Little Goffy

Provided it's not on an inflated salary or anything destablising like that, I'd love to see Prismall in Red & Blue. Like others have said, a big NO to trading an early pick. In fact, 35 might be pushing it. Maybe pick 51 if we're lucky? Or some kind of complex shuffling of 51,35 and a pick of theirs. Remember that the Cats will be perpetually under salary cap pressure, and don't have Visy to pick up the slack. If Prismall is out of contract too, then our PSD pick comes in to play. And let's face it, he really hasn't had the opportunities he perhaps deserves. He got 32 disposals and three goals against Melbourne on that awful friday night. But then again, who didn't? And a good age, too. The upside of him being out next year is that we'll still be very much playing youngsters in 09, and by the end of that year we'll probably have seen the retirements of a few more veterans, (Carroll. Robertson? Bruce? Whelan? McDonald?) as well as saying goodbye to any of the current crop of 'relatively young' players who don't step up next year, so he won't be clogging up any development plans for the really young lot. Let's face it, he's a sound pick up on merit and by 'the plan' - if we got a draft pick of his quality at 35 we'd be well pleased.

The $5mil statement is the target to kill, which includes all leftover debt that the Gardiner/Harris administration didn't manage to kill (remember that they did knock down something like $4mil in their time) plus the 'between 1.5 and 2' in losses this year. So $3 mil down, $2million to go. The 2008 loss of... lets split the difference and call it $1.75mil, includes $200,000 for Travis Johnstone in Brisbane. (now finished) $250,000 payout of Steve Harris (a right call, nonetheless) Around $100,000 'dead loss' on the McNamee hiring/firing, and the costs of transfer and information exhange etc with new boards, administration, securing new CEO, etc.. this is after acknowledging 'Super-Spargo' who saved the club tens of thousands of dollars by stepping in as interim CEO without payment. So there half a million we shouldn't have to worry about next year. Hmm... Neitz, Yze, White, Holland... that'll be another million off the expenses ledger, even after a few other players are offered a little more. So now the tally is one and a half million in expenses we shouldn't have to worry about next year. Also, of course, we've made progress at killing debt. But on balance, our debt position has moved from about $3.2 million to about $2 million. So it's probably about $100,000, plus however much more debt we can kill over the summer. So, after clearing out all those things, we need to make about $250,000 more in revenue next year than this year and we're back on an even keel. That, ladies and gentleman, is all rather do-able! Pause and think on that. We can do it, it's right there to be done. All else being equal, it's about 1,500 extra attendences per home game. A margin that small means every extra effort by an individual counts.

Actually, I checked those figures with the club, and Caroline Wilson, along with a few other media outlets in the last few months, has mis-stated our debt position. Her mistake is taking the $5mil declared as the debt demolition target as being the current position, and then she's added this years operating loss to that. Very dissapointing, lazy journalism. I can confirm the $5mil as the end of year anticipated result, as last years debt statement was $3.2mil (in the official, audited financial reports) and add to that the expected losses this year and you get the $5mil debt demolition target. The point of concern raised by the auditors was Travis Johnstone's 'payout' - MFC is paying approx $200,000 of his salary this year as part of the trade arrangement with Brisbane. The club accounted for that as a 2008 expense, the auditors thought it should have been a 2007 expense, which would technically have meant a loss that year. Note that this 200k is part of our losses for 08 now, and will not recur. It also goes alongside the retirements of Neitz, White, Yze and Holland as a step clear in our total player payments.

Ya wha? How does the club have 'more debt than it thought'? I guess the failure of the $200 raffle is part of it, but only another $100,000. How about they start presenting a coherent plan for growth and development, that might help motivate a few people. And I'm getting damn tired of being guilt tripped 'come to this came because if you don't we'll cry' doesn't work, annoys people, and surely must drive awat sponsors. I'm sick of seeing my club begging. I want to see action.

It's funny, but just now I've gone off Robbie Warnock completely. How can we expect existing players to help keep a tight rein on player payments then bring in a guy on $300,000+ entirely paid on the basis of 'potential'. I'd want to see a whole lot more before I screwed up our entire salary planning structure. Remember his stats - 2008 - 9 games, for 11 disposals, 8 hit outs and one tackle per game. 2007 - 12 games for 10 disposals, 10 hit outs and one tackle per game. As much as they are fine and dandy stats for a young ruckman, they aren't even remotely in the realm of 'major player'. I understand that he has been in Sandilands' shadow and all that, but seriously - we're talking a salary higher than most of our B&F top ten will be on next year.

