george_on_the_outer

Biclavs is their principal ruckman now. To follow the arguments about Geelong, just because they have traded 3 players into the club won't get them across the line necessarily. S.Selwood is not Joel, and the fact that WCE failed to match the bid indicates even they don't think he is all that great, despite their bleatings after the event. Dangerfield is one of the top A-grade players in the competition, but he got himself to Geelong, not the other way around. Henderson...Smith.....maybe, maybe not. As Wise has noted their backline is ageing quickly. They lost Rivers this year and haven't replaced him. They have also lost S Johnson, who probably won them half a dozen games off his own boot. AND they were beaten by a bottom 6 side at their home ground this year and didn't make the finals. They have thrown everything at getting into finals again, ( rightly so at their point of development), but it will not win them a Premiership. Hawthorn is the model for that. They don't bring 4 mature players into the side in 1 year and throw away their top draft picks.

Another nothing piece but helps with the speculation..... http://m.couriermail.com.au/sport/afl/afl-trades-melbourne-continues-to-baulk-at-jeremy-howes-contract-demands/story-fnp04d6z-1227549546064

Interest from the West ... I know it doesn't say anything really ... Demons Howe flies on to Dockers radar

Apparently Port are maxed out on salary cap. If they want to fit Charlie Dixon into their list they have to move someone on.....

Brilliant player who was cheated out of winning the 2003 Brownlow on his own by incomptent umpires. In the last match of the season against us he absolutely tore us apart for the whole game. Yet the umpires gave the 3 votes to Michael O'Loughlin in a forward pocket, who was taken from the field at 3/4 time with a hamstring injury and didn't return. Goodes only got the 2 votes, but the 3 which he deserved would have won the Brownlow on his own, instead of sharing with Buckley and Ricciuto.

Great summary JoeBoy! And an absolute delight to read your contributions throughout the year. I find it amazing that you can sum up in 3 words what some people take 3 pages to write......

Everyone.....be warned with the nature of posts which allude to other scenarios which may have no foundation in fact. A number of posts have been deleted as a result. The operators of this site do not wish for any legal ramifications, and would be forced to identify YOU should make such assertions, and legal action results.

Re-signing Toumpas is logical. At the end of the season Bail, Fitzpatrick, M.Jones, Riley, Jamar, McKenzie, Terlich will most probably go. That's 7 spots to fill with VDB to be elevated. Howe and Garland may leave 2 more spots. If Toumpas were not re-signed, his replacement pick would be in the 80-100+ range. In last years draft only 2 players were taken with picks over 80, across every club! What would be the better option? A pick at that range in a weak draft or a kid who has been injured for a substantial part of his 2 years at the club?

No...much prefer the truth! Well done again Joeboy, an positively accurate summation of the output of each player.

Expecting Freo to have some late withdrawals from their side. Time to give tired players a rest before finals ( Fyfe), yet not be so obvious about it like they did last year!

Problem is that Prestia is not the one who does the trades. It is GC.

I'm thinking a lot will depend upon trade week, and what the Academy clubs will need to be able to select their preferred players. We saw last year that the club was aggressive with the use of its picks, and the techniques used to get us the likes of Vince, Frost, and Lamumba involved using picks, particularly from traded out players. I also have utmost faith in Toddy Viney and Jason Taylor to find us the best deal, and to uncover some real talent. The real capability is not picking first rounders, but what you can find further down. Are we happy with our rookies this year? Vandenberg is a regular senior player, Harmes becoming that as well, and the remainder are not duds like we seem to have got when BP was running the show. ( made doubly worse because he couldn't pick first rounders either!)

For me the most outrageously talented player that I have seen in the Red and Blue. And that is saying something when I have seen Barassi, Flower, and Schwartz play. For me the only other player of similar capabilities was Liam Jurrah and his was also, sadly, too short a career. His output, as mentioned by QWERTY, was simply unbelievable. You went to a game never knowing if he was going to kick 8.1 or 1.8, but you knew he would get a ridiculous amount of exciting shots at goal regardless. However, he was a lazy footballer who never wanted to put in the work required to maintain an AFL career. Gary Lyon has some interesting insights into his attitude to pre-season in his book "Demon Within". HIs injury happened at Princes park when he smashed into the goal post backward in a marking contest. While he played on in further games and then at the Dogs, he was never the same again. I understand some very serious attempts have been made to locate and convince him to come out from his self enforced "hiding", even recently. But all to no avail. What could have been.......

