jnrmac

Yeah, like Martin Pike (4 times premiership player - I hate reading that). What would you do if players turn up to training having been drinking? And the biggest criticism of ND is that he played players who did not deserve a game because of past form and reputation. You can't have it both ways. You either have a team structure and discipline (Coll, Geel) or you have undisciplined rabble. Players with chequered pasts are a timebomb.

Wow. WHat a breathtakingly stupid post, What were you doing in economy you cheapskate....

Sorry but I have read that everywhere and am yet to see the 'Luke Hodge laser left foot' of Strauss. In fact all I have seen is horrible mongrel drop punts from Strauss. I honestly reckon its an urban myth.

I care. It means every club passed on Jack Darling before West Coast took him. So it wasn't such a golden opportunity was it? I am sure you could draft a really good team in hindsight but that's not what clubs do. Darling had a few issues. So did Buddy Franklin - even Hawthorn passed on Buddy with their first pick.

So did every other club in the comp...

Wow. These reports are great. I haven't been to a training session since DB days over summer and have always complained bitterly about our lack of 'real life' drills with the footy. DB hardly ever got the footy out until about February. To paraphrase Todd Viney from the time " we'll build up their bodies and then worry about the game plan". Absolutely infuriated me and demonstrated clearly the club was treating these guys like kids. In contrast it sounds like an unbelievable change under Neeld. Hard, intense, game drills with accountability all over the place. We'll see the results in due course but I suspect we won't be seeing the same "deer in the headlights" results when the heat is on. They players will have a routine, game plan and understand exactly who does what, where they must stand and defend etc. I have been shouted down in the past for expecting no less but I have to say I am genuinely excited about our ability to compete this year. With 4 rds to go we were something like 1 game out of the eight so I would expect a good improvement from that. Particularly with our favourable draw. They might run out of gas mid year but our frustrating first half last year was dispairing and if they come out of the blocks firing and fade I won't be unhappy. It sounds like we are finally n the right path.

Plenty of mindless speculation here.....

Thanks for that Harry (hindsight)...

not much point announcing it on Jan 17 with no merchandise. perfectly sensible

Pickles Evans is still on the list, has bulked up considerably.

I hope it's Davey. Needs a rocket.

Two things I noticed: Has Beemer got a new sleeve tat? What's up with Stefan martin's hair?

Oh, and at 9:33 Trengove would have beaten Scully !!

You are right and you are wrong. NRL in 2008 (when this whole expansion was conceived) had 16 of the highest 25 rating sports broadcasts (excluding the Olympics). No-one goes to RL but they watch it in droves. Coupled with 60% of advertising revenue coming from NSW and Southern QLD you have the whole recipe neatly encapsulated. So it's not Victorian games that they were seeking but extra games in NSW and Southern QLD where they could target advertising revenue for the NEXT TV rights deal. Simple really.

Donald 'Duck' Dunn, Matt Guitar Murphy, Alan???. great band...

Gee whiz this wouldn't be a new 'member' from PETA or some such other organisation would it? "I've been a reader for years...." Sounds like Letters to the Penthouse Editor...

I agree. WCE got great value from their vets. Shouldn't happen two years in a row. The others will have worked out their press by now as well.

howdy..

What a ridiculous statement about measuring our success on the ability to retain the scum. Get a grip. Really? Who? How? When? Maybe in your mind but no-one else's. The club did everything in it's power to entice hime to stay as we would all expect but they NEVER went anywhere near the kind of statement you have made. As for CS, take it as a given that he is polarising and prone to talking the talk but not walking the walk, My bet is that CS won't last 2012

Wow. "proven AFL player". He certainly has the speed and commitment to play at this level but my God he has barely been promoted off the rookie list and you make him sound like Chris Judd. He has some potential. That's it. Hardly proven.

It has been blindingly obvious that our midfield is our weak link. Posters here have rated our midfield (probably more its potential) but the reality is when we have the highest i50s against us that is the midfield not working hard enough. Neeld's new fitness regime is almost living proof of that. Couple that with: Beamer essentially being a flat track bully Gysberts inability to damage with his posessions Sylvia's inability to play consistent hard damaging footy. Jones not really damaging oppositions with his possessions We need some grunt and players who can win the footy and dispose of it properly. All day. We have recruited that this year. Let's hope some of them make it.

Didn't he say "I'm excited to go to melbourne as my first club"?? Says it all really

It's clear that we were pushed off the ball too easily and ran out of legs this year. No super intelligence required to arrive at that. Hard bodied players who can get their own ball and dispose of it. Hmmm who'd have thunk. Recruitment styles change over time just like when everyone was trying to recruit the next Kouta. Our recruiting from DB's time was to recruit skilled players who had the potential to become elite. A raft of earlypicks meant we could choose that path. Pretty hard to do that now with a few compromised drafts. The club was aware of this skew or bias and are now adding the required grunt which is always much easier to come by. I would hate it to have been the otehr way around or we'd be stuffed.

I am definitely in the camp that says we are not hard enough but I do think we have to cut them some slack. It's blindingly obvious at this pointthe players were unfit and being treated with kid gloves. I know they are a year older and can probably handle higher loads but if they haven't been trained the right way then maybe its not all their fault. WTF were the administration doing??? How could they not see the training loads were vastly different to Collingwood who train next door???? I don't get it.

Misson said they were ramping up training because of the break. I imagine a lot of grunt work and then some time for the bodies to recover.