praha

I was going to correct you but you did yourself in your follow-up comment. Dangerfield is exactly the kind of midfielder we'd be hoping to draft with picks 2 or 3.

He is what Blease should have been.

Oh well there we go. No player in the history of ever has moved because he owns a pub in another city...

The problem with that gameplan is, as Melbourne showed in *almost* beating them twice, is that they have no plan B. A team with an aggressive offensive plan needs a similarly aggressive defensive plan. Whenever Port was challenged defensively this year, they struggled. The way to beat them is to slow the game down and turn it into a slog. It's not rocket science. You can try and beat them at their own game but they'll out-run you. The Kanga want to run with Sydney this weekend and have a scoring fest. Imo, as Richmond showed, if you can zone the ground well enough and stem the run, you can beat a team like Sydney. Port stood up defensively on the weekend and the right time. They'll need to do it again against Hawthorn.

Love this bloke.

What's 100-200k if you're already earning 800k? Most players have left in FA to chase success. Only the outrageous, ridiculous contracts of the Scully and Franklin variety have bucked the trent. Unless Melbourne can offer him 350k+, it might be hard to persuade him to agree to a trade imo.

I must one of a few that genuinely doesn't care and enjoy seeing young kids play well. I'm admittedly angry that he's playing well while the guy we chose over him (when we appeared split between the two) can't get a kick at VFL level. But that's how drafting works. One kid got drafted into a team now destined for greatness, the other into one of the worst teams of all time. If it wasn't us that picked Toump over Wines, it would have been someone else.

Break even at the MCG is about 20k, so let's be conservative and say 23k. v WC: 22K v GC: 17K V Syd: 23k v WB: 36K V Port: sold home game, profit V Pies: 68k V North: 28k V Freo: sold home game, profit V Geelong: 36K V Lions: 18k (Etihad) V GWS: 17K So of our 11 home games we've seemingly achieved a profit, in most cases a small one, in 7 of them. Compare to last year: 2013: v Port: 22k V WC: 18K V GWS: 20K V GC: 13K (urgh...) V Hawks: 28K V Pies: 50K V Bulldogs: 21K V Syd: 26K V Brisbane: Sold home game, profit V Norf: 18K (Etihad) V Freo: 13K (urghhh...) That's 4 games where we've broken a profit, and consider we had one less sold home game, a crowd of 18K less v the Pies, two games of 13K, an Etihad home crowd of 18K. We've done okay this year considering. Replace the Bulldogs and Sydney home games with Carlton and Richmond/Essendon and it would have been even better.

Stop living in the past.

I just don't believe it...I trust PJ but...I just don't believe it.

Robinson coming to a team he once said played "bruise free footy" is almost comical. I'd take him though.

Kent is every much the player Blease should have been. A colossal disappointment. Anything in the 30-50 pick range will be a steal. He'll fit in nicely at Carlton with their list of downhill skiers.

In an age of free agency and a growing gap between right and poor, good and bad, you simply can't afford to stock up on kids anymore. You need experience, big bodies, and players that have a desire to win. Much like in the US sports leagues, the philosophy should be to build a strong team of experience and top it up with young players. ATM the club is in the predicament of having a team of inexperience needing to be topped up with experience. Bailey came in as coach at a time when the shift was beginning: when drafting strongly wasn't anywhere near as important as having experience that could steer the ship. Add in a poor club culture and the recipe was always there for disaster. Melbourne's list management has been downright deplorable.

Who wants to watch Melbourne get flogged by 10 goals on a Friday night? Sometimes equalisation is good for the club, but it's bad for the league overall. I agree that there needs to be balance: sometimes you balance it in the other direction and you still end up with an unbalanced application of inequality.

Makes sense.

He does a lot off the ball that goes unnoticed. Taps, knocks, body-on-body stuff that a lot of people miss. Doesn't win a lot of it but can develop in that area. Has the skills.

What...? So being a bigot is not okay if you attack and ridicule someone based on race, but it's okay to be a bigot if you're ridiculing someone based on their own personal faith? Cool, gotcha.

Censorship is the wrong term. Only a government can by definition "censor". Demonland was simply choosing not to fund its antagonists, as per this comment:

Like playing contracts, you sign a manager for a period of time. I imagine that his managed was signed up until at least the end of his first contract with Melbourne.

Seems to be the case. PP a certainty if he walks imo and we can't organise a trade.

Ill sum up Roos for anyone than didnt see: Met with Clark, wanted to speak about his health, said it's different watching to being directly involved. Said he'd wished it had come out tomorrow and not been leaked. Said it was no one's fault specifically though. Said Melbourne expects compensation if he chooses to leave. Listed player till October 31 Made it seem like Clarke and Melb will have a gentlemens agreement to a trade Reaction when asked about Frawley was one of defeat, said they couldn't talk with him about it until free agency period, but he's gone.

And why would Hawthorn?

Abbott's doing a great job. *runs and hides*.

What I don't understand is, "talking to Melbourne first". He's contracted until 2015? Does his official retirement effectively mean the club is forced into delisting and/or lost the power to trade him?

I smell a LeBron James scenario coming up.