DeeSpencer

Exactly. If you were going to lie you'd do it properly and drag out his return as long as possible not give positive news about him returning to training next week. SEN provides enough rumours from the people paid to deliver them, they don't need to let every random on to give their own. Anyway hopefully tomorrow we get a training report that has Hogan returning to some light running. That would be lovely.

According to a quick twitter search they sold 7 tickets to MH370 including the 2 who had stolen passports. Maybe not the best time to associate ourselves with them but hey 500k sounds good

Cleveland the other big movers replacing their safety in Ward with a more expensive one in Whitner and signing Dansby. They'll likely have a very good defense but still be limited by QB play on offense.

Not completely surprised he got another go considering he was a first round pick etc. But surprised the 49ers traded anything at all for him. And now they've followed it up with Jonathan Martin. Seems they believe in their powers to turn players around. Bears today got Lamarr Houston from Oakland on a 5 year 35 mil contract for the 26 year old DE. Seems more a solid run stopping DE than a big sack guy but he helps our defense. Plus we got a cheapish safety. And resigned our MLB. Still need to add another DE, DT, CB and probably another depth safety whether it's our own free agents coming back or not. There were some interesting deals around the league. The saints landing Byrd the safety. They might transition from a great offense no defense to a pretty good defense but not such a great offense. Broncos have been the biggest movers I think bringing in TJ Ward at safety and Aqib Talib at CB. And there' the favourites for Ware. That would give them some serious improvement on defense. Revis rumoured to the patriots. That would be huge.

I significantly doubt any of them will play round 1. Realistically the only two who are a chance are Gawn and Tappy as they are playing this week. And Gawn or Jamar aren't getting passed Spencer who's been ok without showing some solid form. Same with Tapscott he's not getting picked on the back off 1 VFL performance in which he's unlikely to play big minutes. Can you realistically see them risking Dawes or Hogan without them proving their fitness in the VFL? Maybe Hogan but not unless he's had at least a couple of weeks of training which means he's ruled out as well. If Dawes and Hogan played in the VFL next week so they were fit for round 2 that would be a great result.

Except it doesn't. You had an isolated injury obviously related to repetitive exercise. Cut the exercise out and it settled no surprise. I think Dawes suffers because of Clark's injury. You get in Dawes and you expect him to be the stable one so Clark can come back in time and it goes wrong. But Dawes had a reasonable injury history at Collingwood. Ok his knee had a clean out but that happens. From then on he was fine until his first hit out he only had calf tightness, Collingwood are flirting with playing Jesse White and Ben Reid who have the same thing. If it wasn't for his history of soft tissues last year he'd probably be on track for round 1. I still think Dawes deserves the benefit of the doubt. Clark's had one heck of an injury. If it doesn't ever work out so be it but I still see him as recovering from the initial injury. We just need more patience. I look at Ryan Harris and the great performance he's given Australia over the last few years despite injury interruptions and a horrible injury history. We can get Dawes and Clark we just need time and patience.

- Tapscott and Gawn back for Casey this week - Frawley (heavy knock to the chest) and Terlich (concussion) will be fine for round 1 - Dawes, calf tightness, doing well - Garland improving - Hogan, hopefully running this week, training next, possibility of round 1 (but sounds unlikely) - Jamar, tight calf, training well, pushing claims for round 2 (lol) - Mitch Clark, still building training - Riley, 1 month to go on LTI, tracking well 13 or 14 due to play at Casey

Don't you think that Roos saying 'hopefully' in a sentence mentioning Dunn almost proves the point that to date he's been horribly inconsistent. So far I'd be shocked if any teams have interest. I'm hoping Dunn has a really good year. I think he can be top 10 B+F and a reliable best 22 player. Even be a reliable best 22 in a team that isn't hopeless that would be nice. And yes we are short on defenders and versatile ones are pretty important.

Oh stop it. This is getting funny now. Durability sure. But fight and consistency haha The only thing Dunn has been consistent at is changing positions and getting dropped.

