RalphiusMaximus

Anyone think Davey might be on thin ice this year?

OK, time for my highly subjective effort. I think there will be names on here that people strongly disagree with, but it's players I loved to watch. It's worth noting that I only really got to watch football after I went to Uni in the 90's due to a fairly anti-football family. Many of these are not even close to being the best players of their time, but I loved watching them play. 1. Robbo. I know plenty of people loved to bag him, but he was exciting and passionate about the game and loved his team. He also carried our forward line through some really lean times. 2. The Ox. He could have been anything if his knees had held up. In full flight he was amazing, and even after all the reco's he was able to produce moments of sheer magic. 3. Jeff White. Before they introduced the circle he was dominant. Should have had at least one All Australian to his name. 4. Jackovitch. Do I need to explain? 5. Lord Byron. He was a great pickup for the club. He had massive presence on the ground, scared the hell out of opponents and could do the freakish when we needed it. 6. LJ circa 2010. He seemed far less constrained in his approach than he did this year. Everything he did was magic. He flew for freak marks, took people on and looked as though he owned the MCG. One of the great debut seasons. 7. Sean Smith. Just the abandon with which he attacked the ball. He would fly for anything. He nearly killed himself diving on a contested ball under the feet of an opponent. What's not to love? 8. The Wizard. Played his best football with us (I like to think). He was spectacular and lethal. A true matchwinner. 9. Neitz. Powerful and tough as nails. He was a truly inspirational leader. 10. Junior. See above for much of this. He was the heart and soul of the club, someone the whole team looked up to. Gave his all every time he walked onto the ground. An honourable mention to G Lyon. I know how good he was, but I missed many of his best matches. Hard to give him a spot when I hardly saw him play. Likewise Jimmy. A legend of the club, but I only really caught the last act and while he was consistently good, I rarely saw him shine the way the others on my list did.

Well we could, but given how strong next year's crop is supposed to be I'd back us to use at least one of them. It would need to be something pretty good to trade them off. Goddard maybe?

I agree with that. I'm hoping for a huge step forward for LJ this year. While the addition of a focal point in our forward line is a huge bonus for him, I'm really hoping that the new focus at training on hard work and accountability will take for him and we'll see a fitter and harder working version of the magician.

I'm going to be very interested in how we handle next years draft and our compensation picks. It looks to me like we'll be taking three midfielders in the top 20, possibly with one in the top 10 although we might be squeezed out by other compo picks being taken. With the focus on height this year we are a very top-heavy side. I hope it doesn't hurt us this season.

Bear in mind that Petterd wouldn't be with us today if we hadn't had a doctor on staff. They really need to get one before they start up with serious match practice and full contact work.

I'm not all that worried about this ruining his training. He's been basically running so far, and last time I checked you don't need your wrist for that. I'm sure by the time they're back training in the new year he'll be able to do laps again and in a few weeks we'll see him taking part in the game drills too. Not a huge setback. It's the fitness that generally suffers in situations like this and his shouldn't.

I have one thing to say about this. Have a look at the goal he kicked. He ignores his teammates and takes a long bomb from just outside the center square. To me, that screams out that he knew there were bets on and was looking to nail that goal.

Yeah. It could be a torn ACL, but it could also be a sprain, strain or badly twisted knee. The fact that he's getting scans tomorrow indicates that it didn't ease up quickly, indicating that it's not a minor injury, but it might be something that keeps him out for a couple of weeks if we're really lucky.

There is a clear change in focus. Bailey was all about speed. Neeld comes from Collingwood, which is far from the best running side in the game, and his focus is evidently on strong hard players who won't be beaten out one on one. It's clear he loves Leigh Brown and we've taken several players already who are able to play the same role he did. I think we'd have a very different rookie list today if he'd been in charge a few years earlier. Hard to say how different our ND picks would have been as quite a few of them fit into his model as well. We'd be looking back to Watts, Blease and Strauss to find players who are really not in his style.

