Tony Tea

Yeah, spot on.

... and he speaks like a teenage girl.

Scully put off his negotiations with Melbourne in August last year, which says to me GWS were into his management during last season. By the way, Melbourne is resigned to losing him, and will have to pull a rabbit out of a hat to keep him.

I certainly agree with his point about grunt in the guts. We are still light on for power ball winners. (As opposed to Powerball winners.) The footy department have taken a big risk getting rid of James McDonald to blood youngsters. A risk I agree with, as it happens. But we are still very inexperienced and our current lack of heavy bodied ball winners will see us struggle to meet expectations this season.

Diamond Jim Tapscott... just kidding. Touch wood. Still kidding.

Well, I don't know about that. But he's keen and he's polite and he has a distinctive voice.

Dan, I'm picking up the very faintest hint of a blip of a gut feeling that the Melbourne picks have made you quite unhappy. But only quite.

No lesser authority than Chris From Camberwell who always rings into SEN - "Hello, I'd like to talk about the Melbourne Football Club, please" - was spruiking Cook this afternoon.

Dean Kemp is one of the best ever West Coast footballers, and one of the best AFL players of the 1990s. He was drafted at 117 in the 1989 draft.

Support staff should be turned over every two or three seasons. What could Wellman give us in 2011 that he hasn't already given us up to 2010? New staff bring new ideas and contribute to the continued improvement of the playing group.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned today. It was in the Herald Sun paper, but is not in the Herald Sun online. This link is to the Northern Territory News:

Three of us went across to watch Melbourne v Port at AAMI in 1998. It was a Sunday match, so on Saturday we went to Adelaide oval to watch West Adelaide v Norwood. We got there early enough to see the reserves and who should be running around? None other than Glenn Molloy and Martin Heppell. Peter Rhode was the coach, too. On top of that, we got talking to a couple of local types, one of whom was Ross Dillon's daughter.

Appalling sock-c**k frontrunner.

Depends whether the batsmen was a righty or a lefty. If he was a righty it was an orthodox offie, or a wrong-un for a leggie.

Yeah, I knew that. But Jack being a Hawthorn fan kind of complicates all the blarney about Jack getting around in a Demons jumper.

Nice pic, but I didn't know he was a Hawthorn supporter. Last paragraph:

Bump. Speaking of touch wood. How did the Demons go on Mad Monday?

Will Ratten Target Warnock? Maybe... if Ratten's still there. Carlton are on a hat-trick of finals chokes and you know what happens to unsuccessful coaches the Princes Park. The Blues tolerate failure even less than Essendon.

Melbourne was shopping Jones around last year, and then the Brock trade emerged. Every player has their price. If Carlton said you could have Judd for Jones, you would take it. So, just work back from there until you get to Jones' value. I tip you'd be working for a while, because Jones, while a hard worker with ever-improving disposal skills, is a long way short of top line. Melbourne have concluded that Jones, while limited, has value. They would be mad not to consider trades.

Touch wood.

A friend of mine, who played for South Adelaide when Don Scott was coach, has a shed load of funny stories about Scott's tenure, none of which can be told here.

Every player has their price, including Bate. If we get offered overs, we take it; if we get offered evens we think about it; if we get offered unders, we pass.

I wish I didn't. Have I mentioned already today that I hate McPharlin more than any player in the AFL? No? Well, I do. On top of being an appalling flat track bully, he is yet another beneficiary of the time honoured AFL tactic "Ease 'em back against soft Melbourne."

Melbourne should consider trading Cam Bruce to the Gold Coast Schoolies. If we are going to lose a player, it makes sense we would trade someone coming to the end of a career (GC want experience), is coming out of contract (Bruce is on a juicy wedge), and who carries some value (more since the AFL have upped the compensation). The main question: would GC want him?