DeeSpencer

40,000 average crowd and 50,000 members (or close enough to). If they aren't turning a profit it's not because of long term viability, it's because the SANFL are bleeding them dry.

I'm only passing on reliable knowledge I've got. Which says whilst Evans isn't number one in the Paul Roos fan club the greater issue is how the players who were stuck at Casey last year felt as a whole. I understand the importance of defensive effort, but Dom Barry got picked on the back of a 7 disposal game last year, only a couple of weeks after playing Casey reserves. Other guys had 25 touches each week and weren't getting a look in. I mean in a bad team you have to be pretty good to win a lot of touches and also defend your own man and the wave of players coming against you. Personally I'd take the guy at least winning the ball because that's step one to winning a game. Our lesser names being upset is hardly the end of the world. Don't let the broom hit you on the way out lads. But next year our lesser names at Casey will likely be quite a few kids. Almost by default some of the higher ranked kids of the last few years (Kent, Toumpas, JKH, Salem, Pick 2, Pick 3, even Frost, Newton or Michie, pick 40 this year) are going to be spending time at Casey. If they aren't then that's not a good sign for our senior players! I don't want them to be content being in the VFL, they need to strive to make it. But they have to have faith in the system. Langford from Hawthorn is the perfect model for how he knew his time at Box Hill would serve him well for the AFL and how despite barely playing a senior game in 3 years I think he felt he was on track for AFL success.

The alarming thing is that we have a player not wanting to stay on our rookie list (bearing in mind he's long odds to get picked by another club). That's really not a good sign that a guy would rather give up his shot at AFL than have another year as a rookie on very good money. The ball is in Evans' court. Maybe he'll take the offer. Maybe the best thing for both parties is if he doesn't even if that means we pay out his full deal. But at the end of the day I am glad we've brought in McCartney, Byrnes and Plapp because we can't have guys hating the Casey/MFC dynamic so much that they'd rather not even be on an AFL list.

We want to rookie him as we don't want to pay him for nothing and then pay another rookie to fill a list spot. He's called our bluff and said if you dont want me that's fine. I'm not getting a game from the rookie list and Casey is a dump anyway, I'd rather play somewhere else. Roos doesn't like me, he didn't play me much at all last year, games should be harder to come by this year and I'm not having a Jetta year by a change of positions or big increase in fitness etc, so give me the money and I'll walk. If Evans is on 200k and a rookie costs 55k then I guess the starting point for negotiations would be a payout of 145k to Evans. That way everyone could be happy. Either the club balks and pays him more or even his full seasons salary (which after a decent 2013 might be more like 250k or even more) or Evans agrees to the rookie spot. The clock is ticking.

Whilst a talented team, Geelong's midfield, especially contested ball winners are actually pretty light on after Selwood who has to do a lot himself. Caddy is the great hope. Christensen was their best clearance player after Selwood and SJ. Schroder is solid, but short. Not quick and average skills. We have Riley, Michie and Newton all looking for opportunity and I like them as much as Schroder. Newton has a left foot. Michie a bit of x factor and Riley is as tough as they come. I don't think we need Schroder.

I think he's better than Fitzpatrick, but at the same time there's no point having 2 of them. He's depth at a good club, but not good enough to be more than that at Melbourne. If we take another tall forward with any of our proper picks we don't need him, even if we don't I'd rather use the list spot elsewhere.

To all the racists in this thread. I think Cockatoo will have the final word.

I don't think he'd be a McKenzie style tagger or to put it another way a Crowley style tagger. We used Cross in that role last year and if McKenzie steps up his disposal/attacking game he can take that job or we can find others. Roos isn't afraid to make good players defend and it worked really well with Vince and Jones at times. But I certainly think Barry was groomed to be defensive on outside types. The Hill brothers, Lewis Jetta, even someone like Polec from Port. It was a good way to develop him as well. He's quick and has good endurance, can use the ball just couldn't win it. No better way to find out where to get the ball in games than following around some of the best in business. I guess the positive is we lost Barry early enough in his development that we didn't miss much. We can use another late pick or rookie pick to find someone else with the combination of pace and endurance.

Hawthorn, Port, Bulldogs, Essendon, Gold Coast and St Kilda off the top off my head. (Grimley, Logan, Pearce, Aylett, Broughton, Schneider).I think it can now be called an established practice.

So as I have made somewhat clear I had source that said the club was looking to pay out Evans (or the initial choice either rookie or get Evans to walk away from his contract). I thought Barry's retirement would actually help Evans. Gets that extra pick we needed. The more I think about it, it either doesn't change the situation (if you're coming from the Redleg stance) or it actually makes Evans position shakier. The club just saved probably close to 150k on Barry going and replacing him with a draft pick (200k v 50k base salary). We can now use that to afford to pay out Evans. Finances are definitely taken in to account here. I think Evans will get paid out in a mutual agreement.

