Nasher

From what I can ascertain, the changes are: In: Salem, J.Smith, Wilson, Collis, Moncrieff Out: Terlich (susp). I would expect the final teams to be just Salem for Terlich, unless they decide to play Smith for one of the Casey players (Morris/Munro/McInernie) but that to me seems unlikely.

The motivation for my six year old was just that I was doing it. He's been watching with me (on TV) probably for a couple of years, and I'm pretty sure it was just to spend time with me. It's probably only just now that he's developing a taste for it on his own, kicking a footy with mates at school and talking about playing. I wouldn't take little tackers to the footy in the dead of winter unless they were really champing at the bit to go, too many mood turners in that environment as you've seen for yourself, which will sour the experience for everyone and will really shape their perception. My advice would be not to force it, and when he does decide to tag along make it fun. Get excited if the game is exciting and he'll follow your lead. If the game sucks, or we're getting flogged or whatever, find some other way to make it fun ("ah well, we lost by 120 points again, let's get ice cream instead"). It also may be that he's just not be in to it. As I said, my eldest two kids (a girl and a boy) don't give a rats about it at all, and I truly don't feel like I've lost anything for it, which would come as a surprise to 2009 issue me. Take an interest in whatever interests them instead.

Agreed. I've got to wonder if PJ just threw that in for a laugh; I can't see any other motivation. Who hasn't on occasion got some kicks from throwing a hand grenade at someone known to be volatile? I have visions of PJ sitting in his office just having a chuckle after hearing Ed's comments.

That's the way I see it too. If we find ourselves using the word 'punt' when it comes to recruiting a player, I become instantly skeptical.

Goodwin in his first press conference as senior coach as we speak. https://twitter.com/melbournefc Melbourne FC ‏@melbournefc 2m2 minutes ago Goodwin: The NAB Challenge gave me confidence about being a senior coach. I've got a real sense of energy about the role.

He'd be feeling relieved and excited and nervous I'd think. Moving on from this sorry saga starts today. Good luck to him. People have their views on him as a player, but for me, I've erased all past views and biases, go in with an open mind and am looking forward to seeing what he can add.

So, since this post, said 1 year old son is now 8 and claims to follow Hawthorn (vomit), but his interest is very close to zero so I let it slide. I've also added two more boys to the mix (6 and 4) who have taken quite an interest and brainwashing has been well established, both definite Melbourne supporters. My 10 year old daughter openly admits zero interest and rolls her eyes and scoffs whenever it is on. As for the wife, she still hasn't made it to the 'G yet, but she went with me to see MFC play North at Blundstone this year, which she enjoyed, and is far more tolerant of my footy watching on weekends, mostly because I've learned to tone down my behaviour significantly due to influence it was having on my children. I think everyone in my family was grateful that we finally won a few games this year.

I know you're only kidding, but I think you've forgotten that Martin was utterly hopeless as a forward and that's why he was traded in the first place.

Isn't that just a standard issue requirement for West Coast players?

If Darling is a squib then so is Cam Pedersen. I don't think one poor effort at a contest should shape opinion on the player. If there was any prevailing view that Darling was a squib prior to the Bulldogs game, I'd not heard it.

Sweet! Choke mentioned you in a topic: Declan Keilty Carry on :-)

Great to hear. It would be easy to get caught up in disappointment or bitterness when the end arrives - I like seeing players recognise what a privileged position they were in and being thankful for it.

One of his family members has been posting here in the VFL threads, might be able to shed some light. Paging @Drunkn167... Never tested out the tagging system on here before, let's see if it works!

If I remember rightly, that was also the draft Carlton were supposed to have pick 1 (Goddard) and 2 (Wells) but lost both due to salary cap sanctions. Super harsh penalty and, combined with some seriously inept administration, helped set them up for years of failure, which they've still barely recovered from. Wasn't it great?

I reckon it would be difficult from the outset to know the right amount of concessions to give though, since the success or otherwise wouldn't follow until half a decade or more later. I think it's pretty easy now to say the AFL overdid it, or even at the time say they were overdoing it, but the AFL would have had to take in to account GWS picking a certain number of poor players, making poor trades and so forth. It's all assumptions and guesswork - there were a wide range of possible outcomes by 2016; a top 4 side is but one. Anyway, just like there were no guarantee that draft concessions would lead to a strong team, there's no guarantee their success will be sustained, there's no guarantee they'll win a flag, and there's no guarantee (although it looks unlikely) that they won't spontaneously fall off a cliff in the next few years. Freo, Port and Gold Coast are great examples of how quickly it can go south if the cards don't fall your way for whatever reason.

Turns 28 at the end of this year. Didn't realise he was that old though.

No VFL club would ever stand in the way of a player getting drafted in to the AFL. It'd be like putting a sign up at their ground saying "don't bother coming and playing here if you have AFL aspirations".

Wonder why Gysberts couldn't manage an MFC polo or jacket - he must have had one by then. An insight in to his idea of professionalism perhaps, or perhaps an insight in to how well (or otherwise) the MFC delivered its expectations of professionalism. And Fitzy just... heh.

How good is Eddie? We LOL at Malthouse for giving us Garlett for free, but that's got nothing on what Adelaide got. Apparently Betts didn't really want to go but the difference in salaries being offered made it a no-brainer. Gee you'd be angry if you were a Carlton fan. If Adelaide continue to get it done then all results have gone the way I wanted this in finals week 1. So far so good.

Fairly decent "plan A" though.

Trav20-Hannibal-Ben Hur-ProDee enforcer25/e25-Keyser Soze-Artie-Jose-Machsy-Mach5 and at least half a dozen others that I know of that got swatted before doing much. Serial pest, seems to behave these days though, so bygones are being bygones.

Haha, that baby-faced little girl turned 10 a few weeks ago. Time is going terrifyingly fast. I went avatarless after 186 - thought it was the best reflection about how I felt at the time. Installed Gus and Trac after the round one win in 2015 - still think it's a pretty good moment single capture for the entire Roos era. Will definitely be on the hunt for a Goodwin era avatar in 2017!

Yes. I'm going to be really disappointed if I ever meet Clint Bizkit and he doesn't look like a cross between Clint Bizzell and Fred Durst.

I love the 'community' aspect of forums. It's what drew me to throw Demonland a lifeline when it was flagging 11 years ago and keep the admin work up, even though I am far more time poor than I was when I took it up. I find I too do build a picture of persona for people who post here a lot that flows through their writing. There are two particularly prolific posters who have been known to open new accounts on occasion. One of those people once accused me of matching IP addresses to spot them, but it's just that for some people, their style of writing is as recognisable as a face to me. To that end, I do notice when people stop coming and I wonder about them, and I'd noted rpfc's absence too. He was a poster I found with opinions that generally aligned with mine, and felt like a mate in the trenches with me during the Scully saga (we lost that battle and the war though). Anyway, I recognise the shallowness of forum relationships since you actually don't know who the person really, but I do find myself going, "gee this is going to wind P_Man up", or "ProDee is probably going to call me a flog for this" or "Samael's posted in the VFL game thread, I'm about to read about how well Michie went"; it's not that different to real human discussion for me. Anyway, as someone who hardly knows any real life Melbourne fans, I love being able to share a common interest with people, learn from people who know far more about footy than me, hopefully put down a strong argument here and there, and share the love when we're winning and look hot. This site has given a more hardcore edge to barracking for and supporting Melbourne than I would have had otherwise.

You used to be able to see their name change history in their profile, but it looks like that's been moved out of the public profile and in to the admin only ones, unless I've missed it. I agree though. There's a guy who currently posts as "Abe" who have had about 10 name changes!