Ron Burgundy

Brayshaw and Jetta had some pretty serious concussion concerns recently. Perhaps "H" would be well placed in observing how they dealt with it and how they demonstrated absolute commitment and dedication to the club and to their teammates throughout their recovery periods. In short, earn your contract extension Heritier - in doing so, you will also earn respect about the place. This saga beggars belief.

But for the back up ruckman slot, it seems the club is very confident about the composition and profile of the list, and now wishes to focus on developing those players who are already on it. Picking up someone for the sack of it isn't necessarily what's required now. They might as well have sought to rookie Jack Grimes in that situation, as his leadership qualities would possibly have been more valuable to the club than investing in some speccy at the bottom end of the rookie draft.

Perhaps you've not worked in a corporate environment BBO. What Saty has said is true. It should not be as remarkable as it is: get the right people, set role clarity, give the right people autonomy and resources, set clear standards and desired outcomes, and then ensure they achieve them. PJ seems to do this.

Destination club.

Sorry - can't agree old dee. Garlett is very much a required player. Slightly poor season this year, but he was absolutely sensational the year before. I reckon he's a gun. Just love his work when he's in the zone - he needs to chase harder without the ball though - both in attack and in defence, otherwise he tends to go missing for chunks of the game.

Losing Garlett too who was given away for a packet of peanuts. That has proven to be a very poor trade for them, particularly considering they actually need a small forward.

Please attend more training sessions Steve. Absolutely sensational report.

Bloody hell. Probably needs to skwosh this look. Fast.

Just went on the website to check them out. I like them. Tried to buy a couple of them - they're all sold out. These boys need to get their inventory under control, especially coming into the Christmas season and summer.

This is an absolutely sensational report.

He's still a kid. And he strikes me as a 'wear one's heart on sleeve type'. I reckon he absolutely loves the club and he yearns the respect from all other players on the list especially the more senior ones. He's not a Tom Scully robotic type - and I like him for that. He'll learn from this. He'll be determined to make it up to the player group next year.

Is that right? The Wiz still supports the Dees? I remember him kicking a goal after the siren for Freo against us many years ago to win the game, and he celebrated as though he'd just won the Granny. I kinda hated him after that.

Before anyone shouts me down, I acknowlege that I'm possibly getting ahead of myself here. I was just reflecting on the recent success of the Bulldogs and what it has meant to their community of supporters and their past players. In short, it's meant a lot and they've handled it well. And so I then thought about our club. All the signs are super promising for this club going forward: the coaching group, the list, the back office, the facilities and, most pleasingly, the culture. It is now a professional club. It has momentum. And it seems united - all of the stakeholders are finally marching in the same direction. With enthusiasm and genuine positivity. What we have done previously as a club though, among a long list of super amateur things, is treat past players poorly. James McDonald, Cameron Bruce, Shane Woewodin, and possibly also Brad Green, Adem Yze, Brent Moloney, Jared Rivers and Robbo. The list goes on. Add to that players like Peter Vardy, Stephen Powell and Chris Dawes who, whilst not necessarily treated badly, played for this club but also for other clubs prior to the Demons. I wonder who they barrack for now? Given that we are on the verge of sustained success (in my opinion), I'd like to see the club start bringing these past players back into the fold somehow. It just feels like something they've now got to do a bit more. I know Junior McDonald's heart still beats true. Robbo's clearly does. I'd be interested to know what some of the other former players think of the club. Are they as excited as many supporters here as to what's now happening at the joint?

