DeeSpencer

Which is because his prose follows his ego. The guy thinks he is the Essendon drug story, yet really in the 6 months or longer he's been tracking it I'm yet to really see a scoop. He did well to get the interview with Kyle Riemers but you get the feeling anyone with a bank cheque could've worked that out.

Wondering what everyones thoughts are on best first year player. Has Viney done enough in the last month to over take Terlich who played a very good first 2/3 of the season then missed a game and slowed down a bit. Or Matt Jones who starter pretty well but has also been quite the last month or so. I put Kent in the poll as well for the sake of it. Could it come down to the last 2 weeks?

My only problem with the mini draft pick is that it's more unfair to the other clubs. Give us a PP and everyone moves down the draft order 1 spot. Not such a huge problem for a lot of picks. Give us a mini draft pick and we benefit but the real winner may be the club we trade it with which really disadvantages the other 16 clubs. Barrett should examine the facts. We've had 2 PP recently. 2008 second round - Blease and 2009 first round - Trengove. Both are still with the club and whilst they aren't setting the world on fire not ever player drafted high does (particularly when you've had bad recruiting and development) and both have given us the opportunity to improve as a team and we can't. The rest of our high draft picks are completely deserved. We earnt those picks as the fixture dictated. We got Hogan through the Scully compensation and that was completely fair. We lost a number 1 draft pick to a team willing to pay him 1mil a season. The funny thing is GWS and Gold Coast just took huge chunks of first round picks and no one was too up in arms. Yet to give us one pick is some travesty now?

Should play in Darwin later this year, then come back to Melbourne and play a season at Casey or other VFL side proving he can stay out of trouble and be happy in Melbourne and then he should nominate for the PSD/Rookie drafts at the end of next year. I think other clubs would most likely let us have him if we were part of the process of getting him back to footy. The question is not if he's good enough but if he will work incredibly hard. Even when he was with us he didn't work hard enough on the field.

Disappointing for Jesse and for Casey. But good news that he'll be right for preseason. Although by my count the VFL grand final is not for 5 weeks. If the guys beat Box Hill this week they will likely head in to finals in second place with momentum. Do we want to give up on it so easy?

Steady on. Nahas and Saad had both kicked a lot more goals than Best has this year when they got picked. He'll spike a lot of interest due to his good form and has been invited to a state draft screening but that's no guarantee. The questions will be 1) How much improvement does he have considering he's been a cricketer more than a footballer to this year 2) Is he really good enough, it's a hard life playing small forward in the AFL and you generally need either extreme pace, top line defensive work or midfield potential

You do know there is a difference between being annoying to your team mates and having a bad attitude? The players like to hang it on Magner because he's a mini Nathan Jones and I get the feeling he's a bit of a pest or always peddling something on twitter. That's completely different to attitude and professionalism. I'd say most of his team mates probably like Magner. They certainly would be keen to have him in the side much more than want to keep him out of it. He's not Mitch Morton!

I'm just playing devils advocate but in the 2 games he did play Rich- Ellis 39, Deledio 27, Cotchin 27, Jackson 23 Freo - Mundy 34, Fyfe 32, Barlow 32, C. Pearce 31 Of course none of that is really anything new for us but it seems his main opponents find much more of the footy than he does. On the other hand 6 tackles in both games is a significant achievement

neil Craig - who was apparently Watts' mentor because Neeld treated him poorly got in his ear and we got a few good weeks until the North game and ever since we've been served trash from Watts.The common denominator is that when the team plays well Watts gets on the end of things. When the team struggles he is inept. If Craig isn't senior enough I don't know who is!

He's built well through the season. But is averaging about 20 touches at Casey. Toumpas has gone back and had 28 then 32 touches in the VFL and we all think he's not ready for AFL yet. Makes me think Barry won't be close. Especially watching Barry at training earlier in the year. He often looked like he was struggling in the more technical drills it was like watching an actual kid in an AFL drills, bit like watching the kiwi bloke. Plus why waste our debutants at interstate games! We need something to get excited about for next year. Playing in the NAB cup and see if he can do well enough to sign a few members up.

