Salems Lot

Yeah, I went today as well, the thing that impressed me about Scully today was his tank, the kid ran all day, did not come off once and rested in the forward line. I was slightly underwhelmed by him for the first 3 quarters but he came alive in the last quarter and basically brought the Stingrays to life. He seemed to be playing on the wing initially and really came into it once he was put on the ball. Fantastic by hand, absolutely fantastic, some of his kicking was a bit up and under though. Butcher - a good touch in the first 2 minutes of the game and then seemed to float around a fair bit, he is a big lump of a lad though. No goals that I saw.

I have noticed a lot of people putting packages together for trade and am of the opinion that other clubs are like us in that they don't want to be cluttering up their list with "stocking fillers" If we want to trade for a player, we will more than likely have to trade one highly rated player -e.g. A Rivers or a Grimes rather than a couple of mediocre players. I am not advocating this by the way but it is useful to walk a mile in the other clubs shoes. I.E. would we give up 2 spots on our list for The Russian and Belly - I think not..

Precisely

The was an interesting article in the little paper today about the fact that BP is not totally discounting the possibility of trading pick 2. He says that it would be highly unlikely but will not rule it out. He also mentioned the club being prepared to aggresively chase the right players if they present themselves. No specifics but it sounds like exciting times ahead. Phase II continues to develop.

Funnily enough, I rang the club yesterday to find out if that was the final total that was posted. According to the woman that I spoke to they are still sifting though the final cheques etc before posting the final amount.

Fantastic! what a thrill to see this young man in action on and off the field again. Some very interesting comments came out of the item 1. His Elders and family support him wholeheartedly being down here - so much so that they would send him back down here if he wanted to head home 2. DB quoted as saying that it is hard to tell how long he will be around but he gets the distinct impression that LJ is a determined young man who will be around for a while to come. 3. He went home last year to nurse his best friend through his last days of a fight with cancer. 4. The Coll@£$od coterie that brought him down originally seem like a terrific bunch (Does not compute ) and honored him recently at one of their Dos. 5. He is obviously quite the character Had me smiling from ear to ear

As I said on the other thread, he was fairly quiet today at Visy - of what I saw - but he does look good when he gets near the pill.

I saw a quarter and a half of the Dandenong game and they were being flogged. Scully did a couple of good things by foot and hand (his disposal skills are excellent)and showed some good touch but to be honest, he was not setting the world on fire. He had one goal assist that I saw but when i left it was in the region of 8 goals to 2 so a fair fit of one way traffic. The mid field coach was getting stuck into them at quarter time saying that they were not imposing themselves on the competition which was pretty obvious. Don't know what the final score was.. On a different tack, I was very impressed with the standard of TAC. I had not seen it before and they play at a great clip with good skills on display overall. The big differences that I noticed were the sizes of the bodies and the rucking which was understandably very sub AFL level. No wonder it is hard to recruit ruckmen as they are so far from being developed at this age.

For those of you wanting to have a look at these 2 draft prospects, Scully is playing at Visy Park at 11am on Sunday and Butcher is playing in the game afterwards at 2.00pm. Could be worth getting along to see them in the one day.

Could it be that the delisting of Robbo points towards a greater possibility of using pick 2 for Butcher. Our forward stocks will be depleted by his loss and one could argue that a like for like would make sense. Any thoughts?

Story on SEN this morning as told by Tim Watson, it is an excerpt taken from the new Porks book. Apparently several years ago, Clarkson related to his thus far winnless team of how Jack Viney (then aged 12) stepped in to help a mate of his who was being bullied. The bully was older and much bigger than him but he would not back down and by all accounts when the bully took a swing at him young Jack hit him so hard he broke his own hand! Can we draft him now?? (Hopefully he can play a bit as well )

It is an interesting proposition; as a very young developing list there are so many unknowns that could develop over the next couple of years. One thing that has not been put in place over the past few years is a leadership succession plan. After Neitz retired there was literally no obvious leader to take over. So now we find ourselves in this situation again. I have never really thought much of the co-captain idea but seeing how it has worked and benefitted the Saints this year, it may be a good fit for our team. A rotational list of Green, Davey and Moloney would certainly provide excellent leadership experience for all of them and spread the load. I am also interested in taking leadership from the different strands of the playing group. We have a group of older experienced players, a growing group of young indigenous players and of course a lot of down right young and inexperienced players. To draw from all of those areas, whilst it may be trying to be all things to all people could be worth considering e.g a leadership group comprised of Green or Moloney, Davey and Grimes could well do the trick. A couple of options that manages to keep Flash front and centre in any future leadership team. Having just reread this it is slightly of the topic - apologies

It is an interesting proposition; as a very young developing list there are so many unknowns that could develop over the next couple of years. One thing that has not been put in place over the past few years is a leadership succession plan. After Neitz retired there was literally no obvious leader to take over. So now we find ourselves in this situation again. I have never really thought much of the co-captain idea but seeing how it has worked and benefitted the Saints this year, it may be a good fit for our team. A rotational list of Green, Davey and Moloney would certainly provide excellent leadership experience for all of them and spread the load. I am also interested in taking leadership from the different strands of the playing group. We have a group of older experienced players, a growing group of young indigenous players and of course a lot of down right young and inexperienced players. To draw from all of those areas, whilst it may be trying to be all things to all people could be worth considering e.g a leadership group comprised of Green or Moloney, Davey and Grimes could well do the trick. A couple of options that manages to keep Flash front and centre in any future leadership team.

