Akum

And how many soft frees did the premiership favourites need to get themselves 16 points up (not to mention the obvious ones to us that weren't paid)? We weren't that far away from knocking them off with half our list still injured. Great finish to the season. And great OP all-round, Mr M.

Hit the nail on the head. Who we're going to get is relatively easy (the priority being to increase our forward-50 entries); the hard part is who we're going to lose.

A tad harsh maybe. In the last half of the season, except for his one brain fade, he's done about as well as any of us could have expected. He's maintained a consistent high standard against good sides as well as bad. It's probably just as well we didn't have him for that 4 weeks/ He won't be "elite" until he performs well in September (and it's "when" rather than "if"), but IMHO he's already earned the right to be called a "gun".

Thought he got caught a few times today, but I see this as a matter of fine tuning. If he's going to take a fraction more time with his disposal, he's probably going to get tackled, especially against such a good tackling side as St Kilda. But on the whole, I'd rather see him take the game on and get caught a few times, than rush his disposal or kick it as soon as he gets it. It's good to see him working to improve his game. That's the other effect of Scully and Trengove - our current mids are all going to have to lift it a notch to be sure of a spot in our A-team next year. I tend to forget how young Jones is, too. It seems that there might still be a fair bit of upside to come with him though.

... in their first AFL season, against the premiership favourites.

6. Sylvia 5. Morton (REALLY looking forward to his 2010!) 4. Jurrah (um, ditto!) 3. Jamar 2. Dunn 1. Bartram (why not? did some v good things)

Like Viagra??

Our 2010 game plan?? B)

Agree about Phase 2 - it's a totally different game from now on. The main limiting factor will be injuries.

The one key factor for how well we do next year is injuries. If we can do as well next year as the Saints did this year in getting our A-team on the park, who knows?

Our midfield WILL be top class. For the next ten years!

INteresting comments. By contrast, what impresses about Rohan is his burst of real acceleration that allows him to break lines.

Any chance of taking Talia at #2 if we want KPP?

Fuschia, you make a very good argument indeed for Dustin Martin - I agree that he seems to have been forgotten amid the "Trengove vs Butcher" debate. The only advantage Trengove seems to have over Martin is having played against men in the SANFL rather than against other boys in the TAC. Then again, as you say, the one reservation that a number have expressed about Trengove is not an issue for Martin - how much weight is put on this issue will be a matter for the face-to-face interview.

The message here is loud and clear. MFC will not be engaging in speculative trades, unless a promising younger player lands on the table. THey'll be looking to stock up with young draftees, and they're prepared to pay the price of having an "inexperienced" team for the next year or two that will all develop experience together "on the field". This is why DB's contract extension would be such a good idea. The club is trying to accumulate players that will all peak at around about the same time, having played to gether for a few years. But that means that we might have one or two "Essendon years" (beat some very good teams, but have some unaccountable losses to lousy teams), because of our inexperience, for another year or two before things settle down into some sort of consistency. Therefore, I doubt whether they'll be looking to trade for anyone older than about 22. It's more likely that most if not all of the players delisted from other clubs & available to trade will be mid-20s and above. Doesn't sound to me like TH is expecting to be a major player at trade time, and rightly so - it's simply unlikely to give us what we're looking for.

Can't see what some have said about Scully's disposal being no good. Almost every kick is to his team's advantage, even if the KPF lacks the yard of pace to get to the ball on the full, or the team-mate gets hands to ball but drops it. He just seems to always know the right side of the contest to kick it to. I also like his clean one-touch handling (same with Trengove) and his ability to swoop on the ball in traffic and get it well clear to his team's advantage (again same with Trengove). They're both consistently clean & decisive. Trengove seems to have great balance - if he's off-balance when he gets it (e.g. unexpected sideways bounce) he's back in perfect balance the very next stride.

Depends what you mean by "ruck". At present we're judging our rucks by what they do at stoppages. But as we move up the ladder, it's around the ground that counts much more. These days, even the best tap rucks in their best games get a hitout effectiveness % no higher than the low 20s. Most bounces are stalemates, it's just a way to restart the game after stoppages. And hitouts often bear little relationship to clearances, which is much more important. The tap-ruckman is only there to stop the other team having a free hitout. The question is, which of our present tap-ruckmen is going to give us something - ANYTHING! - around the ground? This is where we're REALLY lacking for rucks. Which of them shows a capacity - or at least a potential - to mark kick-outs, to drop into the space in front of leading opposition forwards, to provide some strength & protection in the packs and through the centre, take a big mark in either goalsquare, and so on? If you exclude hit-outs, who is the best around the ground? We don't yet have the answer, because none of the 5 really give us anything at the moment, and that's why DB used Jamar, PJ, Spencer & Martin in the way he did on Saturday. Jamar is our best tap-ruckman, but DB kept him away from stoppages to show us what he could do in general play only. He stunned everybody, probably including himself, by showing that he may well be capable of much more than he's given us so far. It's not so much getting 5 goals against a smaller man in Thornton, but the fact that he got 2 or 3 of them after the ball hit the ground. On the other hand, he only had 6 disposals the whole game. How do you evaluate that in terms of his potential to give us more in general play? The most athletic is easily Martin, who probably has the greatest around-the-ground potential of the 5, but he, Spencer & Meesen are so very raw at this stage. They don't play like natural around-the-ground ruckmen yet, and they're still only learning about positional play, use of their body, decision-making and so on (that's where Kreuzer, for example, is of most value to his team; he's not much at stoppages). These three have the most upside, and if any of them really improves their performance in general play next year, we won't be asking this question again at the end of 2010. DB gave Spencer a huge responsibility on Saturday, and he acquitted himself surprisingly well, considering how far back he's coming from. He's got a number of obvious deficiencies, but has shown a capacity to work on them. PJ is good in terms of getting into the right positions around the ground, and at this stage I think he does make more of a contribution in general play than Jamar, but makes far too many mistakes, and when he makes a mistake, it looks bad bad bad. If (and it's a huge "if") he can cut out his mistakes, and perhaps it's just a matter of confidence, then he'll be much better than Jamar around the ground. For me, I hope it's MArtin, because his sheer athleticism provides an X-factor that the others don't have. He's showed a lot in flashes at various times this year, but he doesn't get enough of it, because he doesn't get into the right positions - YET. But at the moment, while Jamar's the clear standout at stoppages, there's no clear standout in around-the-ground play. On the other hand, there's no ruckman that we could draft with potential that's anything near Martin, Spencer & Meesen for the future. It's the same old story of whether they can turn potential into performance.

