Rogue

There are more than eight other Clubs who could reasonably think they will finish above us, so I don't think it's probable that we'll make finals. We certainly could make finals, but we'd need to be quite lucky and I think the chances are remote. However, 50% of teams make finals so it's certainly a possibility! For those who think we'll make finals, which of the top eight sides do we deserve to go into 2010 thinking we should finish above them? A follow-up - do you also think we should expect to win more games than all the other bottom-eight sides, including Hawthorn?

Warnock and Frawley. Frawley's been referred to as 'chip' because he is the nephew of Danny Frawley, who is known as 'Spud'.

:D

The OP said writing pick #18 was a mistake, and pick #2 + Warnock isn't an unreasonable offer. Pick #2 plus Frawley is probably more reasonable, but I'm not sure the Hawks would let Hodge go for anything less than a ridiculously over-the-odds offer.

You'd hope there's some other player willing to come to us with the PSD (although the direct value of the #1 PSD pick is often over-rated). I'm not sure. Interesting idea though.

We could - and are, according to CC - just front-loading contracts (ie. paying more in earlier years to some players) to get around this.

If true, this seems a somewhat surprising move by us. To me, the biggest thing is Lake's age.

Too old for starters.

Thanks for the link! Schwarz was a Melbourne great and he could have been a great of the competition if not for his injuries. PS. If Watts can be the new Schwarz - sans knee reconstructions - I'll be happy

JURRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH. Jurrah may not have played more games than bennell but he had more impact.

If he was indeed 'bigger than the Clubs' then it wasn't he that made that so, but the Clubs themselves. Anyway, if he was already a dead certainty to go to Carlton it's disappointing he wasted our time. However, I don't hold it against him for simply choosing another Club over Melbourne.

I don't think that means Rivers is an 'untouchable' - doesn't it just mean you think his market value is less than the value you attach to him? ...or a Grimes?

I think he was the youngest kid in the draft when he was picked up, so that's worth noting. Anyway, I thought he looked like he could offer something as a lead-up forward - marked nicely on a lead and kicked into the forward line quite well at times. I'm not sure he can squeeze into our backline.

I don't agree with much of that, but fair enough. One thing I'm keen to know is what you mean by 'untouchable'. To me, that means I'm not interested in any offer*. If I don't think someone is 'untouchable' it doesn't mean I'm actively keen for us to offload them. What does it mean for you? *anything remotely reasonable, that is - I'm excluding offers of anything bigger than we've seen in AFL trading history, so I'm ignoring hypotheticals like 'I'll give you picks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 plus Riewoldt, Franklin and Judd for Rivers'

Haha :D

Didn't Ratten decide to rest a few players, including Judd and Stevens, after Cloke kicked what I thought was the sealer?

I would entertain a trade for Rivers but we wouldn't get much of value so it's a moot point. Who are you watching? It's not Rivers. Is this the same Garland that played on and beat Farmer? What's Garland being out have to do with it? I can't remember a time when we've ever had three defenders in front of Rivers so it's not like Rivers in the top three 'tall defenders' is a different role for him. When has Rivers ever played the defender who gives you a heap of inside 50's? Untouchable? For an injury-prone tall defender who doesn't provide much rebound and also doesn't take the opponent's key forward? I like Rivers but IMO that's crazy talk.

I acknowledge your point regarding 'premiership droughts' for teams that haven't won a flag in a few years. However, that's nothing like Quartermain's comment. Half the teams in the competition play finals each year. The Dees played in a final in 2006, the Saints last year. Here's a list of the AFL teams, ordered by year they last played finals: Adelaide 2008 Collingwood 2008 St Kilda 2008 Sydney 2008 Western Bulldogs 2008 North Melbourne 2008 Geelong 2008 Hawthorn 2008 --------------------------- Fremantle 2007 Port Adelaide 2007 West Coast 2007 --------------------------- Melbourne 2006 --------------------------- --------------------------- Brisbane 2004 Essendon 2004 --------------------------- --------------------------- --------------------------- Carlton 2001 Richmond 2001

lol. Why wouldn't Port or Adelaide just pick him up in the draft? If you wanted to recruit Tom it's not like 15 other Clubs would be fighting you to take him.

Yze_Magic 1 mousey 0 Agreed.

Sure, I get you. The [original TV] broadcast definitely had the 'end bit'. Seeing some of the clips of Jurrah playing for his 'local' club etc certainly gave some insight into how alien an enrivonment Melbourne and the AFL must be. It's also nice to get some positive media exposure for the Dees!

You'll probably win the bet but if someone put that bet to me it'd be a little too close for comfort. ...that post was really random.

If true, it's not the best start to a 30-year relationship!

I'm sure the total on the website doesn't reflect money raised at the ball. Were the proceeds of that definitey for DD? Btw, 1-2 weeks is a long time when the campaign is for 4 weeks bb EDIT: Not that I think it hasn't been updated in two weeks.

It didn't change. I have a recording of the broadcast and it includes Bailey continuing on after 'I'm not too sure to be honest'. Maybe you didn't catch it because there's a reasonably lengthy pause and the vision cuts to some footage of Jurrah playing footy, but the Bailey excerpt continues on.