DeeSpencer

Bailey's suspension was reported by some as part of the reason for Adelaide's regression this year.

The All australian at under 18 level is the most ridiculous award ever given. There's 4 teams competing you simply have to be the best player in your position of the 4 teams. I don't know who the other CHF's were in Cook's draft year beside Darling and as mentioned he had a poor carnival. So really a couple of good junior games had Cook in that prime position. Watts taking strong marks and winning games with clutch goals says all you need to know about playing as a key forward in under 18's. In Watts' year the only good key defender at the time was probably Hurley who was on Watts' team. That's the other thing to consider, who knows what opponents Cook was against. Cook is so low on the dees dodgy drafting record because we took a shot at a key forward at pick 12. You'll miss a lot with them. John Butcher looks like losing right now. Mitch Thorp and Beau Dowler were big wipe outs. You take a chance because the upside is huge. I get upset over Taggert, Tynan, Blease, Strauss, Tapscott and Gysberts before I care about Cook.

The guy's not the prototypical key forward though. He's 21 so it's incredibly hard to say anything negative about him right now but I think he should be moving in to the midfield a la Jarryd Roughead because at his size I predict his improvement as a true key forward is limited. West Coast dont have a big midfielder so I see it happening.

He's good, but maybe it was just a drop of form that young players suffer from but to me he's starting to look a bit more like he's not quite the dominant key forward but more a dangerous and crafty slightly undersized tall. Remember he dominated under 18's as a 17 year old and everyone thought he was the next Jono Brown. 12 months later he hasn't grown any taller, didn't play as well, messed around with a school girl and got his head kicked in on a night out. Of course a clever team drafting for needs in a tall forward still would've had him ahead of Cook but an even smarter team might have avoided both and gone for best available. Or taken Cook in the second round and developed him properly and maybe today he'd be a decent B grade option at least. His post AFL career has shown he wasn't ever going to be a star. I also think when Cook was drafted he probably should've been made a defender. Good reading of the play might have countered his poor athleticism and he did have nice foot skills.

Maybe they dont even make it back. If it's the official first day under Roos you'd think there would be a lot of meetings first and Misso might want to start with a session in the gym on the bikes or weights. Hopefully the clubs tweets a first open training date

1+2. We finished bottom 2 both years. We are always going to get a draw that appears easy on football aspects. And the way people rate draws are often very superficial. A 6 day break going from a saturday arvo to a friday night is not a big deal when your opponent is doing it as well. 3. The bail out package isn't huge 4. A new club took our number 1 pick and future hope. Sure that compensation looks generous due to Scully's rubbish form but what about the brand damage it did to us 5. Again they didn't fudge the numbers. Sylvia is worth the same as Dal Santo 6. Yes we get QBday. But it becomes our only drawing game 7. The AFL are rapped at us moving those games to 2 different markets and the NT government are providing the bulk of the funding. Everything the AFL gives us they then take something else. That's competition though so I understand it. Except I'd rather them not give or take anything instead of this rubbish they pull where they shift things around.

You don't agree with party politics? I actually like the idea of groups of people coming together in teams and putting away some differences for the sake of the overall ideal. At heart the Labor party is a beautiful idea, it's mandate is to protect the working class and marginalized and make sure social supports are strong. Same with the conservatives who's main idea is to keep the government unobtrusive with lower taxes to encourage growth and personal opportunity. Ideally the election cycles should swing from "they took all our money and haven't spent it on enough good" after a Labor government and then "the economy may be strong but their isn't enough government help for services and the little guy" after a Coalition government. Unfortunately the parties seem to be lurching towards the middle and we don't seem to be getting anything done one way or another. That said the main problem lies when moral issues become politicized. I guess we should be thankful we aren't the US where the republican party is so infiltrated with misfits from the church and the NRA that it's losing all legitimacy.

I heard this one. Don't you love these rumours. Also heard that the dwarfs at the mad monday were there as replica Watters', hence why they got set on fire.

That's why Saad's got an asterisk. It's not a great line up but I think it's far from useless. Most of the players have had a few preseasons so they aren't complete babies and the general skill and footballing level is actually pretty decent. I think that team it's actually harder to beat than people would realise. Steven and Armitage have taken over in the midfield now with help from Montagna. The big concern is winning games without Riewoldt dominating and so a lot falls to Lee and Stanley. But at Melbourne we haven't seen us win games with Dawes, Clarke etc because they haven't been out there.

