DeeSpencer

Good news. I think we all know he's likely to have troubles with that knee for the rest of his career but if managed well there's not reason he can't give us quite a few years of really good footy. Anyone got any updates on who else has to have post season surgery? Pedersen with his nose but that's not too big a deal. Gawn, Spencer, Trengove now rehabbing.

Um what???

He's 30. The thought process is often to write players off at that age the first time they have a couple of injuries where the reality is they can play many more years. That said he'll now mainly play half forward and use his game smarts to rack up possessions and kick some goals. I think his days as anything more than a rotational midfielder are coming to an end. So really that's not what we need. If we are going to recruit a 30 year old I'd rather a wingman or a half back giving us big upgrades. I'm pretty sure he'll stay at the Pies anyway.

Yep I know plenty of Jews who make jokes about all sorts of things but they don't joke about the Holocaust and they don't joke about Israel generally. That said 'how many Jews can you fit in a Volkswagon' is an old classic horrendous joke. And there are plenty of child abuse jokes going around, an old staple for those school camp nights when you sit around telling terrible jokes.

But the jokes about paedophiles which is why it's funny and is ok. Just like Viv Michie's joke is not about glassing people which is despicable but about Red Foo which is funny. I understand why people don't like it. I understand it has the potential to upset Rolf Harris' victims. But at the same time I think others would see a once popular celebrity being reduced to a cheap joke, which is more than he deserves. What I don't like is not those who are genuinely upset. But those who see AFL and Mad Monday and jump to conclusions about players behaving badly

Not anymore, maybe not ever. Try asking a Port supporter if they are two clubs. Or think about why they sign 'never tear us apart' before every game. They're one club now.

It's predominantly white on the back and has white stripes instead of a yellow sash plus they'll be wearing white shorts. It won't clash. Best of a lot of bad outcomes.

Allowing us to add our own player back to our own list. Don't think there's any assistance there!

Yes and that was probably back in the days when the AFL tried to make each team a different colour. They probably thought teal wasn't taken and they'd be different enough from the blue and black teams, didn't work in 1997 with 16 teams, wont with 18. Come the 2000's and everyone decided (rightly) it was time for proper clashes and Port shifted to the simple black design and figured teams could wear clash jumpers against them and that's worked pretty well. I'd like to see them have a full teal guernsey with a black and white V. I agree teal is an interesting colour. They should break it out for some preseason games to see how it goes.

Geelong have done Ricky Nixon (40odd) and Kim Duthie (16) as well as a Priest and a school kid. Similar takes on the same distasteful joke but at some stage I think people need to think if they were truly offended or just jumping on the moral outrage train.

I'd suggest 18 clubs it's impossible. You'd max out at about 6-10 teams - Black, white, red, blue, yellow, green, purple and some patterns that would be about it. Standards have changed due to the modern world we live in that even if we only had the VFL teams only they'd be clashes. Therefore the home team wears their home guernsey, the away teams wears an acceptable clash. The AFL have stuffed up in not making the Tigers have an appropriate clash.

Let's hope it is. We'd lose that one anyway and have him back for a win in round 2. But we all know we'll probably draw another bottom 6 team in round 1 to get our season off to the usual embarrassing loss or heaven hope a win.

I want us to play with physicality. I want Dawes to check Rance when he's running out of the backline to make him think twice which is what he did early in the season and I've got no trouble with him throwing his weight around off the square. It was a forearm to the upper chest. Yet the AFL decide to see it as a strike to the head. These players get crunched in every pack be it marking or on the deck. Huge tackles and collisions with force. We will probably be soft and just take the weak but I wish out of principle we challenged this one. There's no risk of an extra week. It's not at all a strike.

Half back was something new from him. And cleaner outside than previously. If we can't get a guy with these talents to be mainly a regular in a building bottom 8 team then we are doing something wrong.

Preseason - No Established AFL player with 50-70 games - No Continuity in the team - No Playing in a competitive team - Mostly No Until at least some of those things are turned to yes it's a bit hard to judge. If he had clean skills he wouldn't have been available for us to poach from Adelaide. He wont ever take a backwards step on the field. That's a start.