I agree. (bet you weren't expecting that to happen on the internet) Melbourne does it's best to play at a truly breakneck pace... unfortunately at the moment it quite often does break it's neck. My crystal ball (blessed as it is by the Invisible Pink Unicorn) is telling me that this will be a fun and crazy ride the next few years. There will be horrible blowouts right up until we're perfect. There will be the occassional big win too (hopefully more over time) And there will be a good number of games where the score see-saws from one quarter to the next, as one team gains the ascendency and the other gets the fumbles again, and the counter-attacks come thick and fast. Think of the Freo game... that was definately fun. There will be some massive shootouts, too, games with 40 goals kicked in them. I'm kind of glad I'll get to be a part of this, now that I think we're gonna survive and maybe even get our act together again. Also, you're quite right, the umpires are rubbish everywhere you look. And I can't completely blame the umpires themselves - the AFL is putting money in the wrong places, an extra million dollars a year to support umpire at the mid to upper levels would make a huge difference to the talent pool, 'selection pressure' and confidence of umpires, and would help limit one of the main things people don't like about AFL - the 'what happened? Huh?' factor. I noticed there were'nt any players from Sydney headed to the draft camp. Just two from NSW, both from the Murray Bushrangers. So there's still more AFL talent coming out of Wagga and Albury than Sydney. Put that together with the Swans playing their reserves games in the ACT league because it's at a higher standard than they can get in Sydney, one might be led to the ever-so-tentative conclusion that a bit of grass-roots investment and support of local level clubs might help the long-term West Sydney expansion plan... How did I get on to that? Oh that's right - places the AFL should be spending it's money.

Well, based on the write-up there, he sounds ideal. Practically a description of what Bailey likes, as I understand it. Also a pretty good description of what I like.

Whatcha talkin 'bout? The main Melbourne group on Facebook has over 3,000 members and is just about the largest going round. There must be about 100 different 'buffy the vampire slayer' groups and 50 for 'I heart tacos' - don't expect every group or application to be full.

From current team 25 and under only, we need to get about three, quality players on each broad category. tall backs from: Rivers, Garland, Warnock, Frawley, Martin. small/medium backs from: Petterd, Grimes, Bell, Bartram. 'Inside' midfield from: Mclean, Jones, Moloney, Dunn (tagging) 'outside' midfield from: Morton, C. Johnson, Buckley, Small Forwards from: Davey, Maric, Wonaeamirri, Sylvia (rotating midfield) Tall Forwards: Miller, Bate, Newton, P. Johnson (rotating ruck) Ruck: Jamar (rotating forward) ... ... The trouble with making any kind of predicition is that Melbourne easily led the competition for number of games played this season by players who had less than 10 games experience. We also, once again, had all sorts of horrible injury disruptions, including young players who we are still waiting to get a clear picture of. For the next couple of years at least some of Green, Bruce, Whelan, Wheatley and McDonald will be around to help things along. But there is clearly a need for a first rate ruckman, a first rate full-forward who can kick bags of goals, and a pile of skill across the board. I think we can make it, if this draft and next years give us two high quality players each, we've got a bit of a team going on.

Hello runandcarrysucks! Welcome to Demonland. Have a merry time but remember the following rules - 1. Chris Judd is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy. 2. Don't get into an argument with Yze Magic about the relative merits of Cameron Bruce and Colin Sylvia. 3. It is considered a rite of passage to at some point complain that Nick Sauntner took all the development opportunities from our young forwards. This must immediately be followed by "By that's not to say anything bad about Sauntner, he's probably the greatest player ever to not play at AFL level" 4. Daniher is not personally to blame, but the 'Daniher era' is. 5. Ditto Paul Gardner. 6. Don't try to suggest that blindsiding someone off the line of the ball is gutless; you will be branded a wimp who wants to wreck football. There we go, we're off to a start. But really, it's a very forgiving place here.

Yeah, nothing boosts my estimation of a player than seeing them publicly nominate a specific club for trade, putting their own club in a jam and alienating other clubs, more than a month out from trade week. There's an element of sour grapes, sure, but this isn't positive behaviour. Unless of course the whole thing is a ploy to make Carlton and Freo waste time staring each-other down at the trade table, until the whole thing collapses and we pick him up in the PSD. I still prefer Watts for No. 1 pick, though.

