Left Field

I just feel like venting. To me, CS clearly did not respect the sovereignty of the FD when Bailey was appointed - CEO's should never, ever get involved at micro-managing at the operational level. To me it appeared as if Bailey was happy to go with an "us v them" mentality, dragging the playing group into a game of poison politics. I'm guessing Bailey was one of those managers that says "I don't agree with this mate, so let's pretend to do it while I am actually also doing what I want". Roos' excellent interview with John Bertrand highlighted his belief that ego is an impediment to being a great leader (yep, that's my version). What infected our club in the first place was a power play between two blokes that have never even come close to leading unified teams to the ultimate success. Goddam amatuer hour. End of rant.

Ball magnet - misses the target a bit but. But gee, gets it a shedload.

They need to add new spine players from here out. Agree they are well stacked with ball winners for the medium term.

I said after the Vince announcement that I didn't feel like we were done - just gut feelihg. Can't help but thinking we might swap out one of our big names to get one more mid. We need to reduce our list, and yes we will be cutting away more who we can't trade for obvious reasons. But players approaching RFA with only a year on the contract who won't sign up now??? Well, fair game if we can get value for mine.

My perception is that at AFL level, James showed he was OK with his inside work but he didn't win the ball outside enough and when he did his disposal was just so so. 4 mids in already, including Cross with whom he would directly compete. I'd delist James next week to free up a spot on the rookie list.

Primary targets acquired I'd guess. But I have a gut feel we have some trade-outs planned this week. Won't be fringe players either - got to give to get. Contracted players with currency would be fairly easy to name. Frawley for an early pick? Dawes for another player with pick swap? A fully fit Mitch Clark for a very high pick? No point being in this draft after pick 40 apparently. Above is long distance unqualified opinion.

I assume compensatioon offset is the reason why nobody has signed Daniel Cross yet? Or as an unlisted free agent, does he not factor into the offset compensation equation. What I'd do with compensation would be to scrap it for teams who play finals and then lose a FA the following year. That way, the bottom half of the table has a chance to pick up FA's to close the gap and the "successful" teams have to provide an enivronment that retains players (where this is not always possible for lower teams for myriad reasons). Just my thought.

Only from what I have seen so far (and mostly on the telly). Bugg is already a better player than Luke Tapscott in terms of ball finding and equal in terms of hard at it. But he is a "Campbell Brown" type (who, yes, has immediate and significant impact) but may not fix our structural weakness. I am going to say no. I question the medium to long term value of MFC now trading for a medium sized, medium paced, non-true-mid.

The one dimensional dogma around Shiel is staggering. It's not like we are missing only one 8+ year midfielder. Happy with 2 x 90% of Shiel myself. Especially with less rotations next year.

New link on AFL website says "Demons Deny Mark Jamar is set to leave Melbourne" or words to that effect. No article linked. Hmmmm.

Looks pretty good. How old is he now?

Seriously. If true let's consider the facts and make a judgement. Many Judge Roy Beans live here on Demonland. "You gonna get a fair trial followed by a first class hanging".

What happened was humiliating. How would a successful club respond? I'll start the ball rolling: I'd stop Mark Neeld from telling grown men that they are being educated (and by extension, because they are not very good). They need confidence not to be told how crap they are. His kids are not playing for him ATM - wonder why? Definitely stop making excuses. "3rd youngest list" makes me cringe. Stop all media access - a good old fashioned siege mentality might be in order. I would immediately reshape the centre square combination. Mark Jamar should never play for the MFC again. He was pantsed all day by virtual rookies. Ask Cameron Schwab how he feels about saying it didn't matter so much what happened today because there are 22 rounds in a season. Huh? I'd offer to renew all lapsed memberships for free this year after round 4. We can't possibly sell that cr@p anyway. Finally, I would immediately sack any player who ducks their god damn head in a nonmarking contest in their first game for the club. Bloody hell that was so embarrassing. Any other ideas?

So this might be lost on you but in court there is a prosecution side and a defence side. The prosecution side tells their story and then the defence tests it. And then vice versa. This is the prosecutions version of events. It will all be rebuffed once the defence has their go. Way to go off half cocked dimwit.

19 clearences to 7 from the centre restarts is a great stat. Has Spencer's tapwork improved or are the mids playing better together?

Last weekend, Dunn had the choice to go hard at the ball in a marking contest across half back as he came in from the side and slightly from the front. The minimum standard in that contest was making some body contact. Once again, he swatted at the ball and missed everything. After this many years in the system, I cannot see why people think he is tough (he isn't) or that he is best 22. I don't have him in my team.

I think Evans will find a spot if he holds the form he demonstrated last week. Couldn't Neville Jetta play small forward?

It aint all about you Courtney. FWIW.

OM goodness. He's a very exciting propsect already. No pressure son.

I've got Goddard in FWIW.

Your position is that we definitely tanked. What evidence do you have to back this up? Would your evidence stand up in court? The vibe and no are not great answers. We didn't tank (whatever the hell that even means).

Thanks Rjay - that makes sense. But also note, Jakes hand is consistently about 10 cm higher in the ruck contests (doesn't help if you don't hit it to advantage I know - and that is where Jamar has it in spades over Spencer). But first hand to the ball up gets the chance to hit to advantage. Could you say who got more of the hitouts?

What stood out in the photo's to me....... Jake Spencer has complete control of almost every contest with Mark Jamar. Is Jake Spencer set for a break out year (seems unlikely I know) or is Jamar in decline?

Jesus Jack, settle down. Obvious trolling here... :-)

OK, we'll disagree then. Apologies for the name calling - let's move on.