At the moment if they keep the same compensation it's better if Frawley is unrestricted. The club would be a horrible position getting a massive offer from another club held over them and then either setting a bad precedent in player payments or having to let him go. We've now got a much simpler proposition. Get the signature or let him go.

We have reliable proof Lynden Dunn can play HBF. A few good and mainly reasonable games last year in 1 year of what an 8 year career isn't great proof. I also doubt he has any suitors, ask an opposition supporter about Lynden Dunn and they will laugh or say 'has he not been delisted yet?' We've managed to attract Cross, Michie and Vince. If Dunn goes against our wishes we could probably find a half a replacement.

Not sure if serious.

Top 5 draft picks are hard though because it's not just about expectation of performance it's about expectation of how they play as well. I think Roos knows that which is why he was happy to drop back to pick 9 with Salem. Hogan takes a fair bit of the heat off but already their is less hurry with Salem. The other problem is Toumpas even when playing poorly can be a justified selection because of how little midfield/forward depth there is in the team. I'm going to try to keep my expectations of Toumpas similar to my expectations on Salem, Kent and JKH.

I do wonder if a course that teaches some basic drills and principles can really be of much benefit particularly to guys who worked full time as players. I think pursuing outside experience in management, teaching, psychology or philosophy might actually be of more benefit. But the underlying form of training that young coaches need is experience. That's why I'm glad we have Allison as the head of development.

See below: So Allison has significant and successful experience as both a development and line coach. Miller looks like being his deputy. I don't think he has particularly strong experience or qualifications but he is coming in at the entry level position. He would've completely his coaching accreditation for whatever it's worth and I think he did some coaching at local level last year. I think his recruitment was partly because they think he'll make a good coach but also because they know he'll be a good guy around the club and he brings back some club history from a tumultuous time. He's good for the club culture that Roos is so reknown for as well as being appropriate for the role. Andrew Nichol (a development coach under Neeld) has been retained as player development manager. I presume that uses his skills as a former teacher to help Allison and Miller coordinate the development.

I just read he won a B+F at Glenelg in 1995 after he finished at Essendon. I'm tipping by that stage the SANFL had diluted down from it's peak to definitely under the standard of the AFL but it's still a good achievement. I think the perception of his coaching suffered because he wasn't a big name player but he was probably a better player than I ever thought or knew.

Former Melbourne coach and Adelaide assistant Dean Bailey dies after cancer battle Thoughts go out to his family as well as those at Adelaide and those at Melbourne during his time. Way too young.

My guess either some kind of haematoma (big bruise with a lot of bleeding) into one of the muscles or he could've had some traumatic damage to a [censored] ie. ruptured [censored]. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter as he had to have surgery

I agree with you Hannibal. Add Steele Sidebottom as another very good predominantly outside player who relies on endurance more than speed. Even add our own Daniel Cross who's good inside but this year will probably play just as much outside. If we can win some contested ball and get the midfield working as a unit then we can see the positives of Trengove and Watts I hope. We need them being proactive in getting the ball and then it wont matter about their limitations. Trengove is one who suffers from always having to chase his opponents who are often faster than him. If we start controlling the possession balance we will start seeing Trengove getting the ball and using it well in space as well as hopefully getting involved in the packs.

I also think only the best young players can learn to play in teams getting belted by 100 points. When you are getting swarmed and belted by that much it's just too hard. Senior players struggle enough when they have to play one out as such. Whenever I see the demons playing hot potato with the ball whilst getting blasted at clearances on in their own backline OR geting the ball on the wing and having absolutely nothing to kick to I note that the game has gone from a team game to a series of individual moments for our players. And the way footy is played these days unless you are a top player you need your team mates. I'd give all 3 of Watts, Strauss and Blease some chance if we are in a competitive side. If not then I don't hold high hopes for any of them even Watts. All 3 rely on the ball getting moved to actually use their strengths

