Little Goffy

Damn, that Meesen really does look big. I mean, this is a guy you have to scroll down to see all of! Interesting about Holland - you'd think that assistant coach marking the ball for him could have been replaced by an all-too-eager volunteer. Bring a couple of Sandy Dragons in to help out, they'll love it. Hell, we could get a whole program going, where local under-19's kids come along to help out with a training session and get some tips along the way. Final thought, Greeny looks pretty firm in the pictures (and, admittedly, also a little constipated - that tightening of the sphincter is proving to be a problem) considering they're just back from the break, how did he go in the 1500s?

I thought so, he looked much older or something, too. Broader? Not so much the skinny kid, he looked like he'd put on shoulders since the last time I saw him!

Don't forget, when you compare us to Geelong, that many of those players marked as Geelong pluses were just about written off at the end of 2006. Bad attitudes, inconsistency, front-runners, selfish, and it goes on. Many Geelong supporters HATED Ottens as little as six months ago. We have a lot of players who can take big steps up - starting from Sylvia and Miller, throw in Carroll returning to 2006 form, Robertson freshening up, Davey returning to high-impact frightener rather than being under pressure to do the 'correct' thing. And don't get me started on the potential of half a dozen kids. Then of course, injuries. Blah blah blah. (Refers to difference from 1999 to 2000 seasons) You get the picture. It's a whole new season, we've made some big changes, dropped a lot of fringe players and have a lot of young talent which we haven't seen much of yet. The moral of the story? The competition is very even and any team can challenge for the flag... What a boring cliche, huh.

How can we not recruit someone named Paddy M'Gee? If tagging were easy, everyone would do it. Might be better to say that tagging roles are easier for a coach to find fill-ins for, reducing the value of a player who is a specialist tagger only. But is there really such a thing as a pure tagger? Even Godfrey kicked the odd goal... off the wrong foot from 50m having dummied perfectly to get round a defender

You're right about the little things you notice - like in Petterd's article from China where he says "Brock, being Brock, began to run... so we all ended up running a kilometer along the great wall." There's nothing like having an good impression of someone confirmed by another person you have a good impression of! Leoncelli was probably the first Demon I learnt to really appreciate (My first serious Demon supporting year was 2000, from the start, mind you!). That timing also meant that I just had to love Bruce and Green. 500 possessions, 15 goals and 60 tackles (plus 9 Brownlow votes) is a good way to make an impression, especially when you get them doing the hard work. Another claim to fame - the only player Bruce McAveny could name without annoying me - LeonCELLIIIII

Laaaaammbb. I'd be stoked - he always seemed to come from the Guy Rigoni school of being more interested in giving to footy than taking. And I have fond memories of watching him back when he looked so shy that you felt like going 'awwww' every time he punched the ball away.

Hmmm.... This Collard guy, he'd still be eligible for the Rookie list, wouldn't he? Minimum amount of risk for the club, up to two years for him to find his feet and maturity, still trains at full rate and lives amongst football without too much hype. Might work. Based on what I've heard here, I'd pick him up with a rookie selection.

Rivers needs to be given more free reign - so someone else will have to step up soon to be a true CHB. Carroll needs to either tie it down or be moved to a more flexible position than FB. He may be mentally playing out of position. Whelan is a back pocket and is good at the position, but I'm not against the idea of trying him out as a trouble-maker up forward. Davey should be instructed to make opponents so nervous when they are trying to get the ball back out of their defensive 50 that they need to have a little sit and cry at half time. Because that is priceless. Green, Bate, Sylvia, Newton should become a rotating HF / Midfield that would make opposition coaches reconsider their career shoice. They can all be effective HFs and mids, but each in different ways. Match-up nightmare. Dunn might end up as another in that HF rotation, but I see Dunn, Petterd and Bruce being a really useful utilty group. Chris Johnson and Simon Buckley will make it on a wing if they make it. Bartram is HBF and tagger, with the long-term prospect of being our replacement Junior. Right now, I see Frawley and Wheatley as our tall but rebounding defenders, one stays to cover, one goes to do some damage. Frawley is also a longer-term prospect for Key Defender, we'll see. Bell is a match-saving defender, and I think he likes it. Don't move him. Paul Johnson is the most likely of our rucks to actually turn out to be a rucking/backup KPP. The next Ben Holland. And that is my rant, all jammed into one post. Enjoy.

There's a limit to how much of a player's career can be attributed to the recruiter. I've said before that it's probably fairest to look mostly at Rising star award nominations to get a picture of how players are doing when they are still primarily shaped by what they were at draft time, rather than as reconstructed by the club. Have we had less than two nominations a year since 2002? Mclean, Sylvia, Petterd, Jones (3rd) Rivers (Winner) Davey (runner up), Bate, Bartram (3rd?). It's a good run, these last few years. Newton and Frawley both remain eligible don't they? Who have I missed from the last few years? No one will deny that 2000/2001 were relatively weak for us, despite picking up a possible captain now at Adelaide (Thompson), but since 2003 the form has been superb. Another couple of years of this level of quality recruitment and we'll be laughing our way into a golden era, particularly now that we actually HAVE a dedicated development coach. It's blowing my mind how few resources we committed to player development, and the contrast with the new coaching set-up. I guess it's one of the advantages of having a relatively low-profile (low-cash) senior coach, is that we have more money available for the wider coaching staff. Now, bring me a good young Key Defender, Mr. CAC.

