Dappa Dan

Actually I kind of like that. Just put in your one sure thing. A bit easy, but hey, I always go badly on these things.

That's massive, especially considering they have claims to being as much a side of the future as we are.

You're absolutely right. Apologies. But not to Collingwood. Speaking of which, why on earth would they have that contract? What do they get in return? Well yes, but sifting through the whole draw will take time. Jeez some people are quick with it. You're absolutely right though. I guess I'd gone with the whole fact that pies played the vast majority of their games at the G last year. I'm still miffed about that, and always will be. You've missed my point. Of course the AFL has to pick the coming year based on the year before. I wasn't referring to the AFL's responsibility. I was referring to your post "How people are whinging about this draw is beyond me." Which is where I disagree. Fans won't get as bent out of shape because nobody can predict the top 4 with any certainty. This year was the closest to "predictable" I can think of. You can guarantee all you like, you'd still be wrong. Look, let's say we did have to play the top 6 twice, I'd have a moment of "hang on a tic," followed swiftly by pleasure in the fact that we'd be playing likely top-drawing sides (for cash when it's our home games), and I'd be pleased that we'd get to really know what we're made of against the best, which all things being equal, you'd say 4 of the top 6 (from last year) would be. I would get peeved, but then I know when it comes to the desperate claw to the finish line (last 6 rounds, say) we play Cats, Carlton, West Coast, Richmond, Gold Coast and Port. Right now you'd say Cats and Blues are going to be tough games. With the others easy-beats. Scratch the surface and it tells a different tale. Cats with an ageing list and no Ablett might have come to pieces by that stage of the year, and started playing kids. Blues could be so far up the top of the ladder they do a Saints and start resting guys. Likewise Richmond and Port could finish anywhere from fighting for 8th on the ladder to a spoon, so they might be tough games too. Even Gold Coast, who everyone's expecting to suck, might figure a few things out by year's end. You just never know... And with the competition being so even these days, injuries will define where a team goes next year. Probably more than anything. And there's just no way of predicting that.

Saw that. Unbelievable. Wouldn't happen EVER at the Pies. AFL = still a transparently rigged comp. And no-one does anything about it. I think in that case I reckon people are ho-hum about that because it changes every year. No-one thought Freo would be a tough side to play this year for example. What looks like an easy draw becomes hard halfway through the season and vice versa. The only one I can say looks like it might be easy is the Gold Coast games... and even then...

Tough question that. I see him as a midfielder-cum-forward definitely, but his pace and tenacity make him an ok fit for a rebounding small defender role. If the old adage that once you're drafted, everyone's equal from rookie to #1 picks, then this kid has to be in our 22, or at least in our 23-25... which in the injury plagued world of the AFL is tantamount to saying he's in the side. In his favour is the fact he's a lovely fit for the modern game, in a variety of roles. If you take, for example, Jones... who is likely the better player at the moment, but is really confined to a single role in the team... and compare him to Bail who has a bit of speed, a good footy brain, can kick a goal, evade, run-with, and play comfortably in at least two areas of the ground... it makes you think the only way is up for the kid.

Who said anything about anyone having a problem with being scrutinised? It's the MANNER in which people are scrutinised that concerns me. What's more, an opinion has every right to be baseless. It's an opinion. Belongs to one person only. Therefore, scrutinise away. But do so without the narky little, pseudo intellectual one-upmanship we so often see, even from mods. Jesus it gets old for those of us who are here a lot. What's more, it's your above (edited) manners that highlight my point. Why can't everyone at least attempt a bit of decorum like you have? Why so often do you get one poster talking down to... well... everyone else? It's childish, and deliberately provocative and everyone knows it. There's only one demonland... we all have to share it. Yes it may be an opinion based forum, but the way the above turned into a catty little [censored]-fest is what nearly ended it all for 'ology. Or were you not around then?