Show me where. I think Frawley obviously gives us a class edge in the key defenders. I and rate Tom McDonald of course but he's not miles ahead of Delaney and Bruce. Mids and small defenders they win. Come the midfield its probably Vince, Jones and Viney V Montagna, Steven and Armitage, a match up they win. The likes of Michie, Tyson, Toumpas, Watts, McKenzie haven't shown anything more than the Saints young boys plus we'll add pick 9 and 40 whilst they'll add 3 top 20 picks including pick 3. Same for small forwards and rotating mids. Longer and Hickey v Gawn and Spencer for rucks. All 4 unproven. We have a clear edge in the back up ruck and key forwards with Clark, Fitzy, Dawes and Hogan v Stanley, Lee, Riewoldt. But that's only an edge if finally get our guys on the park together. We naturally have an advantage in that the bulk of a decent side on paper are already at the club but none of it has been developed. The saints have the advantage of a few more seasoned players across the lines and higher top picks in the draft. But it's way too early to declare us past the saints. We should've gone past them this year but stuffed that up badly

Classic Derm speaking before he thinks. If they employ Mark Williams they'll be level pegging with us. If they go a young coach they'll likely be behind but not miles behind. They've just added 2 decent big key defenders that they missed in 2013. Plus 3 first round picks and Shane Savage should help cover Nick Dal Santo. FB: Roberton Delaney Dempster HB: Fisher Bruce Geary C: Savage Armitage Newnes HF: Curren Riewoldt Ross FF: Schneider Lee Murdoch Foll: Hickey Steven Montagna Int: Stanley, Hayes, Wright, Pick 3 Plus. Backline: Simpkin, Gilbert, Gwilt, Webser Midfield; Longer, C. Jones, Saunders, Ray Forward: Milera, Siposs, Markworth, Dennis-Lane, Spencer White, Saad* Plus 2 more top 20 picks That backline despite the 2 talls not being superstars is very good. Good rebound and good defensive skills and coverage. Midfield lacks depth but probably still has us covered and they need fresh blood in the forward line but they aren't useless. Overall the doom and gloom about this list is over hyped. Nail these draft picks to fix the midfield and then they have most things sorted. Plus the plan will be to get the permanent answer post Riewoldt in next years draft that has a couple of gun key forward prospects. In terms of pure playing list I wouldn't be overly concerned if I was the next coach of the saints. I'd just want to know that the new Pres, new CEO and Chris Pelchen are all on my side.

Actually the club website has Pelchen named above Watters on a list which is indicative of where they stand. The saints appear at least in this case to have moved to a system seen in the NFL and many other sports where the football manager has authority beyond the coach. With all the pressure on coaches these days it's not a bad idea to limit their power and authority over what they actually control and specialise in. Then the manager of football can take care of the playing list and other decisions. If the 2 aren't getting along then you pick which one if not both are holding you back and fire them. At the moment the saints think Pelchen is doing a great job refreshing the list. He's just got 3 top 20 picks, added Shane Savage and replaced McEvoy with Longer which long term could be a masterstroke. Watters on the other hand seemed to be struggling sharing the responsibility and working with Pelchen so he's out the door.

Good decision by the saints. Watters was Neeld 2.0. Power hungry, horrible communicator, indecisive and divided the playing group. He didn't want the rebuild. The saints board and head of football did want the rebuild. Therefor you find the coach who fits the plan and you do it as soon as possible. The players can now enter the season with a clear plan to focus on and the club doesn't have the negative press of when Watters will get sacked which was bound to happen otherwise. But they have to go for Choco Williams I think. Which is unfortunate because he's a quality coach.

No idea. Someone was prattling on about him playing as a midfielder. And whilst a lot of us recognise Jetta might be a midfielder the reality is he's never played there for a long period.

Neeld and Royal a dysfunctional combination of coaching. Who would've thought it! But gee this shows what an entitled bunch of players we'v'e had recently. A rookie who came in to the game at 24 with obvious deficiencies in his game and he's complaining in the first 6 months of his career about having to be played forward. Talking about his strengths like he's some amazing endurance athlete when that's his job. Brushing over his weaknesses. Obviously Jon Ralph is leading him into these responses as on AFL.com.au and SEN he was much more reserved but I think it's another window it to what exactly has been happening at our club. The management and coaching has been so bad that the players don't trust the advise given. So when something goes wrong they have an out to just blame it on the club. It's hard to demand standards of improvement when players always feel they have an excuse due to poor coaching etc.

How do you propose the AFLPA go about influencing the relationship between the AFL and the TV networks? Are you suggesting that at the next CBA they strike on the basis that the AFL sells out too many games and doesn't give them equal exposure. Sounds unlikely to me. The AFL are committed to 18 teams, the players get looked after fine. It's the clubs who are getting screwed.

Yeah he's AFL appointed but it's not like they are paying his bill directly and forced him to come work for us. They simple identified him for the challenge and he accepted it. The AFL got nearly 1 billion for 5 years of TV rights. Throw in their own sponsorship's and endorsements that are multiple, plus radio and other media rights and their share of the game receipts and we are looking at an orginasation that must bring in nearly 250 mil per year right? And it's all based on 18 teams playing 9 matches a week right. That's there product. So I understand they dont want to dilute the big matches but surely you should give each team an opportunity to bring in a share of money as well so they can stay strong by themselves. To be honest I'm ready to give Queens Birthday the flick. It seems to be the AFL's response when anyone questions our commercial fairness. And they have been holding it over our head whenever they need to as well. I always here that the Dees have retained QBday. Yet I never hear Coll and Ess have retained ANZAC day. It's an insult to the loyal demon fans who turn up every year. I just hope we have that good season next year otherwise we will be looking at a big debt blow out. PJ has already cut back a number of redundant positions at the club but he can't cut back much more I wouldn't think. And we are spending 1 mil more per year on our senior coach. I don't want supporters to be asked to dig into their pockets again whilst the AFL continue to rake in such huge profits and then charitably offer us not much over 1 mil relief funding all dependent on agreeing with them overseeing the club.

