Whispering_Jack

What's that about a week being a long time?

Fev and co nominate Addam Maric and Austin Wonaeamirri are among the 44 delisted players to submit nomination forms for next week's national draft. Adelaide Crows: James Craig, Myke Cook, James Sellar, Will Young. Brisbane Lions: Matt Austin, Brendan Fevola. Carlton: Mark Austin, Setanta O’Hailpin. Collingwood: Brad Dick, Daniel Farmer. Essendon: Nil. Fremantle: Justin Bollenhagen, Clayton Hinkley, Joel Houghton. Geelong: Nil. Gold Coast: Nathan Ablett, Michael Coad, Joseph Daye, Marc Lock, Jack Stanlake. Hawthorn: Jarryd Morton, Jordan Williams. Melbourne: Addam Maric, Austin Wonaeamirri. North Melbourne: Ed Lower, Brayden Norris, Daniel Pratt, Ben Ross, Gavin Urquhart. Port Adelaide: Jason Davenport, Marlon Motlop. Richmond: Mitch Farmer, Ben Nason. St Kilda: Jason Blake, Paul Cahill, Ryan Gamble, Nick Heyne, Will Johnson, Andrew McQualter, Alistair Smith. Sydney Swans: Paul Bevan, Daniel Currie, Campbell Heath. West Coast: Jordan Jones, Callum Wilson. Western Bulldogs: Brennan Stack.

No argument from me that the AFL's job is to expand its supporter base and develop the game beyond the traditional states but it's the way that it's being done that irks me. Furthermore, I think the way it's being done now won't even provide a better result than the early days of the Brisbane Bears who actually won their first two games in the competition back in 1987.

Does it have a better chance than Bauer had on Oaks Day?

There's more than one picture involved here and the one I like looking at is IMO an even bigger picture. I'm all for progress, growth and development but you have to achieve a balance between the profit of the entrepreneur and the good of the environment. I’m not keen on greedy developers who are so obsessed with their bottom line that they wilfully ignore everything else and produce eyesores within infrastructures that pollute and destroy their environment. That’s how I look at the way the AFL and GWS have gone about trying to establish this football club in Western Sydney - like greedy developers not caring or taking into account what happens to the rest of the football environment. Jimmy Stynes famously said, the AFL is developing a system that breeds distrust and encourages young kids to tell lies. But it wasn't just a young kid who was involved in deceit - it's the whole system created to push aside existing member clubs and prevent them from bidding to keep their youngers players and then the sneering contempt from GWS when they announced their victory. Even the compensation packages were sold in a deceptive manner. The first band of compensation might look good on paper and is even accepted by some as fair but it doesn't compensate like for like and everybody knows that. I don't care for the development of the game in the western suburbs of Sydney if greed and corruption are what underpin its introduction into that part of the world.

Whatever the case with the rookie draft there are now six days to go before the draft and we'll be picking up half of that number of players on the night. If you have Foxtel then I suggest you set your IQ for Thursday at 7pm for the AFL draft. The telecast is due to last 90 minutes. Allow 10 minutes intro when Demetriou preens himself and hopes to high heaven that the wardrobe people have provided a suit that doesn't make him look the size of a GWS recruiting scout. Then allow 5 minutes for a commercial break and pray that you don't get hit with that stupid RACV commercial. Allow 10 minutes at the end for a commercial break (pray again) and the wrap up. After making a small allowance for passes, I estimate that we can safely start watching at 7.43 pm and knock off before 8 o'clock for all three MFC picks. They can do the countback from 10 to 1 if they like: the GWS selections don't really matter anyway. The way things are going more than half of them will be back home by the time they do next year's draft and on balance one will be a millionaire in two year's time if the franchise doesn't fold before then. Enjoy your viewing.

KC is on leave from work and is not due back till next week. I'm sure he'll have something to say then.

Quigley's Phantom Draft on bigfooty has this bloke taken at 36 Hat tip Roger Mellie

Don't know the rules but I haven't heard of any concessions to GWS in the rookie draft so it's probably 1. GWS 2. Gold Coast ... etc then in order of how the clubs finished from bottom up.

But only three will be drafted in seven day's time.

It will be interesting to see how this is played out. Collingwood was said to be under salary cap pressure this year and had to "lose" some valuable players this year. We know that GWS has a swag of room within its cap (Scully gets $2m in 2012 and only $1m in 2013 - that alone frees up $1m). Assuming the Pendlebury camp hasn't already accepted a GWS mega deal in the October window of opportunity then he'll certainly receive one soon (and possibly his pet dog is about to become the AFL's highest paid club mascot too!). Eddie' s reaction will be worth seeing.

Now that he's training with the club, I thought former VFL listed Magpie Tom Couch deserved a thread of his own. The following is from the Collingwood Football Club site:- As I mentioned on the Permission to Train list thread, because of his lack of height, he would need to have all of his father's attributes - ball winning ability, good user of the footy and a bit of pace. He played well for the Pies v Casey in mid season but he didn't appear to be particularly fast and, at his height, that makes it hard for him. Trackwatchers at yesterday's session say he acquitted himself well in the running drills. He would be well known to Mark Neeld from his time with the Pies. Neeld was also a teammate of Paul Couch throughout his four years with the Cats. Tom Couch's 2011 stats with Collingwood VFL:- Average Disposals 19.6 (5th); Average Contested Possessions 10.5 (3rd); Average Tackles: 5.1 (2nd); Average Clearances: 4.4 (3rd); Average Inside 50s: 3.7 (3rd); Goals: 12.10 (5th).

The local Cranbourne newspaper, the Star, has this story on the Lovett appointment:- Lovett seeks the Scorpions' sting Seems there will be more of a Melbourne-centric flavour at Casey in the future. I believe they are drawn to play against Williamstown at Casey Fields in the opening game next year.

