sylvinator

is the opposite to getting no votes, winning the brownlow? You'd get some good odds on that!

The Sehat Temel story last year was a real lesson for many (including myself) of the full extent of the superficiality and inaccuracy of the 'bigfooty phantom draft style' predictions made by those who watch 5 minute youtube clips of players. Leading up to the draft last year, 95% of phantom drafts had Temel going in the first 2-3 rounds, yet probably only 1% had Gysberts, Menzel or Howard in the first round. Immediately after the draft many were dumb-founded by the fact we picked up Gysberts instead of a KPP like Aaron Black or Ben Griffiths. Yet those who attended the MFC draft event will tell you that our recruiters didn't rate 1 KPP in the top 20 of this draft, and didn't consider Talia a KPP at AFL level, rather more like a tall flanker. In addition, several clubs, including Geelong and Western Bulldogs, have since admitted they were keeping a close eye on Gysberts and would probably have picked him up had he been available. The afl recruiters these days really know what they're talking about. They don't always get it right, but they do most of the time. Irregardless, i love 'phantom drafts' and predicting the drafts, even though the extent of my knowledge is youtube clips and watching the udner 18 national championships. But when my predictions are wrong, i'm more than willing to admit the recruiters know best.

The kid has talent, though he is a long term prospect. But if StKilda rate him highly, it will not be easy to get him. This makes it a very high risk, potentially high reward trade, since it will cost us a bit. He seems like the kind of long term prospect that we should try to draft ourselves- a 200cm super agile athlete. we drafted one like that only last year in Jack Fitzpatrick, maybe another shot at a similar type of player would be on the cards. That would cost us much less that trading for Rys Stanley, and there are no guarantees Stanley will become a great player, any more than Fitzpatrick

If i was compiling a list of the worst players in the afl who play on a semi-regular/regular basis, Will Minson would slip nicely into my top 20 (above Paul Johnson)

god I hope he makes it to then. Tears watching that. What an inspirational bloke

LOL you actually think a North person is going to openly admit he was moved out of the ruck bc McIntosh and Goldstein surpassed him by a country mile. I'm not dead-wrong, he's not a good ruckman, and that's why he hasn't played as a ruckman this season. Oh, and he's not a particularly good forward either.

It just goes to show that a player should avoid going around 1-2 years too many. It's much better when they go out on top, still playing good footy. By the end B.Johnson was an absolute liability. Things go down very quickly when you're 33+ yrs old. That is why MFC has made the right suggestion to our own JMcDonald. At 34 next year, things could quickly deteriorate. Another hammy= another 7-8 weeks out. Any loss in form would see supporters call for him to be dropped. If people want proof that MFC has handled JMc property, just look at B.Johnson as the example of what happens when a player goes on 1 too many years

In my honest opinion, I think we should keep Jamar, he's a good ruckman, even got AA this year.

If Collingwood has Goldsack, MacCaffer, Ben Ried, Leon Davis, Allan Toovey, Jarryd Blair and Chris Dawes in the premiership best 22 (assuming they win next week), then there is no reason why Jones can't be a good contributor in any future premiership. Any suggestions that a premiership team has 22 gun players is just plain wrong. Every premiership team has its own unique set of core players in a unique set of positions. For Geelong, their core stars were all in the midfield and one in defence, while Collingwood's core players are more evenly spaced across the field. For Hawthorn it was tall forwards and midfield, while for Brisbane it was their defence and midfield. Not one of these premiership teams ever had the perfect team, and there were always up to 6+ players in the team that were role players in the team and along for the ride.

