Harcourt

I forgot about Casey's bye, damn they actually do mean MFC. To say I've been underwhelmed by Sellar is a big understatement. I'm surprised we even considered him to be honest. He couldn't get a game under Neil Craig yet we somehow see fit to bring him to Melbourne where he's been equally as bad. I really hope the Stefan Martin Experience can get back asap (even though he has been fairly useless this year as well). I would persist with Fitzy if I had to choose between Sellar and Fitzy though.

I'm going to assume they mean 50/50 to play for Casey.

For it to happen two weeks in a row is not a good look. I can guarantee if the camera was pointed at me at any stage during the game I would not be smiling or joking around. If I were on the team I might even take a notebook to try and work out why we are so bloody terrible. I don't think the majority of the players actually give a shyte to be honest and that's what really really annoys the c rap out of me. These guys are ruining the team (in the short and long term) before our very eyes every single week - it is not acceptable at all.

Petterd is absolutely nowhere near a top 10 player at our club. Not even close.

But in my (delusional) world there is no possible way Viney will be a better player than Whitfield because Viney will be so pee'd off with GWS for picking him up just to screw us (and him) that he will be too busy causing training mishaps (which would be pure accidents of course) involving $cully than actually playing footy. Disagree re poker players that bluff get beaten - bluffing is absoutely vital to winning the game, without it you will be guaranteed to lose.

If we rate Viney 1 we take him with 2 and move on.

I know I'll be absolutely smashed by everyone for this post but here goes: If at the end of the year it is GWS or GCS in 18th and MFC 17th we sit down with Todd and Jack Viney in the weeks leading up to the bidding and say – “We are getting Jack with our second rounder or not at all, we simply must do this due to the current state of our list, it is vital to the clubs future”. Then we pay out the remaining years on Jack contract (2 years), produce documentation to say it has been paid out. Have everyone involved in the recruiting department, CEO, Coach etc. to sign a sworn affidavit addressed to GWS saying – “we’ve paid out Jack Viney’s contract and we absolutely promise you via this signed guarantee that we will not be drafting Jack with our pick 2.” In effect we are basically saying to GWS “We know Viney isn’t worth pick 1 and you know he isn’t worth pick 1 so quit trying to screw us. If you want him he is yours and we will take the true #1”. In the lead-up to this we air “rumours” etc through our contacts in the media Schwarz/Lyon etc. that Viney would only ever sign a 2 year deal and would return to Melbourne immediately afterwards, he would be absolutely gutted if a team like GWS picked him up purely to just screw him and us over and that he would take great pleasure in inflicting as much pain as possible on all the young recruits etc etc. Melbourne say “We think we’d be a great chance to pick him up in subsequent years once his contract with GWS is up”. In poker the player who bluffs first usually wins the pot so I reckon we get in first and make them make the decision rather than them just making us pay up. So GWS/GCS can either take the best player in the draft or they can try and just screw us and potentially pick up a player who doesn’t want to even play for them – wasting pick 1 in the draft. Flame away.......

Totally agree with this. Bllllllllllllokey blokes "WHOA HOA headwobble, whoa hoa Spudregus, whoa hoa, he's got a head wobble has old spudregus." COMPLETE AND UTTER UNLISTENABLE C RAP! TRIPLE M AND BRAYSHAW ARE THE ABSOLUTE WORST! TALK ABOUT THE GAME YOU IDIOTS. I actually listen to ABC and sometimes SEN these days and I'm not even a golden oldie.

A very good idea..........except for the fact that we suck 9 different types of balls at the moment and wouldn't win 8 games this season if there were 1,000 games left.

Exactly! All the talk about Viney being a star, he's exactly what we need, our compo picks are a gift etc are totally irrelevant. As you have said we must absolutely do everything in our power to get Viney in the 2nd round. We are a little late to this party though and would've had a much better chance had we just played it cool earlier.

I have a real problem with this also. GWS had the choice to put a team on the park that would be competitive immediately but instead they went down the youth path to try and punish us all in 5 years or so. The fact they suck hard now by going down this path shouldn't allow them to just fill their boots with more high picks of the priority variety.

And by "the gods" you mean our own utter incompetance don't you?

