Little Goffy

Agreed. I'm sick of hearing it already.

I got up this morning a genuinely couldn't believe the story - people getting angry at the club for trading Johnstone, when frankly we all know his attitude has had him on the edge of getting traded every year of his career.

I suppose a lot of fans have invested a lot of personal committment in Johnstone - we've spent a lot of time and effort defending him and now he's gone.

I really think it's done a lot of harm to the club over the years that one of our highest profile players is invariably discussed in terms of 'unfulfilled potential', 'letting the team down', 'hot and cold' and 'soft'. It's been exhausting, it's hard to let go, but it will be for the best.

I promise, this trade is for the best.

Especially if we use pick 14 to grab a quality young Key Defender, shifting our personell balance to where we always need more.

And especially if we do manage to pick up Trent Cotchin with pick 4.

Not to mention the extra opportunity this creates for CJ, Buckley, Petterd, even Dunn. For that matter, it could provide an opportunity for some of the mature players to assert themselves in more aggressive midfield roles previously earmakred for Johnstone.

:angry:

Travis was the ONLY player in our team who could hit a target up forward and now we may be paying half of his salary to deliver the ball lace out to Jonathan Brown. (see this article)

signed

Angry, Frustrated and Bloody Had Enough

Visualise a hollow read, with the gentle breeze passing through making a soothing, gentle wooshing sound.

Just imagine this:

F: Robertson, Neitz, Williams

HF: Davey, Newton, Yze

Williams would be a massive addition to our side. He is in the Russell Robertson mould and kicked 63 goals in 2005. Sure, he had a knee injury this year but if anything that makes him cheaper to get. What if we got pick 14 or 8 for Johnston and on-traded to Hawthorn for Mark Williams??

Russell Robertson is in the Russell Robertson mould and kicked 73 goals in 2005... Sure, he had a knee injury this year but...

I know it's not a Robertson vs Williams debate, but I think it's a case of the 'ol marginal utility - having one is great, but adding a second one isn't quite as good.

The bride wore blue and red and the other bride wore red and blue.

hehehehe

One would have to wear the away strip, I s'pose.

Congratulations and best wishes to everyone getting married, it seems to be expanding as the thread goes on!

I like to imagine CJ will be the next Demon late developer, like Carroll (not in team, then good average) or Bell (not in team, then good good).

From what I can gather he'll be competing for the spots vacated by Brown and Ward on the one hand and possibly TJ's on the other.

Actually, I know this is the wrong thread for this thought, but the TJ trade looks a lot more positive when you consider that it's not just pick 14, but also an opportunity for players like Buckley and CJ to find their way into the team.

We'll see what comes around.

Yeah, I have no idea what we're doing, trading away the most mature player at Melbourne, Travis Johnstone.

Ding ding ding. You win a prize!

Think Bass and Braddon - two marginals in both Federal and State politics.

Howard threw $5 Million at York Park some years ago to enable redevelopment to go ahead - they won Bass that election.

Yep, and $30m or so into the big redevelopment of Whitten oval, Which had a huge electoral effect in Melbourne Western Suburbs marginal seats.

Guys, I think we need to all move to marginal electorates.

Getting back to Tasmania, you've gotta remember that Geelong managed to get a very strong deal with Kardinia Park where they don't actually need a big crowd to turn a reasonable game income. The figure I saw a couple of years back (when it was still Colonial Stadium instead of Telstra Dome) was that a game at the Dome need to pass about 40,000 to be worth as much to Geelong as 25,000 at Kardinia Park. So smaller venues and crowds can still be viable.

On the other hand, not yet. If some crazy freaky government actually started investing in regional development instead of just tacking on extra 'suburb-in-a-box' areas to Sydney and Melbourne, then we might see a viable Tassie team.

Footscray, St.Kilda, Richmond... and we are the AFL's losers?

Bingo.

Come to think of it, in the last couple of years we've

a ) eliminated St. Kilda from the finals and

b ) took the finals spot away from Footscray.

Sadly we don't really get c) knocked Richmond out of the finals, but the opportunity only comes up once in a decade!

And before anyone mentions it, it would be poor taste to point out that Brown breaking his leg under Matthew Whelan, and the belting we handed them on the scoreboard the same night, scuttled Richmond's 2005 campaign.

I'm looking forward to the next Blues/Demons game and, as we steadily thrash them until they're too ashamed to look their mothers in the eye, holding up a banner

"How do you like the training facilities NOW?"

Carlton weren't born losers, they had to cheat to get there.