I have 2 theories: 1. It's where the slider finally gets taken. Player x is available at pick 40, we have to take them OR 2. It's where the recruiters take the best footballer instead of all the athletic prospects who have jumped above them. Either way it's still a statistical anomaly I just thought there might be something behind it.

I don't think it's the MFC. Freo (Josh Simpson), Bulldogs (Zephi Skinner), Hawthorn (Amos Frank - although he might not have been good enough). Several other clubs have lost guys back to regional communities. The interesting thing with Barry is he's gone away for boarding school to play tennis ie. he's clearly grown up somewhere with a tennis court and training and then been away since 14 and now he wants to go home? I figure it's a bond we don't understand. Until we understand it we probably shouldn't draft players with these kind of bonds to their communities.

Did see Chris Anstey. Wasn't sure it was him. Then I figured it looked a lot like him and there can't be many other 7 footers in Melbourne. There were a few guys in Pies gear at the Northern end of the ground when I got there. They didn't stay much longer. They were actually talking to Tommy Couch who was obviously passing by for some reason.

Would love to find a gun outside running player. Be they half back, fwd or wing. We need run and carry badly. Backs: Maynard Viojo-Rainbow Fwds: Langdon McLean Markov Mids: McKenzie Menadue

I'd avoid Indigenous players from remote backgrounds. Or even those with heavy ties to remote backgrounds. Maybe even anyone from Alice Springs. Josh Simpson, Zephi Skinner, Jurrah, Wona now Barry. For those with homes and hearts in communities it's a lot to leave behind. If Cockatoo is from down town Darwin just like Matty Whelan and Davey or from Bunbury in WA like Jetta then I don't think his go home risk is that significant. There's no AFL team that plays in Darwin......... Well besides us!

I would suggest Evans stays now thanks to Barry. Pick 40 and RD 2 gives us two shots at finding more kids. Added to Stretch and the 2 first rounders that's 5 new kids (most likely 18 year olds) in to the club. To go with 5 last year it's 10 of 44 in their first 2 years. I think that's an appropriate profile for a rebuilding team. Whether we go with Tapscott or not surely has to be a best available discussion when RD20 rolls around. A genuine 50/50 depending on how well he trains in the next few weeks and who's available come the pick.

No midfield group really. He was in the smalls group with the 3 midfielders. The talls were practicing marking. There was only 7 of them on deck and it made sense for him to pair up with Riley. If he's at half back he'll need to know how to match up on resting mids at clearances. I'd wait until training resumes for everyone and there's more division in groups before reading something in to it.

Good luck to him joining the Fregon people. Obviously some kind of tribe of ancient fridge mechanics. If he's head and heart weren't in it he wasn't going to make it. If they were he had pace, endurance, a nice left foot kick and decent defensive attributes and I would've been happy to see another year of what he could do. A slow developer but a fair bit of upside I thought. Agree he's done it at the right time of year and no hard feelings, but it's still a recruiting failure and the challenge is on for new development and welfare coach Shannon Byrnes to indentify challenges our young players may have before they pop up in the future.

I didn't get hit by a footy. Got there late. Traffic was a shocker. Dawes and Watts heading off for coffee and/or a lap of a tan when I parked at 10:30. Wearing their man bras. They later returned to Gosch's at 11am carrying their man bras #freethenipple Gawny watching on. Terlich in heavy conversation with the training staff. He seems to be recuperating from something. Two groups of senior players on deck. Jones, Cross, Grimes and Riley - working heavily with the Goodwin. Fitzy, Dunn and Garland with Rawlings. They were doing moderate skills drills. Clearance stuff for the mids with Goodwin doing boundary throw ins, Jones and Cross don't know it's November. I don't think Grimes is a clearance player, Riley had his measure. The bigs were practicing an opponent off and then dropping to where the space is to mark as well as by default practicing kicking to advantage. Fitzy doesn't fill you with confidence he's still such an awkward type. But Garland and Dunn look in good touch. Which brings us to the main group: Pedersen, Howe, Matt Jones, JKH, Toumpas, McDonald, Frost, Spencer (for early stuff), Evans, Tappy, Viney, Harmes, 3 or 4 Casey lads. So absent (bearing in mind they might have finished up by the time I got there) Barry (retired), Hogan, Kent, Salem, Hunt, Jetta, Garlett, Lumumba, Newton, Stretch, Trengove, Vince, McKenzie, Michie, Jamar. It was mainly boxing work mixed in with skills (bit of handball up, pass it across, kick in to the 50 to a leading coach) and the 3 man kicking drill they do to get a short kick, then quickly move to provide a lead. Roos focusing the group on getting the kicks up with a bit of air and steadying to make sure of it. Seems the instruction is to give the forwards a chance instead of blazing away trying to lace it out. Some nice kicks, some shockers.Then a criss cross handball drill that had the voices up and laughing, something a bit more relaxed. Eventually they moved in to more running. JKH looked to have a niggle by that stage and wanted to discuss it with the support staff, maybe a calf but nothing alarming. A fast paced lap where the Casey bloke James blitzed Tommy McDonald and the rest of the field. Had a 50m lead doing it easy. Pig Dog (who looks fitter than last year) and Pedo towards the back but no one really battling I don't think. Tyson had done some work hooked up to a trainer dragging him along behind. Trying to get some power in his legs I guess. He then ran laps with Frost for a while before Tappy joined in and then Tappy and Tyson were doing a solid session of interval running. Tappy keeping up the pace nicely. His legs look lean. Still a strong lad but not excessively. He's putting his best foot forward and the Barry news likely helps him. The main group were then in for some gruelling repeat sprint sets. Nice old school stuff. Viney led the way. Powering through them. Everyone (of a pretty small bunch by then) battled on pretty well. Wasn't overly impressed by Toumpy, he seemed to labour a bit but they were all getting through them.