:D Hey HT. WHat I think he was trying to say was that I don't watch footy based TV shows, small interviews, half-time interviews with the TIVO/Foxtel IQ queued up to record dates, times, and specific things said so I can regurgitate them on demonland. If Bailey goes on and says in an interview "let's just f%&en get it inside forward fifty" then yeah, fair enough, I might jump on and quote it... but then so would everyone else. So DID everyone else. Since you're a decent bloke, and I'm unlikely to get some pseudo-intellectual clap-trap from you, I'll recount what I remember. I believe it was earlier this year, maybe pre-season. I know this cos I was in the states watching the Eagles get killed it in the NFL :D Bailey was being interviewed by a non-serious interviewer. Maybe a club-friendly setting. I'm thinking sort of like Before the Game type interviewers. Was a casual sort of thing. Not like Andy Maher reading whatever makes the biggest news into whatever mumblings come out of a coach. The interviewer was talking recruiting, asking about the players not coming along the way they should have... I think maybe Jack Watts' name was brought up, and was the club hoping that they'd come along a bit better. So in that context, I think Bailey was justified talking his boys up. I think that may have contributed to why no-one brought it up at the time. In context it made sense. in the face of unfair criticism, of COURSE a coach is going to plug his club. Also, it may have been something to do with trading Brock or Trapper or both, and asking about the youth policy. Which again, in context, you'd be justified in saying that your stringent recruitment policy may not reap dividends straight away, but that in the future it would. That's the best I can do. I think his words were along the lines of "I have absolutely no doubt this list will win a flag in the coming years." there was no arrogance, no guarantees, it was just a sensible response with a big helping of positivity. I remembered it because it was notable as being the first time I'd heard those words come from our coach. I'd always felt he was putting things in place for exactly that reason, but Seriously GM. Pull your head in. You've been here long enough to know that they showed more footage, he wasn't running from anyone. He was looking for the rebounded ball. It just looked like he was running. If anything Lade was the dipstick there, running at the man when the ball was about to be in his area.

Like MOST threads should be. But to have an idea, albeit an out there one, is against demonland law. The know-it-alls come out and give their all-knowing brand of condescending garbage, then it turns into this slanging match... At least in the proper season you get a new game every weekend as a clean slate.

I agree. And the "everyone" you talk about is overzealous demonlanders who say we'll win a flag in the next five years. Though it should be mentioned the vast majority say we'll be having a "tilt" at a flag in that time, not that we're definitely going to win one. I think Bailey has said a few times that the side he's recruited will "definitely win a flag in the coming years." But then he has to say that, he's the coach. Just on our team success being far from a foregone conclusion... I look at two teams which basically can cause you to look glass half empty, and glass half full. - The Hawks went to the trough in the mid 2000s, then by 2008 had one in the bank due to some high draft picks and some clever coaching. We have some players that mirror them. They had Hodge there from earlier than the Franklin/Roughead draft year. We have Sylvia before the Watts/Jurrah draft years. They traded some high profile players for very high draft picks in Hay and Rawlings, and both trades were HUGELY weighted in their favour. We had the trades of McLean and Johnstone. - The Saints, like us, went bananas at the draft for a few years and lined up some of the best talent the game's seen in one place over the last 10 years. Hayes, Montagna, Dal Santo, Riewoldt to name a few. And look where it's got them. Very, VERY close to a flag, but they still haven't taken one. They're still a great team, but it goes to show that no matter how much hard work you put in, footy is a game of luck a lot of the time. - The pies, as a third one, put a different spin on it. They just kept topping up because they're rich, they have the easiest draw, and are basically handed finals on a silver platter by the AFL. That said, they have a handful of high draft picks but never really went south in the same way the Hawks, Dees and Saints have done in the last 10-12 years. And look at them now. There's a lot of ways to skin a cat, but I think your point is made pretty well. We're a long, LONG way from being a premiership threat just yet. So many of our high picks could easily turn out to be Mustons...

I would have thought recovering between burst would have been. But then with the extended bench they've had in recent years, maybe getting bench time isn't as important.

Jeez I hate this site in the off season.

Interesting. I think we're on the same page albeit with different words. I'd like to go into it further, but that would be appropriate for a Scully thread.

Would like to see the comparison to this time last year.

You're in that group then? I'm in the "Scully's not a great kick" group. I'm not massively negative. Judd's not a great kick either. And I'd take hard-work+footy-brain+ball-magnet (Judd, Scully) over good kick and nothing else (Strauss so far) any day. Was not meant as a huge insult.

Yeah, the 1st and 2nd game thing I reckon is the ugliest out of the three options. But then, you could mount a case for all the options available being bad/good.

I've said it a few times on here, but there are some unusually encouraging rumblings being made about him. There are some that are at pains to say that he's a true find in the AFL, but never in a public forum. I feel like they're not quite sure what he'll be, or whether what they're seeing will be consistent. But whatever. If the reports are even just ok for a kid his build and his age, then that's enough for me at this stage. Can't wait to see him in 2012.

