Lord Travis

Strauss will be a bust I think unfortunately. He suffered shocking injuries which obviously rattled his confidence, not to mention development time, but 4-5 years on and he can't even get a game. He was drafted for having a great kick and good speed, but he has rarely if ever shown these traits at AFL level. Such as shame as we could have taken Zaharakis at this pick, and he's already won a B&F and won games off his own boot. I was stoked when we landed Tapscott in the draft, but he has not developed. Drafted for his booming kick, his big body and aggression, and his willingness to involved teammates in the game. We all love his aggression and physicality, but he just isn't impacting games of football. He doesn't lay enough tackles, doesn't get enough ball, and isn't damaging when he does get it. He's probably got another year to prove he can make the grade. Taggert still has time. I hope we see him debut sometime in the next few months. By all reports he has shown glimpses at Casey, but is still inconsistent. I hold hope he can make it as a good player for us, but he isn't off to a good start.

Thanks for that info. I thought I recalled something like this happening, but couldn't remember if it was for Sloane or Jack Redden who wound up at Brisbane.

It's Sloane. Rory Sloane. Good midfielder. No thrills. Works very hard, puts in both offensively and defensively. Signed a contract extension late last year after having a good year so is out of any clubs grasp until end of 2014. By all accounts loves it up in Adelaide so I don't think he's coming home any time soon unfortunately.

- Get Frawley to sign a contract extension. - Get Sylvia to sign a contract extension. - Acquire Dale Thomas via Free Agency. - Trade all high draft picks for establish midfielders. Getting more kids is won't help us as we can't develop them, and we are now running out of time as a club battling to survive again. On-field performance is pretty much irrelevant at this stage. The team this year is probably the worst team I've seen play in the AFL for 25-30 years. We won't make finals. We don't play an enjoyable brand of football to watch. I'm going to go into football hibernation until the end of the year and hope we can do the above mentioned to steady our list and put forward an AFL standard team next year.

They should use this month of free time to convince him to sign a contract extension and stop him leaving under free agency next year.

3-4. Their midfield will dominate us and chime in with plenty of goals, and Roughhead will smash it as he's in great form playing all over the park.

As a coach? No. He did however take a similar club in the Bulldogs to 3 consecutive prelims and with a bit of luck would've pinched a flag. He also took Sydney to a grand final after they'd been a basket-case for years and helped steady them as a club moving forward. As a player he won 4-5 premierships with Hawthorn from memory in the 70s-80s. He has what it takes. I don't think he is interested in coaching anymore though.

6. Howe 5. M. Jones 4. Terlich 3. Trengove 2. N. Jones 1. Garland Worst On Ground goes to Jamar. 20 something nothing hit outs against a d-grade ruckman and a rookie listed ruckman. 1 kick. 0 handballs. 0 marks. 6 tackles because he was too slow to ever get a hold of the ball. Awful performance. He has quickly fallen away as a player, and the fact he still has 2.5 years of his contract remaining is a huge concern for us. At his best he would always compete hard, provide a marking option around the ground and feed it off to runners passing by after clunking the marks from kick outs, long kicks to the wing etc. This made up for the fact he never had a high disposal count. Now he is a liability. if he wins a tap it goes straight to his feet and is useless. As soon as the centre bounce is done he falls over and we effectively play a man down from then on around the ground as he struggles to jog along to where ever he thinks the next stoppage will be. He wouldn't and shouldn't get a game at any AFL club based on form.

The club did not make anyone available for comment. We actually have to provide them with someone for a press conference as part of the TV rights deal, so we will get a fine for this. Obviously they were in serious discussion whether Neeld was to be moved on.

HOORAY!!! JAMAR JUST HAD HIS FIRST DISPOSAL AFTER 76 MINUTES OF PLAY. WELL DONE BIG FELLA!

JAMAR IS STILL YET TO HAVE A DISPOSAL AFTER 68 MINUTES OF PLAY. HOW CAN A LEAGUE FOOTBALLER PLAYING WHERE THE BALL IS MOST FREQUENTLY NOT GET A SINGLE DISPOSAL?!?! STOP FALLING OVER MARK YOU UNCOORDINATED MUPPET!!!

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-05-26/prestia-set-to-resign "It was a bit of a temptation to come home but the boys have proven that they're definitely finals contenders, even maybe this year and definitely next year," "Especially because I started here [with the Suns], you don't want to start something and then leave when the boys are winning games and pushing for finals as well." Looks like Prestia will stay. Can kiss that dream goodbye. This day just gets worse and worse!

Jamar still no disposals. How can you go an hour of football, playing as ruckman where you've been involved in 25 stoppages, and not even accidentally get the ball?!

Jamar is leading our team for Dreamteam points.... he is yet to have a disposal. Hilarious!

Worrying thing is we play Hawthorn next week, and then Collingwood the week after. We could have 3 consecutive 100+ point losses coming up here!

Switching off. Will check back in at 3 quarter time to see if I should bother watching the last quarter. Somehow I doubt it.

He will be, but it's highly doubtful he'd just walk out on the Gold Coast. If he did, GWS would pick him up with PSD #1.

We'd have to give up a first rounder for Prestia though. He's not a free agent, was a top 10 pick who has proved himself, far more so than say Caddy, so he will cost us. If our first pick is #2-3, our next is pick #20sih, which wouldn't be enough to get him. He'd be a great get, I agree, and I'd offer him everything we can, but I'm not sure it's a realistic option.

What's happened to Polec at Brisbane? Highly rated, went pick 8 or so from memory and looked good early on.

Bird, Banfield, Colyer and Guthrie. All decent youngish players with something to offer us. Bird would walk into our midfield and hopefully bring knowledge, culture and work ethic with him. Good in traffic, decent size, decent skills. At 24 he is coming into his prime and has many years of footy ahead. Banfield would take the small forward role from Byrnes and Davey. He suffered injuries and has not been confident upon return through the QAFL. Been unable to push Zorko out this year so would could pinch him. Colyer would give us a pacey midfielder/half forward. He's good around stoppages and can tear forward and kick goals. Guthrie would walk in as our best small defender. We haven't had a decent one since Whelan and Bartram. At present Garland plays on small even though he is bigger. This guy would suit us perfectly. If we landed this 4 our list instantly improves in lacking areas. Midfield, small forward, small defender. Key forwards and backs are set, we need to work on the midfield and smalls at both ends. Throw in Dale Thomas as a free agent into our midfield and I think we'd push finals next year!

Most interesting bit of the article for me was the mentioning of Daniher. Half-way across the country, working for a different club, and he still has what it takes to get our players up when our current coaching panel can't. People on here always hate on the Daniher era but it was a good time to be a Melbourne supporter, if only for more consistent wins and an exciting brand of football to watch. I miss those days with The Reverend at the helm!

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-05-20/setback-for-viney Early signs of a hot spot in his injured foot. Article says he's out for 2-3 weeks, hopefully it isn't any more serious than that.

Great signing for Casey! He gives them depth as run of the mill VFL tall utility for both their Reserves and Senior team. Obviously not good enough for AFL level already being 25 years old, but he goes ok at local level and even makes the bests in the VFL every few months. Oh wait it's 3 years with the Melbourne Football Club??!? Oh dear.....

As frustrating as Sylvia can be, we can't afford to lose more senior players. Sign him at all costs, or the disease spreads further. Rivers, Moloney, Bruce etc all walked in recent years, we can't afford others too or it spreads like a plague down the list.

The womans team will win as many games as our senior AFL mens team this year... 1. That's depressing.