RalphiusMaximus

Watts was just on MMM. Caught the end of the interview where he basically said that there should be an announcement in a few days.

Very hard to get a good trade done here. I wouldn't want to give pick 2 for him and they wouldn't take our 2nd round. Pick 2 for Martin + their first pick? Not likely.

I'd love to have him, but I think the price tag may be too much. If we're talking about paying the same sort of money as we are for Dawes and Clark then it could be a bad thing for our list management prospects.

I've seen him a few times and he is well worth a look. He's a big imposing guy. Decent athlete, can hit packs and kick pretty well. I just don't think he's worth a look for us right now.

It's not just the Smith era. Melbourne has always been slow to adjust to changes. Our history is littered with examples.

I'd take him over Cross

I'd be happy if we could snare either one to be honest. Both would be even better.

It's all pretty obvious. The club incurred a monumental Karmic debt when they betrayed Norm Smith, the embodiment of what it meant to be a demon, the totem and talisman of our success. To this day we are still suffering and will do so until the club has managed to balance the scales. The recent treatment of Junior and Green have only added to this debt, hence the worst season in recent memory which has just ended. Or it could just be that the club had a fatal combination of personalities in charge who made some truly terrible decisions that have led us to this point and we are in dire need of a firm hand to guide us back to acting like a professional organisation. Take either view. For all we know they could both be right.

The man gives good interview.

Best has skills, but I don't think he's up to the pace and power of AFL. He's not quite that quick and he's too slight to get away with the lack of pace.

The manager stands to make a lot more if he goes to Carlton. There are plenty of little brown bags to go around, plus jobs at Visy and sponsorships. Totally agree with this. Even if you look at the way Roos played the game, he wasn't overly physical but he held his own, didn't shirk and could stand tall and take the contested pack mark when it was there to take. He would be a great playing model for Jack to emulate.

I can think of a couple. O'Meara and Martin for instance.

I've had thoughts like this during the summer quite a few times in the last half dozen or so years. Sadly they've proven to be less than accurate. I'll wait and see what happens next thanks.

He certainly seems to be hitting the ground running. It would be a huge boost to morale if he could give us a five-year deal with Hogan. Good for the successor as well.

I actually like these changes. I think Davis is a little hard done by given that his only chance in the red and blue was playing out of position so he never really got a chance to show what he could do, but overall we've freed up some pretty good room on the list already and managed to clear out some dead wood in the coaching as well.

The midfield coaching is the real concern. I don't think Brown did a bad job, but the delivery to the forwards was terrible and we never got to see the full strength forward line on display. The midfield we saw plenty of and it's not just the players we are lacking. They are not well-drilled enough and don't have the right running patterns to compete in traffic. This is all directly at the feet of Royal. Our midfield patterns are amateurish and not even close to a match for the other 17 clubs. It often reminded me of The Waterboy where they were running plays from the coaching for dummies manual.

Honestly, I though Howe was down on last year in all areas. While he did take some screamers, I'm not bothered by him not making the final three.

So we know Junior is still not coming back. Move on to Ling.

I'd prefer to auction the pick to be honest. Put it on the table and see how good a deal we can attract. If we were to get a ready-made A-grade mid and a first round pick for it we'd be pretty happy.

I think Petterd was a worthwhile player, just managed very poorly. He'd be my pick, possibly followed by Brock.

The thing that got me excited about Kent even more than his speed and kicking is the number of times I've seen him go backwards into traffic to intercept/spoil a mark. He has some serious courage. We have a heap of more senior players who aren't willing to put their body on the line like that, and I hope they feel 2 inches tall every time they see him put in like that.

Comparison between Scully and Treloar. How exactly is it that Scully came out ahead in their voting?

That's pretty much what I was thinking. They do actually have a pretty good case for being allowed to walk. If a player does something to disgrace the club the club has grounds to terminate their contract. This is a two way street. If the players have a reasonable case that the club put their welfare in jeopardy then should have the same ability to void the contract and walk away. The real question is whether the AFL allows them to do so as Free Agents or requires them to go through the draft. I actually think the draft wold be a better option for us as there is a pretty big question over whether we could talk a decent player into coming here as a FA.

Really good game today. It's very hard to see Freo being beaten out west in the prelim, so onwards to the GF for them I guess. An amazing result for Ross Lyon as well.

Could well be a bit of a fire sale at the Bombers. The AFLPA have asked the commission to rule on players being allowed to walk out on the club as FA due to breach of contract by the club. We could get a couple of good young players for free if that happens.