mauriesy

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.

Ask again in a few years when we can finally compare the careers of players like Daniel Bell (for Shane Woewoedin), Lynden Dunn (for Darren Jolly) and 2007 Pick 14 (for Travis Johnstone). At the moment it looks like more upside than downside to me. Especially if the culture of this club shifts from "flash-in-the-pan laissez-faire" to something more solid, based on the rewards of hard work and application.

Probably not from the delistings. Just remember that all the other club's delistings are their Godfreys, Wards, Fergusons and Nevilles. If one thing impresses me though, it's everyone's faith in eternal hope ... hope that a player will turn it around at a new club after years on a list, hope that a new coach will get the best out of a player and make them something they weren't before, hope that a different position might suit a player better, hope that improved fitness will see a player blossom where he couldn't before. Unfortunately it's like working over an abandoned gold mine. There might be a few specks, but most is the same old mullock.

Just to refresh memories, here is the list of delistings from 2006. Adelaide: Ben Hart, Hayden Skipworth, Chad Gibson, Alan Obst Brisbane: Clark Keating, Jayden Attard Carlton: Cory McGrath, Troy Longmuir, Trent Sporn, Callum Chambers, Justin Davies, Ian Prendergast, Luke Livingston Collingwood: Cameron Cloke, Jason Cloke, David Fanning, Adam Iacobucci, Julian Rowe, Brent Hall Essendon: Tristan Cartledge, Joel Reynolds, Adam Ramanuskas, Austin Lucy Fremantle: Daniel Haines, Michael Warren, Benet Copping Geelong: Kent Kingsley, Matthew McCarthy, Paul Koulouriotis Hawthorn: Josh Thurgood, Harry Miller, Luke Brennan, Nick Ries, Matthew Ball Kangaroos: Troy Makepeace, Chad Jones, Cameron Thurley, Mark Powell Melbourne: Shannon Motlop, Phillip Read, Nick Smith Port Adelaide: Matthew Bishop, James Ezard, Aaron Shattock, Peter Walsh, Elijah Ware, Ben Eckermann Richmond: Andrew Kellaway, Thomas Roach, David Rodan, Dean Limbach St Kilda: Cain Ackland, Mark McGough, Matthew Ferguson, Allan Murray Sydney: David Spriggs, Andrew Erickson, Earl Shaw, Matthew Davis, Josh Willoughby West Coast: Travis Gaspar, Damien Adkins, Brad Smith Western Bulldogs: Brad Murphy, Adam Morgan, Keiren McGuinness, Jesse Wells How many of those, with the exception of Rodan (and Ramanuskas who was rookie listed due to health), were worth anything, or even did anything at a new club? Delisted players are dead men walking.

Rodan is one exception. But ... he did for Port Adelaide in the Grand Final what he did at Richmond all the time he was there ... basically his skills wilted under pressure. I have no problem discussing delisted players, provided we're a bit judicious about who we discuss. But every year people on this board dredge up delisted players (either they're second-rate, have serious issues, are washed up or are chronically injured) and seriously ask if they're worth anything, almost as if by ritual immediately after trade week. It's like the first cuckoo of Spring. This year it's Whitnall, Johnson and Sampi. Last year's cuckoos were the Clokes and Kent Kingsley. History shows all would have been a huge waste of list space. When our club's stated "forward-looking" objective is to concentrate on developing young players, and we still have one or two too many players at the "aged" end of our list, I can't understand why posters here would even bother contemplating any over-the-hill aging players.

Gee, let's ask if every over the hill, injury prone de-listed player is "worth a punt". Delisted is synonymous with rejected by another club. Why would we want any of them?

There were lots of reports about Travis Johnstone (and Daniel Ward) having gambling debts and owing a lot of money to Simon Beasley a few years ago. Caroline Wilson even won a Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for Best Sports Story in any Medium, for her story “Demons Trio in Betting Scandal” in 2004.

This is a myth, at least for the last two years. Johnstone's Kicking Efficiency (69%) is well below players like Daniel Bell (75%), James McDonald (74%), Paul Wheatley (82%), Brad Green (80% and best at Melbourne for a midfielder) and Matthew Bate (77%). And before you say "yeah, but he tries to pull off impossible kicks", I can't remember too many dinky chip kicks being a major feature of the other players I've mentioned that would exaggerate their stats. Johnstone's KE was even below Simon Godfrey (70%) and Daniel Ward (75%), our two whipping boys for turnovers.

So, assuming we pick up half a dozen 18-year-olds in the draft, how much have we lowered the average age of the team by since round 22?

Hang on while I make a team of Top 10 picks that were crap ... Sampi, Molan, Walsh, Bradley, Tenace, Chris Egan in recent drafts just for starters. What point exactly are you making with these teams? The chances of a good pick are never 100%, even for pick 1 (we might get a dud for pick 14). They are probably something like 95% for pick 1, 90% for top 5, 75% for first round, 60% for second round, 50% for third round and <40% for fourth round and later. So the chances diminish the further down the picks you go, until the fourth round is nearly all speculative. That's the luck of the process ... educated guessing. Until you realise that, logic goes out the window when trying to make any sense at all of good or failed picks.

Couldn't you sneak in Russell Robertson? I think he was rookied at one stage.

All rookies? What about an "above 60 pick team"? Put in Hird and Bruce for starters.

I seem to remember Colin Sylvia getting 1 handball in his first match.

I'm wondering who exactly they might be. We're left with Robertson, Neitz, Yze, McDonald, White and Holland at the "aged" end. The "more mature" players are now Whelan, Carroll, Bruce, Green, Ferguson and Wheatley. They're the only ones left in the 25-28 group!

E-mail the club giving your support to their decision and long-term objectives.

Gee, you really missed the point on that one, didn't you?

Then e-mail the club giving your support to their decision and long-term objectives. I just did.

Conversely, if our best 22 in 2007 still contained Woewoedin, Jolly, Armstrong and Bishop, would we be any better off?

For what it's worth, I agree with your points on TJ. He is the ultimate enigma, the flawed genius. TJ could stand up when he needed to. Then just as quickly he'd be gone. There are two games I can specifically remember, both against Essendon. One was the Qualifying final in 2004. The second was the "Neale Daniher farewell" game this year. In both, TJ was instrumental in an amazing 7-goal third quarter comeback. Played like a man possessed. Then just as quickly, when the pressure was really on and the game was there to be won, he disappeared.

So TJ can go to Brisbane without the need to even think about leadership. He'll be able to play in a midfield where all the leadership is assumed by others. He probably will do well in those circumstances. What he is really saying is that he found the idea of any leadership too difficult at Melbourne when that's exactly what we needed. He was never a member of the leadership group (and was never really mature enough to be). I don't think a bit of leadership was too much to expect from a 10-year player picked at #1.

I didn't say Bruce doesn't have his faults. But you firstly called him an "idiot", now you call him "oft slack". Bruce is as hard a runner on the field as any player in the Melbourne side ... he reaches the "gut running ideal" more than anyone at Melbourne (maybe that's why we don't want to trade him). He also trains for it. If players like TJ and Yze ran as hard as Bruce they'd be twice the players they are now.