paddo

Wash your mouth out

Wrong. I'm originally from Adelaide, now in Melbourne, and I follow SA footy closely. Salopek IS a gun and if he wants out then we should chase him. You can never have enough quality mids and with the retirement of Junior he would be the perfect replacement. The issue is his shoulder, but Hawthorn took a chance with S. Burgoyne and his 2nd half of the year has been excellent.

Totally agree.

In: Bail Out: Rivers Morton should be given another week. Watts needs 2-3 good matches on the trot. Why is everyone so anti-Dunn?? I thought he was more than handy in tough conditions for a player of his build. I think he presented really well.

1. St Kilda 40 2. Collingwood 36 3. Sydney 36 4. Geelong 32 5. Fremantle 32 6. Port Adelaide 28 7. Western Bulldogs 24 8. Melbourne 20 9. Carlton 20 10. North Melbourne 20 11. Brisbane 16 12. Hawthorn 12 13. Essendon 12 14. Adelaide 12 15. West Coast 8 16. Richmond 0 Interesting exercise dee-luded. We should beat West Coast. We should lose to Geelong. Port Adelaide and Carlton are line ball. Factoring in our poor record interstate, I've skeptically budgeted for a loss to Port. Best case scenario is 6-5 after round 11.

Rhino, don't you think our list is at a stage now where we should be using the draft to fill holes in our list?? The best available youngster may very well be another midfielder. Do we really need to add to our midfield?? I think we need to be looking out for the best available KPF or ruckman, and if that means trading for one then it's probably a viable option

Hi guys, Haven't posted on here for a while. I'm really pleased with the direction MFC is heading, and we are blessed with young talent right across the field. But there is still one area of great concern, and that is our ruck division. Jamar has been magnificent, but for the sake of longevity we can't continue playing him 85-90% of the game in the ruck. I am a big fan of Russian's, but he has had injury concerns in the past and it is a matter of when, not if he gets injured should we continue to play him in this role. Jamar is currently our MVP and he needs to be protected!! My assessment of our rucks: - Spencer (not mobile enough, delist) - Meesen (injury-plagued, delist) - Johnson (many opportunities, delist) - Martin (better used as a KPB or KPF) - Gawn (needs 3-4 years) We have used the draft to great effect in recent years, plugging many holes in our list. However, this year I propose we TRADE our first round pick (somewhere between Picks 10 and 20 I'd imagine due to GC17) to acquire a young, up-and-coming ruckman capable of stepping straight into the team. Possibilities: McEvoy (STK) Goldstein (KANG) White (SYD) Thoughts??

I was speaking to a mate today - apparently he knows someone inside the Pies who told him that Danny Stanley and Ryan Cook want to be traded to Melbourne, citing limited opportunities as the reason. Don't know about our club's stance on this, but do you think we would entertain either of these guys on our list. Personally, I think Cook would be worth a punt - he was a highly touted youngster (2005 Draft No. 23). Danny Stanley has carved it up in the VFL this year (which usually doesn't account for much). He is a strong-bodied half-back / midfielder but I think we have enough of these. Thoughts??

What strikes me is the number of players 23 and under (from Meeson to Watts). About two-thirds of our list have their best footy ahead of them, if you consider that most players tend to peak between 24-27.

Pick 34 then?

In the Hun this morning, Raines wants out of Tigerland due to limited opportunities in second half of the year. Still only 23, and is a very good player when right. Would provide us with more run off half back allowing Grimes to be released into the midfield. In a draft which appears to lack depth beyond the first round this could be worth a punt. Thoughts?

Couldn't possibly have an AA player from a team that won four games.

Great story. It's impressive how quickly he's adapted to city life and how well his English has progressed. Incredible bloke.

Replace Miller with Dunn. Otherwise, spot on.

The whole age thing has been overhyped. Some of our older players will move on at the end of the year i.e. McDonald, Whelan, Wheatley and possibly Bruce and they are all expendible IMO. When you consider that the best is still to come from Bate, Bennell, Blease, Buckley, Cheney, Frawley, Garland, Grimes, Jetta, Jones, Jurrah, Maric, Martin, Morton, Strauss, Watts and Wonaeamirri + Scully + Butcher - ALL highly touted players under 22 - it doesn't look so bad. That's almost a full team right there. I accept Sheahan's POV that not all promising young players will make it, but I think his article goes overboard considering the stage of development we are in.

As stupidly simplistic as this may sound, I think we should elevate the player with the most pace b/c that is clearly lacking in our midfield. Who is quicker out of Valenti and McKenzie?? I haven't seen Jordie play.

I'll be there!! I reckon a pass mark will be a 50 point loss given our atrocious record over there.

Deeflog, no Bate? Did you forget him, or isn't he good enough in your opinion? I'm beginning to have serious doubts about him.

I like the direction we are taking with the midfield drafting the likes of Morton, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Grimes and Jetta. Hopefully Buckley comes good because he moves very well and he has the size to be an inside or outside midfielder. Just needs to work on that disposal!!

Rhino, we were clearly a tall forward short on Saturday. I'm interested as to who you think should take that forward line position since Bate has failed miserably in the first two rounds??

I try not to personally bag players, but I found Bate's performance today pretty infuriating. He still has no idea about how to make a decent lead, despite reports that he's worked on that aspect during pre-season. There is no way he is the answer at full-forward, because he can't take a contested mark. In my eyes, there are two options: 1. Play Miller out of the square 2. Roll the dice and give Newton another go I'm not suggesting Bate is not a valuable contributor to the team, but he needs to be utilised further up the ground IMO.

Hale's the worry. He kills us. Stef Martin seems the logical match-up. He would monster Garland, Warnock and Rivers. Stop supply to him and we're a chance.

Backs: Petterd, Martin, Warnock Half-Backs: Buckley, Rivers, McDonald Centre: Bruce, Moloney, Bartram Half-Forwards: Bate, Garland, Green Forwards: Miller, Newton, Wonaemirri 1/R: Johnson, McLean, Jones I/C: Morton, Meesen, Davey, Jetta EM: Bell, Sylvia, Dunn Sylvia needs to earn his stripes. I don't think Bate has the size to play FF.

I really like the Ling/Dunn comparison. It may never eventuate, but Dunn should be modelling himself on Ling - an aggressive tagger capable of negating an opponent while doing some damage the other way. Note they have a similar build.

Rhino, Newton played 6 games last year. Rounds 1, 15-17, 20-21. Surely you couldn't call this a "decent run". He had an injury interrupted season and was part of a forward structure (if you could call it that) starved of opportunity. He made his senior debut in ND's farewell match so he entered the fray at a very challenging time for the club. I don't mind being proven wrong, and that may well be the case, but I like to give people a "decent run" before writing them off.