Tom Mitchell was an absolute steal for pick 14, but make no mistake - the Hawks have paid a mammoth price to get O'Meara, Mitchell and Vickery to the club, even though, in isolation, each of those trades didn't cost them too much draft pick wise. It seems to me that they misjudged/mishandled the Lewis situation in that they thought he would see out his contract on the basis that he would never ever elect to leave the club and that he would also back himself on his performance next year to earn one more year beyond that and then perhaps retire as a one club player. In short, they knew they needed to refresh their midfield group, but they factored in losing only one of Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis in order to obtain and then integrate Tom Mitchell and O'Meara into the midfield next year. Then, at the end of next season, they would be in a position to assess the importance of Lewis to the midfield group based upon: - Lewis' individual performance next year; - the performance of their midfield more generally next year; and - the availability of other elite mids next year, eg, Fyfe etc. BUT - Jordan didn't fall into line and he directed his manager to contact the mighty fighting Demons and the rest is history. It's a pity Carlton agreed to do the deal that enabled the Hawks to land O'Meara at the 12th hour because, absent that, the trade period would've been an unmitigated disaster for the club. We are the real beneficiaries of this trade period, not clubs like the Hawks. We entered it with a couple of used paddle pop sticks and came out of it with Lewis and Hibberd. And, bizarrely, still possessing one of the used paddle pop sticks. God bless Josh Mahoney.

The other thing I like about Rooke is that he was a super fierce competitor and was as hard as a cat's head. A genuinely tough footy player. The likes of Oliver, Trac, Brayshaw, Weideman, Harmes, Stretch, ANB, Kent, Hunt, Wagner and Hogan will benefit enormously from his influence.

Landing Egan was a major coup. This is yet more good news. Clearly this club is no longer on the nose

Not sure that'd be reason enough to put a new 3 year contract on the table to a 'stuffed' player with a bung knee. Suspect it had more to do with the fact that he was highly rated within the club, evidenced by his regular top 5 finishes in their B&F, and he's still got a lot of good footy ahead of him.

Relevantly, Essendon wanted to keep both players. Suggests to me that their medicos didn't share your mate's view that Hibberd's knee is stuffed.

I've got a stack of Essendon supporter mates who say otherwise. Reckon Goodwin and McCartney know a thing or two about these players too. Hibberd is a very good player and I reckon Melksham will be a lot better than some people here seem to think.

Not sure Andrew Demetriou circa 2005 would agree with you. Teams super aggressively push up from defence now - in fact, attack seems to stem from defence more than ever before, and that's why turnovers are so deadly now. There's space everywhere on the quick counter. That said, I kind of agree with your post. Garlett needs to recapture his 2015 form, a season in which his defensive pressure in the forward 50 quite often resulted in scoring opportunities for us. He's is a nightmare for opposition defenders when he's working hard without the ball.

I think he is an automatic selection. He is a unique player and, unless his form is absolutely horrible, he is on the team sheet every day of the week.

Could not agree more. For those of us who live interstate, training reports are gold. I feel indebted to anyone who turns up to a training session and bothers to report back on what they observed.

My understanding is that he came back to the club out of shape and essentially gave Oscar McDonald his chance ahead of his time. Dunn couldn't recapture his good form previously, not at least until well into the season, the game evolved a bit and, by that time, Oscar showed enough to justify the investment into him for the remainder of the season. I feel sorry for Dunn because I like him. I think he'll play close to 22 games for the Pies next year. Garlett is a gun - he's absolutely out of the box when he's in form. The game has not remotely passed him by, but he definitely needs to have a better season next year than he did last season. There are few similar players to him in the league when he's in the zone, has quick supply coming into the forward 50, and has some good tall timber around him. I'm hoping he recaptures his 2015 form, if only because I love watching the guy run amok in a red and blue guernsey.

This is a really good thread - it contains well thought through and expressed views as to team composition and certain players strengths and weaknesses without petty, personal attacks and point scoring. Top work to the contributors.

Replace 'if' for 'that' in my sentence. It matters not to the point I'm making i.e. if/that a club compels a 20 year old player with apparent mental health issues to sign a deed of release in the circumstances alleged here would be an unusual step and one worthy of some further inquiry. And, in answer to another poster, clubs do absolutely have a responsibility to their players including as to their welfare. Try taking that argument to the players association and see what response you get. As employers, they also have all sorts of general law duties to their employees but everyone I expect knows that.