Rod Grinter Riot Squad

You're right re 'ology being doomed, but will always consider it home, thankfully this is and always has been a great alternative.

Had an 18 month stint up in Mission beach, back in Melbourne (well the farm just outside) while doing some exams then looking for a new place to hang the hat - probably Brisbane / Cairns or Darwin (your old joint is appealing but for the cost of living there). Guess it depends where I get my next job, but they are most likely bases.

He wasn't traded or drafted, but taken after the trade/draft period was finished as a replacement for Broadbridge

Remember he was taken from the delisted/retired pool so I wasn't expecting that much.

Skills, you know me better as Korean Demon, you were pumped about us getting Shannon, he didn't do a huge amount in his first year, but we gave him a pass due to his fitness. Give him a preseason you told us, speaking him up so much you had me sold.

DW and yourself were right re Scully, but odd example to use when you say no-one gets it right. You'll find half a dozen posters here who do follow the youngsters and are some of the few to pay attention to at this time of year. I'm also learning to really like the ignore function as it gets a lot of the hysterical posters and those who post 20 times in every thread while saying nothing, makes the board easier to read

Do posters read the papers and think he sounds good, lets get him, or do they follow the combine to make their decision, or do they look at videos (dangerous thing to do if you play golf) and like what they see from 2 minutes of a players whole career or do they actually go to games and look out for potential players.

The funny thing about all this is that on Demonology at the time of the Scully drafting, someone (no I won't mention your name Deers ) posted stats from the u18s carnival that showed Scully's Kicking efficiency at about 70%, so I posted that maybe he is not as good as he is cracked up to be. Well that went down like a lead balloon but in retrospect it wasn't too far off the mark. And I'm just a nobody that lives in Thailand and to be honest I don't have a clue but I have played a lot of footy do look at things objectively.

Nice rewriting of history there.

Before Scully was drafted, David Williamson, who does watch a lot of NAB football (| believe) was very critical, consistently so, of Scully's kicking and didn't consider him a top 2 pick due to this fundamental flaw.

You followed his lead.

Offering pick 4 for Wellingham and Dawes is crazy, 13 for the pair would be a good deal for boh parties.

Yet again, the Melbourne Football Club seem out of step with reality. Each time you get a bit optimistic about the direction of the club you get a sobering reality dose.

I would normally have great difficulty believing a club could push this trade, but maybe we are the new Dockers.

Similar to the pick 4 for Dawes and Wellingham IMO. No way would Melbourne be this stupid. Remember, we are the Demons, not the Dockers.

God these rumours crack me up, some moron journo to big noting spud says or posts something, it gets online and races around. All coming from the one source originally, so many hear it from different sources it must be true....

Maric, Grigg, Houli - all young and on the improve, forced out of decent teams as they weren't getting the games but still at an age that improvement with regular game time wasn't unexpected.

Burns, Ray etc, past their best and whilst potential will add leadership they wont be long term success.

Now I certainly think its reasonable to get a few in as we have absolutely zero leadership left if Rivers goes (Davey our oldest players then a huge gap) but I hope we still trim down the list low enough to get young guys in. And I'd still look for someone to be our Houli/Grigg/Guera at Hawthorn etc.

Ray, who I can't say I'm a fan of is only 26, not exactly past his prime

Happy with this move.

We desperately need some experience and a small forward, 2 boxes ticked. A hard trainer, a natural leader from a very successful club. Sure he isn't a world beater but if he can pass on much of what he has learnt over his journey these benefits will outweigh anything he does on the ground.

Good get IMO.

Trade week started already?

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/menzel-hoping-for-a-draft-kneesup-20121002-26xey.html

Intersting comments from doctor, re using LARS when required, could easily get 10 years over 12-13 year period.

Medical report on him being scrutinised by clubs, if available do we take him at 13 (a bargain by all accounts if we got 10 playing years out of him) or pass. As stated Selwood and Judd dropped due to injury concerns. Others had concerns and they proved true...

At pick 13, I would hope we took the punt if he is as highly rated as indicated here.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/gold-coast-confident-it-can-snare-former-adelaide-forward-kurt-tippett/story-fnfll94y-1226486590395

"(If) he (Tippett) wants to go to Melbourne, guess what, Carlton will out up their hand for him," Malthouse said on Adelaide radio station 5AA.

"Of course I'm going to get involved.

"I always thought Tippett was going to go back to the Gold Coast or Queensland because that's where he comes from.

"Adelaide, to me, are a club on the rise ... now all of a sudden you hear Sydney or Melbourne and I just don't get that."

