Whispering_Jack

It's interesting and balanced from a particular perspective but he misses the point. When it was reported earlier this year that Melbourne might have been looking at ways in which it might bolster its financial offer to Scully by including a Judd-like marketing component in his salary, it took less than a nano-second for Adrian Anderson to come down on the idea like a ton of bricks. Verbotten. On the other hand, there was no transparency from GWS over the Phil Scully deal and the Giants only fessed up to it when the Hun got onto the story. Their Board didn't even know about it, such was the lack of transparency from Gubby and co. It was a shonky, sordid deal that took advantage of an already unlevel playing field and the AFL had no alternative but to include Phil's disclosed salary in GWS's total player payments - failure to do so would have resulted in an even bigger stink. As it is, the sanction is meaningless. GWS won't get to 100% of the salary cap this year anyway. It gets Scully (and Scully 2) and is allowed to get away with its little heist as planned. And of course ... Melbourne remains undercompensated and unable to act while many of its fans accept that situation without so much as a whimper. The Todd Viney situation is of course, a total red herring. It wouldn't be if Todd was a roof tiler aspiring to hold a major development position but that's nowhere near the case and we all know it.

It was said elsewhere that we can fit four of the following five in defence:- Frawley Garland Rivers T McDonald Davis That being the case, the fact that Tom McDonald was grouped with the forwards is of interest. He came to the club as a ruckman/forward but looked very much at home this year in defence. Does he have what it takes to hold down a key forward spot?

Apart from the added fitness a full preseason will bring, I believe Lawrence also needs to be confident and relaxed in what he's doing. Last year he came to the club after the rookie draft, was homesick and unsettled early due to the distance from home, family and friends. He also needed to acclimatise and his form was therefore inconsistent. Bob saw his tricks at Casey but there was a freezing day in mid winter where he struggled to touch the ball for the Casey twos. Later in the season, I saw him dominate in patches, run down opponents like an early Aaron Davey and deliver the ball perfectly to Fev. He's definitely got something. Let's hope it comes out and he gets some chances to show his wares on a consistent basis next year.

I'm very disappointed in Redleg. Last night during the massive rainstorm on the Coast we found shelter at Baskin & Robbins and they have a special on their banana ice cream. Redleg declined to partake. Not only that but he reckons he's also going to pass on the opportunity to watch Brad Green skipper the Aussies in Friday night's IR game against Ireland. That means he also misses out on seeing James Frawley and the best and most honest footballer to come out of the 2009 national draft Jack Trengove.

The Waratahs had tougher opposition this week but Manson still managed his six goals for the game including four in the third term - Tahs' win spoils Lohde's 100th There was no Fev this week but I like the sound of another player*, Tim Mosquito, who (dare I say it) might soon have the football world buzzing about his exploits. * (sound of his name only - actually never seen or heard of him before this but somehow the sound of the name alone gives me goosebumps and I'm itching to find out more)

Great, so we can regard Clark's signing as a true swap for Scully.

Being on the Gold Coast ATM, I missed the 3rd ODI v SA. What happened?

I have a lot of time for this bloke and consider that he has an enormous upside and will benefit greatly from the new coaching and fitness regime at the club. He could well end up a very important part of our midfield structure in a year or two. Our very own KC from Casey recognised Nicholson's potential early in his days with the Scorpions:- FIRST DAN

Ah, so the club is beginning to emulate St. Kilda in terms of it's culture. Wonderful.

And FWIW, although I don't think Melbourne will take a fourth selection in the draft, here's Snoop Dog's fourth round phantom pick for us:-

SNOOP DOG'S PHANTOM DRAFT 2011 - ROUND THREE

SNOOP DOG'S PHANTOM DRAFT 2011 - ROUND TWO

One of the best of the phantom drafts on bigfooty is the one from poster Snoop Dog who I rate almost as highly as Colin Wisbey who used to put together some fantastic reports on prospective draftees until he got on the payroll of one of the AFL to do the job professionally (a bit like Phil Scully but this bloke knows what he's talking about and probably gets paid a suitcase load less). Here's Snoop Dog's PHANTOM DRAFT. I'll dispense with Round 1 for obvious reasons and, in my next post, will hop straight into Round 2 which starts at pick # 31.

In the long run the club will reap a dividend.

Close but no cigar. Actually $7.95 per kilo down there. My highlight on the coast so far came when I picked up my copy of today's HUN and there, on the front page was a snap of the unmentionable one in charcoal and orange drag on top of a headline that screamed out, "Rats in our ranks". OK, the story under the headline had nothing to do with the little bugger but it made my day.

It is. Suspended in round 1, 2012. MN showing he's not here to muck around.

