mauriesy

I see the first benefit rock concert to save North Melbourne is already being put in place as we speak.

Geez, Ben Cousins might be stupid, but this is the media at its very worst. The innuendo is staggering ... of course the woman would have to be "mysterious", "blonde", "leggy", and "always have men coming and going from her place".

We have five of our last six games at the MCG. That's gotta be a better finish than previous years.

Anthony Koutoufides is absolutely scathing of Denis Pagan's approach in The Herald-Sun this morning. "Denis just wasn't the right man for the Carlton coach job. His basic methods of coaching -- kick long and direct -- differed dramatically from that of Wayne Brittain's. It was if the clock had been turned back. Denis's game plan was based on long kicking. There were fewer possessions (my average of 20 touches a game dropped to around nine) and players became disillusioned." Koutoufides said Pagan's approach to the game plan and even training had frustrated the players ... "We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was. Good on Denis for trying something that he believed in, but the game had gone past the old days of kicking the ball long to a contest." If a team wants to win a premiership, they need an element of run and carry in their game. Geelong did it superbly. It breaks lines, applies pressure and moves the ball too quickly for the opposition to man up. Sure it looks totally inept when it's done badly, but unless a team institutes some of the technique, they will be doomed to a low possession, ineffective game like Pagan's Carlton.

Apart from being a good ex-player, for a board member those qualifications are pretty damn impressive!

Does he even know what a serif is?

The Age Real Footy this morning: Probe puts Pratt's presidency in doubt The apparent issue is the Victorian Gambling Regulation Act and an application by Pratt. Carlton has about 100 poker machines.

And Craig hasn't? No one has given me any good comparative data yet. I can't see why it's ridiculous in terms of someone criticising a recruiter's records to be asked to try it in real time, rather than a few years down the track ... recruiters don't have the benefits of a player's post-career when they make their decisions, unlike the person making the post-critique. The success rate even for a good recruiter is way less than 100%, and it's even worse for KPPs taken after the top 5, whether it's CAC or anyone else. Try the perspective from Craig's shoes, rather than making some armchair criticism years later. For what it's worth, given all the available information and Melbourne's needs, at the time I like a lot of others thought Chris Lamb and Luke Molan filled the bill. You win some, you lose some.

Yet your criticisms of previous drafts are entirely based on hindsight. How about the evening after the 2007 draft, you pick the players you would have taken with our picks i.e. the ones that CAC would have had available and didn't pick, as opposed to the ones he did. Then in about 2010, we can look back at your list and see if you were any better. Up to it?

So why do you translate a totally unsubstantiated rumour into an opportunity to bag the club, as if it's true?

Looks like surname discrimination strikes again! My surname is down the very bottom of the alphabet. When I was a kid at school, the teachers used to say "right, when I call your name you can go", then tick down the roll alphabetically. Used to annoy me no end because I was always one of the last to get let out. Maybe I'll have to change my surname to Aaron by deed poll.

Well, there's a host of top 10 picks in the recent Collingwood list (Thomas #2, Pendlebury #5, Reid #8, Brown #10, Egan #10) that weren't available to CAC, so they're not necessarily comparable. We only had Jones #12 and Frawley #12. To be less biased, you'd go back a little further and include McLean (#5) and Sylvia (#3) in your Melbourne list and compare them against Brent Hall, Brayden Shaw and Billy Morrison. I think CAC's recent record with late first round picks (#12-#15) is pretty damn good (Bell, Bate, Dunn, Jones, Frawley). Add in Petterd at #30, Newton at #43 and Bartram at #60 and I have no issues with his past 5-year performance. And unless you measure CAC's performance against all other club recruiters, against draft picks both available at the time and subsequent, and against some sort of objective measurement (e.g. games played) you are all chasing your tails.

More like moving to a market four times larger.

So the latest is that the passenger (not Cousins) in the car (driven by Chick) has been charged with possessing cocaine and cannabis. Not ICE, and not Viagra! Police have said that questioning of Chick and his passenger had led to raids on two homes which uncovered quantities of cocaine, cannabis, methylamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. The passenger was charged with possessing prohibited drugs, namely cocaine and cannabis, and possessing a smoking implement.