Not much of an appetite for hard work Aussie.

Spent the whole time at Melbourne above his ideal playing weight. Came back from each of his end of season break in poor condition.

A talented player, who walked out on us. Would I take his lazy oversized butt back?

No.

Pies will want our pick 13.

Offer it for Dawes and either Goldsack or Wellingham.

Nothing more, it's a trade they will have to do as opposed to one we will want to do. That said, this relies on Tippett going there and I don't think he will

So what we need to do to be successful is develop a culture, nurture the players like growing a culture in a laboratory, keeping them warm and fuzzy, expose them to a bit of culture like opera or modernist painting, to keep them on the straight and narrow during their down time, of course we have to be careful to avoid culture shock....and then to top it off get them to read Immanuel Kant before they enter the field of play.....to kick a piece of leather around for a couple of hours

I stand by me first line....

Tippett will not be going to Pies.

They have Lynch, who would not have chosen Pies so early if he thought they would get Tippet

Years ago Leigh Colbert walked out on the cats and went to North, one reason given was the culture of the club in the late '90s or when it was. Geelong's young players were offended by this and vowed to change the club.

The culture of Kardinia park changed enormously, the players played for each other, cleaned up their lifestyles and enforced team rules strictly. The culture at a club can effect many things, like the lifestyles led by the players, like how they dedicate themselves to training, like how desperately players throw themselves into 2nd and 3rd efforts - desperate not to let their mates down.

All 44players in a game may be desperate to win, but a club with the right culture will find their players are a bit more desperate.

As an aside, when we belted the Swans a few years back, how many of their players walked off giggling like school kids?

Copy and paste for those too lazy to scroll down the board...

I've read at least one simpleton, possibly more, argue that the bloods culture is a myth, I'd argue that said posters intelligence is a myth. Even more so than fantastic coaching and intelligent recruiting, the swans success over the last decade is built on the back of one player looking into their history at depth (as opposed to management lecturing on it) and discovering the old 'bloods' culture that existed for a period of time. With the backing of the senior players in Sydney, they vowed to adhere to a culture that represents the 'bloods'.

Without exception.

The players bought in, those that didn't, didn't play.

I envy them and pray for the day that Melbourne show the type of commitment and passion for their club that the Sydney players do.

Geelong's success/luck with some father/son recruits led to such a distortion of the draft that the rules were changed

Every time I see Sewell I have a haunting vision of Ryan Ferguson. If it wwas true then I cant believe we did not make that trade happen.

Believe we tried to make it happen, but Ferguson was under contract and didn't want to leave.

At the time, Old55 had one of the best comments see non a forum after CAC came on and told us Ryan wasn't going anywhere. Old's response "you can say that again".

What made it better was so few seemed to pick up on it

Funny thing is when the Swans were the leagues ugly duckling this extra room in the salary cap was a non-issue. Personally I think it's excessive but it has next to nothing to do with their recent success

Gee Beamers manager sounds desperate in this article.

Compensation picks must be used this year

For those who doubt the wisdom of picking Watts over Natanui, the proof was there to see. If you don't have the skilled forwards to kick the clutch goals you don't win Premierships.

Like he did against Freo....

What are your thoughts on our trade priorities? Anyone else believe that fast spreading midfielders are by far our biggest need??

Which is why I hope this statement from another facebook page turns out to be true:

Personally we shoul consider paying significant overs for Wellingham. he is young and quick. he knows neeld well. He is prettymuch what we need although some say he would only ever go to another top 4 side. Give him four years and some serious coin I say... Add Viney and perhaps a draftee like Toumpas with Jones and maybe Gysberts coming on??

Wellingham should be priority one. And once you pick up another big fish suddenly its a lot easier to negotiate on other potential deals : well wellingham chose the dees...

Would be very happy for us to chase and get Wellingham, but to pay significantly more than he is worth is not something that would fill me with confidence in our football department. Yes, pay him over his worth if it means getting him, but significantly more, I'd be passing.

That's hilarious, imagine that, the hard tough men would be wearing Smooths public schoolboys jackets, I could really see Steph Martin out there on Grand final day, prancing around.

Like the 4 old Xav's playing for Sydney, not to forget the St Kev's Norm Smith medalist hey Blue?

that's entirely your decision. Means little to me...read what you want.

Will have to use it.

Hate using it but people that put 10 posts a thread while contributing nothing to a thread are destroying this board

I suggest you try thinking before posting, otherwise the next best solution would be the ignore function