Elwood 3184

Superb summary Furious. What happened needed to happen .

I still maintain that we never tanked purposefully .

Here's an interesting article from a writer on the American brand of football suggesting that history shows NFL teams don't tank games to earn higher draft picks -

Colts, Rams eye No. 1 pick, but 'Lose for Luck' a historical farce

It only becomes a story because an AFL footballer was somehow involved in the party. That sort of thing goes with the territory in the profession.

If it happened to you or I, it wouldn't get any attention at all.

Agreed, while we did take more mature players in Rohan Bail, Joel Macdonald and Dan Nicholson in successive drafts under Bailey we could have done more. There's very few leaders of Judd's capacity available in the trade or draft, the obvious one we missed is Luke Ball instead of Luke Tapscott in 2009 - it's good to see you've reconsidered your position on this.

IIRC Ball only wanted to play for Collingwood and nobody else. There was also a major query about his fitness.

The impression I got was that CC said we didn't want him anyway.

With Jack nominated for the rookie draft only and Sydney having first dibs on all NSW registered players in that draft the result was a forgone conclusion. A con job with the help of the mob investigating whether there was cheating going on. Same goes for the crap they worked us over with on the Scully deal. Anyone trust that mob?

Merry Christmas all & have a happy & safe New Year.

Ricky Jackson had a good year once .

So did Ray Biffin a few times during his career

Never seen the name spelt like you do.

The ABC has three digital channels and shows lots of childrens programs, repeats of old movies, BBC news and even a couple of hours daily of propaganda from Al Jazeera and yet there's no room for sport and especially those sports that only the ABC programmes. I find that pathetic.

Thanks WJ.

Did they say anything about the weather up there?

Does all this mean we get no more updates from Darwin?

I was beginning to take an interest in the comp up there.

When bananas were $7.95 a kilo they were a political hot potato?

All well and good but how many goals did this Santaya kick in his entire career?

It's Santayana, not Santaya and he was an early 20th century philosopher, not a footballer!

MIDNIGHT AT THE LAST CHANCE SALOON by the Oracle

...

The club had first pick in the 1998 Rookie Draft and chose Luke Williams from Oakleigh Chargers who worked his way to 51 games from 1999 to 2005. Peter Walsh (139 games) and Tasmanian Ben Beams also came out of that draft.

Now that we know Luke Williams was our first number one rookie draft selection I think we should pay homage to the Williams name on Tuesday by selecting the following players with our rookie picks:-

6. Melbourne - Jason Williams (Calder Cannons)

DOB: 18/8/93 Ht: 188cm Wt: 78kg medium midfielder. Plays wing and has good run and carry.

24. Melbourne - Marley Williams (Claremont, WA)

DOB: 22/7/93 Ht: 182cm Wt: 85kg medium midfielder. Strong bodied, breakaway speed and big kick.

42. Melbourne - Leigh Williams (Norwood, EDL)

DOB: 22/7/93 Ht: 195cm Wt: 92kg tall forward. Strong mark. Goalkicker.

59. Melbourne - Cam Williams (Geelong Falcons) DOB: 9/9/93 Ht: 196cm Wt: 88kg Ruckman. Great leap, formerly a rower.

Let's not forget that back in our golden era we had Don Williams playing in defence in our premiership teams so I strongly believe in the approach of a Williams led recovery.

Cheers mate, appreciate it, and the other welcomes as well. Might change my name though, looks like it's gonna get me into trouble.

Great reports coming through this place.

Name change is optional but I reckon most of the blokes are happy with the avatar.

Why don't GWS have any players on the permission to train list?

Im going to rip up my GWS membership now!!

Why not do what Tiger fans do and put it in the microwave?

I notice that only seven of the first 30 draft picks are going to Victorian clubs.

Interesting.

Poor shot at Newton. What was his offence? Did not make it at AFL level. Had a go at AFL but not good enough. Shame on the bloke.

Yet you entertain the thought of giving another chance to player who walked out on the Club and has been indifferent at fulfilling his obligations.