They have to pick Wheels for the game, even if he's too unfit to do anything except spend the whole game on the pine. When Davey wins his Brownlow & Jurrah the Norm Smith, Wheels' value to the club will be fully appreciated by everybody, not just Dees supporters.

IIRC, Fev who had 2 goals up to then got 3 goals on T-Mac in the second quarter in quick succession - from a soft-as-melted-butter free 20m out, then a miskicked helicopter from 50m on the boundary which floated through, then the dribbled goal from the boundary while being pushed off balance. He also gave away a goal from that equally soft free against Cheney. He got another 2 after that, probably on Frawley, but these 3 were the gamebreakers. Frawley definitely had the better of him before then, but I think that when within about 10 minutes Fev got two of the softest frees he's probably had in his whole career within 20 metres of goal, then shanked a very difficult shot which went through, he knew it was going to be his day. Don't know that Chip would have been able to make a difference for any of these.

This has to be the reason for both Bartram & Dunn - I don't know exactly how many games they've played or need to play for the Scorps, but it would have to be this. Miller I'm not so sure; he wasn't the worst last week, but he's not even picked in the Scorps' side for this weekend. The last time he got dropped was after his "glare" directed at Jack Watts almost at the end of one game (Essendon?) after Jack put it out on the full (though admittedly he might have got dropped for playing badly that game and not for the bad attitude). Well, I'm suprised that nobody's commented on Miller's gestures just before our first goal against Freo. Petterd took a mark running with the flight of the ball, with Miller coming in the opposite direction for the chest mark. When Miller's momentum took him past Petterd, he gave some totally uncalled-for hand gestures to the effect that he would have had an easy chest mark if Petterd hadn't pinched the ball off him. It's quite clear on the TV replays from different angles. I reckon DB would take a very dim view of this sort of display directed towards teammates, especially towards younger players. If DB DID notice this and has decided to give Miller another holiday (and a complete holiday this time) for a repeat offence, then all power to him.

Majak Daw?

The thing about Valenti that haunts me is Greg Williams - too short, too slow, but outstanding football "brain" which made him a ball magnet, excellent defensiver skills and brilliant use of the ball, especially by hand. I used to hate Diesel as a player, but can't deny his value to his team. I'm not saying Valenti will be as good, but that's the niche he could well fit into. What we've seen from Valenti so far is what he can do when he's been given consecutive games. I still think there's more upside to come - he's obviously played better than a lot of us thought him capable of. We also now know about his work ethic, his determination to improve aspects of his game. He's also shown that he's not as one-dimensional (i.e. in-and-under and nothing else) as a lot of us thought he was. The thing that stands out for me about Valenti is his "football brain", which can be at least as valuable as athleticism, I don't see that it's a good move to delist a rookie who has had, what, 20 games or less, who has not reached his full upside capacity, who could well fill that sort of "engine-room" role in a different way.

My ideal scenario too. Except that the last sentence should read: "Both Carlton and Collingwood to go out in straight sets"

Yeah, you could be right (if we miss the PP). It's more like the 2010 team than the 2012 team. We have so many kids with so much upside, it's possible that 2 or 3 of them (at the very least) will be elite AFL players by 2012. We can predict Grimes and Watts and Jurrah fairly safely. But Scully and Morton (and Trengove) could also be there too, and if they are, they won't be flankers, they'll be the key players around whom the team is built. It's hard to imagine a team that's built around these young players instead of the central players of 2009 - Davey, McLean, Moloney, Warnock, Rivers et al. They'll still be good players in 2012, but they'll be fighting for top billing with the half dozen or so I've mentioned above. Then there's my own predictions of Strauss, Blease & Martin (who could well be one of the best big men in the AFL by 2012). But it could just as well be Wona, Garland, McKenzie, Valenti, Jetta, Bennell ... who knows? I honestly can't remember a list with so much young talent that will all bear fruit at around about the same time. I'd be interested to know who others think our 3 top players will be in 2012. Or who will win our first Norm Smith medal?

Darn good! Except that by 2012, Strauss will be at least what Gilbee is now, Blease will be one of the best outside mids in the comp, and Cale will be a (100kg!!) superstar KPP. And Trengove? Did we miss out on the PP in 2009? Or did he go back to SA?