Late Draft Pick

I've really enjoyed these comments on leadership and our new direction. I am so pleased to see Bartram and Clark in the leadership group. It just makes this team so unrecognisable from what we are used to. And it makes it such a break from the past. Whilst I love Beamer, I still remember an intra-club practice match I went to where Newton had just arrived at the club. Beamer was giving him a serve for not taking a mark. This I felt at the time was an old style sort of leadership that most players now would see as demeaning. "You've got to toughen them up etc". And yet the article I read in the Age this morning had Grimes and Trengrove talking about empathy. I really can't help thinking of the difference between the Fighting Instinct, that Beamer, when pushed to it, can show in heaps, as opposed to the Fighting Spirit which I see in Trengove and Grimes - a spirit that is not based on immediate emotion but a real respect for those around them and for the challenges at hand, including a respect for the opposition. And it's not actually about being media savie and presentable but this spirit that comes through when these guys front the media. And btw Aaron Davey broke his leg at the end of the 2010 season and it still hasn't healed - you'll see he still has it strapped. And yet he was the guy who got 3 votes for each of the Collingwood games that year. And since that game is the only one I still have in HD, I remember that both Bate and Morton played great games; I still think there's lots left in all three of them.

And yet, Ickey, I don't see why GWS wouldn't want to get a pick around 12 - 14 in a very strong draft for nothing - they won't be able to save it for another year. It's last year or this year for the mini draft. Also - Viney must be taken with one of our picks - not with one of our Compensatory picks. And Stretch - who I am very interested in, will be available two years after Viney.( A year after we get that champion in the mini draft I hope) - and if he turns out well that will be three great years of recruiting for the club especially if we can get something special with the money saved over front-end loaded salaries in the free agency.

I don't think we always need to get rid of players to have a pick in the Draft. I'm sure it's possible to put some players on the Rookie List. For instance if there were a couple of young players that it was felt were still a year off playing senior football. Also, as the year progresses we'll probably find out if there are any brilliant 17 year olds we might be interested in in the Mini Draft. We'll have a stronger hand hopefully than last year as no team in a strong draft is likely, as Gold Coast did last year (pick 4?), to give up an early Compensatory pick to GWS in order to enter the mini draft. I'd give up both compensatory picks if there was a champion out there, and in that way get valuable recompense for the player we lost to GWS.

that's funny because I liked that quote but instead of reading that they were going to ditch talented players I read it that these talented players with all this offensive talent were going to be better for it in a year or two.

Good post, but don't forget it's Moloney and Trengove

Interesting article on the heraldsun web page today by M. Sheahan pointing out what could be going on down at the bottom end of the ladder and calling it an anomaly that WC e after playing in two grand finals and coming 5th in 07 are now lining up for their second season in a row of special treatment, pointing out that they don't need this welfare.

I was interested to hear others reactions about today as we rode home on the train. someone has mentioned Bruce as starring when he shouldn't; I couldn't help saying fstuff you Robbo when he kicked that goal before 3/4 time. We will see what we are made of over the next 4 weeks. But in order to prevent the darker side sinking into despair on the train I held on to the idea that Our first 4 draft picks from last year didn't play today is it possible that our onballers are still just developing into one hell of a unit (yes we always look good against port here) We might still pick up another great player at say pick 4. But what the hell; we don't throw away opportunities like this looking great against a side that just didn't come to play (sorry Mick). This is the pain the Pres promised us this year - but it's not the pain of copping losses but the pain of all this being out of our hands; our worst year ever. But great to see Petterd adn Jurrah.

Poor old West Coast. Someone forgot to tell Natanui that they were tanking. but with 4 teams just above us on the ladder with 4 or less wins there is no way I am looking for a win this Saturday. And as for our form over the last month. If ever there was a team that was going to hit a brick wall in the last month it was Melbourne, who started the pre season so long ago and who put every thing into being competitive over the pre season and the early matches with such a young team. I just don't think it is the time to be evaluating every player and every piece of play. No one is going to look that good with very little going on about them. And don't forget, there are other teams apart from those four above us who could quite easily decide to put the queue in the rack. It is not just up to Dean Bailey to decide to list manage and everything will be fine.

What an odd weekend. All the players I enjoyed watching on tv against Werribee and then at Princes Park v the Bullants won't be playing. But I'll still watch this match on the telly for the other players mentioned. I watched McKenzie even more than Jurrah vs Bullants (you couldn't miss Jurrah majestcially patrolling the forward line) and I will watch McKenzie again tomorrow as well as Maric.

Every now and again a player comes around and for some reason he is criticised for absolutely no reason. He works harder off the ball than any of our forwards, he is the best marker of the footy on our list and is just in a bad time in terms of kicking conversion. People want watts to debut, but i cant see it happening when Newton is playing the way we want watts too. Absolutely ripping it up for the past month

thanks for that; it's great to get that info about Wona and Buckley. I'm so sorry for Buckley because I wanted to see him get games this year more than any other player, just to get more feel for the game and hopefully bring his particular skills into our game.

English is clearly his second language so give the guy a break.

Er, so much for my memory. That's one story I won't tell again.

, its a shame mark riley and the MFC 2yrs ago couldnt see that, hes at the blues now, jonno had 42 touches in that and was traded, what a joke a little pain for alot of gain.

Strauss has just been suspended for a week after charging in the Casey reserves last weekend. According to Bailey, apart from Bail, Strauss was more advanced than the other rectuits in terms of his development, and was therefore expected to play some games this year.

Knee injury Thanks. Grimes apparently got 16 possessions last weekend which surprised me (as well as pleased me) as i mainly saw him (on the TV) sitting on the bench. He did get about 26 in that practice match with the Swans. It's funny you say MFC will pay for it leaving Newton out. MFC will pay heavily for it if they win this game, not that I won't want to see a competitive showing. But if we beat them over there, we'll beat them over here later in the season. And that will leave only one more win allowed for the season if we are interested in strengthening the team with an additional very good footballer. This is one of those weeks that I just want to game to be over with. It will bring WCE up to 3 wins. We aren't going to win the Premiership this year.

I've skimmed through the other threads and I didnt find out what is wrong with Wonna that he is out for 5-6 weeks. Can anyone help me there?

The west Aus teams will both win more than 4. I heard Harvey on the radio interviewed late last night. Smart man. Like DB starting from scratch.

Sam Blease, if it is ONLY the Fibula, will be more than fine, he will be OK. The Fibula is not a load bearing bone. Thanks for that Dee-luded; without that feedback I'd still be in the dark. Best news I've heard all morning.

My guess is that when Meesen puts it down the throat of a Melbourne player who is immediately tackled, leading to another ball up, (which happens alot) then that is registered as ineffective. It also doesn't mean that he's putting down the throat of an opposition player.

Is the comedy festival still on? Juice got a game what a joke

Understand your sentiments steveheals but after having so many good seasons under Daniher some of us are starting to see the possibility of winning a premiership. It's an uneven playing feild out there and we have had enough of it with interstate teams having a start of 11 (or 12) homegames each year and Collingwood playing all their games at home apart from the odd one. We were supposed to be worst team ever last year and yet we accounted for three interstate teams. And Geelong had the massive gift of champion father'son picks. It will never mean we go out there to lose games but while we are learning about different players we can at least be patient for a year; for those who have waited a long time that is not much when you can really enjoy watching the young fellas.