DirtyDees DDC

Coaching can be broken down into three components: winning games; developing players; and managing teams. So far Bailey has only had a chance to tackle the first two, because of the poor player list he inherited in 2008 and the injury and list management problems of 2009. I'd also argue that he is only half way through the job of developing players. We have 19 footballers who have played 20 games or less. I'd like to see them play 40-60 games together under a consistent game plan, so it makes sense to extend his contract to the end of 2011. IMO he's done a fair job managing the team. A good example of bad management is the Chris Newman-Jake King saga at Richmond last year. Bailey made an interesting comment at the draft night in November last year. He pleaded for patience with the new recruits, saying they would all take time to develop. Perhaps he was also talking about himself.

Joel MacDonald could step up a gear this year. He's 25 with 6 pre-seasons under his belt; he brings a good combination of experience and skills; he'll play an important role in defence for us by getting a lot of possessions, and he has a point to prove to Brisbane. Sylvia looks in terrific condition. A good mix of skills, toughness, and fitness. He can also kick the footy a mile. I would also say Jamar, but I'm not sure if he's done a full pre-season.

Has 'the sunday age' got the wrong date on the caption? It says 'melbourne players return to the rooms after a rare win....in Dean Bailey's second season as coach'. That would make it 2009. However I reckon it's colin Garland in the centre of the photo. Col only played one game in 2009, and that was the first of the season against north, which we lost.

Great story. Also interesting to read that Grimes will be a designated tagger or 'run with' player, according to Sean Wellman. He's good enough to play a defensive position in midfield and still pick up 20+ possessions.

Losing Barassi. Worst marketing decision in history. He was the famous No 31. He ran the footy clinics on the telly, and he had a weekly news article with the Sun under the banner 'No 31'. He was the most popular player for Melbourne and he was everywhere. There was no one at the club who could step up and take his place as a footballer and as a marketing product. It's rumoured that Norm Smith told him to accept the offer; that it would be the best thing for Barassi's career. Maybe Norm could forsee our decline in the '60s.

Thanks Demonland. If I could go back in time and watch one match, then the 1948 GF would have to be the one. Imagine sitting at the 'G' in the middle of a herd of essendon supporters and watching them kick 7 goals 27 behinds!!!! Heaven.

Game 1 2010 March 27. I'm going to the megastore to buy this book. I was gutted when they sacked him in 1965. What a farce.

They also drafted a lot of players. 8 in the national draft of 2001, and 7 in 1999. Not all of them worked out, such as Spriggs at 15, Bray at 17, plus Foster and Gardner at 23. They were very lucky with injuries too. 16 players featured in each of the last 3 grand finals.

Did that goal after the siren give us Trengove or Scully? Assuming Scully would have been no. 1 pick regardless, If we had won that match, we would have finished on 15th with 5 wins. Richmond would have won the wooden spoon with 4 1/2 wins and picked up scully.

Gysberts could be the wild card of the draft. I think they picked him to play a number of different roles at the club. He could be an 'inside' footballer who sneaks forward and scores goals. He could also be a run-with player who hurts clubs on the rebound with his disposal. He may be a more flexible long term prospect than McLean. He looks too thin to play AFL at the moment, but if scully and trengove can hold down senior positions then the club may push Gysberts up for selection at some stage this year. The club wants to develop a core of young players who team together for 50-60 games over 3-4 years. Tim Harrington said they looked at the amount of games teams played to be successful such as the Cats. Geelong had a stack of great recruits between 1999 and 2001 (Ablett, Scarlett, Chapman, Johnson, Corey etc. ) They finished 9th in 2002, coming from 12th with 9 wins in 2001 and 6th with 12 wins in 2000. The following years they finished 9th with 12 wins in 2002; 12th with 7 wins in 2003, 4th with 15 wins in 2004 and 6th with 12 wins in 2005. They took 3 years from the 2001 draft to put together a side good enough to finish in the top 4. It took them 6 years to win a premiership. They even made the finals in 2000, indicating they had a fairly good core of players when the Abletts and Scarletts arrived. We are coming off 3 years at the bottom of the ladder so it may take us a little longer to achieve the same results.

And not just the players. The coaches and other support staff will demand higher payments if the club improves their on-field performance. Looking at those Herald Sun figures as a rough guide. Our football department cost $13.5 mill last year. Collingwood and Geelong spent about $17 mill on their footy departments. So if we increase our spending to a similar level, our football department costs will rise by 25%. Do we need to increase our spending by that amount to be successful? Essendon only spend $13.9 mill, and the dogs spent less than us, yet nearly made the GF.

We dropped about $1.3 million in marketing and corporate sponsorship in 2009, partly due to the GFC. Our expenses will probably increase significantly when we take up residence at the rectangular stadium in May. How much will this cost us per year? Probably a lot more that the rental at the junction oval, and that's fine if we finally get state-of-the art training facilities to match it with the other clubs.

haha. And he did it on one leg too. Let's make that 1999. And i'll shoot my proof reader.

From Gray's Anatomy. 'The fibula is placed on the lateral side of the tibia, with which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones, and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones.' So it's not the major load bearing bone. I hope that makes a difference. I remember Michael Voss's broken leg in June 1998. That was a shocker. Yet he returned to football in round 2 2009, despite being in great pain.

