Nasher

Agree Rogue and BRFE. I read an article in the HS where Barry Prendergast was quoted (on the morning of the draft, prior to it taking place) as saying we would be looking at Blease and Johnston with 17 and 19, and would take Strauss should one of them be gone. Almost prophetic words really.

I'm 176cm and at one point weighed about 65kgs, and at that point I was I was very, very skinny. A body that size would get utterly mauled at AFL level.

I thought it was a bit rich too. That good and at 20, is on the fringe of a VFL club! 180 cm is pretty small for an AFL player, but he's not exactly a dwarf. 68kg would be the worry. That is about as lightweight as you're likely to see on an AFL list.

We don't have a single player on our list that opposition fear. Not one. In Davey's first season he terrorized a few defenders with his rundowns, but most teams have a player that does that now. We've got a lot of players that slot nicely in the 6-22 positions in a side and crap all to fill 1-5. I really hope Col steps up this year. I actually thought he had a reasonable year in 2008 anyway.

That's exactly what I thought too. Given that he's no chance to go at #1, we're actually going to be the last club to get a bite at him. I also remember a few years ago one of our young players being stunned to be taken by Melbourne because they'd barely spoken to him at all in the leadup. I can't remember who it was though. Either way, not having spoken to him (yet) doesn't mean we're not interested.

At the ripe old age of 24, his body is utterly wrecked. Worse than you see in most of the 35+ AFL players who have recently retired. What a sad story. I had no idea the extent of the injuries he suffered. He definitely has my respect. I agree that the taunting he gets about his draft position is pretty low as well.

He apparently died about 18 years ago

I understand why mo and Jack are circumspect in this case. Mo's absolutely right in that it's impossible to quantify the role of assistant coaches from the outside. We're never going to know whether West is actually any good in this role or not. Especially since he's only on part time. However the reason I am excited about his appointment is two-fold. Firstly, we know for a fact that West knows his stuff. He was one of the best in the business, and he's got some decent praise from people who would know about his abilities as a teacher. It's no guarantee that he'll be of any use, but it's a very promising start. Secondly, our theme for this year has been having high profile footy people tell us to get stuffed when we've tried to pull them in. Something must've attracted West to us over anyone else. That's pretty good news in itself I think.

I hope it's the turning point because his career is currently in freefall due to his body. I had high hopes for him at one stage. At this point I'm just hoping for a serviceable midfielder out of him.

I really doubt it would happen, but I'd be spewing if Neaves or Ferguson signed on for Casey. Ideally we'd want as few people holding up the 'rare' spots like the ruck or key position defence as possible. Brown's another story though. He's a dime-a-dozen runner who most likely wouldn't be holding up the spot for anyone worth their salt, and he's a favourite son of the club who oozes leadership and would die for his teammates. I'd welcome him with open arms.

If it's West then I'm absolutely stoked. He was one of my favourite players outside MFC -- a no-nonsense insider who was probably the best in the business at the quick handball. If he's as good a teacher as people would have you believe then that's even better. I reckon our mids need all the help they can get at the moment. Again, if true, it's a big win for the club.

The source on 'ology is wheres_jacka. Anyone who knows Demonology knows he is the biggest bullshit artist on the internet. He makes Yze_Magic look like Nostradamus. If wheres_jacka said it's true, you can bet your house that it isn't.

Fantastic, perhaps when he does it'll just about cover his own salary. While these appointments seem like great news on paper, I can't help but wonder why we're hiring more suits when we're still in massive financial strife, not to mention tough economical times. These guys will be on big salaries. They will need to improve the bottom line by however many hundreds of thousands of dollars they cost just to cover their own expense. Hrmm.

Thanks Luke. Some here might like the opportunity to offer an apology of their own, though most seemed to agree that it was a hoax anyway. I've split your post off in to a topic of its own, and deleted the original thread. No need to keep it now given it was based some tool having a lend.

Now he plays cricket for Australia

From where I sit, the only difference is the spin factor. I would interpret those two statements exactly the same way.

I have a hard time holding it against Stynes for that comment. I can see why it would be perceived as waving the white flag, but I doubt anyone in the entire world of footy believe the result will be any different anyway. I think the link that has been drawn between the president's expectations (or even the footy boss or the coach's), and the effort that is to be applied by the footy department across the board is tenuous at best. For me it's just an honest assessment of where we're at, and it's one I find pretty hard to dispute.

Is it April Fools already?

...in a draft that will surely go down as the worst in the modern era. I'm a little surprised at the massive overreaction from some. I can't see this as any more than a pretty average employee seeking better employment opportunities elsewhere.

Nah, there's no harm in those being there. And you never know when one of those members might actually use their account, or if they use it to read, PM etc but never actually post.

In an attempt to clean up all the false user accounts (in the order of thousands), I did a bulk delete of ALL the accounts registered within the last 3 months. Unfortunately that means I killed a small handful of legimate ones in the process. If this affects you, you'll need to sign up again. Sorry.

I've upgraded the software. There seems to be a few quirks in the skins now, so let me know if anything nasty crops up. Hopefully the spammers are sorted once and for all though. We'll see...

There might be a way to stop them from posting until I can get the forum upgrade done. It's just a matter of finding the time to get it all done. I've barely had a spare second over the last few weeks, other than for a post here and there. Of the active mods: Wise Monkey - recruited by Finks Jaded - Recruited by Finks Rhino Richards - Put his hand up when new forum was created mickrocks - Recruited by Finks Fan - Recruited by Finks Nasher - usurped the position by hostile takeover :D Rogue - Recruited by Nasher QueenC - Recruited by Nasher

That argument might (might) hold water once, but I have a bit of trouble swallowing the argument that two coaches got it wrong. I'd say that Bailey's reluctance to utilise CJ only vindicates Daniher's attitude towards him.