That's the first footage I've seen of him playing and (even if it is against kids) I am really impressed. He seems to have a knack of finding a bit of space and time. He's clearly a terrier when he tackles and his disposal looks decent. It's also pretty clear that his understanding with the ruck was spot on. If he develops that sort of bond with big Max we'll be laughing for the next decade.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/126882/default.aspx Interesting to note that both Evans and Nicholson have been given new numbers. That would seem to indicate that they are getting upgraded next year unless something drastic occurs in the next 11 months. Also interesting to note that Blease and Strauss are both carrying the numbers at which they were drafted. No real meaning in that, especially since Blease has a family connection to his no. 17, but it's an interesting co-incidence.

I'm really wondering about the future of our young talls primarily because there seems to be such a focus on bringing more of them into the club. Cook and Fitzpatrick look like they could be on thin ice simply because we seem to be hunting high and low for other players to fill the same place in the side that they would. We have three more tall forwards training with us leading up to the rookie draft as well as bringing Clark and Seller into the side. I know it has been an immediate need to bring some more developed talls in, but isn't this overkill if they have any confidence at all in the young guys we are training up?

Here 'tis: Now what do they mean by "the relevant AFL season?" Do they mean that we can list a 29 year old player who will turn 30 before that date in the upcoming season, or is it the previous season? Also, I see what RPFC was getting at with Davey not being eligible until 2014. So if we read this as the former interpretation then Jamar can be made a veteran at the end of 2012, freeing up one more spot on the main list. Otherwise it's the end of 2013.

Davey is older than Jamar. By a whole 2 months. If one is eligible I think both will be. What I don't know is how old they need to be to go on the list. Is it 30 at the start of the season? They both turn 30 towards the end of the 2013 season, so it could be longer than we'd like. If it's 29 then we're set and they can both be veteran listed at the end of next season, taking a lot of the pressure off to cut players.

This is entirely premature, but I can't help thinking about it. We have on our rookie list at the moment two players who have shown themselves to be pretty handy at AFL level in Evans and Nicholson. There is also Kelvin Lawrence who has show glimpses at Casey and may well be given a chance this year. All three are in the second year of their rookie contracts, so if we want to keep them we'll need to upgrade in the 2012 draft. We also find in the 2012 draft that we are picking up one of the best young mids in the land via the father-son rule in Jack Viney. Given the strength of the draft it seems probable that we'll also use one if not both of our compensation picks to cash in on first round talent. All of this means that we will need to find room on the senior list for four to six more players. On the understanding that a year in football is an eternity and things could easily change in the next twelve months, what are people's thoughts on who is most likely to be shown the door next year? Looking at the way we've been drafting I think the obvious one would be Dunn, but who else looks to be on the way out?

They certainly seem interested in tall forwards. I wonder what that says about the ones we are already working on? I also wonder what it says for Dunn's future. Next year we have to de-list quite a few players...

Yeah, I was thinking TMac might be a good bargain. Davis will get some games this year, but maybe not enough to bother picking him. We could well see Nicholson playing most of the year as our upgraded Rookie as well, so he'd be a good value cheap buy.

Now that last is just hellishly impressive. It's insane how fast those buggers go over such distances.

Nothing to do with generalizations. The kid has been quoted saying he wanted to be a part time footballer. If he were to be judged only on his potential to kick bags and influence games then he would have gone first round, but his attitude is terrible.

I'm beginning to think that Manson may need to play a couple of seasons in either the WAFL or NT and show everyone that he has the commitment to actually work at it before anyone is ready to take him on. Despite his obvious talent, he's not doing himself any favours with the way he conducts himself. I think at the moment that i'm pretty much 50/50 on him. I won't be upset if we Rookie him, but if we don't bother I won't see it as a huge loss. It's obvious that he has the potential, and if he were to move to Melbourne and decide he loved it and wanted to put in we'd have a winner, but what are the odds of that happening?

Will Aussie be playing for Tiwi?

I agree. This would clearly be a perk provided by the club and as such has to be included in their cap. The obvious thing for the club to then do is charge them a nominal rate that is far less than they would normally expect for this kind of accommodation so that they can give the appearance of being above board. Hit them up for $100/week or so to stay there and the AFL would sign off on it.

We keep hearing that Jurrah is doing constant half speed laps with a trainer. Is this a case of increasing his fitness, or are they trying to retrain the way he runs? Possibly both even? I know we often hear that they are working on someone's running technique.

Nooooooooooooooooooo!