The Chazz

I think it will for the Club bing. 2 x Number 1 draft picks in a row - one turns out to be a dud*, the other one left after 2 seasons, all while the Club tanked to get the best picks they could, while begging to its members to wipe out a $5m debt. I think it is very important that all of our draft picks, in particular the first rounders, turn out to be better than handy players. *I'm not concerned about Jack.

You have Fitzy ahead of Folau? Wowee.

Thanks Old. My money is on one of 2 things; * Energy Watch find themselves on both front and back (similar to the W.Bulldogs), with a slight increase in what they have already invested (ie an extra $250k) * Volvo become the FoJ sponsor for a slight increase to what they have already committed (meaning they spend around $750k a year) Whatever way this pans out, it's looking better by the day that B59 is buying me a beer!

As this is the appropriate thread - can someone tell us what Cam Schwab said at the dinner last night that made them feel that the China "deal" is no longer? Cheers.

Which ever one of these it is HG, we'll still struggle having one in the Top 50. Oh no, deja vu! Any advances on Top 50? Do I hear 150?!!!

Thanks for your suggestion. I actually take the training reports with a grain of salt. This thing I find most interesting about training reports is the different drills the new coaches have implemented, and what postions certain players train in, and the times some of our so called "elite endurance" midfiedlers are running in time trials. I judge Gysberts on his footy to date, and the potential that I see in him. It's not my fault I believe his potential isn't as high as some on here, and think he has a lot of areas tha the needs to work on for him to reach the status that a few of you beleifve he will. And while receiving 2 Rising Star nominations is a good effort, he's not the first, and won't be the last to do it. I believe Blease will receive his 2nd this year, and I have more upside for Blease than Gysberts. Jones is also another player who has received 2 nominations, and I'm yet to see anyone on here say that he has reached the heights that we think Gysberts can reach. Jones is a very good player, not elite, not a gun, etc. I don't think the Anthony Rocca comparison is some of your best work.

What part do you disagree with? I'm saying how 2 seasons ago we didn't have a player in the Top 50, and we still don't. I think similar comments were made back when that original arguement took place. By the end of the year we had Frawley, Green and Jamar in there, then the next year, Frawls at 48 is all. I just hope we don't get to the start of season 2013 and Sheehan releases his Top 50 and we find 1 Melbourne player in the high 40's, with the comment being made "let's wait til the end of the season". Is there anything wrong with wanting to be good now?

A few of them like mediocrity Boss! Just kidding. I like Burgo, think he does a good job. The rift between me and the boot-studders stopped 4 years ago, we are now just friends, and the window dresser and I have been dating for 8 weeks now and still going strong.

I for one don't want the image of Phil's plumber's smile grinning at me while he is bending over laying tiles!

Does that mean "I'm so hot right now" (Zoolander reference). Other than that, your post is a nothing post, and I would appreciate it if you returned the 1.2 seconds of my life wasted for reading it, and the 30-odd seconds for feeling the need to reply.

Well, considering we didn't have any in the 2 years before this list, I would've expected some players to be rising up. Players like Rivers, Moloney, Davey, Bartram, and as much as I hate to say it - Jones, these are the blokes that have no excuse not to be consistently considered to be in the Top 50 players in the AFL. Obviously for Watts, Morton and Trengove, they have their own reasons, but it still doen't help when Nik Nat and Dusty Martin are coming out of the same drafts and are considered that far ahead of our selections. I heard about the pessimist and optimist walking past a horse stall the other day that was choc-full of horse crap, basically up to the ceiling. The pessimist walked past and whinged about how much horse crap there was in the stable and kept walking. The optomist jumped the stable door, duck-diving all through the crap yelling "I know there's a horse in here somewhere!!!". Damn 2012 preseason, I'm starting to question if I'm one of those guys blocking my nose as I walk past that stable. I hate you Demonland!!!!