Here's a Google Maps image of the site of the stadium. The stadium site is called "Edwin Flack Park" by some and was once a greyhound track but is now just an oval with carparks. CollingwoodFC like to call it "Bob Rose Oval", and used it for outdoor training. If you zoom out once to a wider view, you'll see that west (left) of the new stadium site is the athletics track and rugby stadium, which I believe stays for the moment (at least it is depicted in one of the views Finks posted). There might be some argument about its redevelopment in the future. West of that again is the Lexus Centre (the old Olympic Swimming Pool just off the Yarra River), which is CollingwoodFC's admin and training centre. The two ovals east of the new stadium site, across the carparking area, are Gosch's Paddock. That's where Collingwood train outdoors now that the stadium is being built, and what we will "share" for outdoor training. It's much further from the Lexus Centre to Gosch's Paddock than it is from the new stadium. Poor Collingwood. The MelbourneFC indoor training facilities (shared with Storm and Victory), along with our football administration, will be built as part of the new stadium. That puts us very close (at last) to our home ground MCG, which if you zoom out again, you can't miss just north across the railway line.

Do you know when construction is actually due to commence? Has it started already? Any plans/concepts of the actual MFC training and administration bit?

I don't think cartel price fixing is a criminal matter under the Trade Practices Act. It's a fine on corporations for breaching the provisions of the Act. Therefore I also don't think it can lead to disqualification as a company director ... because it's neither a criminal offence (for example fraud) nor an offence against the Companies Act (for example trading while insolvent or improper use of one's position). I'm sure the barristers will correct me if I'm wrong.

From the Australian Drug Foundation's Drug Info Clearing House entry on ICE: "How is it used? Ice is known to be smoked, swallowed, snorted, injected or inserted anally (“shafting”). Some people smoke ice using a glass pipe, while others heat it on aluminium foil and inhale the vapours (“chasing”)."

Thurgood has been delisted by Hawthorn twice. Maybe if we picked him up, at the end of 2008 he could be the only player in the history of the AFL to be delisted three times.

Yes. Here's what I sent to the club in support in respect of some of the vitriol the club was apparently receiving about trading him. "As a Melbourne member, I just wanted to give my support for your decision to trade Travis Johnstone. Although I very much enjoyed watching Travis play over the years and am sorry in a way to see him go, I can appreciate that trading and drafting is a long-term process and we need to keep sight of the bigger picture. The focus on youth will stand us in good stead in the long run, and I am excited by our developing young talent pool. We needed desperately to renew the list while still keeping the promising and upcoming talent, and the post-season list management has been decisive. Here's hoping we snare more good young talent in the draft, especially with pick 14!" Hope that explains my position. You can only take what you are offered. If you don't think it's enough, you decline the trade. I think Pick 14 in the circumstances was thereabouts for TJ, given the position we'd find ourselves in next year if we didn't do it (contract up, faced with renewal, TJ could potentially walk straight into the PSD). I'm also happy with the "culture" issue. Remember that TJ was still under contract and he agreed, despite the fact that it felt like "leaving home" to him. Maybe he could see the benefits of getting outside his own comfort zone too. Bit off the topic of Miller.

Gifted and talented but lazy and erratic. Hmmm ... which recently departed Melbourne player does that remind me of?

Bartram has played the same number of games as Dunn.

For a team to continue progressing, it needs to inject new blood. Every year some new players will progress into the "best 22", a couple will probably regress. Most posters here haven't listed any new players over what we could have picked from in 2007 (disregarding our huge injury list). I'd expect by mid-way through next season to see a couple of new names in our "best 22". Buckley has a good show, others could be Bode, Meesen or Garland. Conversely, I wouldn't be surprised if some players (for example Whelan or Moloney) fall out, either through injury or inconsistency. My tip is that Dunn especially will establish himself regularly in our best 22 throughout the year, either in the midfield or on a wing. Most of you have him as an emergency or interchange at best, for some conservative reason.

You were the one who asked "When we will ever be big winners in trade week?" The Bell and Dunn trades will provide an answer to that question, at some stage in the near future. So it's not "validating", more like just previous example. And if McLean, Jones or Sylvia ever reach Johnstone's level of comfort and nonchalance, I wouldn't complain about trading them either (but certainly not until then!). Quite clearly, Johnstone's trading was not simply a response to how he played in Game X or polled in Game Y.

I couldn't ever see Ferguson stopping a player like Richo, as Nicho did so well in the "Nathan Brown broken leg" game.