mauriesy

Well said, Rhino.

Sure beats Mick Malthouse's message.

I just wonder whether it's a perception we have of indigenous players rather than a reality. Many indigenous players have played happily with Melbourne clubs for years, on the other hand Steven Oliver got homesick for Castlemaine.

What makes everyone think Liam is going to be abnormally homesick for Yuendemu? The city might be the Big Adventure. And sure it gets very hot outside winter, but if you've ever camped in Central Australia in June, you might re-appraise your idea about the climate and temperature.

I've got my last year's (2007) Almanac sitting in front of me. Here's the player list: Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Daniel Bell Clint Bizzell Jace Bode Nathan Brown Cameron Bruce Simon Buckley Nathan Carroll Aaron Davey Lynden Dunn Ryan Ferguson James Frawley Colin Garland Simon Godfrey Brad Green Daniel Hayes Ben Holland Daniel Hughes Mark Jamar Chris Johnson Paul Johnson Travis Johnstone Nathan Jones James McDonald Brock McLean Brad Miller Brent Moloney Shane Neaves David Neitz Heath Neville Michael Newton Ricky Petterd Byron Pickett Jared Rivers Russell Robertson Colin Sylvia Daniel Ward Matthew Warnock Isaac Weetra Paul Wheatley Matthew Whelan Jeff White Adem Yze That's quite some turnover, and it could probably have been more.

So you've said a hundred times. Get a grip man! ... worry about things you can control and leave the others until they happen.

Made untrue this year by the Hawks with Luke Hodge.

Contradiction in terms ... if they rated him highly, they wouldn't have delisted him.

I wouldn't, at least not for a pick in the 70s. Some of the guys mentioned in this thread might be in trouble at the end of next year, but there's only so many old and non-performing players you can remove from a list in two years. We've retired, traded or de-listed Bizzell, Bode, Brown, Ferguson, Godfrey, Holland, Johnstone, Neitz, Neville, Pickett, Ward, Weetra, White and Yze, plus hopefully Carroll, since the end of 2007 ... that's fifteen players.

I think that's the most likely scenario. There's no urgent need to promote Valenti (Robertson on the LTIL means Valenti can still play) or Spencer. Carroll will go, partly because I don't think he can't afford to have his dirty deeds publicly exposed in any civil action.

So let's retrack a few predictions: Yze Magic Melbourne send Brad Green and pick 51 to Collingwood in exchange for pick 29 and Ben Reid. WRONG Robbie Warnock will not get to Carlton, and will come to the Demons in the PSD. WRONG O'Keefe to Hawthorn , pick 16 to Essendon, Andrew Lovett and pick 23 to Sydney. WRONG Brent Prismall to the Bombers for a 3rd rounder. RIGHT, BUT HARDLY A UNIQUE PREDICTION. West Coast to send Ashley Hansen to the Bulldogs for a 2nd rounder. WRONG Nudge Mark Seaby appears almost a certain demon unless Warnock can somehow slip through. WRONG. Trade of pick 1 for 2, with the eagles adding in a late pick, and the proviso that the Eagles take Naitanui with the no.1 pick, leaving Watts for the dees. WRONG. It now appears more likely by the day that Green may just move on. WRONG. Chris Johnson appears likely to be traded back to WA. WRONG Ryan O'keefe ... has been made the subject of a big play by the Bulldogs, the mail is that they may have their man this time. WRONG Other players that may be looking for a new home are: Ashley Hansen, Brent Reilly, Farren Ray, Sam Butler, Leigh Fisher, Kane Tenace, Ed Barlow, Jason Davenport, Brad Fisher and Mitch Clarke. FARREN RAY WAS RIGHT ... 1/10 The demons are being reported to have made a formal offer for Power defender Greg Bentley, word around is he WILL be at MFC next year. WRONG Bell to the crows along with 51 for pick in return for pick 28. WRONG The demons are the clear front runners for Prismall. WRONG Maric Legend Brad Green will re-sign for whatever we were offering him. RIGHT, but ALWAYS LIKELY. Robbie Warnock comes to the Dees for pick 19. WRONG Seaby goes to Richmond for something. WRONG Prismall goes to the PSD. WRONG Don't think O'Keefe will end up leaving. RIGHT, but ALWAYS LIKELY. Deetention Several clubs are reported to be keen on Brad Green. NOT KEEN ENOUGH APPARENTLY ... He didn't leave. Package him with an Aaron Davey or Green, Bell and Pick 19 and I believe that will get us Pick 4. WRONG Brent Prismall is almost certain to move and is likely to be a Demon ... Kangaroos the only other club to be keen in his services. WRONG Richmond is likely to give West Coast a 2nd round pick for Seaby. WRONG O'keefe is favoured to go to Essendon. Sydney likely too land Lovett, but also keen on Stanton. WRONG. Hope when all the "inside mail" predictions from "people with contacts" come out next year, this thread is brought up as a reminder.

