Freak

It comes to the end of the year and Brock McLean states that he wants to be a Demon again and aim to hit the form that he achieved many years ago. Would you take him?

How can anyone justify Watts being in the team before Ricky Petterd? Bizarre. Petterd is clearly double the player at this stage and has shown he can take a better contested mark etc. There is no logical decision to have Watts in the team before Petterd other than of course for player development reasons.

Yet more proof that half the people on this site don't know what they're talking about. 'Why you Little' - gee thats embarrassing. Essendon had the worst of the umpire decisions all day but proved to match it with Collingwood. Essendon didnt even play well yet found themselves 2 points down with 5 mins to go.

trying to be funny, but no

This is not a dig at our recruiting team but I think our recruiting over the last 3-4 seasons has been very much a mixed bag. We picked up Cale Morton at pick 4 in the 07 draft. If we had our time again we wouldn't have done so. We overlooked Cyril Rioli, Patrick Dangerfield and Jarrad Grant to pick him. Pick 14 however went to Jack Grimes however which offsets the poor selection of Morton in my opinion. Whilst his kicking has a lot to be desired for, his overhead marking and 1%'s are great. We also went for maric at pick 21 which hasn't seem to have paid off yet but I still hold hope. Our later picks, Cheney has been traded and McNamara will never get a game. 2008, we picked up Jack Watts which 95% of us have great concerns over. We all probably started off with expectations of him being a superstar but now have probably re-assessed and simply hope for him to be a good player. Not something you want from a pick 1. We overlooked Naitanui(who whilst inconsistent has shown a lot more than Watts), Hill, Hurley, Rich, Sidebottom, etc. This was a bumper crop with Hannerbery, Shuey, Beams and Jack Redden a few others that have been pearlers. We chose Strauss and Blease who have yet to show anything at afl level. 2009. Aced it with Scully and Trengove. Unfortunately, it looks like Scully will be off to the GWS side but what can you do. Trengove is a beauty. Gysberts is a ripper, and whilst his disposals are not great, he is a clearance machine. Also Tapscott has finally started adding weight to my argument that he is our most promising youngster that I claimed as soon as we picked him at 18. A great draft all in all, but disappointing about Scully. Will most likely be a 5 time All-Australian so the sh!t will hit the fan when he leaves and the afl will find a way to compensate melbourne somehow, whether it's behind the scenes or otherwise. 2010. Cook was picked up solely because the recruiting team were not impressed with what Watts has shown thus far. No, he wasn't picked up to be used in conjunction with Watts (ala twin towers), he was picked up because they were concerned Watts wasn't going to cut it. Good news is that Cook has already shown more than Watts at afl. He is so calm under pressure something Watts hasn't improved on since day 1. All in All, I think our poor early choices of Morton, Watts, Scully (not a poor choice, but unlucky choice) as well as Strauss and Maric have been offset by the promising signs of Gysberts, Tapscott, the emergence of Jurrah, and the the development of Trengove. Not to mention the signing of Jack Viney which seems to be some sort of Footy God blessing after losing Scully to GWS.

I got tore up on this site for saying that Grimes and Bate's kicking were major deficiencies. It's always a matter of time until everyone see's where I'm coming from. You lot should be embarassed. No idea how to spot deficiencies. At the same time, no idea how to spot talent. ie. Scully. Scully doesn't have a bad kick, he has an elite kick. When he retires as a GWS player he will go down as being an elite kick.

Martin was on a sporting scholarship to Haileybury and was in the Australian under 18 team during his time there. so pretty handy.

hmmm, i've only been saying this for 2 years. He is very brave and can take a great mark, but I hate the ball in his hands.

How are the dees boys going? Anyone know how Fev went?

Frawley Jurrah Sylvia Davey Jamar Green Scully Petterd Grimes' short kicking to a 50/50 contest means he doesn't make my top 8. Scully, who people criticise as having a poor kick, has an action that will become Elite as early as this season.

hey guys, anywhere online or on the radio where i can listen to this?

FOr those that think it will help memebership. I think thats off the mark. Personally, i think losing Scully would greatly affect our chance of winning a flag. I firmly believe he will be 7-8 or 9 time All-Australian. The 'one player isnt bigger than the club' bulldust is right in theory..but 1 player can de-rail a clubs hopes..and scully would drop our chances dramatically. Brisbane without Aker, Hawthorn without Buddy, St.Kilfa without Riewoldt, Collingwood without Pendlebury..Melbourne without Scully? I still have not got over Scott Thompson going to Adelaide. The club didn't do enough there. more money should have been thrown around. Even at the expense of another player. He was always going to be a gun. We got pick 16 for him :S

I never understand when the management say 'we will hold contract talks at the end of the season so he can concentrate on his football'..Surely signing with the dees now would do exactly that. If he wanted to be a dee, he would come and out and say 'I want to be a dee, but im just waiting for the right offer to come to me from them'.

