Bobby McKenzie

Now that makes more sense! Melb with picks no 3 and 7 as against your original picks 4 and 10.

Are we being positive or you negative? You are a hard marker if you rate Melksham and Bugg C graders. I reckon they are at least B graders. But we are all entitled to our opinion aren't we. Cheers.

I thought we had picks 3 and 7. Has it changed?

And remember we have Petracca who can be regarded as a new draft pick for next season. 3 in the top 10, not too bad I reckon.

I agree with you here.Let's hope he gets an upgrade.

I noticed that several have Harmes in the best 22. Fair enough, but isn't he a rookie and only available when a long term injury occurs?

You don't rate Callum Mills?

Plus he comes from the Chris Judd stable.

Why is the jury out on Salem and Brayshaw? They are going to be gun players for the mighty Demons.

Hope Trenners can make a successful return and show us his real ability. Fingers crossed.

Me too and it is improved further by having another top pick in the first ten. Non other than Christian Petracca. He surely must be regarded as a new addition to our squad. If he is as good as Brayshaw I will be delighted. Fancy, 3 recruits in the top ten. Wow!!!

I too hope it will liven up soon. Roos said Melbourne were after an A grade midfielder. Melksham and Bugg are hardly A graders. Not that we have acquired Bugg as yet. I wouldn't mind Laurie Mithen in the middle but he may be just a little past his prime. A reconstituted Bluey Adams would be great too. Memories, memories!!! Apologies to the younger readers.

The figure of 3701 should have read 4071. Sorry.

Thought I would compile a free kick ladder(2006-2015) for everyone to see. A couple of surprises and non surprises here. FREE KICK LADDER 1. West Coast Eagles 4768 frees for 4016 against- Difference +752 2. North Melbourne 4482-4136 +346 3. Carlton 4190-3968 +222 4. Geelong 4756-4603 +153 5, Port Adelaide 4445-4323 +122 6. Richmond 3913-3861 +52 7. Collingwood 4150-4112 +38 8. Western Bulldogs 4181-4175 +6 9. Adelaide 4104-4146 -42 10. GWS* 1618-1666 -48 11. Essendon 4046-4100 -54 12. Gold Coast* 1901-1972 -71 13. MELBOURNE 4071-4186 -115 14. St Kilda 4236-4406 -170 15. Brisbane 4094-4279 -185 16. FREMANTLE 4249-4449 - 200 17. HAWTHORN 4527-4848 -321 18. SYDNEY 4464-4795 -331 * Smaller sample taken Looks like Sydney, Hawthorn and Fremantle can still dominate without the umpires help. We cannot say the same about the Eagles though can we?

You mentioned how better teams get more frees. I took a look at Hawthorn - 4527 for 4848 against a negative score of -321. Hope my maths is correct this time.

To arrive at the figure of 752, I added up the difference for each year,e.g. 2015 461for 376 against = 85, 2014 382 for 335 against = 47 and so on. I agree and so does my calculator, that the figures you quoted are correct. A mathematical puzzle? I am a retired teacher but mathematics was not my forte.

I just looked up the Dockers stats. They are worse off with us with a negative score of 200. So their home crowd don't achieve the same as the Eagles crowd. Confusing isn't it?

While waiting for trade information I did a little research into the free kick count (for and against) and was flabbergasted at the difference between West Coast and the non pampered Demons. Actually, I was not only shocked but annoyed that there could be such a big difference between us and them. We know of course that there are many 'duckers' in their team but surely this doesn't explain the huge discrepancy. Over the last 10 seasons Eagles have received 4768 frees FOR as against 3584 paid AGAINST them. A difference in their favour of 752 frees! In all of the 10 seasons West Coast had been ahead in the free kick count. Melbourne, on the other hand, has received just 4071 frees and had 4186 against. A difference of NEGATIVE 115.( That's an overall difference of 867). So what is going on here? Are we breaking the rules or are the umps being influenced by the vocal crowd at Subiaco or what? In my search I could find no other team that could in anyway rival the Eagles. They sure have been given a marvellous run by the men in charge.

Yes Pennant St Dee, I know what it is like to live in Perth and put up with the boasters from the Eagles camp. Great that they had the stuffing knocked out of them for a while at least. I really cannot stand the Eagles and their one eyed fans. Believe it or not, I have them ranked before Collingwood as my least liked team and that's saying something!

Thanks for that Jack. I just mentioned it in the grand final post. I always will remember our shock defeat in the '58 GF. We should have had 5 in a row! Oh well life goes on.

The most enjoyable moment for me was the club icons shown on the Ch 7 screen depicting triple premiership clubs and Melbourne, was the only icon to feature TWICE! Go Dees!!!!

An interesting stat was Nik Nat's 3 kicks, 1 handpass for a total of 4 possessions. Plus 3 tackles and 37 hit outs which were mainly sharked by the likes of Mitchell and co. No marks. Imagine what Jack Watt's critics would be doing if he produced such miserable figures. NN is highly overrated in my opinion and some Eagles supporters I know.

Does Jonesy's bald head help him?

It is rather ironic that a big man like Nic Nat wins the mark of the year when he took just 30 marks in 20 games for an average of just 1.5 per game.One and a half marks a game for a ruck man is rather puny to put it mildly. No doubt his athleticism gained him the award in this case. Howe was superior with his effort. By the way, big Maxy took 57 marks in just 13 games at an average of 4.3.

I too have umpired many junior footy games but I am astounded at the number of frees missed by the so called best in the land. Blind Freddy would clearly see jumpers being held, blatant push in the backs, high tackles etc but for some reason they go unnoticed. Most annoying and puzzling is the waving of the arms signal and the words 'Play on!' They seem to be saying , "There was a free there but I'll let it go".The commentators might say the umpire was 'unsighted' but surely these guys have got to move more quickly to get in the position to see what's going on. They are paid well enough. The bias for the Eagles last night was unbelievable. One should not umpire as a result of crowd noise. Sadly, the parochial crowd swayed the umps again last night and this has been a regular happening at Subiaco over many years. I remember well, one game against the Eagles where the halftime free kicks count was 22 Eagles to a miserable 2 to the Demons.