Akum

You mean there are people who actually need it explained to them???

It's like saying that the sky is blue.

Is Gilham taller? Faster? Better kick? Come to think of it, does Gilham have any advantages over Riv? This one doesn't sound right either. Love to know which clubs asked about the availability of two of the Jacks. Tongue in cheek methinks?

Eddy & Geary are OK, but can't for the life of me see what they'd contribute to our list. And if the Saints are trading away their young players at this stage, they're in a lot of trouble. No reality here.

So he'll take that load off Jack's back

Agree with your point, but GC Suns have picks 13 & 15, so 17 is actually only 3 picks down the order from 12.

I'm not sure that I'm totally sold on Hale, but if the FD are interested, I can see the sense in it, for many of the reasons that have been mentioned already. Another few points that need to be highlighted: * In 2008 North thought he was worth a 4-year contract (!!) at $350K p.a. North may be flaky but they're not insane - you don't offer contracts like this in the first place without a very good reason. * He kciked 8 goals in a match against Geelong. Who was the last Dees player to kick 8 goals in a match? There has to be talent somewhere to be able to play to that level. * He's likely to be more value as a fwd/ruck than purely as a ruck, which is what Hawks & Suns are looking for. * Through excellent drafting in the past few years, we've already got one of the best teams for the 2013-2014 seasons in the bag. We can already see that even in 2011 some very good players are going to have to miss out on senior selection. It's hard to see how we're going to pick up something in this year's draft that's going to add significantly to what we've already got for 2013-2014. By far the biggest hole in our list is a big forward for the next 2 seasons, after which we'll have Gawn and Fitzy. * In 2010 he kicked 17 goals in the first 7 matches. Another club made inquiries about him in July. After the first 7 matches, he got no goals in 5 games and played most of the rest of the season in the VFL. He's clearly not been happy at North and wants out, and it sounds like he played that way for the last 15 rounds. As was mentioned several pages ago, a lot depends on where his head's at. I'm sure that the FD would have thoroughly done their homework here. If, as logic suggests, we are the club that made approaches to him in July, they've had an eye on him for some time, it's not just a flash in the pan. As other posters have said, he's attractive to us for structural reasons, and he's likely to suit our game much better than he suits North's. He's a risk in terms of his recent performance, no doubt, but there's a lot of sense in getting him.

Does this mean we're likely to have a quiet trade week?

Collingwood & Geelong are made up of players who were initially ordinary (low draft picks) one-on-one but who blossomed once a style of play was put into place that made up for their one-on-one deficiencies. Their game plan relies on creating a loose man and on concentrating the forces in one part of the ground (corridor for Geelong, flanks for Pies), and on avoiding one-on-one contests as much as possible. In the second half of the first Grannie the Saints (who have a number of high draft picks) managed to make the Pies accountable one-on-one and were able to get on top and show the Pies up to be quite ordinary when each player is made accountable (Malthouse was ready for this in the replay and countered it very well). That's basically what we did to the Pies this year (and failed to do in 2009), aided admittedly by a relative lack of intensity and some poor kicking for goal on their part. With all our high draft picks, we have an opportunity to create a game plan that's even harder to counter, and we will be very difficult to beat if opponents try to man us up one-on-one. That doesn't guarantee success, of course, but the opportunity is certainly there to build a team that's much better than the current & recent premiers.

They're a happy team at Hawthorn. To the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

On the other hand, one of the things I really like about Col is that some of his best games have been when we've been really spanked (e.g. Hawks & Pies 2009). He's not a front-runner by any means.

What I don't follow is that in among so much hate for Collingwood, there's so much love for Carlton on this thread. Carlton player doesn't have to be best player in the AFL to win Brownlow! Let's celebrate! Carlton player beats the MRP rap when just about every other player in the AFL would be looking at 3 weeks! You beauty! Am I alone in hating Carlton more than Collingwood? What annoys me more than anything about Judd's win is that Carlton are never on the receiving end of this sort of thing - they're never in the Dane Swan position - they're always the one being favoured by good fortune. No wonder they believe that they deserve special treatment. I'm fine about Judd. But Carlton sit me to tears. They need taking down, not boosting up.

