Whispering_Jack

The Bulldogs have pick 5 not 9. PS: JUDDmania Board.

According to Channel 9 News, James Clement has retired. He is easily their best defender and I had him down as one of their best on Friday night despite the obvious glitch or two. The Magpies have very little left in the way of key defenders with Wakelin and Presti on their last legs and Harry O'Brien not everyone's cup of tea and hardly the player to stop a Jonathan Brown or Matthew Pavlich. If they give away the farm to get Judd, they will have very little left in reserve to enable them to reconstruct their backline. Interesting!

In fairness to our coaching squad of 2007 our kids suffered from injuries as much as the rest of the list. Bartram, Pettard & Frawley missed games with injuries and our other young players in their early 20's like McLean, Rivers, Sylvia and Dunn also had injury problems of varying degrees this year. Bode had a bulging disc problem that dogged him last year and didn't clear up until earlier this year. Buckley and CJ were given ample opportunities as was Juice when he finally broke into the team. If they're all fit next year we can hopefully make some quick strides up the ladder.

There's an interesting convergence now between the decision by Chris Judd to return home and the fact that there are so many talented West Australians likely to be among the cream of the young talent in the country. It's no wonder that the Eagles want early draft picks to secure some of the best local talent but there's also the question of youngsters wanting to go home a la Scott Thompson, Nick Davis, Des Headland and now Judd. Do the recruiters "discount" players because of where they come from?

It's a credit to Collingw&%$! that they got so close because in general play they were dominated. Although people are raving about their young list and their outstanding finals series, a lot of things went right for them to make it this far. Give them a year of injuries like Melbourne had this year and they'll struggle to win more than 5 games (what am I talking about - they'll win exactly four games and get a priority pick). From Melbourne's point of view, we beat them once this year and the second time they beat us by 11 points after we kicked poorly for goal in the last quarter and had half a team. If Chris Judd wants to go to a club next year that is a chance for success and is weighing up between us and them, I hope he's been made aware that we're not far behind them - all things being equal.

They say that there's a fine line between pleasure and pain. I really don't care what the feeling is on 12th October 2007 but it would be nice to feel some pleasure 11 and a half months later.

It's long but the post starts - "If the best player in the AFL says ... " and ends "... time we got one back." If I could find the post among the zillion Judd posts around here , I'd cut, paste and reproduce it!

Page 6 of this week's Inside Football

Melbourne 8.16.64 defeated Collingwood 8.12.60 The next one's been a long time coming!

I think his father's name's Neville, not Barry and other than that it's a bit over the top with sarcasm but you're on the right tram. Don't forget that Bradley played an impeccable game in a final at Subiaco last year and the Weagles need another tall forward. Perhaps Barry or Neville could persuade them to take the player only and leave the draft pick with us.

No self-respecting footballer would want to be seen in front of thousands wearing that brown and gold outfit. It's a definite turn off. Judd is leaving a club with a whacky cartoon character on its jumper - that's bad enough. Memo to start a thread about doing away with our away jumper - it must be changed if we're to entice Judd to the club - it clashes with Rebecca's dress and also has a whacky cartoon character on it.

If nothing else works then you have to go for the coincidences, trivia or the supernatural. I read in the HUN today that one of his Companies is called "Three Zebras". There's obviously a subliminal connection between Sandringham, the MFC and Judd. I don't expect him to play for the Zebras but let's not forget that the Dees do a lot of their pre season training at the Sandringham ground which is apparently right around the corner from mum's place. Surely, that's more important than the $$$'s and the draft chocies when a player makes up his mind what club he's going to play for? Any other of these 1%ers that the club can hang it's hat on?

It's great to read this news but one wonders where have the captains of industry who support the club been in recent years? I know this is ancient history but during our golden era we used to have fantastic support from the business end of the community but it hasn't been apparent in recent years. Hopefully, this initiative can be expanded beyond the life of any negotiations to get Chris Judd and will mark a concerted effort to bring us to a point where we can compete on all levels with the likes of Collingw&%$!, Carl&%$!, Essen&%$! and the interstate clubs.

How did our defence allow three goals through in the final quarter?