The latest revelation about Phil Scully's pay increase is neither sensational nor surprising. It merely adds a little to what we already knew about all of the players in this scandalous affair. We also know the AFL, which is propping up GWS with football money and resources, won't lift a finger to add to the compensation already granted to the club and is hoping the matter will blow over and die. I think our football department is really doing a good job in dealing with the situation. In his SEN interview yesterday, Jade Rawlings said he hadn't heard a bad word said about Scully at the club. That means they're focussing on the right things despite the fact that many supporters (myself included) are venting over the issue as every new piece of evidence of duplicity and dishonesty comes to light. That's ok because while many posters here are concerned about what's going to happen when we play GWS on two occasions in the latter half of the season, the coaches and players are concentrating on improving the team's performance against all opposition and particularly the power clubs of the competition like Geelong and Collingwood. The rest will fall into place - just as the Scully scandal will enevitably blow away and die. The best thing that can happen to our club is that in twelve months time nobody will care about the name "Scully".

From the Collingwood Football Club site's pen pictures of its VFL listed players:- At that height he would need to have all of his father's attributes - ball winning ability, good user of the footy and a bit of pace. He played well for the Pies v Casey in mid season but wasn't particularly fast and, at his height, that makes it hard for him. The more impressive Collingwood VFL top up player who played in the midfield was Tom Sundberg, winner of their b & f. He is 183cm and a more likely draftee. Of course, Mark Neeld would be familiar with both players. I wonder if Sundberg was invited to train as well?

I agree with you. Geelong wasn't adequately compensated for losing Ablett and nor were we. But we can still move on and observe all the scull-duggery knowing that if the roof body valued its integrity, the situation would be different.

A couple of words of warning: the mods have made it clear that no fat jokes about Phil Scully are allowed as they are in bad taste (pity because I heard a beauty and I have to respect the majority ruling on this); this thread might be locked once the new revelations from Michael Warner are published this evening (the no fat jokes about Phil Scully rule will continue to apply until the mods rule otherwise or he loses 25kg, whichever shall be the sooner).

I don't want to sound like a preacher here but I have to disagree with your second point. A person makes their name by the deeds they do and once the integrity that person is shattered, it can't be fixed by brilliant exploits on the football field but rather, by the way their conduct in their everyday lives. Winning a Brownlow won't make Tom Scully a better human being in my eyes. On the point about the compensation, we were shafted before we knew it ... the AFL could have stepped in to assist us and replace like for like when we lost Scully but they are conflicted. To properly compensate Melbourne would have involved taking away a first pick from GWS which they're trying to prop up with football money (i.e. yours and ours in the case of club members who have kicked into the coffers for years). In other words, the compensation should have been determined by people independent of the AFL to maintain the integrity of the draft system if the AFL really cared about "integrity".

I've lost some close friends to cancer over the years and others have survived. Roll of the dice, I suppose. I don't know. On Sunday, I visited a cousin who is the same age as me. He had just gone through chemo and had no hair. It was a difficult meeting but e was in fantastic spirits and very optimistic. The people around those who suffer cancer also go through much pain and to Two Sheds family my deepest sympathy.

It appears that Brendan Fevola was never going to play for Casey Scorpions in 2012. Casey's Matthew Young tweeted as follows today:- "Another media beat up about Fev!! Training with us until Xmas for AFL draft, if not listed he's off to try NFL for 2012." Fev has previously mentioned his intention to try for the NFL if he is not drafted in November or December and it's only proper in view of the service he gave to the club in 2011 for him to be able to train there till the end of the year. He's kicking bags in the NTFL so it's not as if he's going to be a problem.

No surprise here except for the fact that the GWS offer was made in November 2010 and not October 2010 which was when the AFL's window allowing contact with uncontracted players was still open. The AFL has already connected Phil Scully's employment at GWS with son Tom's playing contract. The fact that the offer was made outside the allowable window suggests to me that GWS breached the AFL's rules. Contact could be made in October - this offer was made in November. The AFL claims that integrity plays an important role in how it and it's member clubs operate. It should at least investigate this latest revelation and, if GWS breached its rules, apply appropriate sanctions. In 2002, the AFL investigated Carlton for committing salary cap breaches on the eve of the national draft and imposed heavy sanctions which included removal of the club's high draft picks. Earlier, in the wake of the breach of salary cap rules by Melbourne, the AFL awarded Fremantle an early first round selection supposedly to compensate the Dockers for losing Jeff White. I think an appropriate sanction here would be to strip GWS of one of its top three draft picks and award it to Melbourne to compensate it for the obvious subterfuge and lies that went on in the 12 months after the GWS approach was first made to the Scully camp. Of course it's not likely to happen because, as I've indicated many times, the AFL is heavily conflicted on this issue.

I assume that there would be a sports doctor at every training session and would be surprised if this was not the case ATM.

How many days are there to go to this national draft Redleg?

Not a savoury end to his life - Writer questioned then fell to his death

I'm fairly positive that Brendan Fevola is going to be available at our first pick. Would you select him? BTW, the Fev kicked nine goals today in Waratah's 24.15.159 win over Palmerston 9.13.67 bringing his tally in two games so far to 17. Teammate Kayne Pettifer booted 7 but Zyrus Manson was kept goalless. Not taking anything away from Fev (and I really believe GWS should pick him up in one of the drafts) but all this suggests that the standard of the NTFL competition is around bottom 2 of the VFL. I also heard a whisper that Sheeds was keen to draft Andrew Lovett and I'd really like to see that too. Imagine the interview the HUN could do with prize recruits Fev, Lovett and Scully in the bar at the Rooty Hill RSL?