Judd is a great footballer. Judd is a pretty good person (although it seems that sometimes he says what people want to hear - don't we all?) Judd deserves to win the Brownlow. But Judd deserves to go down in history as the best & fairest player in the AFL for season 2010???? That's the problem. To say "yes" to this last statement, you need to believe that the umpires are better judges of "best & fairest" than all the players, all the coaches, the All-Australian selectors yes he got in, but only on the bench) and every single media commentator, none of whom had Judd even in their top 3. The Brownlow is no longer the best measure of "best & fairest", but is the best measure only of who appeals most to the umpires. As it always has been. It's just that it has the aura that goes with history and tradition.

Anybody remember Keith Greig? Didn't think so.

Love Goddard as a player, but despite being brushed off by most of the commentariat (and despite it being Picken) I thought he was very lucky. Clearly according to the MRP the head is absolutely sacrosanct - unless it's in Grand Final week, and it's one of the Brownlow favourites who's playing in the Grannie. Does this improve Goddard's odds for the Brownlow?

It's also about making sure that blokes of the calibre of Miller keep their connections with the club, especially when they finish playing, even if they played their twilight years elsewhere. Building a good club culture.

Not if Fev's being well & truly hung out to dry. It's not just Brisbane. The AFL must be concerned about how this is playing out on the Gold Coast.

Great demonstration of what not to do against Geelong, from selection onwards. Pies won't have seen anything that would worry them too much.

What I like best about Jones is that I reckon he improved 20% in 2009 on 2008, and then improved another 20% in 2010 on 2009. He still hasn't reached his plateau IMO, and is definitely capable of improving another 20% next year & then the year after. He's not "untouchable", but it would have to be an extremely good offer indeed.

Considering we played a home game in Darwin, 8th is great. Another 7,000 or so and we'd be up with the Saints in 5th place.

For anybody looking to deliver into our forward 50, the last thing they'd expect to find is a team-mate in the clear. So at this stage they don't look for it. Jack is good at getting into unexpected good positions - places where his opponent doesn't expect him to be, but neither do his teammates at this stage. But this is surely just a matter of fine tuning. Once they get used to where to find him, it will come off. I'd be very surprised if Josh Mahoney hasn't noticed this too.

Scott has drilled them to play the zone, and they do it in a very disciplined way, but they don't have a lot else. This makes them look better than they are against teams that can't combat the zone (including MFC 2010 version). But they get absolutely smashed against teams that can beat the zone, which is why they've got thumped so many times this season. And which is why, when we learn to consistently and reliably beat the zone, we'll be one of the teams that smashes them. We were much closer to them this time than we were earlier in the season, and we'll get them next season.

The season has been beyond my expectations. But the past 3 or 4 weeks have been a dose of healthy reality and have shown us where we need to improve. Some bottom-8 clubs seem to be getting well ahead of themselves already.

Hard to see how the club could have handled this whole situation worse, going back to when they sacked Sheedy. The Board needs to take a good hard look at themselves too. They could cap it off beautifully with a knee-jerk decision on replacement coach.

I think the bolded parts are it. Our worst games this year have been when the opposition have done their homework on us and tried in various ways to shut down our playmakers and our game plan. That's what happened against North, West Coast & Carlton in particular, all teams that we have the measure of. Frankly I'm amazed that these clubs would bother to prepare so hard for games against the wooden spooners, but it says something for their flakiness of these clubs. But that's going to happen more and more from now on. No matter how many "game plans" we have, we need to know what to do against teams that put the clamp on us. It'll come, but it was the weakness this season, partly because we didn't expect it to happen. And it will happen against North, that's their only chance of beating us at the G.