DeeSpencer

Oh god even Demonland is being overrun by hipsters. Is the new server based in Brunswick?

Suggested changes: Creation of forward/ruck position with Clark, Fitzpatrick and King Move Grimes to small or medium defender Move Pedersen to tall defender Move Garland to medium defender Move Strauss and Terlich to small defender Move Jetta to small defender Consider creating versatile midfielder for Vince, Trengove, Michie, Salem and maybe even Evans Move Watts to outside mid In terms of age and games played it shows me we can actually get some immediate impact from guys still yet to play 100 games (Howe, Watts, Dawes, Clark, Grimes, Trengove, McKenzie). And if we can win games whilst Hogan, Kent, Viney, Toumpas, Tyson and Michie to name a few still haven't got to 50 games then we will be a better side again once they do. Our best 22's wont be the youngest sides ever picked and we probably be older the when we were rebuilding from scratch in 2008-2009 under Bailey but it still lacks a lot of experience.

Whatever. The essence of a game plan is taking 18 (or 22) and making the combined skills greater than the sum of the individuals. Therefore multiple game plans actually defeat the purpose. Situation tactics to be implemented at different times is another matter. Of course the team should practice playing with a man behind play, or practicing ball retention to drain a clock or change to a more direct style in wet weather. But that doesn't mean you alter typical patterns of moving the ball and of defensive structures. Roos' game plan at Sydney always featured attacking corridor football from half back by the likes of Taidgh Kennelly. I don't see anyone who isn't calling for that. But that's different to what I consider is in all likelihood disrespectful to the talent of the other 17 teams in expecting a a fast flowing attacking plan to work with a limited skill set team who need to nail basics first.

Well lets get in to 2014 then Most Kicks: Jack Grimes Most Handballs: Nathan Jones Most Disposals: Bernie Vince Most Tackles: Jordie McKenzie Most Marks: Jack Watts Most Goals: Mitch Clark Can I suggest an addition Most Brownlow Votes: Nathan Jones

Yeah I've acknowledged that later that clearly this was not your standard racing syndicate. And of course in pure investment racing syndication is a risky investment but the whole point of syndication is that you only put in small affordable amounts according to what you can afford. Hence for a reasonably well off business man if McLardy owns a couple of shares in syndications he can hardly be labelled a horrid gambler. Anyone, especially if they do so knowingly, who put cash in to the punting aspects of the business were very foolish. Someone attempting to seek their own justice on the manager tells me not only was it a dodgy deal but probably a dodgy deal featuring dodgy people.

That's presuming he wasn't in on the whole thing. I was a bit suspect when they brought Black Caviar's brother. Usually the big studs or rich owners make those purchases not new on the scene syndications. And to think CC seemed to be doing pretty well at Richmond after he left us.

Addit to above. It seems BC3 had a different business model to simple race horse syndication where you put money in for a share of a specific race horse. It seems BC3's business model was much different and obviously less successful with the punters club involved as well.

Well that's where 5 million of it went. Craig Cameron is probably the bigger MFC link than McLardy. Hopefully he hasn't dragged too many MFC people in on this. Race horse syndication isn't too risky a game usually. Sydnicators with good records and business practices will buy and sell responsibly and make a low risk profit. Those who buy in to syndication's will usually buy small percentages for an affordable amount ie. 5,000 to 10,000 for 5 or 10%. I'm not sure what went wrong to Oh and sounds to me like the terms punters club is a bit misleading. That usually means a betting syndicate. As far as I know BC3 were just a racing syndicate, which still had the potential to take in shares of cash and get no return but usually it's money in, share of race horse out. You usually should find out where exactly your money has gone unless BC3 were sitting on the winnings or taking investment dollars and pocketing them.

First time I've ever heard of anything like that in any kind of sport or business. If he's out of contract he's a free agent to go wherever he wants surely.

Sounds ideal for him to head up there whilst his old man coaches us then come back when Roos is in another capacity with the club

At least Blease and Tapscott have been out there. And I think part of the reason they are in the rehab group is a recognition that in 2013 they just didn't have the fitness base to play the position they are being asked to play. So they are getting the treatment that the rest of the list got in 2012 in terms of remedial fitness work before they join in the skills training. Kent is missing completely. Not one report that's even seen him out on track as far as I have seen. I mean does anyone even know if he's in Melbourne?

Seems Kent is still absent from the outdoor training besides the aforementioned.

The above combination kept me away.

Penrith the most valuable sporting brand in Australia. You've got to be kidding me. I don't know how they work these things out but if you asked me whether I'd rather own Coll, West Coast, Hawthorn or any of the other top AFL clubs or Penrith it wouldn't be a hard call.

