Ron Burgundy

Signed up two members today. One new. One a renewal. Both sons of mates. Parents will find out within the week. One mate a Crows supporter. The other follows Carlton. Hoping the kids will thank me one day. I'm assembling a little under three's Demons supporter rat pack in this convict town. As an aside, my boy's only 10 months old but he starting to show some really good development in two areas: 1. Growing teeth; and 2. Handballing the fluffy Demons mock AFL ball. Early days I know, but I reckon he's got 300 in him.

Great post. Unfortunately I agree with everything you've stated in it.

I expect implicit in that was also how our older players were treated, ie, they were not played or were prematurely discarded despite being in the best 22, apparently because they were no longer part of the 'future' and were taking up spots that could be filled by our young talent. This approach clearly did the young talent no favours. And was otherwise naive/stupid thinking in the extreme.

Which Max?! I actually see the most potential in Max King. And that's based on one pre season NAB Cup game. Hence, my concern about our ruck stocks. Gawn has shown a bit, and I like him. But he really should be more advanced than he is IMO. I don't know what to think about Spencer. He looks awkward, but he often surprises me with his effectiveness/competitiveness. In short, I'd really like to know what the inside word on these players is. I find it interesting that we didn't draft Jolly given his availability - that alone causes me to think my concerns are a little unfounded. As an aside, I can't believe the Pies managed to land Brodie Grundy with pick 18 in the 2012 draft. He'd be perfect for us. That hurts.

I am worried about our ruck division. Doesn't look that great to me. Our rookie Max King could be good though - in four years.

For which club exactly?

I feel hard done by too.

Toumpas over Wines doesn't bother me, even though Wines is clearly ahead of every other midfielder from his year and was available to us. In short, it wasn't a controversial choice. Watts over NikNat. Scully and Trengove over Martin, Rohan and Sidebottom. All okay IMO. They weren't especially controversial decisions, and the compo we got from Scully defecting has been fantastic for this club. The picks that bug me however are selecting Lucas Cook at pick 12, not selecting Rory Sloane at pick 35 (after we'd apparently committed to him), and not picking Luke Shuey or Zaharakis when they appeared the more obvious choices from those available. In retrospect, Talia over Gysberts would've been nice too. This is where the former recruiters let us down IMO. That said, I have complete confidence in Jason Taylor and Todd Viney, given the way the last draft period panned out for us. So yep - Wines would've been a great pick. Toumpas will be too. Our success or failure going forward won't be based in any way on this particular decision.

Just need to see what the market thinks. I'm pretty confident, indeed certain, that every other club would pay more for Frawley's signature than Terlich's.

Hilarious. Not convinced Terlich's even in our best 22. Frawley, however, is one of the best defenders in the country. I reckon he'll recommit to the club too. It doesn't strike me that he actually wants to leave. He's a leader and he has too many mates in the joint. He just needs some legitimate hope and some signs of stability. Kinda like the rest of us really.

Absolutely agree with this. There was another incident when he dived forward for a low mark between two opposition players and I thought he was going to die. On the field. It immediately erased the head ducking episode IMO.

And he fills a need.

On the basis of his game last Friday, I am surprised he wasn't selected in the national draft. He was cool and composed, self assured, had good vision and knew where to position himself. We lost absolutely nothing when he was on the field. Good recruiting MFC. Elevate him asap.

Roos has already paid for himself. That much is fact. A science fact.

Every club would love to have Wines. I suspect they'd also love to have Toumpas. He will be a fine player. In due course.

That offer was truly ridiculous.

I love Vince. We absolutely nailed this draft period. After so many years of trying, I cannot believe we seem to have built a credible midfield in a one month period at the end of last year. Thank you Adelaide. And GWS. And the Bulldogs. And Jason Taylor/Todd Viney.

This thread is genuinely ridiculous.

Maybe more.

On last night's form, I simply cannot see how he won't make the grade. Could very well play 400 games for the club.

Exactly. And that's why some of the vitriol expressed by some here last season was ridiculous.

It seems to me that we would happily have used pick 3 on Salem AND yet we also landed Tyson. Some of the slickest recruiting/drafting I've seen in all the time I've followed the club. Not hearing as much Wines v Toumpas stuff this year. Funny that ...

I still think Sylvia will do well at Freo despite his apparent initial failure to impress. That said, I wonder if Michie would've been closer to senior selection at Freo than Sylvia had he stayed.

Perhaps you should change your avatar to David Attenborough and enlighten me on the natural world? I suspect you are a man of many learned and entirely fascinating teachings, 'dude' ...

Sylvia might have a few regrets. After all, he was an alpha wolf at Melbourne. Whereas it now sounds as though he's a delta wolf at Freo - and that can't be good for the ego. Bennell's the one I will be watching though. Reckon he could've been great for us under Roos running off half back.