Sylvia looked terrific at training and showed the benefit of a good pre season. Also good to see Rivers, Grimes and Maric taking part in full training. Gysberts may not be called up to play a senior game next year. He's very thin and may just play in the VFL, along with Gawn and Fitzpatrick. And that's a good thing. We have another 16 players on the senior list who kave played less than 20 games, and all need to be developed. We can afford to be patient with Gysberts, Gawn and Beaker. At least we got a better deal wth Mclean than St Kilda got for Luke Ball. I'm sorry to see Brock go and i wish him well at Carlton (except for round 11). I think he left because he spent most of 2009 in the forward pocket. Not an ideal position for an slow inside midfielder who can't jump.

So on Tuesday last week - 15th December - this 19 yo Levi Casboult gets selected at pick 44 in the rookie draft. He's probably dreamed about playing AFL since he was a kid and he finally gets selected. 4 days later and they've got him in a drinking contest on a cruise boat. Welcome to Carlton where they publicly stated they want to remove the drinking culture at the club! I don't know if he passed out or just had a few too many, but that isn't the issue. Someone at Carlton leaded to show leadership and look after him. He needed a hand, not a pair of handcuffs. They've had their second 'mad monday' for the year. Then along came Steve, the club president who said 'we got rid of Fev 'cos he was a bad influence' and 'i'm gonna read them the riot act when i see them on January 4'. Why not do it this weekend Steve? Why not call a special meeting of the players and show them you mean business?

Can you smell what the Blues are drinking? The staff on board the cruise boat 'Lady Lindeman' certainly could.

Yes agreed. Let's accentuate the positive. Players like Sylvia, Rivers and Maric and fully involved in pre season training. Blease and Garland are only 18 and 21 yo and are on graduated rtw's. What the MFC are doing over the next 2-3 years is building up a list of approx 30 players who are good enough to play senior football.

you have remember - this is the season to be silly. i also heard that Tom Scully had kissed a girl who had glandular fever. I'd be far more concerned if i heard that someone had ruptured his knee - eg: Andy ottens and David rodan in SA.

So we kicked 252 goals last year. That's about 11 1/2 goals a game. We allowed 332 goals in 2009. That's about 15 goals a game. Our average losing margin was 26 points. I don't mind us losing a few games by 40-50 pts next year, as long as we are developing the 19 kids on our list who have played less than 21 games (Grimes, Jurrah, Watts, Bennell Garland Scully, Trengove etc). Geelong had 9 guys from their 1999 and 2001 drafts that played in both premierships. Let's build a team that will be as good as the current Geelong side, in 2013 to 2018.

If skully plays more than 12 games he will win the rising star for 2010. he reminds me of a former Fitzroy great - Gary Wilson. Similar build. Terrific 'blink and miss' hand skills. This kid can catch arrows in mid air. Put me down for 8 wins next year.

don't be surprised if fitzpatrick plays down the back in a key position. he may not have the elite skills required of a key forward. Bailey indicated in a recent interview on Foxtel that they may go for Jamar up forward (esp in short term). Gawn - possible similar player to Salmon. that would be terrific.

So what happens for the next 4 weeks? They finished training at Casey last friday. There's a camp in Mansfield this week and i believe they have 2 weeks off over christmas. If training resumes early in January then they have 6 weeks to get fit before a possible intra club match at Casey Fields on Saturday Feb 13. Maybe it wasn't a bad time for Aussie Wonna to do his hamstring. He can rest an recuperate for 4-5 weeks and still get a few weeks of training and match play prior to the first NAB cup match at Freo on 21 Feb.

I had a look at the training on Wednesday. Grimes, Maric and Dunn were all in the main group. Maric was wearing the orange jacket. I'm not sure what it means, but possibly it picks him out as the designated target on the kickouts. He looks fit and might play a forward/midfield role next year. Wonna was also in the main group. He was bent over on one occasion and not feeling very well. That showed me he was pushing himself to the limits to get fit and have a big year in 2010. 4 of the six new recruits trained together and took part in the kicking drills: Tapscott is a tank and a beautiful kick of the football. Fitzpatrick is a dead ringer for Bruce Spence in the movie "Stork'. Gysberts is slightly built but apparently is deceptively strong. Trengove. His kicking skills on his non preferred boot reminded me of the goal Wayne Carey kicked against Essendon in 1999. Watts wasn't in the main group. He did a lot of basketball in his junior years so maybe they have to train that out of him. Garland, Blease, Gawn and Scully were all in training with the 'get-well' group. Sylvia looks in great nick and loves beating tackles. Jurrah. Took part in everything including a short matchplay. I saw a couple of great marks on leads and under pressure. Then he just slots the goals. Shows promise. Bate is an interesting one during goalkicking practice. . The ball seems to leave his foot at all sorts of angles. Then it straightens up and takes off!! There were lots of kicking drills and an emphasis in hitting the targets. It's worth going to Casey and having a look.

The MFC yearbook for 2009 has just arrived. There a good article on Tim Harrington where he explains his role as list manager. He also discusses the introduction of a premiership model and how he works with the recuiting department. It gives some insight into their selections in this years draft. There's also an interesting article from DB. He talks about pre-season training and states that 'at least 90 percent of players came back in very good condition. There were two or three blokes who let themselves down.' Any ideas? Did Morton put on too much weight?