Whispering_Jack

Looks like we're not the only team that stinks in the first quarter these days.

A small forward capable of kicking goals. This kid has represented Casey on a few occasions and played well each time - I think they won every time he played. Kicked five (out of 7) for Gippsland Power today in a team that was well beaten. I don't think he played for Vic Country in the championships but I think he would be well worth a rookie spot.

A big no from me. We are nowhere near enough to a premiership to need to invest in a player of his ilk.

Signed with Adelaide.

G'day Redleg, Whilst I agree with you in principle, I'm reminded of the picture in your avatar and I'm wondering if that's the same dead horse you're flogging since there's no way we're going to get the $500k back because the AFL never admits to being wrong..

Updated from the earlier versions ~ AFL Draft Big Board 3.0: The winds of change

Spot on. One thing we will have is some tradable players, likely starting with Jeremy Howe if, as likely, he's gone. If we can convert them into a couple of quality mids who can run we improve the area we're lagging behind others. Then if we can snag some quality in the draft as we did last year then we're a good way to improving and possibly doing so rapidly.

I think it's fair to question the performance of all of the club's officials and employees and to do so on a regular basis but the evidence so far about Taylor and his recruiting would be well on the positive side and compared with what went before him, it's difficult to question his performance so far. Still, you have to say recruiting is an inexact since. Looking at the 2013 draft cited in a post above, it reminds me of how I thought Collingwood had pulled off a major recruiting coup getting Scharenberg and Freeman as top 10 picks. However, injuries to those players and the possibility that the former could be on his way back to SA has soured that. Then you compare that with the Bulldogs' choices of Stringer, McRae (2012) and Bontempelli (2013) who have all remained healthy and developed rapidly and you can see the element of luck involved (and I'm not denying that all of them were initially good choices). For me, Taylor is a big tick to date and I would certainly be looking at some others in the off field department for possible improvement before him.

Speaking as one of those shifty [censored] lawyers, I reckon that book is inadmissible in evidence on the grounds that it was published in 2009. The definitive publication of the era for the North Fitzroy push in the 60s would have been Truth.

It's the sarcasm thread Stuie. Get it yet?

This week's TAC Cup Future Stars top 20 - 1. Brisbane - Joshua Schache 2. Carlton - Jacob Weitering 3. Sydney* - Callum Mills 4. Gold Coast - Charlie Curnow 5. GWS* - Jacob Hopper 6. Essendon - Darcy Parish 7. Melbourne - Aaron Francis 8. St. Kilda - Darcy Tucker 9. Collingwood - Callum Ah Chee 10. Brisbane* - Ben Keays 11. GWS* - Matthew Kennedy 12. Geelong - Rhys Mathieson 13. Port Adelaide - Ryan Burton 14. Adelaide - Harley Balic 15. North Melbourne -Sam Weideman 16. Brisbane* - Eric Hipwood 17. Western Bulldogs - Harry McKay 18. Richmond - Kieran Collins 19. Hawthorn - Jade Gresham 20. Carlton - Bailey Rice ** * Academy bid ** Father/son

Melbourne coach Paul Roos heralds more onfield changes at Demons No surprise really - all clubs need to improve their lists on an annual basis and the past month confirms we need more change than most. Some of our needs are pressing and perhaps should not only be confined to on field change.

The Statistics: Rohan Bail 23 disposals 9 kicks 14 handballs 2 marks 9 tackles 88 dream team points Mark Jamar 6 disposals 3 kicks 3 handballs 1 marks 1 tackles 64 hit outs 65 dream team points Jay Kennedy-Harris 2 goals 19 disposals 13 kicks 6 handballs 1 marks 10 tackles 102 dream team points Dean Kent 14 disposals 8 kicks 6 handballs 1 marks 4 tackles 3 hit outs 49 dream team points Max King 1 goal 6 disposals 3 kicks 3 handballs 2 marks 1 tackles 11 hit outs 36 dream team points Jimmy Toumpas 16 disposals 11 kicks 5 handballs 5 marks 7 tackles 87 dream team points Dean Terlich 22 disposals 14 kicks 8 handballs 5 marks 5 tackles 93 dream team points Mitch White 1 behind 19 disposals 10 kicks 9 handballs 5 marks 4 tackles 80 dream team points

Your sense of humour is positively knee-slapping Stuie. The club should grab you as entertainment for the players' Mad Monday celebrations.

