Little Goffy

Last I heard, Channel 9 had confirmed Judd was signed sealed and deliviered to Melbourne, too. I think Welsh is an ok player whose had some bad luck. On the one hand I think the Crows are being a bit pissy not offering him two years, on the other hand I don't think it would be much of an addition to our list, for immediate need or long term, if we grabbed him. So it's a no from me on Welsh, particularly if he's asking for a full senior player's wage. If it's an old Welsh for $200,000 vs young Sampi for $60,000 then it's a no-brainer out of the two, whatever doubts we might have on Sampi.

Hang on. If you can't tell at 18 that they're going to be as good as they are, doesn't that mean there's a good chance that real quality may emerge from lower down the list (say, pick 14 & 21?). I'd take an extra Bate and Rivers any day! And who cares if we have to go through the terrible shame of an extra Mclean along the way! But I do agree that the past KP black mark has had an impact - I think the most evident is actually with our ruck recruiting strategy - second/third round picks traded for rucks who hadn't broken through yet at their original club (PJ, Meesen). When was the last time we actually used a high draft pick to secure a ruckman? Second to that - it's noticable that we have been unwilling to commit to designating a player as fullback. Seems like we're just hoping that someone will slip in to fill the need, like Nicholson did (kinda) and like Carroll is doing (mostly) and Holland (sorta). I get some heart from the fact that people are explicitly saying they see Frawley as a fullback once he gets more experience and a bigger body. Come to think of it, I actually get the feeling that a lot of black marks and bitter lemons are being steadily cleared out. Here's to some more renewal!

I have to make a comment on the AFL article about best all-time draft choices. Firstly - Alistair Nicholson at 22! Go big Al, it's no accolade but it is a nice thing to know about yourself I spose. Second - pick 6, only one player made it past 100 games after being taken at six?! That is truly scary. And finally, once again a reminder of how good Melbourne's 99 draft was, with multiple players fromthat year being touted as best of their pick, and almost all of them getting honorable mentions. I want another one. I really want another one. Now that we've loaded up on development staff and we're committed to actively supporting growth in the kids, and with a series of excellent drafts behind us in the last few years (03, 04, 05, 06 must all be counted as pretty successful) another draft like that could blast us into a golden era. And then we've got four rookie slots to fill, which I think is the most 'morally' pleasing part of the draft, because it gives underdogs a shot and there's a huge thrill when someone from the rookie list makes it.

Whoa, because Worsfold is known as a soft trainer? But ditto on Motlop 2.

North aren't going through a tough patch - they are a dead club walking. They are bleeding millions of dollars a year from the AFL and have no plan or prospect of turning that around. Realistically, they can choose to become a power VFL team and compete with Sandringham, or they can make a radical move, which the AFL has indicated would have to be to the Gold Coast. It's a miserable situation, I don't like it and it is obviously driven by the commercialisation of the game and the ridiculous resources going into football clubs. But buy a membership of another club which can't motivate it's own members, and can't enact a business plan of any sort, when it's heritage is on the line? Buy a membership of another club when my own club needs backing and is actually doing the responsible thing? If I was going to spend another $100 on football, it's all going straight to the Demons, because the sooner we're not in need of help from the AFL, the more resources the AFL will have to help struggling clubs turn around. As for the Bulldogs, if they can't get it together when they've had $30m worth of facilities thrown at them by working with blatant electoral pork-barrelling, stuff em. They made a pact with the devil, if they still can't get by then they get what they've earnt and can fill the gap in Sydney's west. Maybe if they'd spent some of the last twenty years trying to actually welcome the West Melbourne migrant communities into the culture, instead of using the club culture to assert their 'Aussie-ness', they might be alright now. Just a little explosion of frustration there. I'll hate myslef in about an hour, don't worry about that.

Careful there, the Bulldogs might be in serious strife by next season. So might we, for many of the same reasons. So i'm not keen to make the connection too often. But you're right, we do look like being in a better position to step up than the Bulldogs. Lots of returns from injury (surely, surely, it can't be that bad again), our retired/traded/delisted players are much more replacable than, say Grant and Darcy, and we have a better balance of player types in our young squad. Add to that, we all seem to rate the new coaching staff and structure pretty highly. Bailey has a lot more back-up than Daniher did, or Eade does. And Eade just seems like a bit of a tool, so we have the advantage there.

There's a part of me that wishes we had picks 7 and 8 instead of 14 and 4. That way, we would be better placed to fill needs at the same time as taking best available, with a good chance of ending up with Rance and McEvoy. Obviously I'd hardly complain about a Cotchin or Palmer, but I'd rather have two top(ish) picks in this draft than one super-top and one just off the top. Just a quirk of the options and my desire for everything to work out smoothly without anxiety.

It's kind of hard to believe that WC would have delisted Cousins due to salary cap issues. Just how much to they plan on paying Josh Kennedy?

Political correctness is what you get when people have to deal with constant bull**** all the time on account of other people picking out something to have a go at. Remember the Akermanis 'those monkeys upstairs' comments? He knew he was talking about executives, not aboriginals. But think about the guy who keeps having to put up with drunk idiots asking him where he keeps his banana. Brock Mclean just got back from a trip where, apparently, he was jinxed enough to have repeat times when some idiot decided he was a free target. If he's headed out one night and someone drunk comes up and starts just giving him a bit of a ribbing, there's a bigger chance Brock would give the guy a spray and tell him to [censored] off, even if there wasn't really a problem. That's the whole deal with political correctness right there. So deal with it. And if you want to have a whinge about how you have to watch your mouth all the time, find some of the pricks who dish out the rubbish that starts the whole problem. Yeah, the post is a storm in a teacup, as others have said, but I'm really sick of people whipping out 'aww, no need to be so politically correct' everytime they realise too late that they've stepped on someones toes. Next time, try 'yeah, sorry bout that one, didn't mean anything by it' and cop it on the chin. Anyway, I'd take a punt on Sampi, for no cash and effectively a 70+ pick, why not?

Dean Bailey The only Melbourne coach never to lose a game. It's a record that speaks for itself, and I'm sure he'll be keen to maintain it. But seriously, the whole restructure of the Footy department looks pretty sweet. I'm stoked to have the two development coaches in particular. Nomed you are absolutely right about the 'rebuilding phase' rubbish. Richmond and Carlton have been the big talkers about long-term rebuilding programs. Whoopee for them. Seems they decided they were so good at it they'd just keep on going. Maybe their plan is to keep losing until they can start picking up not only top picks, but grad Gibbs II and Murphy Jnr with Father-Son selections. Then they couldn't possibly lose. Mind you, talk of 'we're just about to turn the corner and become a powerhouse' can knock the legs out too. Think Hawthorn before Schwab's last year, Doggies this year, Demons this year, Freo and Richmond most of the time... Again, Dean Bailey seems to get it right. He hasn't promised anyone anything, and good on him for it.

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.