Dappa Dan

And it seems he'll be able to offer his opinion without being mocked for it. Unlike some of the experts in here. Good point. As for all the usual MFC easy-to-please crowd who don't like it when anyone's negative about their team, have a read of the posts. Most are constructive, and all are fair enough. We weren't very good tonight. Everyone can handle that. What they can't handle without piping up is the fact we're still doing some things that league footballers shouldn't do A whole quarter fo footy bombing it long? That sort of stuff just should NOT be an option in their mind. Their first instinct should be to get the ball until it's safe in their hands, and from there do what they can to find a team-mate. It's what everyone else did on the ground, why can't we do it? And it has NOTHING to do with blowing off the cobwebs. It's simple ingrained stuff that even the kids of the AFL in GWS and GC seem to understand. ANd that's not to say there weren't positives.

Change that for ultimate footy and I'll be impressed... Some of us do. And we still are hugely displeased with what we saw. I don't think you'd see any of Geelong, Collingwood, Hawthorn, West Coast, Carlton... and even a few other sides (including Brisbane who WERE playing in those conditions) bomb every single time they got the ball with enough time to put their foot on it. ONe of two things happened. Either they were under instructions NOT to find a target (which i find hard to believe going by the first 10 minutes of the GC game in which we were pretty damn good)... which is just dumb... or they were under instructions to find a target, but disobeyed the order. Either way, it was comical watching us cough it up over and over, just like last year, to a beow par team who weren't even trying that hard. It has nothing to do with how good the players are, the ONLY thing we have ot go on is how we applied structure... and that was pretty much the most appalling part. I loved the kids, the new young and middle-age mids were fantastic, tall forwards did some things... and the effort overall was superb... It's our choices, and structure. The glass-half-full types will look to our defensive effort. Good luck to them. I want to see how we'll WIN games. Not how we'll keep from losing them. I think by all reports that's going to be our tactic for the year. Guts is no-man's land these days.

Question: what are preseasons for? Answer: sharpening up your skills for the real thing. Neeld... What is going on. A whole half (quarter) of every single player bombing it long? Brisbane were at least looking for targets... Inauspicious start, needleman. Meh. Preseason. What a joke.

Half baked, yes, but it'll still be used in contract negotiations to Beamer's advantage. And good luck to him. Love him and hope he gets a big pay day next time negotiations take place. I have a huge amount of time for some of the older stalwarts of the club that stuck around during our absolutely appalling years... 4 years that are rightup there with Carlton of the early 2000s in terms of pain... Bruce, Green, Davey, Moloney...

Long thread, so just in case anyone else missed it... This is what you call learning. We lose our first pick from a few years ago because they offered his Dad a job. This time, we have him working at the club already.

Recruiter, next to coach, is the biggest role in the footy department. Wouldn't see this sort of thing happening at any of the big four. AFL has along way to go.

What's with all the Petterd hate? He wasn't that bad.

I'd play for him.

That's the only good thing about picking last. I get 2 in a row, so there's less stress... Don't have to choose between two superstars. The only exception being if you have pick 1... Just take Sandi, and you'll always be pleased.

Ouch.

Yes. Watch your manners. I have my eye on you. For everyone who's struggling to understand it, all it really is, should you forget to put in your bid, is reverse order from last year... pretty much... Me for example. I've put in my bid but after a solid season last year I only have one token.... so I don't expect I'll get my preferred pick. If that's the case, more than likely I'll end up in the last few picks. It's still fair. I think of it as basically exactly as it should be, with a little twist.

Yeah, watching Bulldogs in game two was like watching us... well... 2007-2011.

Awwww. You tried. You'll improve, don't worry.

Good luck guys! Just a suggestion, I'm not sure if it worked out last year, but the winner should put "Ultimate Footy Robert Flower inaugural champion 2012" on their signature... Smack talk, along with trading, is what makes Ufooty addictive.

Great avatar.

I would like this. Sounds like it's off the table though... and yes... I would like it because I had Sandi. The [censored]. Yeah true. Oooh. Norm Smith would be the most influential ever demon. I'd LOVE that. But in the end, no mention of Jimmy would be criminal... I reckon this one, Jim Stynes league, second one Robbie Flower, third one Norm Smith and fourth one (if they ever materialise) Barassi.

