pretty clear how his talents will translate to AFL level). It we need to trade for a ruckman in the future, a pick 12 would net us a player like Jolly or Mumford. So if we trade a pick 12 for a senior ruckman we can guarantee ourselves a good ruckman, rather than trying to develop our own which could take 5+ years to develop.

Sensible decisions. Pick 49 and pick 52 and still reasonable selections, and we should back our recruiters to pick up players who are senior to Tommy Mac and PJ. I would not at all be surprised to see one or both of Tommy Mac and PJ picked up as rookie selections, similar to how Meesan and Newton were last year. While they were list cloggers on the senior list, both Tommy and PJ could prove useful depth in case of injury on a rookie list. It's almost important to keep turning over the list and bring in fresh talent... 9 new players this year will make it very exciting

I got the same feeling. Some players rate themselves, and that's not always a good thing. Mitch Thorp is famous for slagging off at premiership captain Tom Harley when Harley was playing one vfl game to get match fitness before returning to the senior side. Some players just need to be humble until they've actually proven something, instead of calling themselves the perfect mix between J.Brown and Buddy Franklin. You would never hear Tom Scully in an interview say "i've got the endurance and speed and Dane Swan, the skills of Ablett and the clearance work of Judd"

His description of himself is pretty unusual... If it's sort of jokey, then it's funny. if he's fully serious, it's a bit weird. He's saying he is the basically a combination of the best attributes of Jono Brown and Buddy Franklin (which is basically the perfect footballer). Tbh, to me it sounds like he rates himself very highly. Not sure if that's necessarily a good thing. A lot of players who have rated themselves extra highly in the past have ended up doing nothing. On the other hand, if he really is that good, then I want him

McDonald played on one year deals... he wasn't so lucky. Considering how McDonald was pushed out, and the fact he has a young family and needs to set himself for after footy, I 100% understand why he would security of a 2 year deal. No one wants to pick up a guy 31+, so he has to rely on Melbourne to keep contracting him each year. He must now feel that is no certainty. I would however be disappointed MFC didn't offer him 2 years. Bruce has been a loyal servant of the club, coming top 10 in our B&F each and every year. He will only take up a veterans spot on the list. He deserves 2 years easily.

This doesn't just relate to Chris, but is really riles me the trend of fringe players in recent seasons. It used to be that if you were on the cusp of the best 22 in your team, you'd spend the pre-season working your butt off and forcing your way into the senior team. Nowadays, if you're not gueranteed a starting 22 spot, you just ask to be traded to a crap team where you hope you'll walk into the senior team. It's pretty weak if you ask me since you would never see a guy like Shaun Grigg or Houli ask to be traded to Collingwood or StKilda, bc they wouldn't make the team there either. They ask to be traded to the Richmonds of the world, or in Chris' case, a struggling Carlton, looking for the easy way to get game time. Like Chris, most of these players will soon realise that it wasn't that the coach 'had it in for him', it was that he didn't work hard enough to push into the 22. Nothing, not even swapping to a crap club where u should get game time, will replace hard work and determination.

Plenty of good players have been delisted and found renewed form at the new club. not uncommon. Some players just thrive in certain environments, and not in others.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Walked out on the mighty demons, who offered him a reasonable 2 years contract when he couldn't even get into our 22, expecting to walk into another team.

No one on this site should be writing him off yet. We know fisrt hand how long it can take for a ruckman to impact a game in a positive way. Some of Jamar's stats early in his career have to be seen to be believed. http://www.fanfooty.com.au/players/year.php?firstname=Mark&surname=Jamar&year=2006 In 2005 (21 yrs old), Jamar played 8 games. In those 8 games he had a total of 27 possessions (12 of those in round 1), a total of 8 kicks and 60 hit outs (an average of only 7.8). His break out season was in 2006 where he played 22 games, and averaged an enourmous 4 possession a match, averaging less than 2 kicks a game, averaging a HUGE 10 hit outs a match. Until Jamar was 24 he was hopeless. Spenser is rated highly by the club. He's aggressive at the contest. At the moment he's uncoordinated, but he does have some potential, or the club wouldn't rate him. He might be a dud, but it would silly to totally dismiss him just yet