Alright, time for another 'the draft isn't a magic solution' post. Even in good draft years, a late first round draft pick is not that big a deal. After the initial dozen or so obvious players (and even that range has it's misses) the difference between pick 15 and pick 25 isn't that great. Let's set a criteria of 100 games, at a consistent top-5 B&F level, which is what you'd need to see from a player to make offloading Brad Green a 'winning' option. picks 10 to 20 in the 2001 super draft included; Richard Cole 63 games and gone, Ashley Watson 7 games and gone, Barry Brooks 10 games and gone, Shane Harvey 14 games and gone Daniel Elstone 0 games. There are two first-rate players, James Kelly and Nick Dal Santo, plus a selection of good ordinaries to round it off. In the weaker draft of 2002, grabbing Daniel Bell at pick 14 was a good effort. Five players from the 10-20 range from 2003 are yet to break past ten games. Mundy and Stanton are the standouts there. Of course, that draft also saw Kepler Bradley, Kane Tenace, Raphael Clarke, David Trotter and Ryley Dunn in slots 6 to 10. Generally, given the low percentage play (about 50% effective, 40% 'clangers', 10% 'special') represented by draft picks anywhere but in the very top bracket, and the fact that moderately high picks are really only incrementally better in their results than lower picks... Thanks but I choose Greeny. Who, by the way, is only 8 games short of Matthew Pavlich as having played the most games from the 1999 draft. Went at pick 19, one before Paul Wheatley. So you can definately do alright from these picks. Trouble is, the five picks before them were Travis Gaspar (28) David Spriggs (69), David Haynes (65), Ezra Bay (0) and finally Rhyce Shaw, who is the only one still playing... if that is what you want to call what Rhyce Shaw does.

Warnock coming in from nowhere, haveing done essentially nothing, would surely put some more upward pressure on salaries. Note Cameron Cloke; better stats and performance in every respect, will he really sit at 100k less than Warnock?

Well, with Warnock apparently out of the pickture, I'd now be looking at an extra young ruckman, where before I was just looking at a selection of pacy, skilled midfielders (O'Keefe, Robinson, Blease). But with ruckmen it all depends on whose left by 17/19 I s'pose. It's a smaller pool and all that. We should have at leasttwo running around at reserves for Casey, off the rookie list. For the record, I still think Watts for pick 1. Jamar was a lot better when he was out from White's shadow. PJ is a goer no doubts. Meesen... ask me in the Nab cup decider next year...

Yes please. That would make ours the best alternative strip in the comp.

Hi all, I'm just curious, since I missed out on the 90's having only been properly introduced to AFL around 2000 (lucky charm, I was), with all this hype about Franklin and so on, I had a look back and noticed that David Schwartz closed in on 3 goals a game, and managed 15 brownlow votes playing alongside Garry Lyon in 1994, which was also the season he played just his 50th game. Then there were two (Three?) knee reconstructions in rapid succession, and he never got back to that level, is what I understand happened. Anyone care to fill in some details? Some nostalgia to pass on, memories of the days when...

Gee that Visy place must be in line for one of those 'emloyer of the year' awards from the ACTU - everyone wants to go there! I mean, this job ad was barely up before some guy from out in WA was putting in an application. And I hear from everyone that the money is pretty good over there, and jobs are easy to find, so it must be for the joy of contributing to such an esteemed organisation. Still, I was a little surprised, apparently this guys brother plays for Melbourne in the AFL and has been doing really well, and they were interested in recruiting him as a ruckman. I guess he just figured that he would get lonely being one of only a couple of really freaky tall guys at a place - that can be kind of isolating, being different like that that. Visy, on the other hand, has a whole bunch of young guys in the factory who are about the same height and stuff, and some are even younger than this WA fella, but already doing the job full-time. I think it'll reassure him that he wont have to do too much right away, and his workload will be eased a bit by having three other young fellas with him doing the same job. ----- Robbie Warnock has announced, apparently within two days of making his decision to leave Fremantle, that he specifically wishes to be traded to Carlton. On the same day, the AFL quietly mentioned that they had found no evidence of any improper conduct of any kind by the Melbourne Football Club in relation to Robbie Warnock, despite repeatedly and publicy stating their concern about the club's behaviour in approaching Warnock in the past. Presumably, Carlton will be subject to similar scrutiny and defamatory comments?

If this is true about the red taking over, then it's a very good sign. When the silver came in, it was one of a limted set of options and no consideration was given to other feedback, we ended up with the 'best' of a very bad lot. Sounds like a bit of feedback came through (amazing what a few events with members where the president talks to enthusiastic supporters can do) and it was decided the white just wasn't going to work. I'm cautiously thinking this is phenomenal news. Leadership flexibility and responsiveness to the fans! OMG!

You are mad. Mad I tells ya. Pick six instead of pick 17 in a draft widely declared to have top-level depth down to the mid-20s. Bah