People really only notice this because they notice the forward kicking the goal, especially if it is early in the quarter. It's all about getting the rotations going. The mids have usually only spent a small amount of time on the ground, and you want to keep them there for more than 1 or 2 minutes. The backs haven't done anything at all ( because the ball has gone down the other end). So the forward is the logical start to the process. As Moonshadow notes, the next rotation is bringing the forward back on, and probably moving his original replacement up to the middle, and a mid then comes off. If you don't start somewhere early you finish with 3 mids all needing a break at the same time.

Macca, you have hit the nail on the head dead centre. It is the unequal allocation of home games against "big" clubs that is sending smaller clubs broke. Our 4 Home games this year against Victorian clubs, 3 of which are St.Kilda, North, and Bulldogs....the lowest membership base Victorian clubs. Away games against Richmond, Hawthorn, Geelong, Essendon, Collingwood and Carlton. Who wins financially out of that deal? And perhaps the AFL could stop the falsehood about "blockbuster" games drawing in bigger numbers of spectators. While Essendon v Richmond might draw 80K, down the road Melbourne v St Kilda is drawing 40K. Total 120k. IF Richmond play Melbourne and Essendon play St.Kilda then each match will draw 60k. Total 120k. No more fans go through the turnstiles, but Richmond and Essendon get greater gate takings, when they get to play each other twice in a year.

Excellent news beelzebub. If ASADA get Dank on "attempting to administer", then Essendon are cooked as well. We can now see why WADA have asked for further time. It may make their case a "lay down misere"!

And this is the consequence...... http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-07-06/afl-victoria-orders-asada-drug-tests-on-suburban-clubs?utm_medium=RSS

So why would Hawthorn or North want to play us in Tassie instead of the MCG?

I don't know about Macrae, but the Bulldogs are simply NOT going to be able to hold all their young players. Tom Boyd is taking a huge slice of the pie today and into the future, after Peter Gordon signed him up, when the captain and coach were removed. So how do they keep Bontempelli, Macrae, Wallis, Wood, Liberatore, Stringer, Hrovat, Talia and Picken happy on the list and under the cap? Like we have seen at GWS over the past couple of years, when Scully hogged all the salary cap. There will be some good players who have to be released.

Our performances over the past 7 years has seen us allocated "home" games against interstate sides, and neglibible "home" games against Victorian sides. We "scored" 7 of those this year! And only 4 home games against Victorian sides...St.Kilda, North, Collingwood and Bulldogs....3 of which will draw low crowds! A home game against Fremantle, GWS, Suns, Port, or WCE would be lucky to see $25K attend the game at the MCG. The financial break even is about this number. If it is a twilight game or a day of lousy weather, as happens in winter, the Club loses money. We make a profit of at least $500k playing in Darwin. It is the only viable option for the club, until it gets a draw which will make money at the gate for us at home. And it's not about members. They can't provide the same amount of money that the government of the NT pays us annually. And Hawthorn has a good number of "members" in Tassie, because with the small ground at Launceston, unless you have a membership, you don't get in the gate.

According to CH10 news the game is sold out, as it is Enrights 300th.....even more reason to avoid the place!

Jones was off the ground for the first half of the second quarter. He returned but then spent a good part of the remainder of the game on the HFF. I would guess that he was/is carrying an injury which is why he wasn't in the middle at the end.

The EFC Board did not know what was going on...That is why they commissioned the report from Ziggy Switzkowski. And that had a finding of a "pharmacological experiment" being conducted at the club.

Listening to SEN last night, the matter is with ASADA. I would think the actual testing has been completed. After all it has now been months since the A-sample. And I asume IF the B-Sample was a negative, there would be no need for ASADA.

Agree wholeheartedly. With 2 winnable games out of the next 4 ( after the Hawks), we need to make sure that we rest worthwhile players, so they can be ready to pick later. I would expect Jamar to be back as well, and hopefully Frost for the St.Kilda game. Sadly, once again this weeks selections shows the lack of depth in our list.