Blistering

According to the Sunday Herald Sun Paul Roos said that "securing Daniel is perfect timing." Well good luck to them but I thought you could only secure a player under a draft system if and when they are selected in the particular draft in question. By allowing this to openly happen, the AFL is undermining the pre season draft and in particular the value of all of the draft selections ahead of Sydney in the PSD. It's definitely draft tampering but because it's going to help Sydney and the AFL needs to prop up the Sydney market, nothing will be done about it.

A true professional whose body probably let him down in his last couple of seasons. I'd love to see him in a continuing role with the club if that's the way he wishes to go. Perhaps as a mentor to the talented indigenous youth at the club and working with our defenders.

When we played them in the opening round two years ago they also had a swag of players missing due to suspension and injury but they still smashed us by over 100 points. We will have a significantly different 22 on the park this time around and I'm marking Saturday 27 March 2010 as the day of the start of our revival. It's too early to say if we're going to win but I believe we'll be hungry and we'll put in a very, very competitive performance.

Good read. Thanks Alpha!

40 days to go!

Seems to be a case of the manager milking the club for all it's worth because this will probably be his last big contract (if not the last full stop). In other words, he's doing his job. That's why there's no sentiment left in the game. When players get to Robbo's age, clubs often can't afford to keep them on. I think Davey will stay on a much better contract (see Brad Green 2008).

AFL stars Hurley and McGurk 'assaulted cabbie' after Footy Show booze-up Tex Hooper | September 25, 2009 - 3:58PM Essendon’s rising star Michael Hurley and Melbourne’s Marty “No Name” Gurk had spent the night partying at a Footy Show event before both allegedly assaulted the same taxi driver in separate incidents in Richmond early this morning. The Essendon Football Club has released a statement expressing its disappointment in the promising 19-year-old, who was taken into police custody following the incident. Meanwhile, the same taxi driver was allegedly assaulted by McGurk whilst attempting to flee from Hurley. McGurk who started drinking at the Grand Final Footy Show after-party and had clearly had too much to drink by night’s end, fell asleep on a park bench outside the Rod Laver Arena where the original Footy Show event occurred. He was woken by screams of agony from the taxi driver and stumbled into the path of his oncoming taxi. "The cab stopped a matter of inches away from my face so I decided to belt the [censored] out of him," McGurk told reporters. The taxi driver suffered minor injuries and was not taken to hospital. McGurk has not been charged because he managed to board a Gold Coast bound flight to join his new club before police were able to question him.

They've devised a new kicking drill for draft camp. If Morabito is that bad he'll flunk the test and probably slide down in contention. We'll see.

You can add Jack Watts since he's not available due to studies.

I don't know whether it looks very good for the future of the players dropped this week. Omission at this stage of the year could be a bad omen for the future.

Their supporters feel they own us too. Here's the Fremantle Form Guilder from Dockerland.

According to the papers today there won't be any priority pick system in the next 2 or 3 years because of the introduction of the new teams from the Gold Coast and West Sydney. This will help with the problem and hopefully a better system will be introduced.

McMahon to kick the winning goal again for me!

Not good. Don't want him to become injury prone. Put him in mothballs!

Great courage Rohan Bail. Our condolences go to you and your family.

Did the commentators find time to mention King's tactics on Aaron Davey? As it happens the MRP has fined King and let Davey off the hook. The panel said Davey was "not active in the wrestle. King instigated the wrestle and continued it, while Davey remained passive." The MRP also assessed contact between Dean Polo and Matthew Bate from the third quarter and found the impact was below that required to constitute a reportable offence. No further action was taken.

With Miller, Newton and probably Watts out of the way this should give Zomer an opportunity. Same goes for Spencer. Hope he can regain some of that form from the pre season!

Hardly tanking in the case of Watts who wasn't in the Melbourne team to start with and who most critics were saying a few weeks ago wasn't ready anyway!

Let's have a bit of respect, people! The fact that our resident tipster has enough faith in the team to select it to win by 27 points shows we couldn't possibly be tanking!

OK, I'm related to WJ but that won't stop me from saying how proud I am of his work and the fact that he was a strong influence in my decision to become a Demon. Congratulations to Women of Melbourne on a fantastic initiative, to Liam and our indigenous players and to all at the club. Sensational!

I think 3 in a row might be wishful wishful thinking B)

Anyone know what they're opening at Casey Fields today?

Only includes last year's top 10 b & f votegetters.

It won't be long before Jurrah kicks a bag!

The Age has published a list of games missed by injury in 2009 for clubs' top 10 players, based on last year's b & f, (AFL ladder position in brackets): 1. Essendon (8th) Melbourne (16th) 36 3. Fremantle (15th) 31 4. Richmond (14th) 28 5. North Melbourne (13th) 21 6. Collingwood (4th) Port Adelaide (9th) 20 8. Hawthorn (11th) 16 9. Carlton (7th) Geelong (2nd) 15 11. Western Bulldogs (3rd) 13 12. St. Kilda (1st) 12 13. Brisbane Lions (6th) 10 14. Adelaide (5th) West Coast (12th) 9 16. Sydney (10th) 3