Akum

You halve someone's salary. You take the consequences.

The thing about Cross is that he wouldn't add much to an already good midfield. But in a midfield as deficient as ours, he'd do a helluva lot to help get us up to scratch. His great strength is getting his hands on the ball first at stoppages and in heavy traffic, and getting it out to someone who can use it (not just bombing it aimlessly forward like Moloney or Magner). He's the "meat-and-veg" player that makes the midfield hang together. In an already good midfield, he'd be competing with one of their key existing mids and he may end up as depth. For us, he's not really competing with anybody.

Are there any talls you haven't mentioned in that list that Neeld might have been trying to squeeze out??

How not to ...

Especially if we could give them Pedro back!

'bubsy, that seed thing is a good analogy. Reminds me of a certain parable. To apply it to the matter at hand, it doesn't matter how good the seed is - if you throw it where it's too much exposed to the elements; or you plant it and dig it up and put it somewhere else, then put it somewhere else again; you're never going to get as much yield as you could have got. On the other hand, if you've got ordinary seed, but you nurture it really well, you can get much more yield out of it. This club has treated all its seedlings with serious neglect, then with outright abuse. I have no doubt that Roos is a far better gardener than the last two, and we'll start to grow a far better crop.

I may be naive in these matters (not to mention matters Daniel Rich), but I have two questions: (1) What does anybody stand to gain by taking over a site like 'Ology just to sabotage it? Especially when it's obvious to all what's going on? (2) Is there a risk of a hostile takeover happening here???

Satyriconhome has been less prominent here of late.

Did I miss something???

The concept of "cutting off your nose just to spite your face" is what's getting laughed at. To hurt ourselves because we want "respect" so bad. We'd get no respect from other clubs if we just backed down on this. It would just be seen as caving in. If it's decided that we're not entitled to it, that's fine; we just walk away. But every other club in our position would at least go through with asking the question, which is all we've done. And we'd be crazy not to. But if the answer is "no", we just shrug our shoulders & get on with it.

Doesn't he butcher the ball a bit too? I could be thinking of someone else.

You could add Cross to that. Wow.

Jack Watts was joining them too for a bit of R&R.

Sounds like some think they know better though.

Yep, Pies have it all under control.

It's more than irrelevant. They're complaining that we've had picks in the past and stuffed them up. But their fear is that this time we might actually get it right! I'm sure PJ will point out the contradiction, not to mention the hypocrisy. And if we do get a PP and move up the ladder next year - well, isn't that the whole idea of a PP in the first place??? Sounds like we won't get ND#1 as a PP, if Demetriou's said that GWS can look forward to Tom Boyd - he doesn't usually say things like that by accident. If we do get a PP it will have to be modified in some way - either immediately after our first round pick (so ND#3), or mid-first round or end of first round. But I totally agree with Dr Gonzo - if they don't give it, no whinging. We put our case objectively and leave it at that.

In fact, can't help but wonder whether this is where the succession plan idea for Roos originated. And if Craig hadn't been there thru the toxic time of Neeld, it could have been a lot worse.

It's also noticeable that when Gawn rucks, Casey's on top, and when he's stuffed, we lose momentum. Result of this game probably depends on whether Welsh can stretch Gawn's underconditioning to last out the game.

This makes such a difference. Scorps two shots from 40-45m on slight angle both miss. Werribee one from 55m & one from 35m both straight. That's the half-time lead.

Goes pretty well, this new-fangled competence thing that everybody else seems to have. Would be good to get used to it.

Can't believe some of the hysterical comments about Watts that are still going on. Even after our experience with Roos, who never actually said that he wouldn't sign up with us, but that things would have to take place before he did. Watts to has never said that he wasn't signing, just that (to paraphrase) he'd have to be sure he was on solid ground before he did. I'd say that his ground just got a whole lot more solid. He has NOT committed to another team. By all accounts, he is simply waiting to see how things pan out at Melbourne - and IMHO, to see whether he's actually a required player - before re-committing to us. Given his experience last time we were in this situation, he's probably just not taking it for granted that he's a required player until he hears it from the horse's mouth face to face. Which is only sensible.

Need new acronym - "MFCMFC" for "MFC Messiah Complex". Running riot today. And why not?

And who would blame him??

What bothers me is that if those numbers are out of 7, there's only 11 who have got above the "pass mark" of 3.50. Shows really well what sort of a year it's been. To quote a phrase, "the only way is up".