Whispering_Jack

The boys are back on the track officially as from tomorrow -Dees itching to start training I think a few of the older heads have more time under the collective bargaining agreement but we don't have that many vets at the club so there should be a good turn out of players on hand. I suppose it would be handy to know where and when so that our regular track watchers who might have some time on their hands could have a look and provide us with their opinions as to who is going to be the club's next best thing. With the advent of the delisted free agent, we're also likely to see a return to bygone days for a short period between 1 November and 13 November. Clubs which secure such players will be able to have them at training almost as soon as they're signed up so if you're at training, keep a watch out for any new faces.

You have to admire the commentators on TWR for what they do given that nothing much happens while the grass grows around them. Some like Damien Barrett seem to have cottoned onto the fact that there are some Demon fans out there who are a bit thin skinned and susceptible to a little bit of baiting and think it smart to sink the boots in at every opportunity. Rather like that Denham person on SEN except he also has an agenda. No doubt the latter will go to town tomorrow or the next time he gets an opportunity on our delistings. These people are only demonstrating their ignorance about the players involved and about what our football department is trying to achieve in this time of transition. In any event, their performance can only be guauged at some time in the future well beyond the FA/trade and draft period and not before the final name is called at the December PSD & Rookie Drafts. That's still a long way off and I wouldn't worry about the critics at this stage.

Confession: I'm a real sucker for phantom drafts (I miss Burgo's these days but he's working in a better place these days anyway ) and you've done well TD. However, you might have gone a bit early because I think the potential sanctions against Adelaide over draft tampering/salary cap breaches are going to cut deep into their available draft picks over the next year or so and who knows what will happen with Tippett? Reading your profiles almost makes me wish that we could have kept another early pick but then I remember we got Hogan and we have Jack Viney at 27 (possibly 26 in the near future). You can't be too greedy. I was a big fan of Jimmy Toumpas from way back so I still hold out some hopes there especially given that GWS has an abundance of midfield talent and might (even at 3) be inclined to go for a different type ahead of our first pick at 4. Still, Wines or O'Rourke look like fitting the bill anyway so we can't lose with that pick and JVs a lock at 27. From what I've seen (very little) and read of Paul Marschall, he looks a good fit for us but I've also read that there are some doubts about whether he's going to nominate for the draft. I also think we'll be active trying to snare one of two delisted FAs and would like to get Ben Jacobs as another potential midfielder through the PSD and that obviously depends if we're able to work out a satisfactory arrangement to get him across the line. After all, he did initially nominate North as his preferred club (although this shouldn't stop us from trying). I think Michael Evans is also in line for a rookie elevation. Finally, I met Clint Bartram last week at the Forum game and he was happy with his rehab so far and looking to start his pre season in the near future. He's in the leadership group and, as long as all goes well in the coming weeks, I doubt a downgrade to the rookie list is likely.

If that's the case then we have no hope of getting him to the club. Who knows where he'll end up in the ND? We would have to come to an agreement with his management to go into the PSD. That's the test for our our football department if, in fact, he's in their sights.

Troy Davis a bit of a surprise after some earlier indications he might go. Otherwise, it's a massive clean out.

Hopefully, we're going north in more ways than one. Dees head north for training

Dawes wore 31 at Collingwood. Perhaps he's grown accustomed.

That must have been the one Kenny Rogers travelled on - the train bound for nowhere.