1. It doesn't have the MCC. For MCC members you have to pay GA or otherwise to go. 2. It's soul less. One big concrete mess. No members wing or southern stand or punt road end 3. The staff are consistently rude and incompetent 4. We often play North and the bulldogs there and their fans make the staff look pleasant 5. From the Eastern suburbs that extra 10 minutes on the train is a real pain - ok I'm precious but deal with it 6. The ticket prices and seating change at a whim and therefor for non regular attendees there is no familiarity 7. The food seems even more expensive and the beer even more watered down And most of all 8. We never win there! You are right above all it is the players/team. If we had a good record then I'm sure I'd go watch more games. If we were top 4 playing a top 8 Brisbane side then I'd be there. But right now I don't know how long it's been since we've won a game there and that's a huge turn off.

Well they didn't give us 2.7 million, in fact once you take out what we will pay them for the rubbish tanking fine they only gave us about 1 million. And Peter Jackson wasn't some hidden AFL man. He came recommended for sure but he wasn't gifted to us as a charity. So far they've given us about 1 mil and helped us get a board organised. They will then take away about 1 mil from us with this commercial disaster of a fixture.

That's much better than a crowd of 15,000 and writing a cheque to play the game. I want a draw that is both fair in terms of football and commercially. At the moment the 5 teams we play twice are GWS, Bulldogs, West Coast from the bottom 6 and North and Port for the other teams. No problems with the first 3 but then the other 2 are 2 of the lowest drawing teams around. Of the top 8 teams we play home games against Freo (2nd) and Geel + Syd (3rd and 4th) and Coll (8th) yet play away games against Carlton, Richmond and Essendon. (5, 7, 9). Explain how that is helping us win games? From the bottom 8 we play away to Adelaide and St Kilda, 2 teams that would help with crowds, and then home against the 2 Queensland sides. That may well be the AFL's way of giving us a shot at winning games. But to mitigate it they put the Brisbane game at Etihad. Then we also get stuff all prime time and not even one token away game on a Friday night. We get 2 home games on Saturday night channel 7 but they go with Sydney and the dogs? Hardly making it an attractive game for neutrals. I get the Sydney one with the Roos angle but the dogs one will likely be a turn off after quarter time for everyone watching affair anyway. We start winning and the crowds will stay strong and we are a shot to make enough out of the gate plus the NT trips to keep the bottom line in tact. I just worry about how big a hole we will be in if we haven't got 2 or 3 wins by halfway through the season.

Giving us enough rope to hang ourselves maybe? It's a bit early for the conspiracy theories, but the AFL have given us some help but also made it clear we have to dig ourselves out. Time for us to start digging.

We play all of Hawthorn, Carl, Ess and Rich as the away team. Then have home games against North, Brisbane (at etihad) and Geelong. I know I'd much prefer the away games against North, Brisbane and Geel and the home games against 3 teams that will help us get some cash in. Plus 0 Friday night, minimal Saturday night, a bunch of twilight games. We've been given a life line with a good football draw but it comes with the huge handicap of the commercial draw being a disgrace. The overlying impression here is that the AFL is saying win some games and then you'll get your share. But if we don't win games this year we'll be so far in the red it might not matter. I don't think it's over the top to say we have to win 3 or more games in the first half of 2014 or we'll be one foot solidly in to game over.

If I was running the club that would be my number 1 request every year. Except I conveniently not that our bye sits just before the Alice Springs game. Which may be part of the terms of the game that we come up early and promote as we've done with the Darwin game. I don't like that. Either we turn up for the game or we dont. Please dont make us do addition stuff. If that's needed to get people to the game then we might as well not go.

I'm predicting we squander opportunities in those first 3 games. Then hit some form either side of the bye before a long stretch of losses with a chance at one last win against the giants. We win even one or two of those first 3 playing a good brand of footy and we become a shot at that 7+ win season we are all dreaming about. If not then we will be doing well to get 4 or 5 wins.

Back to back Sunday twilights in July at the MCG. FFS AFL you've got an indoor stadium. You even have us playing a home game there. In the middle of stinking July put your twilight (which is a word that should only be used in summer or early autumn) games on at the G? Eventually selling games for TV audience (which is what the AFL do) will diminish the product so badly that the TV audiences will drop. If the AFL changed it to 1 Friday night game. 2 Saturday night games. 2 Saturday games starting 2.10 local time. 3 Sunday games starting 2.10 local time and rotated the teams through the time slots in an even distribution then we might actually have a competition again. Arrrgh end rant.