Provided we use the picks properly. Our track record ain't great in that respect is it?

No it's not draft tampering, not at all. It's called taking advantage of another club showing their hand early.

To rpfc: 1.) Can you please tell me how Adelaide would've secured Jack behind our backs? I've heard this mentioned as a reason but can you please explain it. 2.) "I don't like paying slightly overs for him but when we made this deal we had no idea we would be forced to use Pick 3 or 4" - Exactly, which is why we should have waited until all the facts were known. 3.) "We were never a chance to take him in the 20s until we had such an awful start to the season" - Exactly, that's why we shouls have waited until all the facts were known. 4.) "Since when did we lose that?" - if we played it cool right from the start AND we finish 17th or 16th all we would have to do is convince GWS or GCS that we would take the best available player and call their bluff, and pick up Viney with pick 20 or whatever AND WE get another great player with pick 3. At this stage we've dropped 20 places in the draft in my eyes for absolutely nothing.

It was obvious from the get go becuase we blew our load over a 16 year kid! How about waiting until he has completed his underage football and make an assessment once we know our standing in the draft and know all the facts? It's not genius it's bloody common sense FCS. You're happy to essentially lose 20 spots in the draft are you? The breif should've been - GET VINEY WITH THE HIGHEST DRAFT PICK POSSIBLE. END OF STORY. We've done the complete opposite and there is absolutely no way in the world you will convince me otherwise. Get it?

The way the club has handled this whole Viney thing is very worrying and above all else, just plain bloody stupid. If we are forced to use our pick 3 instead of 23 for Viney I will be absolutely bloody furious. We are desperate for quality players regardless of whether their father was capitain or not. I simply can't believe we've blown our load over a 16 year old kid so early and basically told everyone what we're willing to do. Why? To get him involved early in our loser culture and crappy structures that have seen us win zero games this year? I've just about had enough of the amatuer hour (more like amatuer years) this club is dishing up. This is just the icing on the cake and the rest of the other AFL clubs must be just laughing at us like they have for the last 50 years or whatever. Who the bloody hell came up with this stupid idea? God we are stupid, it's quite staggering. And before anyone comes on here and says "he'll be a star" - I DON'T CARE IT IS IRRELEVANT TO THE IDEAL WAY WE SHOULD HAVE APPROACHED THIS. We will take him with our first pick because we don't have the balls to do anything else. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-news/draft-joust-to-secure-jack-viney/story-e6frf9jf-1226349309807

10+ goal hammering.

I'm not saying he wouldn't be a high pick and isn't a good player but by telegraphing exactly what we're going to do we have removed all doubt. Say he's ranked 7th pick, if we didn't advise everyone in the world then it's unlikely GWS would bid for him and risk passing up 6 better players. If the Crows were sniffing around for a 16 year old then good luck to them and Jack if he wanted to play for them, we simply move on and pick another player. Seems to me the club thought we'd be pushing for the 8 this year andperhaps get a much lower draft pick and therefore we'd get a bargain regardless - WRONG!

Can someone explain to me why we have telegraphed our desire to draft Jack to all and sundry so clearly? Seems to me that we may have been better off just playing it cool and trying to pick him up at with a later pick. By getting all barred up about a 17 year old kid are we not at risk of missing out on the best possible player in this year's supposed super draft? There is no doubt GWS will bid for him now as it's a free hit at getting us to use our first pick on him when if we played it a bit smarter we could have bluffed them into not bidding and picked him up with a second rounder. Please explain?

What annoys me most about all these negative articles is that they are mostly right.

3rd rounder perhaps?

13th? I'd settle for just winning a game at the moment.

WE won the posessions tonight (338-325) for the first time this year - good. We didn't use the ball as well as St Kilda - bad. Watts had his worst game in a while, Grimes did ok but must use it better. It looked like we gave a sheed tonight which, bar about 20 minutes in the first 4 rounds, is a first for 2012. Shame we have the cats at the hellary next week although we should show improvement from our last trip down there (or heaven help us all).

Last Sunday was probably the first time it looked like they actually cared for about 6 months. Unfortunately our skills are just so poor that no amount of increased endevour will be able to change upcoming results.