Ok I will play this silly game, if the Prez stood down and Bev was appointed we would be the laughing stock of the AFL, good looks for her age but no substance for that role, she would be eaten alive (no pun intended) I'm sorry but we would have to do better than Bev.

Wow, aren't you classy.

Please try not to go straight to discussing looks and dropping stupid innuendos as soon as a woman is mentioned.

I'd be interested if you have some info on her relative experience/resume compared to Gardner, or the off field leadership at other clubs.

There's a good stat on Jared Rivers - he's one fo only two players who come in the top bracket for both spoils and marks from opposition kicks.

It just says exactly what we all see with our own eyes, he is a matchwinner. The guy could have seven possessions in a game and three of them would be goal-savers. He is priceless, and by that I really mean there is no price high enough for me to be happy to trade him.

For Judd? On face value maybe, but would it be worth the bitterness?

Trade 1 -

Demons send Travis Johnstone and Brad Miller to Sydney

Sydney send pick 11 to Melbourne

Trade 2 -

Demons send Brad Green and pick 21 to Essendon

Essendon send pick 6 to Melbourne

Draft order

4. Melbourne - Rhys Palmer

6. Melbourne - Ben McEvoy

11. Melbourne - Tom Collier

Your thoughts please?

Nah, I don't like it.

Johnstone to Sydney for pick 11 I'm ok with. Miller aswell? Meh.

Green I just don't think should go. I'd rather have Green & pick 21 than just pick 6 any day.

And please, it's time for Jamar to start somewhere else, he's officially ^%$# me off with his weak performances.

I don't know much about the detail of the draft, but I'm inclined to use our high picks on McEvoy and Rance. Would 4 and 11 get them both, though?

With at least three more players to pick up, plus two rookie list places, I'd like to see a couple of speedy guys and a speculative ruckman from the late picks.

I know the argument for taking the best talent with high picks rather than drafting for specific needs, as it can go painfully wrong (Smith & Molan come to mind), but by all accounts both Rance and McEvoy ARE amongst the best talent, as well as being suited to our needs.

Of course, I think I'd be comfortable if we ended up with Cotchin instead.

Even though he is big I don't think PJ is a ruckman, though he could still become one. If we get Meesen I think we will still need to get another young ruckman late pick or as a rookie to develop. I still have interest in Stefan Martin, I think he has improvement in him.

Don't know about Martin, but I agree with the general picture you're painting.

I see PJ as a tall-defender and part-time ruckman. And frankly I see him doing it well, too.

Was sent an email today from the club about the 'Advisory Panel' - in it they said that the club had a new logo for next year:

I for one am not overwhelmed by it. I prefer the current logo. Thoughts?

The current logo is much better.

Maybe they wouldn't need to readjust the logo every few years if they actually put some thought into getting it out there, instead of thinking "oh, gee, our Brand isn't high profile, I guess the only thing to do is chuck it out and get a new one'.

Grrr...

By the way, Id be loving it if we got Pick 11 and Jolly for Travis

You'd be even more stoked if we got pick 11 and Jolly for Johnstone and Miller, no?

I get the serious impression you'd rather have a slot on the list ready for pick 94 than keep Miller.

Let's say I disagree but definately sympathise.

We SHOLD NOT trade Trav unless its for a judd deal hes our only good ball user.

Oddly, TJ's efficiency hasn't been that great. I guess the issue is the number of times he takes the high-risk option (such as centering the ball with a 50m pass to a congested area....

We all love it when it comes off, but he actually loses us the ball a fair bit.

I've reached the point where I can take him or leave him, sadly. I'm just not attached to him the way I am to the other near-veteran players like Bruce and Green.

I'm almost to the same point with Sylvia, from the old 'five horseman' group. Who exactly was in that group? McLean, Sylvia, Moloney, Bell, ???

There was definately a fifth horseman, and this is before Jones was added (Moloney was the one who made it five)

But I digress...

very interesting deers......your spreading rumours......i guess hypocracy isn't in your vocabulary

I guess hypocrisy isn't in your vocabularly either.

I'm more excited about getting Meeson than Jolly. They didn't actually name Jolly, just a GF player from the Swans.

Ahhh... interesting.

I'll take Tadgh then, thanks!

I've gotta admit, don't see much bonus in Jolly, unless its a Johnstone-pick 11 plus Jamar direct for Jolly.

Maybe it's just a psych experiment to see if we can make Jamar & Jolly REALLY hate eachother.

I don't know much about Kruezer actually, but the other day I found a draft preview that was written some time ago, I think it was 2007 AFL prospectus, so start of the year. The article was about players likely to be worth watching during the under 18s season. Interestingly, there were about nine ruckmen in their top 25 players.