There are plenty of lockers changing hands at the club this year:- MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB LIST 1 Hogan, Jesse (new) 2 Jones, Nathan 3 VACANT 4 Watts, Jack 5 Toumpas, Jimmy (new) 6 Dawes, Chris (new) 7 Viney, Jack (new) 8 Frawley, James 9 Trengove, Jack 10 Byrnes, Shannon (new) 11 Clark, Mitchell 12 Sylvia, Colin 13 McKenzie, Jordie 14 Dunn, Lynden 15 Rodan, David (new) 16 VACANT 17 Blease, Sam 18 VACANT 19 Strauss, James 20 Garland, Colin 21 Pederson, Cameron (new) 22 Magner, James ® * 23 Tynan, Josh * 24 VACANT 25 McDonald, Tom 26 Nicholson, Daniel 27 Gillies, Tom (new) 28 Macdonald, Joel 29 VACANT 30 Sellar, James 31 Grimes, Jack * 32 Evans, Michael 33 Barry, Dominic (new) 34 Kent, Dean (new) 35 Tapscott, Luke 36 Davey, Aaron 37 Gawn, Max 38 Howe, Jeremy 39 Jetta, Neville 40 Jamar, Mark 41 Davis, Troy 42 Spencer, Jake 43 Taggert, Rory 44 Bail, Rohan 45 Jones, Matt (new) 46 Terlich, Dean (new) 47 Couch, Thomas ® 48 Fitzpatrick, Jack 49 Stark, Nathan ® (new) 50 Clisby, Mitch ® (new) * changed number

The AFL and its intrepid team of investigators are nothing, if not thorough. A few poorly phrased sentences uttered by a total buffoon in response to some leading questions from older, wiser and more experienced heads with ulterior motives has led to a three month investigation into something variously described as "tanking" or "experimenting" and whose end seems out of sight. Consider Adelaide then. As evidence of salary cap rorting mounts, it's becoming clear that if the AFL is to conduct a proper investigation, its officers will need to examine the contracts, not only of all currently listed players, but those of players from past years as well. Since the AFL cannot be told to hurry up matters, I fully expect this process to take months. Possibly years. Every nook and cranny must be explored and I can picture Wood and Clothier travailing over every inch of Rundle Mall, magnifying glasses in hand, in search of truth, justice and the AFL way! Even if it takes until 2019 to get to the bottom of this, it's the only fair thing to do in the interests of our game.

Now it's possible salary cap breaches as well. I didn't Tippett this! AFL investigation into Crows turns to allegations of salary cap breaches Adelaide's first pick in the draft could well be around 110.

So now it's supposedly Mitch Brown (the WCE variety) for Cale Morton and I see an astounding pattern emerging my dear Watson. In the space of 24 hours we've been associated with Rodan, Prismall and now ... Brown. Every one of them has in the past been afflicted by anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions. Mark my words dear Watson. This Neeld character and his plans are more diabolical than anything the evil Professor Moriarty could ever have dreamt up. It's elementary. The man is attempting to construct a bionic football team!!!

Nothing to worry about. Tippett will be long retired by the time the AFL completes the investigation.

Redleg. There must be hundreds of stories just like that and every club would have instances of players whose value whether by trade or by retention goes up and down from year to year. Under the new system whereby delisted players become free agents after 1 November, players like Bater will be open for recruiting by other clubs and we'll get nothing but ... on the other hand ... there might be players who suit our requirements who are out there and can be recruited for nothing as well. If we play our cards right, we can all win.

On Clint Bartram, he said he was happy with his rehab to date and, along with a couple of others including Mitch Clark, things will take a step up in the coming week. The work on his knee was done to fix up a problem he's had for a few years now and he and his surgeon are happy with the results to date. Clint hopes to be back in full training in six week's time so while his pre season will be disrupted to an extent, he will have time to catch up and hopefully be ready for the start of the season. He also mentioned that the decision to have surgery on the knee was taken after round 9 so he missed our win against the Bombers and with all of the things that are happening on the recruiting side, he's keen to get back on the winner's list. Like quite a few players who I've spoken to during the last 6 months, Clint has enormous faith in what Mark Neeld is doing at the club.