Why? If that's your credentials I'd have every faith in you to select a coach. If you kept the priorities that you knew worked when you played and coached then you'd pick the right guy. I'm talking about communication skills, focus on what you can control, focus on the fundamentals of footy first. Be a team player, be good at taking responsibility for losses and pumping up players after you win. It's why I'm happy that our coaching selection panel is headed by PJ who has a focus on experience and David Parkin who won't get side tracked by fancy schemes. The only other thing I'd be interested in for a senior coach in their understanding of other aspects of modern footy in terms of drafting, fitness, sports science, media responsibility. As you've seen with Essendon these issues can derail you pretty quickly. I'd say Neeld's drafting and media work contributed to his down fall as well.

Could be worse. Just saw Essendon fans in the crowd wearing Mexican hats mocking their own players sad down fall. Now that's class.

For the last month he's been high up on the stats sheet then dropped off in the second half. Good to see him make a consistent effort and get the 27 touches. I'd like to see him crack 30 in the last 2 matches. I'm still concerned about the virtues of a slow outside player but if he accumulates and runs hard defensively then he's clever enough to contribute. Remember Nathan Jones looked slow for a couple of years there. Then when he started to get really confident he's now incredibly hard to run down. He's learnt all about sidestepping and baulking. Hopefully Trenners gets some initial speed back after the preseason and combined with that confidence a new coach and season can bring can find consistency.

Isn't reported on in the VFL review. I presume he didn't play?

Lyon's defense of him on FC is rubbish. "He started ok then tired" I'm with Matty Lloyd 110%. Called both of those incidents they just showed when I was watching the game as been complete rubbish. I can only imagine what Derm Brereton would say about a Hawk doing the same or Tony Shaw about a pie. They'd probably have the guts to call a spade a spade or in this case a spud a spud.

Yeah but did you notice how many times Viney and Sylvia in particularly got their hands on the ball and tried to get it out but had no one smart or good enough to be in the right spots. Viney had 5 touches early in the first of the teams 9 ie. he hunted the ball and then no one could get on the end of it. Or the number of times Freo won the ball (particularly in the first 3/4) and we tackled and chased and pressured as they handballed around unable to get anywhere then a smart handball went to a Danyle Pearce or other clever outside player in space. As I said I'm all for playing Magner but I can also see why they haven't.

Yeah the quality of the opposition was much different but we were a better team when we had Nicholson and Clisby in and Howe and Blease out ie. some resting midfielders who actually run and chase and find the footy are better than guys who are capable of kicking a freak goal but can't get a kick the rest of the time. Hopefully one of the coaches noticed that. Of course they hope Blease and Howe are big parts of the future but the future won't come if we keep playing guys forward who can't impact games.

In some ways we are even less wise to try things when we need every opportunity to work on the basics ie. best players in the best positions kind of thing. I think that would be Craig's philosophy.

Obviously lacks speed and also doesn't seem able to impact AFL with endurance either ie. doesn't rack up uncontested disposals at AFL level. The first Freo game we got belted when Magner played. This time we went for Jones, Viney, McKenzie, Sylvia predominately with also Grimes and Trengove as the inside midfielders. Put Magner in and you take one of those guys out. Now I'd be happy for Grimes to go back to half back or for Sylvia to play half forward and rotate in to the midfield to give Magner 2 weeks just to see what he can do but I don't hold high hopes. The big questions are: 1. Do you ever think Magner will be AFL standard? 2. Will playing Magner make an impact on the scoreboard ie. will he perform any better than Viney, McKenzie, Sylvia or Grimes do in the midfield If your answer to both those questions is NO then you wouldn't play him if he had 100 possessions. Same for Rodan.

He also talked of his MFC Darwin fishing trips and hanging out with Trotts. Not to mention his business breakfast he sponsored. He is from within the club and corporate society that sometimes get blamed for MFC's failures but also coming from a fresh outlook. He hasn't been gifted in to that bunch due to connections he's legitimately supported the club and I'm sure some of his friends have been there along the way (He mentioned Trotter advising him to join the board) but I'm hoping he brings a fresh set of eyes and isn't tainted by affiliations to different power bases. I liked his stance on using our well connected supporters to help Melbourne attractive to players. It was positive and isn't something to shy away from. We all know Carlton, Coll and Hawthorn in particular are never silent on that issue.