I endured Waiting for Godot while I was at uni many years ago and you can call me a "primitive" but like a lot of this art house stuff that was a play where nothing much happened and it bored me senseless. On the other hand Waiting for Guffman was really quite amusing and I now welcome Waiting for Juddman as the final leg of the trilogy. Well done Randy! We Demon fans have spent most of our lifetimes waiting for something to happen and it seems that nothing ever does. Juddman hasn't arrived yet and we've been waiting a long, long time for him to come. The question is why should we ever wait for good things to happen to us? We have the power to change the course of history and influence Juddmen to come to Melblaine but that won't happen if we sit around waiting. In the case of the latest Juddman it might already be too late and it could be true that Carlton is well advanced with negotiations and that it could already be a done deal. I'm nowhere near sold on the idea of getting this Juddman at the cost that is likely to be involved but we will no doubt debate it and put in some sort of offer. Be that as it may, we need to make sure that in future we won't be left waiting but instead that we take positive steps to ensure that the next Godot, Guffman or Juddman comes to us. That means building up our club in every way possible so that we are considered the first port of call for a wandering Juddman and that we can develop our own as well. It's an outside chance but maybe he could be #85 in the next draft! Or maybe he will come in the form of players we already have who are waiting to be developed by the new coaching regime. Whatever happens, let's not wait around, let's make things happen instead. I think that's what Randy's story is about.

Ben proposed to Becky on Saturday and she accepted. The Demonland family is so pleased for both of them and are absolutely delighted to have Becky defect from the Bombers and become as part of the Demonland family (sorry Ash). They are a truly comfortable unit; happy, in love and looking forward to their life together. No wonder he's been so silent on Chris Judd.

Right but ... the trade period starts on Monday 8 October and ends at 2pm on Friday 12 October. Judd has some sort of a groin injury. I've read many contradictory reports that suggest that it hasn't even been satisfactorily diagnosed yet (and I'm leaving aside his ankle problem which hopefully will go away in time). According to the newspaper reports (WORSFOLD: WE'LL LET JUDD GO) "And the injured star is investigating overseas medical procedures for career-saving surgery to repair his ravaged groin." What guarantee is there that he will have that overseas "career-saving" surgery and then be able to get a medical clearance for that "ravaged groin" within four weeks for it to be considered by the clubs that will be involved in the coming trading frenzy over him? Absent that medical clearance, who would underwrite the massive cost of getting him to the club and what would it do to our plans of list improvement by targetting our areas of weakness if instead, we put all of our eggs in one basket and finished up with a Stephen Powell of 2001 or a Brent Moloney of 2006/7?

Yes, we are a conservative lot in general but sometime's what you might wish to call "conservatism" is the appropriate course of action to take. Hannabal pointed out that we need to become relevant. So there's a perception out there that we're conservative and irrelevant. But how do we change that perception when we're effectively asset poor and not making enough to tread with our heads above water let alone compete with the West Coast Eagles and Collingw&%$’s of this world in so many areas of the industry? I'm not convinced that we would necessarily be any closer to winning a flag if we went into hock and paid the high price to get Judd (in terms of draft picks/players, salary cap considerations etc) before we got our house into order. We need to work our backsides off to improve the club in so many areas before we become relevant; not follow others like sheep and rely on a quick fix to win a flag. A Judd would be a nice addition to the club but we've just appointed as coach a person well known for his work in developing young footballers. That's been one of the areas where we've failed over the past decade - too many players have never fulfilled their promise or potential. So with the new coach and a new approach to player development who knows? We could have two or three youngsters within our system ready to become the next champions of the game. I’d like that even more than getting Judd at his currently bloated high price to the club. If you look at which clubs are still left in the race for this year’s flag, then you’ll see that I’m vindicated in what I'm saying. In any event it still is very much a moot point. John Worsfold said in today’s West Australian - EAGLES SET SIGHTS ON JUDD AFTER LOSS - that he’s very confident that Judd will stay. If he does, then he has the perfect opportunity to have a clause in his new contract that allows him to go to the club of his choice at the end of the contract period. If we put in the necessary groundwork now, it would not surprise me if we weren’t in the box seat in two year's time to get Judd back into a red and blue jumper and a much more reasonable price in relative terms than what he would cost us today.

You're absolutely 100% right. With apologies to bobby mckenzie I feel it my duty to do something about the name of the thread.