Interesting. But I think overall the benefits are to get the rest as soon as the season starts and then build up longer. Plus there's a few guys (Spencer, Trengove) who can't train now anyway plus do you keep the delistings training? Physical exhaustion shouldn't be too much difference I wouldn't think. Besides just some light stuff whilst overseas or straight after the year don't the players do pretty intense training all year round no matter if in season, preseason or holidays? Mental exhaustion sure, but starting early probably gives you a longer christmas break, an opportunity for a long weekend prior to the season and then use of the bye weeks.

Maybe silly, but if we can't find someone of the Daniel Cross quality as a delisted free agent I think we should consider Andrew Raines. He'd be another who wouldn't help with the kicking skills but he's super fit and has experience as a hard running midfielder. Guess it depends just how bad our list is rated and how much we take out of the drafts. I'm yet to see any more promising delisted players of the Cross or Riley level.

Got his head punched in and quite a serious injury with it so that didn't help. But I think one of the main things was he's only what 192cm ish? A very good player. But take Josh Kennedy and the decent ruck/fwds he plays with out and see what becomes of him. He's undeniably not as valuable as a legit tall forward. Of course that doesn't mean he wasn't still a much better pick than Cook.

Yes I was thinking a couple of Delisted FA's with the last couple of spots. Laughable to think anyone would trade us a useful pick for the likes of Blease, Evans or Tapscott.

What's more unconditional? Effort, attack on the footy, discipline or kicking skills. More so who would you rather on the list next year? These 3 or Tappy, Strauss, Blease, Evans, Nicholson? Because I seriously don't think you can cut them all.

Did you even read the so called ridiculous post. Explain to me your list management plan that involves delisting these 3 plus the 7 or so more who contribute less than these guys. I'd like to hear it.

Paul Roos has said as much. Unfortunately the draft and trade period are the best times to be a Melbourne supporter.

How did that work out? I'd argue we'd be better off with Moloney and Rivers than Byrnes, Rodan and Gillies. Even still it required some trading of players with (albeit limited) currency like the free agents and Stef Martin and Gysberts for Pedersen. We also had the Scully compo to spend. Then we took Terlich and Matt Jones as mature draftees. Frawley gets compensated, Jetta gets promoted taking away one draft spot. But if 5 more go we are still drafting up until the 5th round which in most drafts is the very low value territory. Anymore after that and we have to replace by the likes of Cross and Riley in delisted free agents. We did well in that last year. But if we add a Rodan and Gillies again we'll be scratching our heads saying we may as well have kept player xyz.

If Terlich gets to 80 games before he improves that means we'll be rubbish for the next 3 years at least! Personally I reckon his kicking is fine when given a bit of confidence as at the start of last year it was fine but as the season went on and he lost confidence it was worse. This year it was more his decision making, trying to play the safe style of Roos footy didn't suit him. Switch him to Port Adelaide and yeah he'd make a few errors every now and then but he'd also run and attack the game. Can't help but think he's a better player than Jasper Pittard. Maybe another preseason will be 1 step back and then 2 steps forward. He's courageous, a good tackler and has a crack. I'm much more worried about his defensive ability than his kicking. If he could shut opponents down I could live with the odd turnover.

Who in their right mind hired Brian Waldron to write anything though? Zero credibility that cheat. If he had done some research he would've noticed that Jason Taylor was Hine's 2IC at Collingwood and comes with a reputation as good as anyone besides those top guys at big clubs. Yes he is unproven but he's done the proper apprenticeship. Shifter on the other hand has been doing his job as talent manager for a number of years but to my knowledge hasn't recruited for an AFL club for many moons if ever. He may know a lot about the game but in reality hiring him would be much riskier than sticking with Taylor. We stuffed up a lot of picks but we also mainly picked names who had been widely mentioned. We didn't just create these kids from thin air. So it's development and poor drafting and just plain bad luck.