DC - something has to happen though, in terms of making "something" compulsory, especially for the non-academic players. If they are lucky enough to have a 5-10 year career and do nothing in their "spare time", they come out of the AFL system bordering on unemployable. They don't have the employability skills, they don't have the knowledge of what an employee is, and more often than not, they have wasted a fair chunk of their football income and have not planned for life after footy. A general belief for these "types" is that they will worry about life after footy when they have finished playing. Do they have the time to work part time during a footy season? Well, that could be argued. If some players have the time to complete tafe/uni courses, well bloody oath they have time. Do these players understand the benefit of particiapting in some form of employment during their playing career? Probably the biggest factor is are these players too proud to work part time somewhere earning around $20-odd an hour? Rugby league players train somehting like 25 hours a week, and play on the weekend. I am led to believe that they are required to participate in 15 hours of non "league" stuff, whether that is employment or further education. Interesting concept that I believe is quite impressive and important.

It's like those 2 girls on My Kitchen Rules - the princess one and her mate. Best viewed with the mute button firmly planted in the "on" position.

Cheers Jnr. So in the opinion of one of the better football writers of recent times (hasn't got a great field to beat!), our best player is ranked the 48th best in the league. Oh dear.

Hopefully this thread will be seen as "thread worthy" by some of our posters. As an interstater, and one that is not willing to start paying to read some parts of the Herald Sun online, can someone be so kind to update me as to how the Top 50 is shaping up? Most obviously, how many Melbourne players have been listed to date and what are their positions? A couple of seasons ago now, there was a heated discussion between myself, HG45, and someone else (can't remember who), about where Melbourne players were at in terms of Sheehan's views. I think at the time, I made the comment that I would struggle to fit a Melbourne player in the Top 75 or so, someone did make the comment about Top 150 (which was eventually edited, which started a whole new drama). I'm intrigued now, 2 seasons since that conversation, as to where our players rate. I would think that based on 2011 form, Frawley and Moloney may be in it, and Jamar could sneak a high 40's spot, but on the other hand, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Sheehan doesn't have any Melbourne players in the Top 50. While some don't care about the Top 50, I still think it gives a good insight as to how teams, and certain players with those teams, are travelling. To think that potentially we don't have players in Sheehan's Top 50 again, even after "bottoming out" is concerning.

Really BH, Reeeally? Yawn. BH, I love how you make a judgement over something you have absolutely no idea about. But, to keep your mind at ease, I did pre-warn her that I will use a naughty word, and it's a word that I don't use around women in general conversation. My comment about what Jack needed was to give her an idea of what goes on inside the changerooms of a football club (country football at least). Explaining to her tha tJack needs to harden up wasn't what I believe needed to be said. And for the record, my wife is well aware of the potential for anything to be said and?or broken in a 2 hour period each week, otherwise known as during a Melbourne match. I can't help it, and if it offended her, she knows not to enter the room during this time. Maybe you need to do the opposite to what I want Jack to do.

Don't think I'd call her a natural in front of the camera. Perhaps you need to turn the volume up when you're watching her! If she is to continue doing interviews, I just ask that she can pronounce our Captain's surname correctly. Maybe she needs to read Demonland to realise that it's Trengove, not Trengrove.

I'll take the bait...what was said?

So, we had our official season launch last night, great opportunity to announce our new sponsor. Oh that's right, the timing wasn't right because it was the International Day of Action For Rivers and Against Dams and that would've got more exposure in the media. It was also a day where 2 firemen saved an 8 week old kitten that was stuck in a tree, and that a bronze statue of Knut, the famous polar bear, was unveiled at the Berlin zoo. And still we wait, twiddling our thumbs. It's gunna happen in a matter of days...

He is not affraid on contact, but he would rather avoid it than create it. That is the point that Schwarz is making. Take a look at Buddy, he thrives on initiating contact, so does Cloke, and even Clark. I don't agree with his comments about him not improving in 12 months. Lazy "jounalism" from The Ox's perspective. While he was a great player at the MFC, I'll never, ever forget how he let Sheedy make those comments last year and not challenge him about it. I lost a lot of respect for him that day.