we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think Bruce is holding anyone back. Garland, Grimes and Bartram played every game this year that they were fit to play in, because they are good players and deserve their spot in the team. Strauss, Blease and Cheney will also have a spot waiting for them if they're good enough. If they work hard, perform at vfl level, Bruce will not be keeping them out of the team. It's not like Bruce, or Bartram, of Joel McDonald are superstars of the afl. If they play well enough, the spot is theirs for the taking. They haven't been played till now bc they haven't developed to the required level to deserve a spot at afl level (or injuries have prevented them). Plus, the good thing about Bruce is that he is versatile. If Strauss has a break-out season next year and takes his spot at half back, Bruce will simply change his position where the team needs, whether that be on a wing, of half forward, or as a tagger. He's a clever player and has performed in our top10 players each and every year for the past 8 years. that should count for something! MFC has come into its next stage of development. No longer is the sole priority to pump games into young player. We have evolved from that. Now we still want to pump games into players, but we are now also considering whether they deserve their spot in the team and whether they are performing to an adequate level to deserve their senior spot in the team. We saw that in the latter half of the year with Morton and Bate being dropped.

Our B&F results of the past 8 years beg to differ. Bruce is criminally underrated on this site. deserves 2 years imo

Plain and simple, he's not a very good footballer. He's a 'medium-sized leading forward', in the mould of Green, Pettard and Dunn so doesn't fill a need. Not interested

I don't get why the demons aren't offering him 2 years. - Green and Bruce and the only players eligible for veteran status, so he isn't taking up any young player's spot on the list - he's in our best 10 players and has performed as such consistently for the last 8 years - he is a versatile player and has a spot in our defence 100% - he hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, he played some great footy towards the end of the year He has also been captain several times when McDonald has been injured. is clearly a leader at the club and would be a chance for the captaincy. Plus, as a veteran, half his salary is outside the cap, so its not like he's clogging up our salary cap. Just give him 2 years and $450K per year. His output means he provides value for money, and only half that salary is actually inside the cap.

if he requested a trade to us, i'd take him in my opinion, it's a misnomer that we have an abundance of crumbing forwards - Wona is, imo, our one and only genuine small forward. However, the club has played 2 'small forwards' the whole season (Bennel ussually the other) bc of the importance of applying defensive pressure in the forward line. I think Alwyn Davey is a very different type of small forward than Wona. Alwyn is much much quicker while wona relies more on his natural reading of the play. I think they'd compliment each other well. I also think its worth noting that many on this site don't rate Wona that highly as a great small forward, and while I personally think wona is good, I don't think he's ever going to be one of the highest quality small forwards in the afl. - Bennel has been tried as a small forward, but the club definitely still has hopes for him as a half back or winger (as confirmed by Cameron Schwab on his most recent stream conversation, and Dean Bailey in a radio interview mid-year). When he plays forward he does apply defensive pressure, but i don't think he's a genuine crumber and I think with his huge upside and good skills, he could be a better half back flanker in the future. I think is Alwyn came to the cub, he and Wona would become the small forwards and Bennel would be released to wing/half back. - Maric I personally don't rate. Being real, he's a good chance of being delisted at the end of the next year if he doesn't have a break out season. Whilst he may have come to the club as a crumber, he certainly hasn't played that way at AFL or VFL level in 2010, playing more as a forward flanker who pushes up to the wing - Jetta, like his brother Leroy, is a midfielder who likes to kick the odd goal. He's not a particularly good midfielder either, and I also think he's a big chance of being delisted next season unless he has a break out season - other options up forward, like Bail, Tapscott, Pettard, Dunn etc are definitely not small forwards. I think its also worth noting that in 2008, Alwyn was brilliant. 2009 he had a knee-reco and 2010 was his first season post- reconstruction. 2011 he should be back to normal (ala Malceski took a year to get back to best form) Summery: Bailey recognises the importance of the small crumbing forward, as evidenced by the fact he's played 2 of them for most of the season even when Bennel and Wona weren't in great form and also by the fact that he's drafted so many in recent times. Our only 2 genuine options atm are Wona and Bennel, and the club has suggested they have bigger plans for Bennel, and Wona is a completely different type of small forward than Alwyn would be. Would I chase Alwyn hard and throw buckets of cash at him? No. Would I facilitate a trade if he requested Melbourne. Definitely

definitely not a silly suggestion. Jamar/ Brennan ruck combination could be a beauty, especially with the interchange reducing to only 3. Jamar and Brennan could both very effectively rest in the forward line and become genuine forward options.