Yeh well he told me not to worry, it'll be fine re:scully. That said, what do players know? Do they know more than anyone else?

A player from the mfc player told me last night not to worry about scully, he'll be a demon

Look, The scully saga is going to go on for months. So i thought it would be a good idea to start 1 thread. The problem is we can't afford to pay Scully 850,000 plus per season. We can however back-end his contract though right? this means that we pay him less now, but a LOT later. This would be at a time when, if all things go to plan, we should have more members and more money. Also, our other options are to do what judd and Carlton did. Pay Judd a couple hundred thousand to perform an ambassadorial role at visy. We could do the same with Scully. And lastly, what compensation would we get for Scully if we lost him? So ultimately, i dont see why we couldnt keep scully if we back ended his contract as well as offered him a Judd-Visy type job offer. Thoughts?

question is, if we did lose scully..what compensation would we get?

Ok i was at the game here was my take Moloney, Sylvia and Scully were BOG's. And I dont care if Moloney goes long all the time. It's what I want from players anyway. Better long then stuffing it up trying to overuse the footy and short passes that gain no advantage. Stef Martin is massive. i believe that he has to be played in defence, especially with Frawley gone, but oh well I'd still like him in the 22. More coordinated than Spencer will ever be and a lot bigger too. Bate's kicking has had no changes to it, still the awkward drop and after today, i think Howe should replace him. Strauss, Blease and Maric should all be played in the 22. All have great foot skills and it was refreshing to see Strauss kicking a few torps. Most of the time it was a neutral ball about 65m out, instead of a neutral ball 40metres out (Hint to Grimes, dont try and be fancy). Maric was good. Morton has got 'thicker', but simply no muscle tone to his body. He looked so skinny wearing his 'basketball' shorts and I didnt like his game today. Takes too long to dispose of the ball. Watts has bulked up about 6kg I reckon and is looking more of an afl footballer. He has improved in his attack on the footy. Rarely saw him in the forward line though. I don't want him to develop a high half forward flanker mindset. We drafted him for goals, goals goals. That said, he was good today, just want him to develop something special more than 'can hit a target inside 50m'. Pessimism aside, he was a good player today. Lucas Cook was pleasing. Nothing amazing but got a few nice marks and neat disposal. Dunn was unlucky not to have 3 goals. He got a few posters. Cameron Johnston and Nicholson were probably our better youngsters. I dunno about the other reports here but his disposal under pressure was great, neat and executed quickly. Felt more than comfortable with the ball in his hands. Re:Nicholson, I heard 'Nicko' being yelled out a lot and he is pretty nippy. His kicking is good, just lacks a bit of penetration.

I hate it how people talk about howe as if they know who he is. 48 hours ago, people had no idea who he was..now they're talking about his chances of lining up in the dee's jumper next year. On another note, I think Tapscott is our most promising forward youngster coming through. But we just have so many forwards. I think people also need to question whether Watts should be in the team. Last season he was played purely because he was a number 1 pick, now that we have a forward set up of: HF: Green Dunn Tapscott/Bate/Bennell/Howe FF: Petterd Jurrah Wonaeamirri There is no reason to suggest Watts should play if we are fully fit. If we are all honest with ourselves, Watts hasn't shown anything more than what an average player would show given the great playing minutes he has had thus far. now with a full line-up I dont think he should be there.

lets not forget, he was taken pick 50 in a compromised draft where there were many 17yr olds taken out. Odds are stacked against him. happy about Howe though and Cook looks okay after 5 years of development

Can someone please put a vid up of his highlights on youtube. The bigpond crap never works for me, nor any of the other links that people post.

i can never seem to get the afl videos to work. Could someone PLEASE upload a video of Lucas Cook to youtube and give me a link. I'm dying to check him out! I\d be very appreciative!

strauss?

is it just me, but tom lynch's youtube video is pathetic. his kicking is deplorable. I'll pass thanks and I think Melbourne will too.

I'm sorry but you can't not subscribe to my theory but then do so at your convenience like Matthew Bate.