Fat Tony

Sorry, to clarify what I meant to say was that you want either: a) Jones as loose man as part of a six-man defence versus five forwards or b) Jones part of a normal back six versus six forwards (to break the tag). You don’t want a seven-man backline with Murphy loose at the other end versus only five forwards.

Not sure if he was loose as I was only watching on TV but it looked like our younger players struggled to run with him. He just keeps moving and creating play.

He was definitely loose and chopping us up at the start of the third quarter.

As was mentioned last time we paid peanuts and got a monkey.

Roos will pay for himself.

Sanderson and Scott were cheap, untried coaches too.

My key take outs:

· Grimes is a HBF not a mid. His first quarter yesterday was his best for the season.

· Dawes missing again with another soft tissue injury is a real worry. He played 12 games for the year for 12 goals and averaged 9.2 disposals and 56 Supercoach points. He had only one game with more than 13 disposals. I know he displays strong leadership and the ball doesn't go forward very often, but he was being paid $500K this year, so he hasn’t been a great recruit IMO.

· Well done to Flash, the tackle in the last wound back the clock.

· We should play Nathan Jones as the loose man in defence and just play a seven man defence/five man forward line if he is if manned up.

· Craig is not much better than Neeld. Why would you ever leave Robert Murphy loose in defence?

· Cross would be a good acquisition to our midfield.

I am not as pro-Roos as the majority on Demonland and I am a bit concerned about the money he will cost. In saying that, the promotional value of someone like Roos could, in part at least, pay for itself. I would also probably prefer a coach that has a more attacking mindset.

I see one of the key benefits of Roos being that the AFL wants him to do it and that he won’t do it if he thinks there is a good chance of failure, so he might be able to leverage that into a priority pick #1. Getting a name like Roos will also help us retain and attract players.

Scott Selwood would be a great get but he is contracted for two more years and I wouldn't be that keen to part with pick 2. I could live with #2 and #20 for Selwood and #10.

If we land Roos its hard not to see us getting priority pick 1 or thereabouts.

3 retired 7 to go

Retired: Davey, J MacDonald, Rodan

Delist: Bail, Seller, Davis, Gillies, Magner, Couch

And one of Sylvia or Watts will leave.

Hogan and Clisby claim 2 spots

Leaves 6 senior and 3 rookie spots, wouldn't mind keeping Davis as a rookie

5 draft picks and 1 traded in player

Surely better to keep Clisby on the Rookie list another year if possible. And Bail is contracted.

Well done on Rodan getting the best out of himself and he was a reasonable value pick up, but why the hell was he on a two-year deal?

offer him a two year deal, if nothing else he will support jones and viney and help teach the mids what's required.

One year would be plenty.

IMO our players are close to as fit as they can possibly be. They just aren’t good enough. But I didn’t think fitness was a key problem pre-Misson either (and I think that fitness staff are way overpaid).

In saying this, I hope that our 2013/14 program focuses more on power and speed and less on endurance.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-08-27/afl-brings-in-interchange-cap-

Cap will be 120 per match, no cap per quarter.

Thoughts?

I'm strongly against the continued changes to the rules, and I'm strongly against a cap in particular, but so be it I guess.

The cap should be 30. While the skills are better today, the game was better when players played in their positions.

Agreed.

His lack of leadership qualities is startling, exacerbated by his ridiculous habit of always telling the better defenders what to do and where to run, pointing mindlessly at opposition players or space, whilst himself either ambling around, or doing his job of manning up the fourth-best forward who is shorter than he is.

I would love to see your reaction if Demonland put Dunn on the banner.

This thread is pathetic. Dunn will be top five in our B&F this year. Against Adelaide Dunn had our most disposals (24 at 79% efficiency) and our most Supercoach points (129, 31 more than our next highest in Toumpas). The left foot pass was a bad error, but we made hundreds of mistakes over the course of the game.

Dunn is no world beater and we need to find better players in coming drafts, but he is clearly in our best side at the moment and is playing his role.

I don't hate the idea of Prismall, but he was at Essendon last year.

Cain and Scipione will both probably be picked up. Cain has great skills and will adapt to the pace of AFL. He has had a great year, winning a lot of the ball and would be a step up on Matt Jones IMO. Scipione has kicked a lot of goals this year and is one sided (left) and doesn't look as natural as Cain. I think Scipione is a bit younger though.