It does not look like the two "W"s will be fit so give them an open top ride around the boundary before the game and let Robbo have a last game send off. If he plays like yesterday, he is not exactly being a passenger and he may just kick a few, you never know.

Something which had escaped my attention until this morning is that it is possible to have a kick on the G after the game tomorrow. If you didn't do it last year, I can strongly recommend it. Brings back memories from a by gone era and is one of the great new initiatives from the club. Bring your footy and have a bit of a laugh http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsart...80/default.aspx

Hi All, I just had a look to see if the old DD website is still running and it is set up for 2009 : www.debtdemolition.com.au/ I haven't heard much about it except for the dinner coming up later in the month. It is not on the Mfc website which I thought a little curious. The current amount raised for 2009 is $000,0000,000 (I like their ambition with all those commas!) Quite clever really because I thought that I would kick it off....sadly its sensitivity is too high for my $100.00 so nothing has changed on the counter. Anyway, I thought that we needed a little diversion from the T word. Both are good for the future after all

A west coast mate of mine has said for some time that they are really interested in Morabito with their first pick. Clearly the home sickness issue is a major one for all clubs. With the strength of the WA team at the Nationals he was talking up their local crop as having some great options. Scully and Trengrove for mine - -Maybe Butcher might sneek through to our second round pick (19 I guess), wouldn't that be the perfect result! ( I know, dreaming)

A weird week end for sure - tipped 7 (Hawks let me down) but the Weagles was a left field one to make up some tips on the leaders and they have delivered us the goods - well and trully. Still feel hollow from this afternoon.

I saw a fairly clumsy tackle from Flash in front of the interchange bench, I would not be surprised if it went to the tribunal, he has also been reported for wrestling in the first quarter

This is a link to an article about young Shane in the Sunday Age. If all our players had his dedication and determination we might not be too worried about PPs at this time of year. His is a case of a player who just doesn't seem to fit into any of the easy boxes of modern footy. http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/it...8977241388.html

True, as one of the 14000, I look forward to seeing the toig fans cheering for ninth position on the ladder...again.. it is still mathematically possible

That was fantastic DA, mind you it did nothing for my insomnia, watching the link ups between Col and Flash as well as the Wizard tackling marking and finishing completely woke me up!!!

I got this from the AFL website (I hope it works as a link but otherwise cut and paste it into your browser) and it seems to say less than 5 wins. That to me suggests less than 20 points. Have a read and see what you think. http://www.afl.com.au/development/nabaflri...14/default.aspx

I hate it and I hate the system!!! There I was yesterday, talking to my brother about going to the footy tomorrow and hoping that we lose. Don't get me wrong, I am all for chasing the PP's and want the Dees to List Manage as best as they can, I also realise that to do that we can only win one more game...I understand it all and i know that it is for the benefit of the club long term,but.....it does not change the fact that I hate feeling like this.. My 5 year old comes with me most weeks and to him he just wants the Dees to win...maybe it is that simple..I just want the Dees to win. A bit of a ramble, this post but I think that it might sum up the feelings of a lot of us. The PP system is counterintuitive to competitive sport and now that we are right in the thick of it, the contradictory nature of it i.e. to win we have to lose, is really starting to hit home, for me at any rate. I read posts where we attack each other for our respective views on this most contentious of issues and it saddens me. We must accept each others point of view as there is no right or perfect answer to this most vexed of issues. Once again, sorry if this is a bit rambly!

I hate it and I hate the system!!! There I was yesterday, talking to my brother about going to the footy tomorrow and hoping that we lose. Don't get me wrong, I am all for chasing the PP's and want the Dees to List Manage as best as they can, I also realise that to do that we can only win one more game...I understand it all and i know that it is for the benefit of the club long term,but.....it does not change the fact that I hate feeling like this.. My 5 year old comes with me most weeks and to him he just wants the Dees to win...maybe it is that simple..I just want the Dees to win. A bit of a ramble, this post but I think that it might sum up the feelings of a lot of us. The PP system is counterintuitive to competitive sport and now that we are right in the thick of it, the contradictory nature of it i.e. to win we have to lose, is really starting to hit home, for me at any rate. I read posts where we attack each other for our respective views on this most contentious of issues and it saddens me. We must accept each others point of view as there is no right or perfect answer to this most vexed of issues. Once again, sorry if this is a bit rambly!