I disagree on that. I think back in 2005 Goodes was very much a midfielder almost exclusively. He used to go head to head with Judd in games. Micky O was a slightly undersized full forward. Hall the centre piece who played anywhere from 30-70m from goal and was a main target and O'Keefe was the third tall who did a lot of lead up work. Nick Davis was probably that mix between opportunistic small forward and also marking forward. They also had 2 primary ruckman and whilst it was the days when the second ruck sat on the pine a lot I do remember Jolly often spending time in the goal square. Dawes can be a bigger version of O'Keefe as the up the ground player. Hogan can take Hall's spot as a the old fashioned go to CHF and then those 2 can swap. Clark sits in the goal square as the back up ruck but is obviously a class above the likes of Jolly doing that and Howe plays as a small who rotates up the ground and gets used as a miss match not a go to in a crowded forward line. I think Sydney this year will show us that you don't have to disrupt your fundamental game plan and style to capitalise on key forwards. The alternative is trying for a North Melbourne attacking plan to get fast forward 50 entries to multiple tall forwards but I think that costs too much in terms of defensive ability to make it work. My point is that Sydney had an above average forward line in 2005 and that we can too but to set up some plan revolving around our tall forwards is fraught with danger.

So you want to take a 2-20 team and give them multiple game plans and the ability to switch between them at the breaks. Come off it. This is AFL not basetball or soccer where you might be able to switch game styles if you have the skilled players for it. For mine there are 2 main components to any AFL game plan. Defensive set ups and ball movement patterns. They are the two things that with a good team you might be able to manipulate. Everything else really comes down to just being the harder working, higher intensity and more skilled team. Defensive set ups: - Numbers around the stoppage - A player dropping back to form an extra number across half back - 2 way running from the mids to seal off exits from our forward 50 Ball movement patterns - As much fast movement as possible while maintaining possession - Using the deep switch to get to the open side - Mids running forward of the ball to space - Forwards running in to open space in the forward 50 The aim will be to play defensively like Sydney or even Freo and to move the ball like Sydney of 2012 or even some aspects of Geelong 2013 but without some of the high risk corridor stuff. Again I'd imagine Roos would be keen to get the defensive stuff organised first whilst trying to keep the game moving from half back on transition. This Fitzy goal from last year - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfzWUfnLufY - will be what I imagine we will try for on attack. It features accurate kicking from half back, Jack Watts linking up in the midfield, Dawes presenting at CHF and Fitzy finishing it off.

Obviously we are keen to see Hogan, Clark and many others. I was thinking people could name 3 they really like and why. Try to stay away from the obvious names. 1. Dom Tyson Why? Because he really was our biggest recruit this offseason at least in terms of what we paid. Every tall and left footed midfielder gets Pendlebury comparisons but the way this guy wins clearances with positioning, clever hands and reading the play makes me think it is somewhat reasonable. I'm not expecting dominance but lots of little quality moments could be a great start to his MFC career. 2. Mitch Clisby Why? Bit of a lesser name but his games in 2013 impressed me. Hard at it, keen to run and carry and decent natural defensive instincts impressed me. As did his body slam that got him suspended. He had a few lingering hamstring injuries in preseason last year and first half of the season so I'm hoping for improvement physically and then more improvement with game time. Lack of height and size worries me and kicking isn't amazing but I do like him. 3. Daniel Cross Why? Because he's 30, and plenty of times we see guys struggle at 30 for a year before rebounding and playing much better. He'll suit Roos to a tee. He's got the endurance and speed was never part of his game plan so from that regard I think physically slowing down might not effect him too much. Fighting for a spot that was always yours might've taken a big toll at the dogs and the freedom to know he just have to train and play hard to do his job might free him up.

is he any good? What TAC team is he playing for?Anyway the AFL would likely not allow it. Plus it might not suit his development and hinder the club for no gain. Mixing him with AFL players and training in his current role (?ball boy) sounds reasonable to me

Moved on with Dawesy and his fiance. Which is a bit of a culture upgrade on living with Tex and his mullet. I presume Dawes who hails from the Hampton area will be living in the area somewhere nearby. An interesting question is whether Vince's extracurricular activities impact his footy ability. And my initial response would be not much at all and the positive of them would be that he's mentally fresh wish helps dealing with bad losses. But all that said minimizing them especially if he's settled would be a good idea. In that way living with Dawes and the future Mrs Dawes might be good for him.