I would have thought the mediator is to assist the player who is caught in the middle between two uncompromising teams, not to assist either Fremantle or Carlton to win out.

It's to help the parties to work through a stalemate. From an article in Realfooty: "Fremantle will be compelled to attend mediation if it is sought by Carlton and the player's manager. But it would not be bound by the mediator's decision. It would be the first time a mediator has been used in trade week since it was introduced two years ago. The mediator is drawn from a panel of lawyers with football experience."

Trade time - the 12 most annoying, exacerbating, frustrating things you are certain to see is one of the best posts I've seen at Big Footy. A headline summary is below. The idea of trading Green, Bell and Pick 35 for pick 4 clearly fits No. 1 (or No. 4). No. 12: Crazy 3- or 4-way trades that involve about 15 players and 10 draft picks. No. 11: We should get him because he would come cheap. No. 10: Wanting to trade for a player as soon as he comes good. No. 9: We should trade a prehistoric player to get a youngster because he isn't going to be around when we next challenge. No. 8: Someone has just signed but "it doesn't mean he can't be traded". No. 7: We should offer <insert spud A> to <insert team X> because they are lacking in <insert spud A's position> No. 6: They may be interested in trading him after having a poor year. No. 5: We won't trade for that superstar because we may miss out on a 15-year player with that pick. No. 4: We should trade uber-spud + pick for a better pick. No. 3: You will have to trade with us or risk losing him in the PSD. No. 2: The rumour-mongering. No. 1: Quantity does not equal quality (You can't get gold with a piece of crap. And 2 pieces of crap doesn't make it more appealing.)

That means someone somewhere made it up.

He makes it up.

"Youngest list" is a meaningless statistic unless you can make some sensible observations about the age of players in the core or on the fringe. You can have a young list, but still have lots of your young players playing in the seconds. And some teams "average ages" will be skewed by things like the number of rookies they take. It's one thing to have a spread of players in the 26-30 age group ... you can retire 2-3 every year over five years without much effect. It's another thing to have a team that still has many core players around 30 ... all retire over a short period, their skills and physical ability diminish more rapidly, and you lose a lot of experience at once.

I wish people would get over the figures being quoted about footballer's salaries. You can't pay everyone $50,000. The average salary for an AFL player is now well over $200,000 (just dividing the salary cap by the number of listed players). That means the run-of-the-mill average player is on that sort of level, some players obviously on a lot more, others (draftees, rookies) on a lot less. And any payout to Carroll would include some other entitlements e.g. leave equivalents, redundancy etc.

Agreed. Reminds me of the Police Association who go in to bat for crooked cops regardless.

Not that light. The 2008 Almanac says 94.1kg.

A couple of dismal seasons for sure, but for the previous six years we'd have to be pretty bad to top this mob: Carlton 2002: 16th 3 wins 19 losses 73.13% 2003: 15th 4 wins 18 losses 66.72% 2004: 11th 10 wins 12 losses 81.66% 2005: 16th 4 wins 17 losses 1 draw 75.51% 2006: 16th 3 wins 18 losses 1 draw 74.16% 2007: 15th 4 wins 18 losses 74.44%

Not quite. It sounded like Holland got the raw end of the deal while doing the right thing and helping an inebriated Carroll into a taxi. This headline: Heat on AFL, Ben Holland, Brendan Fevola over wild behaviour is a disgrace. The wrong bloke has copped the bullet.

Why on earth would we put all the effort in to securing Warnock and then play him as an emergency to Jamar? If Grimes and Maric can't make the starting 22 next year, our recruiting or development has failed, maybe both.

Pity fans aren't recruiters.

At the same time, I haven't seen any clubs surge from 10th to a premiership on the back on an extra late first round draft pick, which is about the best you'd get for Green or Bruce. The question is therefore which is more valuable ... a known quantity that provides experience and leadership for a limited period of time (say 3-4 years) while we rebuild, or an unknown quantity of an extra draft pick that could be anything from a 10-year star to a 2-year dud?