Little Goffy

Oh the pain, make it stop!! Of course, there's still a selection decision or two left, but we'll cross that Rivers when we get to it. At least we know there wont be any change near Davey/Jones lockers. I can't believe I replied and kept going. I took the Bate in, and now I'd better Bail out. I'm clearly not a Wellman, but nobody knows Watts wrong with me.

Boycotting [censored] umpiring? Geez, we'll miss you. As for boycotting the hawthorn home game at twilight, it probably saves the club a little cash since the entry wont be activated. I don't know the exact rules, so don't quote me. But I'd rather go and carry a sign saying 'Twilight games suck and stop fidgeting with the rules you $%$#ers' But I guess it's a moot point for me, not being in Melbourne. Dammit. I hate geography. Meanwhile, how much fun would it be to send first hawthorn and then Colling$#%^ into proper tailspins in the space of a few weeks?

Bartram is still very young, and missed a season/pre-season with injury. He's also, as mentioned, had a [censored] of a year off-field and I don;t care how courageous he is, that'll be affecting him. He's ok and does his job right now. Give him the time he deserves and he could continue to grow the way McDonald did. He's certainly ahead of Dunn right now. And I'm not a Dunn-hater or anything, but he needs to make some changes between his hears. And not the haircut, even though it's not great either. All that said, if Moloney is rested/sore this week I'd be interested in giving Bell a ring. If things continue on their current paths, it would then be Dunn who makes way for Moloney's return.

Heh heh. The Grimes will be our Danihers!

With or without one extra pick this year, if this team isn't having a serious and sustained impact on finals by 2012, I'll buy a hat just so I can eat it.

Oh for Christ's sake. Enough with the planning based on a priority pick. Did no-one else notice that we just pushed West Coast at Subiaco to the limit, and then backed that up with a one-goal loss to a top four team six days later? To get the priority pick we must win just three or fewer games for the rest of the season. Out of more than a dozen games left. Our first half of the season has been/will be the toughest draw of any club, by a long stretch. We would need to win just one game in every five from here to quality for the priority pick. The chances are very slim. Be ready to let it go and accept that we HAVE a team which can develop to stellar heights over a few years.

Yep, it really is a no brainer as far as the choice between Morton, Grimes, Jones and Judd. Those are three quality players and people, and that little bit younger, too. As for football being a professional sport.. What are these [censored] planning that means they still need a wallop more cash after they are earning $800,000 while still having time to do part time study? One year, house, second year, retirement fund sorted out, third year... get boring term deposits and go on a round the world trip on the proceeds every few months, maybe a fourth year you can buy a pub/farm/restaurant outright, fit it out and never actually need to do better than break even since you've got no debt on it. It really worries me the way people start to lose perspective once their salary climbs into the hundreds of thousands. 'Marginal utility'; the next dollar just isn't as important as the first.

That is class. Pure class. I'm blown away, I really am. Mr. Cameron Schwab, you may consider me a minion.

Yep, it's a lot cheaper by bulk. And nothing gets people to a game better than knowing that it's on, so it's probably going to work out as at least a break-even cash wise, and every extra number is worth a bit in AFL politics.

Got google maps? Better yet, use the satellite view. Find Yuendumu. Now, how much do you reckon the locals are into learning all about bureaucratic hoopla? And how good do you think their connections with the Etihad Stadium offices are? First you didn't even know he hadn't nominated in time, and said he must not be that good sicne he was overlooked, now you want to question his commitment because of a trivial forms stuff-up. Weak effort, Freak.

If we had two Cale Mortons, then the first would always have the other to kick to... Hopefully we'll see a set up like Strauss and Grimes at HB kicking to Morton, Davey, and Blease on the wings, then whack it in to Watts, Sylvia and Bate, with Maric and Wonaeamirri to clean up any strays. Meanwhile Moloney, Jones and Mclean do the hard stuff inside, Bartram tags relentlessly and our shiny new tall defender squad keep shutting it down any time it comes the wrong way. Notice that you don't even have to include a single pick from this coming draft to get a pretty exciting picture?

It is incredible. I can't choose between three or four guys. Aaron Davey has sstepped up on and off - and he's never been weak at either. Would he be the first indigenous captain of an AFL club? He'd be a fair choice and it would be great to see how he'd respond. He certainly does the team lifting things on the field - the run down tackles, great runs, fantastic goals. But then he also does the low-screw-up things. And he's an honest and hardworking, friendly to fans kind of guy off the field.

I'd be very keen to see Wheels stay on at Casey even if he has to go at the end of this year. He's someone worth keeping as close as possible.

I'll cross my fingers and hope that Rivers doesn't - they'd probably sprain. Poor bugger. At least all the reports so far have been that it's not as bad as it looked and might only be a relatively minor injury.