Danny Hughes (ex demon) also looks to have AFL qualities and plays a bit like Jeremy Howe. He hasn't had a great year and is possibly too old, but you can definitely see why he was on our list.

There are much better alternatives IMO.

Craig is too defensive and lacks imagination. I would prefer to see us play kids, have a crack and get flogged than play two players behind the ball.

Big money offer via the PSD would be perfect.

I'd trade the pea-heart, because he'll never dominate in a final and he has some reasonable currency still.

Terminate him for a quality mid who keeps his feet over the ball. Someone who can help drive the engine room and actually influence the results of games.

But no quality mid would want to come to us. It is Watts, or pick ~#10-15, or fringe players like Robinson and Bell.

I also think you are underrating his potential improvement.

Keep. He is improving gradually every year and doesn't have great currency in terms of a trade. Losing another senior player would also be terrible for the morale of the club.

Firstly, I like the fact that Jack Watts was honest. If he was going to stay he would have signed by now or be well advanced in talks, so he didn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. Jack is weighing up his future and he has every right to do so.

I still think Watts is a good chance to stay if we can appoint a ‘profile’ coach in the near term. While Jack’s manager is probably advocating a move, I think he is likely to be offered ~$100K per season more at MFC than anywhere else.

Moreover, I hope he stays as I cannot see us winning in any trade. I think he will play his best footy as he gets stronger and nobody wants to come to MFC, so the best return is likely to be a draft pick ~#10.

Lastly, the anger of MFC supporters should not be directed at Jack if he goes, who, like the rest of us, has been badly let down by the club’s board and previous management, chiefly Schwab, Neeld and Prendegast.

I don’t like the prospect of paying an exuberant wage for a senior coach – even one with a record as strong as Roos – given we are cash constrained and could use the money to either bolster our recruiting department and/or pay 100% of the salary cap.

I also feel we must to go down the youth route again, solely because we are the least desirable AFL club to play for at present. This means we have to highly overpay players to get them to agree to come over and we don’t really win out of such trade unless we can get the player to agree to come through the PSD. The optionality of the draft should also not be ignored and we should be willing to back our new staff to select and develop well. Looking at our list, we are also likely to be a bottom club again next year regardless of our ability to attract players, which further backs the case to build a side Hogan, Watts, Toumpas, Viney and our early picks this year.

Having a coach that is willing to go down this path and sell hope to such a plan is crucial in my mind and I am not sure Roos shares this philosophy. I also favour a more attacking coach, as it is better to watch and typically sides that win multiple flags have been more attacking.

This is why I like a mini draft concession. Two picks to off trade for 2 to 3 players.

Mini draft pick one for Swallow

Mini draft pick two for Adams

2013 draft pick 2 for Sloane and a down graded draft pick. (Later first round pick)

Immediately our midfield is fixed with an eye on the future.

Swallow, Adams, Sloane, Jones, Viney, Trengove, Toumpass, Grimes, McKenzie (tagger), Kent. That's 10 midfielders rotating through the midfield that will only get stronger in years to come as they mature and develop.

A mini draft this year would not include the same calibre players as recent years unfortunately.

This article has to be baseless. No trades will go ahead without a decision on the coach.

Hird ..light years ahead of Jackie.

Watts has ALL the skills ...for him its all between the ears stuff. Jimmy H , for anything else he was/is , exhibited brilliance on the filed in terms of KNOWING what to do.. Jack seems all at sea by comparison.

Pendles is an interesting comparison actually. Again...comes down to the little grey cells me thinks. JHC I wish JW would click

No doubt, but I was just making the point that not all great players are 'bull at a gate' like Todd Viney and Leigh Matthews.

This may go to the core of the problem will little Jackie. I would have thought a decent player would just KNOW to do that. He seems labored with the problem of finding impetus at these junctures. Just do it Jack.. simples

Hird and Pendlebury both had/have similar lackadaisical styles, both favouring balance over the space that can be created from a burst of speed. However Hird and Pendlebury both fumble less, are both stronger and braver and have better decision making. In saying this, Watts is faster than both and should be using his pace.