It's a nice story but I think the club might have other priorities ahead of getting Judd on top of which we've been there and done that before. The Judd option is one that involves putting all of our eggs in one basket and regrettably, we are not very well placed to that at the moment. We need to get our house in order, to stabilise our finances and build our list from the ground up (or at least from the position where it's at now) before we can go for a great white hope to get us across the line. Getting a star player like Judd won't help us much if there's a problem with the foundations of our team. We went down that track in the early '80's at great expense when we got Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore but had very little around them with which to produce a successful team. It took another five years to make it to the finals and by that time Templeton was gone and Moore wasn't good enough to make the side. I personally hope Carlton get Judd. It will be money well spent from their point of view and in three or four years time they will be back to square one. Judd was a Demon fan when he was young, there are some sentimental stories going around about his continuing attachment to the red and blue and the influence of his idol Garry Lyon. But sentiment won't get him. Cold, hard cash will and we don't have enough of that. Winning against the Bulldogs and the Blues in Rounds 19 and 22 respectively did not help either. I hope we concentrate on developing our own players, trading and recruiting wisely and building our club under the new coaching regime.

Collingw&%$'s progress is a tribute to the volume of money and resources available to the club. They seem to be streaking ahead of the field in terms of player development and their cash situation allows them to recruit from places where less financial clubs can only dream. That kid Martin Clarke is the most advanced Irish player ever to come out here (and to think we pioneered the recruiting of Irishmen! ). They boast that they have the best of the NSW scholarship players and they've got some good top 10 draft picks still to come into the side in future years. Another example of how they use their financial position to advantage is that their chartered flight home is travelling at lower altitude because that's supposed to aid recovery (I suppose they can afford this because they rarely have to worry about travelling interstate so they've saved on having to make many flights over time). The people brawling at St. Kilda should note as should the MFC. Get yourself in a position of strength financially and then you can spend on the things that give you the winning edge.

Dean Bailey has already sent a clear message about the standards he will require at the club and that is that they are going to be a hell of a lot higher than in the past. It's tough on the players who have gone but he's acted swiftly and decisively. We're on our way!

Few people selected Port Adelaide as a likely finalist at the beginning of the year but from the opening game of the season when they beat the Dockers in Perth, the Power have been one of the teams that have surprised the pundits. A lot of things have gone right with Port including their recruiting. Port’s drafting post 2006 went like this: - Rookie Elevations: Greg Bentley, Tom Logan National Draft: Travis Boak (5), Paul Stewart (23), Nathan Krakouer (39), Robert Gray (55), Justin Westhoff (71), Ryan Williams (83) and David Rodan (86). Pre-Season Draft: Adam Cockshell (4) Rookie Draft: Alex Lee, Gavin Grose, Nathan Batsanis and Peter Hardy. These players replaced Matthew Bishop (delisted), Stuart Dew (retired), Ben Eckermann (delisted), James Ezard (delisted), Josh Francou (retired), Adam Kingsley (retired), Aaron Shattock (delisted), Peter Walsh (delisted), Gavin Wanganeen (retired), Elijah Ware (delisted) and a couple of delisted rookies. The net result was that 12 new players were introduced into the club in the one year. Interestingly, although they had been reasonably active in previous years, Port Adelaide didn’t make any trades during the exchange period last year. Obviously, a lot of other things have gone right for Port but they made some good recruiting decisions this time a year ago. To have players gained from picks 71 and 86 and a rookie elevation in the team that’s made it to a Preliminary Final is a handy effort.

TEAC OVAL (Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne Melway 2J E1) Tram: Route 109 – from Box Hill via Balwyn, Deepdene, Kew, Richmond, Victoria Parade, Collins Street and Clarendon Street, then via reserved track to North Port. Bus: Raglan Street stop bus route 232 (North Altona); route 235 (Fishermans Bend) and route 238 City Terminus (Flinders Street). SANDRINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB PRESENTATION NIGHT The Bentleigh Club Yawla Street, Bentleigh Thursday 18th October 2007 commencing 7pm $50pp includes a three course dinner Drinks at bar prices For further information & bookings contact the club on 9598 8629

Kev. Time to change that signature. BamBam Pickett's unavailability this week suggests that at least his dynasty in football is over.