Don't sell Dean Cox short because he's slowed up in the last 24 months as well. And a few others move well like Ryder. Leuenberger moves well but can't kick to the standard of White. I think the centre circle rule and importance of stoppages has meant that each team now requires 1 big ruck who can at least break even in the contest. You get killed if you lose hit outs and particularly lose hit outs to advantage all game. So in that regard the focus has gone away from skilled rucks. If he was 18 and entering the system now White would probably be developed as a centre half back, failing that as a forward/ruck like Fitzy and probably only tried as a first ruck if their were injuries.

Hogan, Viney, Terlich, Clisby, Kent have all showed a bit of mongrel and also hardness at the ball so far. Matt Jones and Toumpas are more run and carry outside types for balance so that's ok. Getting Jason Taylor and putting Todd Viney in around him in the recruiting department may have been the best move we've made since about 2004. If you read the Burgan articles about our draft profile I believe competitiveness is one of their 4 main criteria. It's one that was badly overlooked by Barry Prendergast.

Could start a why are 60% of the worst small forwards in the league - Byrnes, Blease, Davey, Tapscott etc play for Melbourne. Why do 60% of the best key forwards in the comp are injured/ineligible to play for us (Dawes, Clark, Hogan) or why are 60% of the worst coaches in the league employed by Melbourne (that one I could believe)

I'd argue that Warnock, Hannath, Jacobs, Bailey, Goldstein, Vickery, Minson and Cordy all aren't great kicks around ground. I'd also point out besides Mike Pyke I'm not sure if there are many rucks in the league who have substantially improved their kicking. It's more what they came in with they went out with. Spencer can not hit the side of the barn. We know that. He's a hand ball or long bomb kind of guy. We put up with that. Fitzpatrick isn't much better. That's how they both came into the system and they've both made a lot of ground but I'm not sure how much more they can make. Fitzpatrick joins a category with a lot of those guys in that his mechanics are awful but from a certain range/angle he's not the worst in front of goal. As he will never be a first ruck he has a lot of ground to make up but he has already improved a lot. Spencer's kicking (and marking) will limit him in the game which is why I think he'll only ever be depth. Luckily Gawn is the one on track to be our started and he's the one I care more about. Some days his goal kicking is good other days average. His field kicking is certainly not the worst on that list above. All in all our recruiting of Gawn and Spencer (the only true rucks we've picked in the last 5 or 6 years) has focused on very tall competitive types instead of shorter and more skilled ruckman. Personally I think that's probably the right approach but I'd be on the lookout in the next 1-2 years for another ruck in one of the drafts and I'd look for a more versatile player who can be a first or second ruck if possible. I'd say the only way it's part of a bigger picture is by saying that we haven't invested much in rucks at all these last few years (Spencer - rookie, Fitz - late pick up, Gawn - mid round pick up) and yet we've still got bugger all to show in other players on our list. Imagine if we went with Naitanui, Vardy, Billy Longer instead of some of the picks we did take. Could we be even worse?

They had a crisis of injuries to ruckmen and so he played the entire year in the ruck and was a top 5 ruckman. When he left Brisbane he announced a desire to play mainly one position. I don't think he stipulated whether it was ruck or forward but I also think he didn't care which one it was. He said (and I'm sure lots of guys agreed) that playing 1 position for an entire game is much easier than switching between them. Personally I'm not convinced rucking places too much more of an injury toll on a player than playing CHF. Particularly if they are only doing it in spurts against fellow non first choice rucks. I'd say next year we avoid Clark rucking for the first month or so if he is fit and use Fitzpatrick in that role or even sacrifice Dawes for short periods despite his total desire not to ruck. And then as the year progresses we use Clark as back up ruck with Hogan and Dawes as forwards. If either get injured then Fitzy comes in and Clark doesn't ruck. Pretty straight forward. The way I see it is we protect Clark a bit and Dawes and Hogan are the guys who cover huge distance and big contests and Clark is the cream on the cake initially.