Like Nasher I would be surprised if we rookied him. I am surprised he nominated for the draft.

I suspect Aussie's manager has persuaded him to nominate on the basis that he has a change of heart and presents to the medical people and makes a serious attempt to get fit ahead of the rookie draft.

But time is running out!

I'm of the opinion that talk is cheap at this time of year.  It's easy to come in and say or intimate that the previous lot were below par.  I could go back and find the initial Bailey threads which were full of enthusiasm and positivity.  

 

Whilst I'm also happy with the way things are going Neeld has yet to show anything.  The recruitment of Clark was due mainly to Tim Harrington's work, not Neeld. And while we have a chest beating media performer I'll wait for the performances.

 

Our win loss performance last year was better than I expected and If the Club had been well managed may well have been better.  Our list was the youngest and second least experienced aside from the Suns, it suffered injuries to key players prior to the start of the season and as a result our already weak midfield was weakened.

 

Our losses were terrible and I've no issue with Bailey being replaced.  But I'll wait until Neeld does something other than talk tough before I'll claim him the messiah.

 

Having said that, I'm pretty optimistic.

I don't understand where you get the idea that Neeld is "chest beating".

He has articulated exactly what he wants from the players at this time and he speaks logically and with the authority of someone who comes from a successful premiership winning club. 

We're not expecting him to win matches in November but he's done nothing other than demonstrate that he's determined to turn the club around from where it was when it suffered those terrible losses under Bailey but that is in no way what I would describe as "chest beating".

Not justifying the Board's conduct but Bailey would certainly not have been blindsided by their action.

IIRC Bailey was asked by the media after the 186 game whether he was considering resigning and he said that he was not. The subject was the talking point in newspapers and talkback radio and he would have known exactly what was coming before the phone call.

I also agree that you can't compare the situation with Adelaide and the Bulldogs while Fremantle's behaviour with Harvey was infinitely worse.

Is it an offense for a passenger to leave the scene of a car accident?

Anything happening on the Scully front ATM?

Has he gone yet?

So basically as a club and as supporters we have nothing to learn by harboring a traitor

In our midst. There's absolutely nothing to be learned let's all carry on maintaining the status quo.

He should of been confronted and made to play in the reserves for the year let alone be nursed through a

Knee injury.

We were absolutely out of our weight division on this one.

Of course we learn our lessons but what do we gain by venting about him?

He's now just another player at another club and his importance to me is on the same level as an amoeba.

We may be too late for Burns, he seems favourite for the Crows job:

"But Burns, who has been in charge of the Eagles' developing midfield for the past three seasons, is understood to be a clear frontrunner for the job amid speculation he has already been offered a three-year deal to become Adelaide's new coach."

Speaking of coaches:

"Meanwhile, former Bulldogs champion Scott West appears set to return to his old club as an assistant after spending the past few years as a lieutenant to both Dean Bailey and Todd Viney at Melbourne."

Burns would probably be a natural for the Adelaide gig as he originally came from Norwood.

On the other hand, West going back to the Doggies would be understandable with a new coach coming in at Melbourne and wanting to cherry pick his assistants.

Players who needed surgery were sent off for surgery, which is fair.

Not sure anyone was "held back" though.

There's probably little difference between the two things when players can wait a few weeks for the surgery. It's a fine line and depends on the type of surgery involved.

As long as we are in an alignment with a VFL club then it's only right that we should provide it with the best possible support whilst also looking after our club and out players' best interests as well.

You have to feel for poor old Box Hill who are no longer independent and are totally subservient to Hawthorn to the point where Clarkson's decision to rest eight of his best players decimated Box Hill's finals campaign. I suppose that if we were in the same position, we would have done the same thing.

Those who are laughing would do well to remember that even in losing by 16 goals, Collingwood's game against the Cats was still 15 goals better than our last one was against them.

Let's worry about getting our house in order first before making fun of the side that finished on top of the ladder.