It's a possibility. Certainly I think we can make some HUGE improvements on this season now past. Some thoughts - 1) Not a single one of the delisted players were critical to team structure or performance - none had more than a tenuous claim to best 22 in 2007. Travis Johnstone we all have an opinion on, and I guess we have to modify our optimism based on how important we each think he really was or wasn't to team performance. 2) To replace these fringe players, plus Johnstone, we have picks 3, 14 & 21 plus a collection of late picks for CAC to play with. With the addition of Meesen, and presumably the elevation of Bode, we have six draft selections and two rookie slots, the most for the Demons in some years. Given CAC's performance in recent years, where more than 2/3rds of our picks since 2003 have played and shown promise at AFL level, I'd expect a few good selections from the '07 round. 3) Several high-quality players have been mauled by injury and made minimal contributions in 2007 - Rivers, Whelan, Bartram and Moloney come to mind. Nobody will be assuming all will be straight back and in top form, but it's a start. Several more players were impaired or sidelined by injury, from Mclean and yet again Sylvia to both Neitz and Robertson up forward, plus utilities such as Bruce and Petterd. And so on. 4) Going back to those good draft choices in the last few years... We can show quite a list of young guns at the moment. The following are all AFL quality players, while the jury is still out on CJ, PJ, Buckley, Bode and Garland (and Meesen). Petterd, Frawley, Jones, Bartram, Bate, Dunn, Newton, Sylvia, Mclean, Davey, Bell, Rivers, Moloney. Let's party (and hopefully draft, too) like it's 1999.

This is a travesty! It'll need to be at least... eight times the size! Still, it's better than the "Lexus Centre for kids who can't kick good and can't do other stuff good either".

It is sad to see him go - the poor guy seemed to get injured as soon as he began to get hopes up. I dunno, I would've given him one more year. But it's not a decision I'm going to agonise about - he was right on the line of keep-or-delist for a very long time. Best wishes to him, and not only does he get to say he played AFL, but he can also say that he would've had a much better career except he was cruelled by injury. And he earnt people's respect.

Yep. Done and done. If the radar is back in (it did seem to be improving again) then I'd also like to see him out there for maximum minutes, by using him for the occassional stint as a marking target inside 50m.

Whitnall could be a long-term replacement for Sauntner. That's all I can find for him on our list, sadly. Carlton should have renegotiated his contract, there was still life in him, but it'd be hard to justify making a new start with a guy who is chronically limited by injury. The poor bugger could've been great; he's Carlton's Ox.

Yeah, there's a little 'tightening of the green sphincter' at that. Let's go nuts with the development resources and see if about eight quality kids can all step up to A-grade players. Drool.

Yep, I remember that game. He jogged on across open space to join the game on the wing, where the ball came within twenty seconds of him arriving. He was caught flat-footed and was second to the contest. Then made up for it by laying a crunching tackle and reclaiming the ball. which, under pressure, he handpassed to nowhere in particular, for it to be scooped up by on opponent. Not long after he was benched and I'm honestly not sure he got more than 20 mins game time. So he didn't have a great first game, but it's also another one of those stories we can think back on how Daniher kept giving young guys only half a chance, and reassure ourselves that the club maed the right decision. Getting back to the original thread here, can we not pretend the club was placing any more importance on this deal than they did? An interesting ruck prospect with great endurance and not at bottom age, for pick 37. A good trade, a useful piece of list-balancing, and cheap as chips.

It's a risk, definately. Even more so when you think about how much of a talisman they've already made him - suddenly there are Blues talking about finals and top fours and how Whitnall is going to be inspired to keep fit (they may have jumped the gun there, no?) and Fevola will take responsibility for, stuff. When Judd isn't playing, it'll hurt them badly, particularly if they get belted a couple of times the first time he misses. Worse than that would be getting beaten routinely even with Judd. We could all be toasting marshmallows on the flaming ruins of Princes Park if Carlton land bottom four again after everthing they've promised for 2008. And they wouldn't have any salary cap room to hold together the over-hyped and thus over-paid 'guns'.

The mention of Paul Johnson made me think - we seem to have decided on a ruck recreuitong strategy in the last couple of years of primarily looking at 20 year olds who have player two games for an interstate club. If it works out and only costs us a late draft pick every two years, thanks muchly. I would guess it's a recruiting strategy, on the basis that teenage ruckmen are just too much risk no matter how much promise they show. Sorry it's off topic. Big cheer for Junior. (10 more tackles to reach 700) Big cheer for Whelan and Moloney, because if they can get right again we'll all be stoked. I did a quick run for goal-based milestones, just for the hell of it. Bruce, needs 18 to reach 200. Robertson needs 21 for 400. It'd be cool if someone could check how Neitz is progressing in the all-time goals list, too. Who can he pass?

Come last and pick up next year's Johnstone? Come third last and pick up next year's Judd? But seriously, you think it's possible we could finish lower than Richmond? Side note for the post directly above mine - point 4 - miller can actually kick ok, it's more a case of someone needs to teach him to CHOOSE to kick, and to do so with confidence.

Agree completely. I often got the feeling that Daniher wanted every single player to be a utility/tagger except Neitz. I think there was a definate attitude that young players should make themselves versatile to 'give themselves the best chance of getting a game'. Hopefully we'll see players asked/allowed to make a real committment to filling a specific role instead of 'putting barriers in front of them' where they have to make themselves available for anything. So. Who wants to be the next fullback for the Melbourne Football Club? Mr. Garland, Mr. Frawley, Mr. Rance? Step up and be counted!

Ok, I've now heard it said that Travis Johnstone is our only player who can deliver to the forward line, AND is our only match winner. Christ on a Bike! I s'pose we'd better get Pickett back in, too. Travis Johnstone will be Brisbane's payback for dumping Aker on the Bulldogs.

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.

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

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.

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!