Great work Rollo. These things require the organised mind of a lawyer to put together and what a great job you did once again this time! Terrific of Clint Bartram who was sponsored by Demonland/Demonology in his debut season. He spoke nicely to the boys and I'll include some of the things in a separate post. I didn't realise we had two Cordners - that makes my comments on the Dr. Don Cordner thread doubly pertinent and I'll repeat them here:- It was only while driving home from yesterday's inter forum footy matches against the Bombers and the Pies that I really thought of the significance of the role of one of our players in the game and I hope he won't mind me bringing it up but it's a great story. I suppose it's a bit unconventional for a coach to meet almost half of his team for the first time but that's what happens in these inter forum games. When I arrived at the ground to coach the Demon Internet team one of the players I was introduced to was called "Cords" and, playing a hunch, I asked him if that meant he was Cordner. I was right. Cords (I think his name is James) is the grandson of Dr. Don Cordner and therefore great-grandson of Edward meaning he has a history with the colours and the club going back over a century and an association with the MCC/MFC going back further to the time of the very foundation of the AFL/VFL. He plays for one of the University Blacks teams which also has a long association with the Cordner name and he was one of our best yesterday. I checked later and discovered that his father Chris (who was a handy amateur footballer in his day - some say he could easily have played VFL but concentrated on his studies) is an Associate Professor in Philosophy and lectures on subjects like "goodness". So I guess that all fits in because the tale of Cords wearing the colours so long associated with his family with distinction is a truly good news story for me. On the subject of family, I can reveal that our former player Pringle who also doubled up as our team medico has gone on to bigger and better things (if that's possible) and has gotten himself a gig at a northern state NRL team as a sports doctor. I have to admit that it's nigh on impossible coaching a team when you don't know half the players, some don't have numbers and really, there was no need to give instructions anyway. I think my best move was in the first game when I ignored the mismatch in height between the Bombers tall forward and our defenders. They ran off him most of the time and he didn't do much damage. My worst move was in the first half of the game against the Pies for not picking the fact they had two extra men. I just thought they were good at creating the loose man. I don't think we've really thanked out opposition yet. These games are always played in great spirits and their contributions made it all a great day. We also should thank Monster Drinks who sponsored the game that followed ours (two teams of hip hop fans) who donated drinks to our players (those who stayed). Also Rollo - we forgot to present out award to the best player which we'll need to consider over the next few days.

Sorry, but I haven't got the foggiest idea as to what's happening and I doubt that many other than those who are in our recruiting department would know. Still, I find it an intriguing exercise to read all of the rumours. 3½ days to go.

It was only while driving home from yesterday's inter forum footy matches against the Bombers and the Pies that I really thought of the significance of the role of one of our players in the game and I hope he won't mind me bringing it up but it's a great story. I suppose it's a bit unconventional for a coach to meet almost half of his team for the first time but that's what happens in these inter forum games. When I arrived at the ground to coach the Demon Internet team one of the players I was introduced to was called "Cords" and, playing a hunch, I asked him if that meant he was a Cordner. I was right. Cords (I think his name is James) is the grandson of Dr. Don Cordner and therefore great-grandson of Edward meaning he has a history with the colours and the club going back over a century and an association with the MCC/MFC going back further to the time of the very foundation of the AFL/VFL. He plays for one of the University Blacks teams which also has a long association with the Cordner name and he was one of our best yesterday. I checked later and discovered that his father Chris (who was a handy amateur footballer in his day - some say he could easily have played VFL but concentrated on his studies) is an Associate Professor in Philosophy and lectures on subjects like "goodness". So I guess that all fits in because the tale of Cords wearing the colours so long associated with his family with distinction is a truly good news story for me.

There are some great stories coming out of today's game. Clint was great. The players and our assistants were great and Rollo was absolutely fantastic. The games were played in good spirit and even the umpires deserve a complimentary word. All of that later (including my fantastic story of the day). I'll give Rollo some time to get home to Wangaratta to supply me with the stats. Thanks all!

Bombers beat the Pies in the truncated final game. Organisers shunned the Duckworth-Lewis system and went for the normal %age rule to separate the teams and it was a win to the Dees!

Half Time: Dees 4.2.16 to Bombers 2.1.13

And late comers as well. Who could ever forget Neville Jetta Senior and son Rodney just turning up to a game two years ago?

Agree wholeheartedly. While Pedersen would be handy, I don't see him as worthy of paying well overs for him if it affects our capacity to also build up our midfield depth. As things stand, our midfield is ranked among the poorest in the competition so if we are to engage in another trade involving someone like Stefan Martin going out of the club then we need a handy midfielder with pace and running ability.

Please stay on topic and avoid personal abuse folks.

To what AFL regulation does the AFL refer when it threatens clubs with draft tampering?