The 2012 Draw RD DATE OPPONENT VENUE H/A LOCAL TIME 1 Saturday, March 31 Brisbane Lions MCG Home 1:40pm 2 Saturday, April 7 West Coast Eagles Patersons Stadium Away 2:40pm 3 Saturday, April 14 Richmond MCG Away 1:45pm 4 Sunday, April 22 Western Bulldogs MCG Home 4:40pm 5 Saturday, April 28 St. Kilda MCG Home 7:40pm 6 Saturday, May 5 Geelong Cats Simonds Stadium Away 1:45pm 7 Friday, May 11 Hawthorn MCG Home 7:50pm 8 Saturday, May 19 Sydney Swans SCG Away 4:40pm 9 Sunday, May 27 Carlton MCG Away 3:15pm 10 Saturday, June 2 Essendon MCG Away 7:40pm 11 Monday, June 11 Collingwood MCG Home 3:15pm 12 Bye 13 Sunday, June 24 GWS GIANTS MCG Home 3:15pm 14 Sunday, July 1 Brisbane Lions Gabba Away 3:15pm 15 Saturday, July 7 Richmond MCG Home 2:10pm 16 Saturday, July 14 Fremantle Etihad Stadium Home 1:45pm 17 Saturday, July 21 Port Adelaide TIO Stadium Home 7:10pm 18 Saturday, July 28 North Melbourne Etihad Stadium Away 2:10pm 19 Sunday, August 5 Gold Coast SUNS MCG Home 1:10pm 20 Saturday, August 11 St. Kilda MCG Away 1:45pm 21 Saturday, August 18 GWS GIANTS Manuka Oval Away 2:10pm 22 Sunday, August 26 Adelaide Crows MCG Home 4:40pm 23 TBC Fremantle Patersons Stadium Away TBC What it means for your club by Ashley Browne - afl.com.au MELBOURNE Football: Should be pleased, particularly with the opening half of the season where it has eight of 11 games at the MCG. Will only play two games at Etihad Stadium, where the Demons have a terrible record, but do cop another trip to Geelong, the scene of former coach Dean Bailey's undoing in 2011. Including their home game in Darwin, the Demons have six matches outside Victoria, two of those in Perth. Of the 2011 top eight they play only St Kilda twice. Other return clashes are against Greater Western Sydney, Richmond, Fremantle and the Brisbane Lions. Only five six-day breaks is another good result. Business: Eight of 11 MCG games to start the year should delight fans, and the club's bottom line. They've also got eight family-friendly Saturday afternoon matches, and 11 games on free to air TV. They've retained their traditional Queen's Birthday home game against Collingwood, and have a Friday night at home against Hawthorn. That is the Demons' only match in that sought-after timeslot though. The home game against Fremantle at Etihad Stadium won't have the accountants celebrating, but it's offset by clashes against the Magpies and Hawks, plus a home game against Richmond and the profitable excursion to Darwin. Big game: Both rebuilding from the bottom up and laden with talented youngsters, Melbourne and Richmond have used each other as somewhat of a yardstick in recent seasons. They'll have an early chance to do that again in 2012, with a round three MCG clash set to sort out which of the two is on the faster track to the top.

... and it's so go to see a tweet from Jim:-

I'm amenable to including someone's father on the banner. Perhaps Nathan Jones' father because he spilt blood for the club a few years ago. That's got to be worth more than the $200k the other bloke gets for spotting talent.

A bad day for the AFL, GWS, Dale Holmes and the Scully clan - Greater Western Sydney Giants lose CEO Dale Holmes Not to mention a shocker for the media. I can't believe the standard of journalism we're getting these days ranging from Bartlett and Denham on SEN this morning to the author of the above article. Not quite clear whether they're claiming a connection between the sacking and the Scullys but it would appear that they're now disrupting a second club in the space of a calendar year. They deserve GWS and GWS deserves them. Personally, I'll be happy to move on but this $cully imbroglio is too much fun. On a serious note however, I think it's time for an independent investigation into what's happening over at the GWS and an audit into what a large dose of football money is being spent on and whether it's likely to achieve anything. Plenty of soccer and basketball teams have failed in Sydney, even a few rugby league clubs. It's only a matter of time for the GWS Bears to cause the AFL its ultimate embarrassment . Are they really forking out $200k for this man to spot talent? They'd get more value for a lot less money by referencing bigfooty!

I'm no accountant but I suppose that would depend on whether GWS bought it for them to run as a going concern or to patronise as clients. However, judging by Mr. Griffin's Scully's ... er, ample frame, I would suggest the MFC blundered in failing to recognise the opportunity to instal Cale Morton as a boarder in the Scully household in an attempt to build up his physique. Tsk, tsk.

Interesting little run in mid season: Round 11 (QB) Melbourne v Collingwood Round 12 Bye Round 13 Melbourne v Greater Western Sydney

Right, and they had Meatloaf. So what?

Taking the wives with us so the accommodation will be somewhat more salubrious. At least we'll be in genuine banana country.

The Demon tall man was making good strides in the ruck at Casey biding his time and waiting for an opportunity to return to the AFL when tragedy struck against the Northern Bullants. On the same weekend that number one ruckman Jamar injured his knee, Spencer damaged his ACL and missed the rest of the season following a knee reconstruction. He will miss the pre season and the early part of 2012. Games MFC 2011 0 MFC Total 8 Goals MFC 2011 0 MFC Total 0 Games CSFC 2011 5 2011 Goals CSFC 2011 0