Ron Burgundy

Bloody hell.

All first round draft picks and/or B&F winners at their current or previous clubs. Bunch of hacks.

All clubs pay a bucket load for KPP forwards. There's a reason for this. And all of ours out. That makes it hard to win. Near impossible in fact.

I would've kept Bennell. He had class, and looked like a decent kid. That said, I would've preferred to have used the pick we ultimately used on Bennell on our intended target for that pick, Rory Sloan.

Bernie Vince is pretty well my all time favourite Demon. And he hasn't even played a game yet.

I agree. It's a momentum killer right on the doorstep of the season, which is absolutely depressing. That said, it's going to be an acid test of the skills/value that Paul Roos brings to this club. Under any of his recent predecessors, we'd be absolutely stuffed with zero forward line. I reckon, however, that Roos might still be able to crunch out a win, if not that - a very solid performance.

Reckon Riley should've been included in that list. I reckon he'll prove to be the 'find' that Adelaide didn't see coming and which they may very we'll live to regret. Vince, Michie, Cross and Tyson are our best recruits IMO, but (with the possible exception of Michie) I hardly think any of them are 'finds' as such. Probably a battle between JKH and Georgiou for the 'find' of 2014. On a needs basis, probably Georgiou.

He'll stay. Likes his mates too much to leave.

This is just bloody sad. Very, very upset to read this. RIP Dean. Sincere condolences to the Bailey family.

Top observation. I think you're absolutely on the money here - it's a good thing for Roos to see those deficiencies exposed prior to the season commencing.

You think it was a bad trade? Dead set ...

Just to give this some perspective, most knowledgeable Crows, Bulldogs, GWS and Freo supporters are all dismayed that their clubs respectively let Vince, Cross, Tyson and Michie go. We now have a midfield.

He's already one of my favourite players - that is, along with my other favourite Demons: Bernie Vince, Daniel Cross and Viv Michie.

BH, I absolutely agree with this. That said, you seem to be gently recalibrating your views/narrative on Watts. He'll turn out to be a very important player for us, something you appeared unwilling to acknowledge as recently as last year. The Roos effect is an amazing thing.

This is all good.

Me too. I've always really liked Watts. I still think he'll prove to be a much better pick for us than Nik Nat. Over the entire journey, that is.

Absolutely. The entire draft period was the stuff of genius. And I don't care about this 'too early to tell' stuff - it's just so damn obvious. We actually have a capable, balanced midfield now. Almost overnight. That we were able to recruit midfielders who've been in the system for a while (Vince, Cross, Michie, Riley, Tyson), and yet still recruit young talent to develop over the next couple of years (Salem, Hunt, Harmes, King and JKH) was inspired. We probably got a bit lucky with Vince and Cross, but they still nailed it. Ten out of ten.

They managed to keep Buddy Franklin performing while he was there. And seemingly on two strikes for the whole of his playing career there. That's gotta be a miracle. Perhaps they reckon they've got this.

Dunstall kept commenting that we 'over possessed' the ball in our back half, as evidenced by the disposal count and the differential in forward 50 entries between the teams (ie, we had stacks of disposals but got smashed in the forward 50 entry stats). Whilst it was undoubtedly a correct observation, I was disappointed by some of the analysis that stemmed from it. Clearly a lot of the game was played in our back half. And Geelong are a bloody good, experienced team. Yet, despite this, and also despite the fact that: - Geelong kicked a lot of goals as a direct result of horrendous unforced turnovers, many of which were skill/decision based, rather than due to Geelong's pressure; and - Geelong kicked very accurately from its set shots, our defence was quite frugal. In short, despite an overwhelming amount of time spent in our back half during the game, Geelong found it hard to kick a winning score against us. Whilst I think the scoreline ultimately flattered us, that we were genuinely in the game to the end speaks volumes about our defensive structures. Geelong had a lot of the ball in their forward 50, they're a bloody good team, and yet we should've been down by only 6 points with 90 seconds to go in the game. With Garland and Frawley out, that's got to be a very positive sign. We have a game plan that seems to work, and that the players understand - even if they are not always adept in executing it.

I had thought his contract expires at the end of next season.

I reckon he's absolutely certain to get upgraded.

Hope so. I am absolutely loving Paul Roos as our head coach.

Dunny.

Yep, that's right. He's the 'hmmm I agree' guy.

Disappointing it's not with us though.