I've only really heard anything about Kruezer and McEvoy. Obviously if the hype has avoided others, there would be some reason, but there might be an opportunity for a couple of late-draft CAC specials. Maybe here we have the reason Neaves was pushed off the rookie list - we have new speculative ruckman in mind?

One thing's for sure, we'll be loaded up with late draft picks to speculate with.

Neither of them are going because Judd is not going to choose Melbourne.

Weak. Cop out.

Why did you bother saying it?

Meeson is a nice little story huh?

Guy wants to come to Melbourne, is sure he wants to come to Melbourne, and has told his club he wants to go to Melbourne.

If only they could all be that simple.

Meanwhile, it's a welcome reversal of mentality really - instead of "Damn, we're short of quality ruckmen" it's "Hey, lots of opportunities for ruckmen who come to the Demons".

Anything that happens to encourage us all to look on the positive side is a good thing.

Mind you, it can stretch a bit - "Hey, all these injuries this year have put us in a great position in the draft" doesn't really work for me.

It's really not.

VCE is just another mark. It's a number and it makes little to no difference to the rest of your life.

Take it from someone who was told constantly that VCE is so important. It's NOT!

Do the best you can and enjoy year 12, it's one of the best years you'll ever have.

Yep, couldn't agree more.

Then again... I'm just some bum who dropped out of year 12.

But now I'm doing post-grad, so go figure.

Never forget - sit a one-day test when you turn 21 (Special Tertiary Admissions Test) and you can be into Uni with barely more delay than the rich kids who did a 'gap' year backbacking around Europe posing as Swedes and assaulting footballers...

Godd VCE is a useful thing, but don't freak out too much.

Petterd is an intelligent footballer.

Yep, that's the clincher for me.

Mind you, I wouldn't say Frawley isn't, but Petterd just looks so calm so often, and gets right on with it.

It's strange but while I like Frawley as a prospect, I just haven't developed an attachment to him yet.

So for me, on both a list and emotional level, I'd be keeping Petterd.

And because his name is fun to say.

As a side note, I'd rather be saying goodbye to Johnstone, particularly if Judd was coming on board.

How about we concerntrate on actions and doing whatever the **** it takes to break the drought?

"whatever the $#^& it takes" sounds good.

Except, that's what Carlton were thinking shortly before they lost a few year's draft picks!

How 'bout "Do what Dean says or %^# off?"

Then in 09 we can launch the slogan - "It was that Bailey guy's fault"

Does anyone have the odds on Robbo doing his hammy at the 30 metre mark?

Based on our 2007 performances, I think there's a fair chance this will happen.

Really it should be White in the sprint, a last ditch attempt to have our ENTIRE senior list injured at some point during the season.

Hey guys, 2001 draft would prob be the most successful hodge, ball, JUDD, bartell ect.... was just wondering does any1know who we got in that draft?

You'll break a few hearts asking after the 2001 draft.

Y'see. It kinda sucked for us. What am I saying, kinda? It sucked. Like a tornado. Like a tornado full of vacuum cleaners falling into a black hole.

It was 'the superdraft', and I doubt there's a club out there that did worse than us in the end. This draft is one of the reasons many people still hesitate in their worship of Craig Cameron. To improve everyone's mood, ask about the 1999 draft (but don't mention salary cap penalties or Matthew Pavlich)

Pick 9 Luke Molan

Not sure exactly what happened, but I think he copped a bad injury and then never really delivered. Not sure he even played a game.

Pick 25 Steven Armstrong

Showed promise winning a rising star nomination while being the much-needed crumber at Neitz's feet towards the end of 2002. Routinely played between 5 and 10 games a season for the next few years before being delisted, picked up as a rookie by West Coast and playing in their premiership as a handy but unexceptional small-forward.

Pick 26 Aaron Rogers

No idea. I guess he didn't come through. Can't find any record of him playing.

Pick 55 Brad Miller

For a late pick a good return, but has driven people mad by showing considerable promise but never quite reaching that next level. Very good in 2006 final vs Freo, as well as some bursts of a few games here and there. Currently at a cross-roads, maybe trade-bait, maybe a forward, maybe a defender, no-one really knows what is going to happen next with Miller, and I don't mean that in the good 'Aaron Davey' way.

On a more useful note - anytime you have questions about drafts and players there are two websites I've been finding priceless -

www.thedrafter.net

keeps a record of all drafts (not rookie though) and you can vote on the quality of each clubs drafting!

http://www.stats.rleague.com/afl/afl_index.html

has player stats for all players since 1991, game by game. Very handy, but it really annoys me that it's got 'rleague' in the address.