Well footy department spending is about 20 mil. 10 mil for the players. 10 mil for the coaches, fitness etc. So if every player got equal treatment it would be 1/44th of 10mil = $227,223. For two years that means about 450k down the drain. Plus his wages of 60k plus some match payments which is probably close to 150k all up.

I agree he's not that bad or too far off. But we all like Jones, Cross, Tyson, Vince, Viney, Lumumba (half back maybe) as starters in the midfield right? Plus Watts for what he's worth. Then the half forward spots we like guys like Howe, Salem, Garlett and even JKH or Bail right? That's the 11 running players that fill the best 22. After that it's likely Brayshaw as pick 2 is pretty high in the pecking order. Then Matt Jones, Toumpas, Newton (for a better side), Michie, Riley, McKenzie and Barry all finished ahead of Evans for games played or a spot in the team at seasons end. I doubt he'll play much next year either but Stretch will be groomed for a spot on the wing as well. And Trengove would be ahead of him if fit. Now the difference between someone like Matt Jones who's been a regular of late or Watts or whoever else (besides the established mids) is pretty negligible. But unless given an opportunity Evans wont even demonstrate if he is up to it. Now a dominant preseason and then a spell of good games will get him that chance, but if we rate so many ahead of him now why is it likely to change? Pick 40 could be another developing tall. It could be a pacy player or skilled player. Or it could be a star. With 8 or 9 midfielders of similar type currently sitting ahead of Evans on the depth chart so to speak I don't really see how pick 40 isn't the wiser option. If he does stay on the list I'd actually be keen to reinvent him anyway. Small inside midfielder or poorly skilled outside midfielder, neither of them really work for me. I'd rather him tried more as a defensive forward (he's got nice hands), as a tagger or even as back up to Jetta in the role of small defender.

I might swing by. I'll attempt to stand behind the goals and cop a Sherrin to the head. That will be my first 180k. After that in my post concussive stupor I might witness a player urinating in public and fall in the puddle. Still disorientated I'm likely to accidentally steal the MFC golf cart and run over Saty (non lethal) before crashing and dislocating a finger. I'm aiming for 1 mil in compo for me and enough for Saty that he can start his own business, on the condition that he can only hire gen Y employees. Can you help WJ?

1. Premiership - Gold Coast d Port Adelaide 2. Brownlow medal - N. Fyfe 3. Coleman medal - Jack Riewoldt 4. Keith Bluey - Jack Viney 5. Rising star - Tom Boyd 6. Wooden Spoon - Bulldogs 7. Melbourne Wins - 7

If you want to hear a Collingwood supporting bogan talk crap about Cockatoo - https://soundcloud.com/paigecardona/afldraft-podcast-bolters-sliders

I'd be somewhat bemused if we hadn't made a call by now. All the games should have been processed for months now. The combine info and medicals sorted. Then I'd hope the interviews are largely just procedural for top picks. It's pretty hard to make it to the top without being all the things you look for in an interview and if you aren't it's pretty well known (see Dustin Martin). We only have to come up with an order for 1st, 2nd and 3rd on our list of the best players. It should be all ordered by now it's really just checking that those 3 names are all on track. That said up until the combine and end of trade week I would've tried to keep an open mind as recruiting staff so that you don't bias your information on all the players. I fear we did that with Toumpas and Wines. We thought Toumpas would be unavailable, so we heavily looked over Wines, then late in the play GWS went a different way and we had a decision all of a sudden. We took Toumpas as we just liked what we saw and he was the new, fresh, highly rated kid. That might be complete BS, but I fear there is a bias you can create there. A bit of grass is always greener style.