It possibly might have escaped you but Voldemort hasn't been playing for several weeks and won't be playing on Sunday. It might be worth going however, to see whether there are any GWS players out there worth picking up in the trades. With the Giants signing on many of their young guns and still having the burden of the Voldemort $1m a year wage bill, they might be happy to swap some players during the trade period. We have a few prima donnas who might be comfortable going there.

Hipsters didn't frequent North Fitzroy in the 60s, let alone live there in those days. It was still all working class and indigenous peoples.

I'm inspired by the ministrations of Positive Peter and his preview of the penultimate game of the season. I just hope the players follow suit and take note of how the supporters of the club have rallied with enough auras of positivity to stretch across the Nullarbor following coach Paul Roos' comments about how we were causing the players to drop marks, miskick the footy and handball poorly. Never again. I'm confident of a big day today.

With Spencer and the Russian eligible for the finals, you would think the best course would be to let Max have a break to gear himself for season 2016.

That's the key rule and on that basis, I can see why the omission of James Harmes might be so timely. He's played 7 games for MFC and it could be that the club wants him get a taste of playing finals football - albeit at a lower level than AFL - just to get a feel of what it's like to take part in that area of the game.

TAC Cup Wrap: Round 17 It's probably far too early for a thread on Hugh McCluggage but I'd be surprised if he's not in contention to become this year's Freddie Clutterbuck. TAC Cup Wrap: Round 18

Demonland should know all about this player because he was touted heavily back in the days before he was drafted. He came from the same part of the world as Jeremy Howe and many Demonlanders expressed hope that we could recruit him because of his speed, that bit of X factor about him and the potential for improvement but those in charge of recruiting looked elsewhere. I think it's too late now - the horse has bolted.

An excellent point and our plight hasn't been helped by season long injuries to two of the quickest players on our list in Frost and Kent, the inexperience of another in Stretch and the recent inconsistency of Garlett. I'm reasonably assured that part of our recruiting focus will be on this area in the off season and with trends in the game likely to be in that direction, the need and the opportunity are both there to turn this around in a new season.

I think the problem with this thread is the title which includes the words, "The Facts". There are plenty of opinions here, many of which may or may not be logical or fair, but it contains not that many facts and plenty of errors and omissions. We've gone over this ground a number of times before on this forum so many would be familiar with my opinion that Mark Neeld was a much maligned person and a great deal of that was not justified and confected by those with other agendas at the club. Unfortunately, it turned out that under the additional pressure, he wasn't a great match day coach. He got a bum rap in that walked into a club at a time when there was a political maelstrom happening which not only did not help his cause but put ithe club's recovery back 2 or 3 years. We are now on the verge of much better times but we don't, as a team have sufficient depth to overcome situations such as the current one where we have had two of our major playmakers in Jones and Vince down on form (possibly injured) and the only other midfielders who could step into their shoes Tyson and vandenBerg out injured and Brayshaw and Viney getting tired after a long haul of a season and too young yet to have sufficient influence to make enough of a difference. Roos, like Bailey and Neeld can only do so much with the material he has and I'm personally bemused at how our fans have blown up this slump we're going through into such a catastrophe. It's not enjoyable watching the fiascos of the past couple of weeks but we've taken steps forward this year and it's fairly obvious that we're building our team depth and starting to get more quality at the top. I'm looking forward to 2016 under Roos with some more running players at his disposal, an additional forward and the jettisoning of a few players who have run their course and there's no reason why we can't be next year's Bulldogs.

Enough