Perfectly said, and sums up exactly how I feel. With my Assistnat Coach hat on, I challenged the appointment of Trengove as co-captain. Doesn't mean I won't support JT or MN for that matter. Jaded - if you can manage to pull out of the premiership bender after 1 week - can you please take me home when you leave? At the start of each year, I make no plans for the whole month of October, just in case I need to have annual leave up my sleeve should we win the flag. Of recent times, I'm normally booking my October holiday at the end of March. I'm allowing 4 weeks to celebrate becuase I think the first 3 weeks will be an absolute blur, and the last week will be spent in hospital recovering from getting my guts pumped for the 8th time in a short period.

He is partially right. Watching the game the other night with my wife (non-Demon, disappointing), I said about half way through the game that Jack needed to get some c**t about him. The players call him Killer, let's live up to that name (not literally). There was as a stage when we were kicking to the left hand end (watching on TV). Jack went up in a pack, was basically at the front of it. A Dawk player fell to the ground, and Jack did everything he could not to make contact with him. Those forwards the Schwarz spoke about in that article would've just falllen straight on top of said player laying on the ground - gives them a reminder that if you go up in a contest with me, or are in my way, I will hurt you. This easily would've been done fairly as Jack would've been well within his rights to land on the player. Instead, he tried stepping over him and it really did make him look like a new bor giraffe trying to take its first steps. Just little things like that matter. Doesn't have to be thuggery (that's not in Jack's blood anyway), but just having no respect for your opposition.

Well said HB. To think that Hardwick came out during the week and said that the Toiges should be ready to take on the big boys now makes me want to stab him (no offence meant). He's basically putting his whole team on notice, and I would not be surprised if they play accordingly. Us on the other hand, Watts has been put on notice...that's it. The general public expect us to underperform, and why shouldn't they think that? We have no-one from within the Club talking the talk, because the big chance is that the players won't walk the walk. I think people are also blind-sighted by these "Scully picks". I'm sick to death of hearing about the 2012 Superdraft. We have had 2 number 1 picks, a number 2 pick and a number 4 pick in the past 6 years. Trengove finished 5th in the B&F last year I think. Doesn't give us great confidence that we will use our "Scully Picks" on getting anything decent. I did say similar things about Geelong back in about 2003/2004, and look what happened!

As WYL said, we should be better than North. I would like to think our younger players are better than theirs, if they aren't, we're screwed. Of their older players, Harvey is a stand-out, with Petrie, Rawlings (hasn't he retired yet???) and Wells are up there too. I don't rate the Banana Fritter. I would imagine our senior players like Green, Moloney, Sylvia, Jamar, and that middle bracket of Garland, Frawley and Jones would easily slot in to their best line up. The issue lies in your comment "The results of the last 2 years show North has performed much better than the Dees". This says more about how we have under-performed, especially in 2011. I would expect that if we could perform at the standard that we should, and if North were to do the same, that we would be a better team than them. That's not being biased, that's being brutually honest about both lists, but if we have another year of 2011 football, it makes my arguement look stupid!

Haha STMJ, I'm with you all the way with your thoughts on Gysberts, and how people get lovers nuts about players that have a couple of reasonable games early in their career. Was thinking on Saturday night about leaving Davis on Hale, and how it was a "learning experience" for the kid. FMD, I would've been putting Sellar on him right from the start, because I'm fcuked if I think he (Sellar) is a walk up start for Round 1, and it would've been good to see how he went against a 1/2 reasonable opponent (Hale is not that good people). Yet there are a lot who are head-over-heels with Sellar on here! He was delisted by a club last year, we picked him up with pick 50-something, and he hasn't shown a great deal in the NAB Cup, but some had him locked based on what they saw of him at training!!!!