very impressive highlights. I can imagine him becoming a really good afl player. Reminds me a little bit of Sam Gilbert actually. I know we're not in desparate need of key defenders, but if Warnock leaves, it could be good to have another good one developing in the wings

Or even better, draft our own key forward. I've recently become a very big fan of Lucas Cook

my point isn't that Hale won't be better than PJ. He probably would. My point is that if you're in the market for a big forward who can play ruck, let's get a really quality one and turn a weakness into a weapon. I'd prefer that than getting a couple of ok players who might do some reasonable jobs for us every now and then. We've had a few of them in the past, and they've been servicable (Ben Holland, PJ, even Meesan was brought in as a bandaid fix), but we should be on the look out for real quality

17 goals from 12 goals playing pretty much 95% in the forward line and playing deep forward is a very poor return, especially for a team that is actually winning quite regularly. He is not a good player, at best he's an average player. and he's not young either. i think it would be a mistake to get him, bc it would only be a bandaid. If we want a big forward we want it to be a real positive addition to our team, not an ok player who probably will play half of the season at vfl level.

I personally think he'd be an ordinary acquisition. Yes, he's the TYPE of player we need. But I think a lot of people are being convinced that bc he's the right size and shape that he'll be a good answer. He won't. He wasn't moved out of the ruck bc of McIntosh and Goldstein, he was moved out of the ruck bc he's a god-aweful ruckman. And as a forward, he very rarely kicked goals, especially of late. He's not young, he's no good below his knees. He's just not a very good player. I've got a lot of feedback from North supporters i'm friends with who say he's a spud of the highest order, most neutral supporters rate PJ ahead of him. If we want another ok, ordinary 200cm player, that will fill a hole, then we should get him. If we want quality, we'll stay away and develop our own or go for a genuinely good player, like Mitch Clarke.

My only problem with Moloney is that i don't think he's good enough a player, and he's definitely not consistent enough. Can't have your captain playing a stinker once every 4-5 games. Green is the obvious choice

Jones, Bruce and Warnock rumours will continue until they are signed. I personally would prefer to see all 3 stay at the club, however at least none of these 3 players are absolutely core players to our team moving forward. Warnock- i'd keep as depth, but really our 5th best tall option in defence these days Bruce- a definite best 18 player but is 30 yrs old and won't be playing for more than 2-3 more years Jones- a really well-liked gutsy player, still young, but lets be honest, he isn't the core player that's going to lead us to a premiership. Even this year, with our young midfielders all undeveloped, he only finished 13th in our b&f. would still love him to stay, i believe he can still improve. Overall though, a pretty good result. Imagine if we'd left James Frawley or Aaron Davey unsgined till now.

Agreed. Showed plenty in the last 2 games of this year + the entire of season 2009 to make me think he was be an awesome player. Not because he'd actually come out and dominated afl games regularly, but because he has shown some elite attributes for afl, that could very well 'come together' one day in the near future

Hodge definitely deserved an AA imo. Go frawls what a legend!

If Jones did hypothetically decided to quit melbourne and leave to another club because he is insecure of his place in the team going forward, I would be very disappointed in him. He's 22 yrs old and we've given him 90 games afl experience. we played him in all 22 games this year. yes, he got dropped once to first emergency (still played that week), but lots of players get dropped occasionally. If Jones improves and plays well enough, there will always be a place in the team for him. He has to back himself. Would be the weak option to cut and run bc he thinks things might be tougher in the future. It's what Luke Ball did, when he was no longer handed games on a silver platter at StKilda. I think Jones is better than that, and i'll back him to re-sign with the club.