Yep, there's something od about Sydney folk. It's the travel times, maybe? Everywhere takes an hour. But then again, they claim to be used to it - they laugh whenever they come down to Canberra and someone local says, 'nah, can't be stuffed, that's a thirty minute drive away'. They really do seem to settle into the pub, or just home, rather than going to live events. Except for the occassional super-event, which they then ALL go to! Ironically, the Sydney market, with it's eminent failure to turn a sustained profit for the Swans, or a decisive benefit for the AFL in general, is exactly the market type that the AFL knobs want to turn the whole country into. Consider - A night grand final, so we all watch it over dinner; at home on television at peak hour when the ads are most valuable. This instead of going to the game or getting a group together for a grand final day barbeque or whatever you want. The failure of the Sydney crowd this weekend needs to be a wake-up call that some aspects of the 'commercialisation' of AFL aren't even commercially sound.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. For Green to jump ship a year before he becomes eligible for veterans listing plus becoming our most senior and valuable player would be insane. For the club to ditch Green just as he's become one of our most senior, consistent and valuable (and even versatile) players would be insane. The best information I've heard / seen in news is that the debate is over length of contract; 2 years vs 3 years. I'd be staggered if that was enough to sink the partnership, especially since if Green continues to perform like he did this year then his next contract will be a big bugger, and on veterans list/half salary cap rate. There's a good chance that finalisation is a bit tricky while Capatincy / Vice Capataincy arrangements are figured out for next year.

SYDNEY FACING MERGER THREAT Dismal crowd numbers despite a finals finish, marquee players and strong recent on-field record have prompted Sydney Swans President Richard Colless to forshadowed that the Swans could face a merger or even outright closure. Noting the continuous pressure placed on Victorian clubs such as North Melbourne and Melbourne to relocate, and the impending tightening of the market with two new clubs to be created within the next five years, Colless was adamant that Swans supporters needed to show their colours to ensure that the team and club could continue to exist. Interviewed at his Kirribilli home at half time, Colless was despairing of the lack of commitment shown by Swans supporters who were too often happy to stay at home and watch on television instead of making the most of access to games at two of the best stadiums in the country - the charming 'boutique' style SCG and the magnificent, state of the art Olympic stadium. "I would hate to see the Swans, down the track, having to merge with one of these new clubs they are creating in the undeveloped lucrative football markets identified by the AFL" Colless is reported to have said. "But what the AFL has to understand is that like Victoria, Sydney is a very congested market where one or two clubs might have to close in the near future; after all the difference between one and ten is just a zero". AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has insisted that the poor crowd figures for Sydney's final do not represent a barrier to further expansion of the league into new areas, saying that "the fact that a viable AFL club can be run on such poor attendences has been a great impetus to the expansion policy - we are now looking at development plans for teams in Darwin, which this season saw 11,000 people turn up at Marrara stadium, and in Canberra where ground capacity wased pushed to the limit with crowds of 11,000 and 13,000." Demtriou was quick to reassure expansion-plan supporters that Victorian clubs with average home game attendences of 30,000+ in appalling losing seasons were still considered unviable and cuts to numbers reamined on the agenda. Demetrio also stated firmly that average attendences at Home & Away games at Aurora stadium which consistently exceeded Sydney's finals crowd figures did not support the development of a team on the Apple Isle. "It remains the case" Demetriou said "that the number of AFL players recruited from the Sydney area since expansion began easily exceeds the number of Tasmanian's recruited in last year's national draft. The AFL would be foolhardy to consider expansion to an overseas location like Tasmania at this time". Former Victorian premier and current Hawthorn chariman Jeff Kennett noted that the AFL was already extracting considerable income from Tasmania, such as the lucrative sponsorship arrangements with the Hawks, and neither he nor the Hawks board saw any need to support Tasmania in it's populist quest to establish it's own AFL team, which would divert money from where it is most useful. "What Tasmanians need to understand is that no-one really cares about them, and that frankly nobody would even notice if they just died" said the head of the BeyondBlue anti-depression initiative.

I still can't believe that Gold Coast Suns never even got a mention as an option. I'm not saying it's the best or even putting my word in for it. But it surely had to be considered, what with being the number one positive thing people associate with the Gold Coast.

Lets, see, Top row we get going with Jared Morton (hang on, isn't there actually a Jarryd Morton out there already?) Then Matthew Neitz. Pass. Pass. Second row, first from left is Mr. Brad Wheelan. Then there's 'Juice' Frawley. Long Tom Sylvia? And then... Geebus... what an awful picture. Addam Yze is a fun one, and Cameron Green is one even they might find amusing.

RISING STAR WATCH!! Current top three performances for round 22 by rising star elgibile players who have not yet been nominated - Marcus Drum (freo) - 24 posessions, 4 tackles. Clayton Hinkley (freo) - 18 posessions, 1 tackle. Robert Gray (Port) - 17 posessions, 1 tackle, 3 goals. Marlon Motlop, Albert Proud and Lachlen Hansen did alright, too. But the rest of the performers have already been nominated this year. Our Nomination-eligible players vs Richmond include Simon Buckley Jack Grimes Ricky Petterd Addam Maric James Frawley Emg: Michael Newton Surely one of these fellas can grab it and take us to four nominees for the season? I know it's not such a big deal and all, but having so many nominees in a season is at least a symbolic statement.