I like taking these opportunities to mention players who are outside our top ten. But yeah.... favourites are light and fluffy fun. My top 5 that I think have the best chance of being elite are actually 5 completely different players. Maybe I need to have a closer look. Boom boom.

I don't know about that. I think he's on a par with Scully. A bit up and under, not really incredible depth... but given his run, it usually doesn't matter too much, and he knows what he's capable of. Doesn't bite off more than he can chew. That's what I was trying to say. I keep trying to crystallise why he makes me excited, and why I don't fear when he's near the pill. There's no one thing he does incredibly well, he just keeps doing good/great things. Given his background before he was drafted, and given the fact I had him in front of only Healy in terms of guys I thought wouldn't make it, I reckon he could end up being BPs biggest masterstroke, potentially. Obviously has a looong way to go, but all things being equal, there was no way he should have done what he has.

Which is what makes the price we got for him a steal. I rate Matthews as a coach... perhaps not as highly as some, but certainly up there... and he said of Trav that he was the first player you looked at when it came to playing Melbourne, where you said "what are we going to do about stopping this guy?" Obviously you could argue that our lack of good midfielders in the last 10 years (or ever?) contributes to the fact that Trav was considered our most "dangerous."

Aaaah What?!!! Where did you read this? Jesus I hate this friggin competition. Shunt the smaller clubs off to interstate games, so the big clubs can play in Melbourne... The rich get richer. This is the second season in a row.

He played AFL. Even a player with average commitment, works harder at it, beard on no beard, than anything I'm ever likely to work at. You can say it's a reflection, but to draw conclusions from it is drawing a long bow. Had he played every game like he did the Adelaide final in '02 he could play with a 2 foot hot-pink mohawk, and I wouldn't care. Though, I know Jaded would... Am I the only one who can easily look on his career with fondness? He played enough good footy over a decade at the club to be considered our most dangerous player by one of the great coaches in Matthews. Then when the club courageously and wisely decided to let him go we got a first round draft pick, from which we got a player who is odds on to outstrip him when his own career wraps up? We can easily be negative on here, but ten years of ok/sometimes brilliant footy, then a first round draft pick is cause for celebration in my book. Even with the #1 draft pick tag, which the longer I go, the less I care about.

Well not really. Trapper is done, unfortunately. Doesn't matter how skilled a player is... when you're as inconsistent as he is and you're pushing, or beyond thirty, you're more-or-less finished. Doesn't make Voss any less of a coach. Probably makes him a better one really.

They haven't been playing that long, haven't become the league-leading mids they will be, and both are VERY quiet in the media. I mean come on, we have people giving favourite tags to Dunn for his moustache for crying out loud. Since when has importance to the team, or quality as a player had anything to do with favouritism? I like the personality contests. It's actually the only thing MOST demonlanders are qualified to make any call on. Their favourites. Reminds me what the site is for.

No he's not... He's the most important going into 2011 because we don't have much left in the cupboard to back him up. In terms of winning flags in the future he doesn't even make it into the top ten. Way too much premiership winning quality on the list right now. Or at least hopefully will be. It's all a matter of opinion, but it's certainly not a fact that he's the most important. I would argue a single superstar forward (could be Watts, Dunn, Jurrah, Bate) would be more important to getting us further up the ladder. It's all context. But as someone above said, we're talking favourites. It could be something as simple as liking how his 'tache looks on the TV. Completely subjective... fun, but ultimately, pointless to disagree with. (like most of demonland) Having said that... given his story, I would have thought he'd sneak into a few more lists. Maybe it's his years in the wilderness, or his age... or perhaps the overhwelmingly large number of young guns coming through. Fantastic. I was going to do this myself. You saved me the trouble.

Played a number of good games for us actually, then did his hammy just at the wrong time. But yes, still didn't live up to expectations. Was signed for two years, and pretty much only turned up for one. Not the club's greatest ever call. Was certainly a desperate trade. Well as luck would have it I'm not required to check in with you when I respond to a thread. But since you mentioned it... Grgic was pick #11. Since the OP states "when they arrive at the club," sure... pick 11 is a touch obscure. But given he's a first rounder, and given he showed he had talent... I think I'm justified in saying I was disappointed. I think he's up there as far as I'm concerned...