3183 Dee

If this transpires, it will 100% be on our terms. Freo are desperate and will need to pay overs. Hogan is one of the hottest key forward prospects in the comp, yet to hit his peak. If Freo want in, they’ll need to make sure Melbourne can get exactly what/who they want.

Looks to me as though Ablett threw it and hit Viney’s boot.

Thanks Clint - I’m not much of a golf fan, but I’ve followed Jarrod’s inspiring story through the media and obviously heard the news today. Never realised that he’s a Dee. Also, never seen that footage before - how good is his reaction : “You feckin’ beauty!”. Holding him and his family in the light.

Anyone thought that maybe they were trying him back in the Coaches Box, but given what happened last week, they’ve moved him back down to the bench where he can get closer to the players?

In my opinion, the concussions have set him back a fair way. It seems as if he’s starting to get back to his best form, though. He is a gun, but still has to prove himself, like everybody else, and earn his spot. He probably looks [censored] off, because he’s running around at Casey this week, when he thinks he’s done enough to warrant selection. Hopefully, it’ll just make him hungrier - I think we’ll see him back for the MFC before long.

Hurn got Viney, Viney got Hurn back harder. There's footage of Viney running back through the rooms once he'd been taped up: I bet Shannon Hurn heard those footsteps and felt like a Mafia hit, whose cards were marked!

I have been wondering about this for a long time - it seems blindingly obvious and I am amazed that it hasn't raised a murmur amongst the footy journos. Essentially, the Bombers must have offered huge compo packages, otherwise there would have been a class action through the courts. If you cast your mind back to last year, the rumours were that Dyson Heppell (and his family) was furious with the way he had been treated by Essendon and was almost certainly going to leave. Same, I think, with Michael Hurley. Nek minnit, they re-sign and are as committed as ever to the Bombers. It seems to me that they have been able to rort the system by paying out large chunks of contracts as compensation. I take it that the AFL will be sweeping this under the carpet?

This is what is not getting much coverage - I have no idea if the compensation awards are made public, but it stinks to me. It could be seen by some as a way of staying in the salary cap, yet awarding players with 'compensation' to ensure they sign on.

Yes - because after the first year or so, we got rid of the likes of Bruce and MacDonald. Even if they only had a year or two left, they would still have been around to mentor the young guys. Then we tanked for a year or two to get the top draft picks, which the hierarchy believed would be the making of our club. Then we appointed two kids as captains and expected them to create a new culture under Neeld. All this, whilst the new expansion clubs - GWS especially - have had an obscene amount of trade and cap concessions. At the same time, the off-field administration had been run by an apparently self-serving dummkopf, a number one draft pick has [censored] off to the AFL's pet project and we have been rogered with a $ half a mill fine for the aforementioned tanking. I don't know what the answer is, but I can't fathom how we can tear Geelong a new one at their place and then not have the momentum or will to hand a hiding to the Bombers and avenge the previous Saints defeat.

Correct. This is why the Doggies and St Kilda have bounced back after a couple of years of bottoming out - they still have a nucleus of experienced players who have played finals footy.We are starting from a point way back from these clubs - effectively the same as GWS and GC but without the massive concessions. IMO the only option is to bring in players like Daniel Cross, who I think has been our best pick up overall, to nurture our potentially great young guns in the right way to go about their footy.