Morton isn't actually getting cheap kicks. The difference between Morton and Bowden, for example, is that Bowden is hanging away from the play being the 'whatever, let's try again' player - Morton is constantly, and I mean constantly, running to space to offer an option and then looking for the next step along, sometimes spotting very clever options. His endless movement to next position is one of the things getting us out of our swamps at the half back line, as surely as Davey's run and excellent kicking. He works very, very hard for those disposals. come to think of it, that might be part of why he has that nasty habit of the outright shocker kick here and there - legs just too tired to put proper force in. Only a thought. But a nice one, in that the problem would gradually resolve itself as he gets match-hardened and learns his limitations better. He's going to be a weapon for years, our Cale.

Yep, and it wouldn't be the first time Richmond came last but didn't get the first pick - Carlton got a 'before round 1' priority pick in 2007 even though Richmond was last. Of course, Carlton got Kruezer and Richmond got Cotchin, so it's touch and go who has done better with the pick at this stage. But it's important to remember that we really can't be banking on that extra priority pick - this first half of the season we play the entire top eight from last year, plus Port at AAMI and West Coast at Subiaco. The second half of the year is going to be dramatically different for us - so far we've won every game we've played in Melbourne that wasn't against a top eight side.

We get $250,000 for the Canberra game. It's a flat rate regardless of attendance as I understand it. Basically, the ACT government is paying for the chance to remind everyone that Canberra exists outside the parliamentary triangle. The morons still haven't figured out that they should probably upgrade Manuka oval - nothing beats sitting in the open in a Canberra winter - you can get sunburnt and frostbitten in the same afternoon. It's a magical experience! And as for the 13,342 for North... it's already been said here but I need to join this chorus - we get more than that to a Sunday twilight game in utterly miserable weather, compared to a saturday night indoors... and it's not as if we're playing any better than North this year. It gives we no pleasure to think that the North Melbourne revival is starting to stutter a bit. I'm just immenseley relieved that we already have the money in the bank from Debt Demolition and the AFL/MCC deal, plus the two solid sponsors for multiple years. And 30,000+ members already signed.

Sean Wellman

OMG! The story here is maybe that the food at the 'G is such a poor selection that, irony of ironies, players can't eat it. We better look into that, before anyone decides to give a toss about the occassional 'soft' meal from a player. You were kidding, right?

Weak. WEAK. First game for the year, sixth of career, and you're hanging s#$% on him? WEAK.

Hi, can anyone from a more civilised state give me some highlights as we go - I've just got stats to look at at the moment. Looking at them - Davey doing his thing while Jones, Mclean and Moloney are doing theirs. I'd be guessing that we are getting it forward occassionally but not to great scoring positions. A lot closer than we all feared it would be. Did my eyes tell me the truth? Were we actually in front for a few minutes late in the first quarter? Robbo's had a few shots already, which is nice coming back from such a long lay off. Have any hit the post yet? What's with Dunn, Jones and Morton getting the hit outs, by the way?

Yep, as Dappa Dan has pointed out, this won't be a year for another major cull of the list. Which is just as well giving the limited draft, with roughly a one quarter reduction in the total number of available recruits due to the raising of the entry age. We are also in the happy position of having so many promising young or very young players that it's hard to find individuals who we can talk about delisting sensibly. I'd say it'll only be three or at most four delistings this year. We may even bring one of those back through the rookie list, for example McNamara if he's not pushing up yet but still shows promise. (For the record, I think delisting McNamara would be really irresponsible this early) I'd be quite keen on offloading the late picks (eg. 3rd rnd mid 30's, 4th rnd early 50's) in order to imporve our early picks (from say 21 to 14). Of course it's not really viable to be talking about who to delist just yet - remember Garland and Warnock last year - but You'd expect a couple of veterans to go, and we may decide to move on an underperforming player in the 22yr-old area, hopefully traded rather than just dumped. But it's also important to remember that the Gold Coast team will be patrolling for ready-made youngish players in 2010, and will have a wealth of draft selections ready to offer.

Demetriou is a useless [censored]. I completely accept the fact that it is up to us to shape the future of our club. I'm less accepting of the assertion that 'if we perform, we'll get a better fixure/TV exposure' - it hasn't been shown to be consistent (just ask Dogs and Saints this year, compared to, say, Essendon) and even if it were consistent, it's a TERRIBLE business model and an even worse cultural influence, where it's okay to not follow you club during poor seasons. But that's all details. Doesn't change the fact Demetrio is a useless [censored]. $1m a year. FFS.

Hmm... Just for the record, does everyone remember Brock Mclean putting in $5000 to the Debt Demolition? Well, there were a few other players in there, including Neitz, I think Viney... Connolly was in there, and Dean Bailey as well, just in case anyone ever doubt's his commitment to the club - but the point here is that one Gary Lyon was not just on the list of major contributors, he was pretty highly 'ranked' as well - the order was highest to lowest contribution, although of course they didn't publish the exact sums. Lyon is still there for the Demons, don't worry about that.

We have the priviledge of playing Geelong twice last year, I believe. The game he did very well in was the round 19 horror, our only friday night, clashing with the Olympic opening ceremony, in utterly miserable conditions. We we're killed, but Maric was a clear winner on the day. We didn't have any other's that I can recall immediately. Whelan was good, actually. It sure does speak volumes that he stiil up when all around him was a wasteland.