SidVicious

I expect our squad for this week to be weaker than the one that went to Darwin with at least James Strauss, Colin Sylvia, Ricky Petterd, Liam Jurrah and Jordan Gysberts Jeremy out injured and Addam Maric and Daniel Nicholson possibly at Casey. Port might be strengthened a little with Butcher in form but they have probably lost the two Cornes boys. From memory, Chad was probably their best.

Often, the clubs that get in early in such situations end up getting the player. If he wants to come back home as some reports have indicated then I hope we can entice him with our promise for the future. To do that we also need to be well advanced in our search for a coach as well. Of course, all it needs is for GWS to show interest and they'll blow everyone else out of the water with a ridiculous offer.

One thing he does have is the formula to beat Melbourne. Even when his team was in the doldrums this year, they still managed to give us a 10 goal flogging.

Cheers, A Freudian slip of the typewriter but I think I may become famous now for coining a new term in sports recruiting!

The fact is that we also have players on our list who we perceive to be NQR so a trade might just prove to be a win - win. On top of that, there have been knocks on players for various reasons that have led to them being spurned by clubs but they turned out to be the goods when taken by others. Luke Ball's hammy was shot and he couldn't get depth in his kicking. Andrew Swallow's disposal was questionable. Jack Darling was a bad egg who was supposed to have suffered brain damage in a brawl. I'm not suggesting we blindly take players without going through dud diligence. What I do say is that get a bit more proactive with our trading efforts because we've sat by for years and done very little while our own players are constantly mentioned as targets of other clubs.

Way back in early 2009 the two hottest young prospects were Tom Scully from the Dandenong Stingrays and John Butcher of the Gippsland Power. Scully's star rose throughout the season and he was easily #1 pick at the national draft but Butcher's season was hot and cold and he drifted out to #8 where he was taken by Port Adelaide. Butcher made his debut at the weekend and was probably his team's only highlight but, like Scully, the kid's out of contract at year's end. And he's a 197cm key position forward! Now, normally I would say that players such as Butcher would be out of bounds for ethical reasons but if there's one lesson to be learned from this year, it's that any out of contract player is open slather. Butcher is a Maffra boy and we're a club that's reaching out to the Gippsland region via it's association with the Casey Scorpions. The point that I'm making is that it's time for the club to strike back. Others have been making approaches to our players. Scully, Sylvia. Martin and Gawn have been targets of other clubs. Now's the time for us to get on the front foot. Let's bring John Butcher back home!

Quoting from the article it says - "Scully's father, Phil, has links with Sydney, having worked in talent identification for the Swans in recent years." What would happen if it transpires that young Tom skips to GWS and the father gets a gig in talent identification for the Giants? Just throwing it up for discussion.

Sylvia for Hannebery. Straight swap.

I have the greatest respect for Wayne Schimmelbusch as well and no doubt his allegiance to Norf had nothing to do with his decision but whatever happened to the principle about "justice seeing to be done". As a former player of the club agaisnt who the Dees are playing this week, should he not have removed himself from the tribunal?

Virtually the same story regurgitated two days later in Dees' magic flickers. Either it's a quiet week at the Age whose circulation figures are plummeting or she's acquired the same double standards as the political journos at Fairfax or both. She's quite entitled to give her views in opinion pieces but this is really a case of drawing a long bow from the fact that this is the last year of Bailey's contract which we all know only too full well ... and it's boring.

... that, or possibly someone in the near vicinity farted seconds before the picture was taken.

I think the THE Mike Sheahan comes from the way Gerrard Healey describes him on their Foxtel on the coach programme.

This will be a perfect test for us at this stage of the season. Essendon had close to their best lineup on the park and are obviously in winning mode after their annus horribilus in 2010. I would rather that we take them on in front of a large crowd at Etihad Stadium than a half-baked St. Kilda with star players missing in a game that would not prove a test for our players. It could be worse. We might have had to play a NAB Challenge practice match against GWS at Mt. Panorama in Bathurst or GC17 on a crocodile infested ground in Daintree in the middle of a cyclone.

Were there any cameras involved?

I don't mean to be disrespectful but does this mean his "brother" in the biological sense or in terms of the fact that the families come from a close knit community with a strong feeling of kinship for each other?

If this article was allowed to appear on the AFL's site then you can be sure that Andy Demetriou approves of its content. The AFL el supremo has been conspicuously silent on the Scully rumours and now we know what he's thinking on the issue.

Meh. In my book, he's simply another of several hundred who play for clubs other than the one I support. Not only that but his new club has gone and given him the number 17 jumper once worn by the oldest man I ever saw playing the game. He's in a good place for old and decrepit footballers who have no faith in the own capacity to hold their place in a team. Give me a team full of young, hard and ambitious players any day.

Don't tell me we're thinking of drafting Mark Twain?

Wonaeamirri -Gregory Cup up for grabs

This time two years ago the kid from the Western Jets was the big bolter of the AFL draft pool. Despite his diminutive stature and that stocky build, the pundits were speaking of the hirsute youngster in hushed tones of reverence and the words, "top five pick" were constantly being associated with his name. Some even believed he might be selected at number one in the 2008 AFL National Draft ahead of Jack Watts and Nick Naitanui. All that changed when news of the "incident" hit the football world like a sledgehammer but last week when Vanderlay was released on parole after serving 18 months of a two year sentence. Unfortunately, his release from custody came a handful of days too late for him to be claimed by the Gold Coast Suns as a player previously nominated for the Draft under rule 35.5. One source close to the Suns indicated that if available, he would have found a new home at the Lexus Centre as part of the Krakouer deal and a rumour was circulating that he had been wearing the famous black and white stripes for some time in anticipation of his comeback. However, a prison officer has squashed this rumour stating under cover of anonymity that the gear was in fact standard prison issue at Port Phillip Prison. If we don't get a KPF, I hope we go for him with pick 12!

Whatever the case, it's very clear that the compensation is inadequate and I would expect the 16 exisitng clubs to put up a case to the AFL for increased compensation in the future. I don't believe Geelong got anywhwere near enough for Gary Ablett and if ever there was proof in the eating of the pudding it had to be the fact that Hawthorn used its Campbell Brown compensation pick to get ... David Hale!!! Brown was a premiership player, All Australian (?) and a regular top five team player and Hale spent half of the last two seasons in the VFL. I hope Cam Schwab reads this and takes this up with the powers that be at the AFL because if those [snip]s from GWS take one of our players next year I would want quid pro quo by way of replacement.

I am also looking forward to the book's release and I trust that it will open up a whole new vista to many of the club's younger supporters who don't realise what an unbelievable treasure Ronald Dale Barassi was and is to our club.

Looking at players from unusual places:- Contrasting youngsters hope they caught the eye of AFL scouts These blokes sound like potential rookie draft prospects but another interesting aspect of the article is the reference to the recruitment of Andrew Leoncelli and the McDonalds in the mid 1990s from the amateurs -

Why? If you disagree with someone else's views are you unable to answer with a logical and reasoned response? Surely, that's what a forum like this is all about.

Strangely enough it's exactly the type of idiotic comments that LL is referring to that led to threats of legal action and closed down the Hawthorn supporter website Hawk Headquarters a few years ago.