It's a bit of chicken and egg though isn't it. It's very hard to have overexposed young players when you have a quality team of experienced players. If we had strong solid leaders in the first place then not only would've some youngsters not have been exposed too early but the older players still around would've appreciated the talent of the young guys instead of sulked. I mean as much as Watts, Trengove etc etc was a mistake because they weren't ready to play under Bailey some of the problem has to go back to Green, Bruce, Yze etc being the leaders at that time and all the mid level players who got swept away. Which then goes back to the way the club has been run for years. Sitting Salem and Kennedy-Harris in the two's all year won't necessarily make them better players, especially a guy like Kennedy-Harris who in my mind has done enough to have a shot at a fair bit of senior footy when compared to those challenging him for his role. It's becoming clear playing young guys too much too early isn't good but it still remains young guys need games to get better hence Geelong turfing a few veterans of late. A few games here and there with time in the sub vest shouldn't overburden him with fan hype. If I had to describe the 3 biggest problems of why we can't develop players I'd say there were 1. The recruiting - they players simply were no good 2. The culture and leadership which go hand in hand and as you spelled out and are influenced by list management 3. The coaching - the ability to actually teach the game and enhance skills and remedy errors

James Frawley, Col Garland, Nathan Jones there aren't too many on our list who have started out as decent players who flashed talent but actually gone through the gears and got better year by year to reach a high level. The other aspect is not individual development but team development. Dean Bailey's Melbourne team from 2008-2010 actually came through as an improving group. It was build on shifting foundations and crashed in a heap in late 2011 but the team really improved as a unit for a few years there. This year will be a lot about team development as they start to play the game plan and play together. If it works then we will have a playing group that looks vastly improved as competitive losses or wins makes everyone look better than consecutive 10 or 15 goal thrashings. If we build a base of a team that can at least compete then when we bring in the likes of Salem, Kent, Toumpas, JKH as well as the ones who can hopefully fight for themselves like Hogan, Tyson and Viney they will develop individually.

Simply it's the process by which you take talented players who flash skills or traits and turn them in to consistent players capable of producing against the best opponents. If you take Hawthorn it's all their players but for example a player like Luke Breust who was a junior rugby player and improving his skills, his fitness and his ability to find the ball. Part of it is finding out what your players strengths are and making sure they can play a role to show off those skills and then the other part is working on a players weaknesses. Take Brad HIll from Hawthorn. Recruited as a junior as a top endurance athlete, good at finding the footy, but a little soft and not the most reliable skills. Yet very quickly Hawthorn found a spot for him at half forward/wing and just told him to run up and down the field using his fitness. They worked on the reliability of his kicking and through some physical development and some AFL matches he improved his hardness. Compare that to Dan Nicholson who still can't kick and has his moments of softness and therefore can't get in the team despite being a great runner and having the ability to link up and find the ball. The examples for Melbourne players go on for days. Gysberts is probably a great example of a guy who when recruited had talent. He showed it early that he could find the footy and had nice hands in close. Yet for whatever reason he had no physical development or skill development. That he washed out at North so quick probably tells me it was above the shoulders but we've had plenty of other examples. Ricky Petterd - maybe it's questionable if he's a regular in a top 8 side but he can play forward or back. He's hard at it and could find the footy since his first game. Yet never seemed to get fit enough or improve his skills that seemed to let him down.

I think we will have a clearer picture on the key forwards in 12 months time. We only need one of Clark, Dawes or Fitzpatrick to recover from injury/assert themselves at AFL level and when matched with Hogan and Howe we should be fine. If Frawley leaves we will be looking at a key defender. Either way we've got a decent relationship going with GWS and their young tall Kristian Jaksch who was a school team mate of Viney's is half way back to Victoria if reports are to be believed. It wouldn't surprise me if we keep doing trades with them just like this year and drop back in the draft in order to get some of their slightly more ready to go former high draft picks in return. I think Roos will continue to value pick 10 or pick 20 plus a ready to step up talent over yet another top 5 pick.

No not at all. Just saying we do this move to secure a player in Tyson who we think has as much potential as pick 2 (Kelly) and can be ready to go now and then we use pick 9 for a draftee who may or may not take time. Then if we kept the picks both Kelly and Dunstan would've been ready to go. The right move was getting Tyson who looks to have as much potential as any mid and barring injuries was ready to perform now. I'm just saying it's the way things seem to fall with us and the draft lately that whoever we don't touch turns to gold.