I feel bad for whatever the heck we call him now because to me he's a clear case of a guy who needed guidance and didn't get any. Personally I'm surprised he hasn't left Collingwood like the rest of the exodus over the preseason but a turnover merchant who can't really defend at age 27 is probably not all that desirable despite his significant upside as a great in game runner who can break lines. Anyway the story as we know it is this: - Born in Brazil - Moves to Aus but always seems overly keen to demonstrate how Brazilian and African he is - Harry gets drafted and develops in to an above average footballer - Step father commits suicide in 2009 - Witness a murder in Brazil - At some stage between 2007 and 2011 he becomes almost a media junky who engages in way too much positive and individual press and too much hype over his twitter/blog and other things. The PR he did surrounding his charitable work seemed to outnumber the work 4;1. - He has a melt down in 2013 with talk of depression and some strange story of sexual abuse in the family Now anything he does gets seen as selfish and about drawing attention where as this name chance might be about a fresh start and moving away from his step fathers legacy that wasn't his. No doubt the way he exploded his media profile and story about his background and twitter and charity work was way too much. It was the behaviour of a kn ob so I agree. But I think he also didn't do it all on purpose. He needed someone to step in and say listen H if you keep doing all this media that projects you as a saint then people will expect you to behave as one on the field as well as off. It might have been the lack of a father figure to step in. Maybe Eddie McGuire as someone who knows that being over exposed can lead to a lot of public animosity should've helped. Either way it would've been nice if someone who knew the intimacy of H's private issues would've helped him. You can't be a public matyr working to a higher standard as well as a gun footballer as well as a tackle a whole bunch of issues in your personal life. Anyway he's getting a fresh start now. And he can do years and years of charitable work for the rest of his life. This time I hope he does it whilst also taking care of himself and by getting the public support when needed not seemingly trying to sell himself to the public and making him all about him.

In a lot of ways it's unfortunate he's ended up playing for so many VFL clubs when with luck he could've been a champion VFL player at one of the clubs. But Sandy was definitely a step up from Frankston and then Casey was for Melbourne and his shot at AFL and Port makes sense as the club who could possibly offer him the most cash as well as opportunity as a stand alone club for him to play to his strengths. It's the lot of the VFL footballer on the verge of AFL these days. In some ways it would be nice to merge VFL stand alone clubs with the TAC clubs similar to how the SANFL and WAFL work and then give all players a home base and then let the AFL clubs and reserves fend for themselves.

I have 2 very simple questions that I believe should be answered in order to prevent such a huge pile of mess like this ever happening again. 1) What the hell is the ACC and why do we have a commission against crime that has no powers to police or prosecute? Why are we paying taxes to fund a body that will gather evidence that becomes useless. 2) Why are ASADA and WADA different entities. Why isn't there just an Australian branch of WADA. Back on topic I see no significant new information here. Essendon and the AFL negotiated the settlement which is standard AFL practice and I'm not fussed by their choice of negotiator. There's also been rehashing of the Evans/Demetriou phone calls and again it doesn't worry me. The most fascinating aspect for me of this story has always been the nature of the drugs given to the Essendon players. And by that I mean whether they were safe and whether they were legal. We've been at this for months and we still don't have definitive answers to those questions.

Gibson is listed as 189cm and is probably the shortest key defender in the comp along with Dale Morris at 190cm. I can't think of anyone else below that. In that regard I think Georgiou can only be counted as a third tall. And if playing against a team with 2 big forwards (ie. Sydney with Franklin and Reid) and a big second ruck/forward (ie Tippett) then he can only be counted as a 4th tall. But I really hope he can impress early in training as if a key defender or third tall defender goes down we either choose between Pedersen or Georgiou or going in small (unless Dawes and Fitzy are fit and we move Hogan). Either way to be the lowest on the list midfielder means you are miles from getting a game. To be the lowest on the list lock down mid-tall sized defender means you are always a shot at getting a game at some stage if you are in form. After McDonald, Garland and Frawley it's Pedersen and Dunn next in line for a game. That's not a hard competition to be put in and why I was really hoping Scharenberg or Kolodjashnij made it to pick 9 as they would've been in line for games developing from half back very early in their career.

And if they are having a bad run with injuries it's unlikely Brown or Duigan could help. They aren't even specific role players who would be needed by a particular run of injuries ie. ruckman or talls. By the way Carlton/Duigan picked a great day to leak that story which if put under more scrutiny could be much bigger news. Duigan is effectively quitting the blues and doing it at exactly the worst moment. Maybe the AFL could allow Brown to fill in for Duigan for the year!

Pfft what a load of crud. He was a one trick pony as a small forward as a chase and run down guy. And defenders started to work that out and small forwards had to all pressure and tackler more than chase and run down. Aaron wasn't an amazing crumber or a good mark so he was hardly an elite small forward. His best attributes was his burst speed and dynamite kicking and his best season came as a midfielder. The unfortunate thing was a few hamstring issues, a dodgy knee and an overall poor endurance base meant he could never sustain top class AFL fitness needed to be a pure outside link up player and a lack of hardness also limited his career.