RalphiusMaximus

Bear in mind that this is a pretty poor draft. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we traded our second and third round picks away in the quest for a bog forward. We'll be upgrading rookies in the draft so we don' really need high picks. If we had to burn our second and third round picks for Walsh I'd go for it. Keep pick 12 to use on a halfway decent prospect and upgrade Evans and Nicholson for the other two picks. With such a poor draft I can't see us doing much more than that.

No news today on this front. However, with Clarke turning us down I would expect more effort to be put into luring Walsh, so that could be seen as good news. We still have a lot of money and a lot of good picks to throw around, so you'd think we could get a deal done. Only thing that could hurt is that Lynch has been traded, so they have one less forward on their list now.

I saw a bit of Walsh pre-season, and he looks like he has real potential. He's a huge unit with massive physical presence. The only question is whether he can develop the skills he needs to succeed. I'd be very happy to have him at full forward just to monster the full backs and break packs open. If he brings his skills up to par he'll be a genuine gun.

I really wonder what North will use him for. They have five or six small forwards already. Are they trying to create the smallest forward line in history? Maybe they saw one of this good games and decided he could be a decent midfielder? Sure, hes younger than most of their smalls, but he's not a better player than them.

We finish 8 or 9. If 8 then we bomb in the first week of finals. We beat Collingwood on QB. Jack Grimes to have an unusual injury and miss most of the season. Tom Scully to have 30+ disposals against us at least once. Tom Scully to be sent off under the blood rule at least once against us. Rivalry with the Tigers cemented when we beat them again and their Jack is held goalless by Frawley.

Are we referring to the three and four grab marking by any chance?

Nah. At Melbourne he wouldn't get close to so many friendly decisions from the umps. I don't know how good he'd be if they actually called him on holding the ball and running too far.

He's a Jack and he has a great last name. I say we take him! Can he play?

Nope. He would need to have given 8 years to the club. That puts it at the end of 2017 before he's a free agent. I also think the world of this kid. Every time he appears in public he does something to further the reputation of te football club. He must be the PR department's dream come true.

Goddard to Carlton = Carlton breaking the salary cap again. I wonder how they're trying to get around it this time? I don't think the AFL will allow another Judd-style deal.

It is largely a question of the gameplan. Bailey wanted to have some highly skilled players as designated kickers out of our back half, so he played Strauss, Tapscott and Blease on the HBF. The rest of the defensive team looked for them with the handball so that they could set up play with their precise kicking. We don't know yet what Neald will be looking to implement, so it's a question of whether he will place the same emphasis on putting our best kicks behind the ball.

Massive upside, but he needs to get more of the ball. It's no good having 11 sublime touches a game. We need him to have 25-30 touches, even if they aren't quite as pretty as he likes. If he can get that much of the ball each game he'll be worth a spot in the side.

This is a very good thing for DB and for Adelaide. He's really much more suited to the assistant role. He should be much better value to them than he was to us.

I love it. How can anyone be offended by that? Also. massive props to Scarlet for his Hannibal outfit. Showing up strapped to a trolley shows real commitment.

Interesting choice, especially given that he is younger than a couple of our players. Still, if you could only say one thing about his game, you'd say he was hard. That's something our forwards need in spades (and the rest of the team). Is he the senior or junior forward coach?

That was a really worthwhile interview. We got some good information out of him about the way the coaching department is coming together. Loved the comments about JV also.

He absolutely should have been there. He may not be their coach anymore, but he is their friend and has been a mentor for many of their players. The season was over and they were shattered. It had nothing to do with his job at Melbourne, but I'm thrilled that he has the sort of relationship with the players and staff there that he was still welcome in their rooms after he's moved to another club. It speaks well of his abilities as a coach and a manager.

Precisely. Repeated blows to the head of that magnitude can lead to serious damage to the brain. The NFL have a research center dedicated to this issue, but in the AFl they don't really acknowledge the severity of the problem, despite their soft high contact rules. I maintain that Dangerfield is showing early signs of CTE which would explain why he is so easy to knock out. Personally, I think this should have been raised in the Trengove case earlier this year. The AFL need to step in and insist that he undergo extensive brainscans before allowing him to keep playing.

I don't really care about the quality of the performance. The important thing was that four of our young stars got out there in a very public bonding exercise and showed that they are both a team and a great group of friends. Once again our young brigade are showing themselves to be very media savvy and aware of the image they project and how it impacts on the perception of our club. I don't think there could have been a better way to show that the Scully defection hasn't broken the cohesion of our playing group.

I like the way he plays, but I would want them to do some major medical testing first. He's had an alarming number of concussions for such a young player and they are known to have a cumulative effect. He stands a very good chance of being forced into early retirement if a decent medical staff get their hands on him.

I'm not entirely sold on Rawlings, but this is based more on his playing career than any knowledge of his coaching abilities.

I'm happy to back him in. He's absolutely smashed some [pretty decent AFL players at Casey when he wasn't injured and could string a few together. Hudson for one. He took on the Hampson/Jacobs double team last year and beat them both. Admittedly, none of them are elite, but all are solid and Hudson was better than average. For a skinny 19 year old to do that is pretty impressive. This year he lost a lot of gametime with injury which has probably set him back, but he's had a taste and knows the sort of speed he needs to work at now. He'll get there.

MMM tonight had him looking at his options. They say if the captaincy is taken off him he'll walk. No sources mentioned of course, so I think it's more speculation than fact, but we'll see.

I'm going to be going through that footage again for my new signature I think.

Wow. Sounds like Beamer had a big win. Very nicely done. Congratulations to all the winners tonight.