There's good and bad there... On one hand, everyone hangs out talking ufooty, all 32 of us... On the other hand when someone does the smacktalk, it might get confusing figuring out who's doing well in what league and where... Plus if someone has a topic they're bringing up it might get swamped in smacktalk from dozens of competitors from other leagues. I think basically I lean towards separating them. I floated this last year, some people took to it... I think it can be discussed for the end of the year. I like it mostly because it gives the end of year bottom 8 finals series something to play for (avoiding relegation), and adds some detail and intrigue... the problem would be that in a secondary league, the keeper rules would get all stuffed up. The only solution, that JA suggested in a roundabout way, is that, let's say two teams are relegated every year and two teams are promoted... you pick up the "keepers" of the teams that vacated their spot on either list. This in itself is pretty ugly, since one could assume that the reason they went so badly in the first place is that their keeper players were shite... And that the reason the promoted teams won their league was that their keeper players were awesome. It'd be pretty rough going from having Swan, Pendlebury, Nicknat and Selwood one year then dropping down to 2 retirees and a couple of #1 draft busts with ACLs the next... So yeah, assuming keeper leagues are going to stay in, it won't work I don't think. And having 4 designated "kept" players over 32 teams would seriously hurt the draft every year. My head hurts.

Yeah. Jesus it hurts... My personal most hated team. Most Eagles fans, I'm told, hate the Cowgirls more... but not me.

Can't believe we're related... On that post, the scoring categories, like OMR I'm leaning towards scoring being the tie-breaker. Having said that, my vote would go into the "don't care" box... since either of those two options achieve a similar result in the end, making score more important, slightly. I do like the idea of weighting certain stats as more important than others. but that's a MASSIVE headache. I'm not against it. I love the keeper league idea. But I think we should treat it carefully, since ufooty is still in its infancy. Run it this year, and if a critical mass of people are happy, then it stays for next season. At which point we can also discuss upping the kept players to 8. Then 12 the next season... etc etc. I think if you have a list with 4 bona fide stars around the mid-twenties age range, you're going to keep them and just about never look elsewhere. Having 6-8 or more keepers means you can have 1-2 recent draftees (say David Swallow and Johnathan Patton) then 4-5 good solid 25ish players, and then 1-2 oldies who you know don't have long left, but that keep playing well, like Hayes and Goodes. Ripping idea. I was going to say, perhaps the mods should think about having a fantasy footy page of threads. Just to get us off the main news page, since I imagine there'll end up being 2, or even more leagues all trying to post on one thread.

I think there's some truth in the idea we have to treat champions of the club well... but when it comes to being disappointed about being left out. What does he expect? the last 4 years have been a disaster for the club. These were the times the club was led by these blokes, and as much as they'll always be treated well as red and blue warriors, they DID fail. Do it with respect, but my goodness, if he dwelt on it then that's his own fault...

Oh one other thing... The draft order. There was some talk of it being in reverse order of results last year, 18th-1st... then the reverse of THAT order 1st-18th.... but then after that every round would be 18th-1st... I like that. Is that maybe going to happen?

Wait. 8 categories? Are we sure we want to do that? I love that frees are combined. Big fan of that. But 8 categories, not so sure... Can there be any other stat included? Buggered if I know what one. And massive list this year. 4 backs and forwards and 5 centres? Love that there's more centres than B and Fs... but that's gonna make for more work. In one sense, well done, rewards people who look for the diamonds in the rough, but creates that much more work if you want to fine-tune your list. I'm 50-50 on that since it gives idiot savants like you more of an adbnvantage.

Wouldn't be "Benjamin" would it? I was on a cruise ship paying 36 cents a minute, at 5am to be involved in draft day last year. Gotta want it OMR... Gotta want it. Oh jeez... what did the little scallywag do this time? If it wasn't fo rthe fact there was a Jacqui in the family already, I'm sure he'd have made that happen. He's the hunted.

Trengove with a bullet. Next most likely Frawley... Smokeys will be Blease and Clark. Both could be disasters or absolute rocks.

Quite gracious of him, considering a tiny little baby Jackattack... or perhaps Jackattackette will mean JA's time will be quite valuable these days. Maybe more than one mod this time to help out if you need it? I put my vote in for OMR.