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Sucked in by Ralph. He's good at doing that to nobody's, and James got sucked in. You were given an opportunity millions of kids dream of, and you weren't good enough. No wonder our culture was rubbish when players feel like the club owe them something.. The only thing I take from this article is clearly Neeld could be remembered as the worst AFL coach ever.

I'm on my 3rd or 4th run-through on video of Salem, Bontempelli, Freeman and Crouch. I think they are really the only four we're likely to take. Obviously a big one could fall down, but from the position we sit which is just following the mock drafts these appear to be our best options. From that, and like everyone else all I'm going off is about 24 minutes of video and 3 TAC Cup games I went to, but I'd love Freeman to be a Demon. Watching the way he demands the football as the straight running kicker reminds me heaps of Stevie J. Even his kicking action is so similar to him. We've all bemoaned drafting players who clearly have or had talent, there is a reason we drafted them in the top 20, but it comes down to the desire to want to be great and work at it that now see's them delisted or worthless to us. Freeman is the complete opposite of that. He has an undeniable arrogance of knowing he's quicker than everyone else on the ground and I love it. We haven't had a true fast line breaker in years and years. He's a clearance specialist and as such isn't afraid of the hard ball. He fills our 3 biggest needs - a midfielder, hard body, outside spread. He has goal sense, and watching him kick it long into 50, to the preferred side of Tom Boyd trusting him to outmuscle his opponent is already giving me great vision of placing it on Hogan or Clarke's right arm and watching the aforementioned lean on his opponent and take a contested mark. That said, whilst I may claim to sometimes know a better structure for our team than Mark Neeld did round 10, me and I guess all of us just don't have the viewing hours ... If he's as consistent as his highlights package though, I'll be dancing in my own tears on Draft Day if we get 'Freo'.

My old football coach is now a part-time recruiter for Collingwood, being one or Dad's good mates I asked him who he saw going to Melbourne. He was pretty adamant, and the reason so many mock drafts have Freeman coming to us is the whispers are that if he's available we will take him. He said in as many words if he wasn't taken by us he'd be very likely to go at pick 10. That I took with a grain of salt, but made it clear that they had a plan for someone at pick 6.. Or at least didn't value Freeman pick 6 worthy. I responded that alot of mock drafts have Bontempelli at 6, so are those whispers correct too and he gave me absolutely nothing.

It used to be 22,000.

The reason we've been dealt less MCG games is that taking them to NT nets us 6 figure profit. We're doing it twice, and the AFL rightfully can't than burden the other clubs. Hawthorn are the same with Launceston.. Tasmania even get the flag ceremony hosting Round 1. Crazy. We need the money, and when the on field results match what we want, the MCG will return as our home. I guarantee in 05 when the Pies couldn't win a game the same questions were being asked of them. We bide time

Interesting return trips against Port, North who are middle-top tier teams, and repeats against West Coast who had an off year pose some threat. Some good home games though. Queens Birthday home again helps us. Better revenue than last year, but slightly harder fixture game wise. Enjoy Paul.

That last paragraph is quite difficult to read. Racism.. I don't think so. You come on here posting absolute crap, criticise other posters in it, and than get upset when your post is laughed out. Don't rush back Enyaw, or Wayne.. Noone will miss you.

Billy Longer 8th.. Gumbleton 10th.. He got traded for 60 for a reason!! Trent West is 16 he got traded for pick 70 and played u games behind the donkey marathon footballer Blicavs. I'm having a melt down here. Need an enquiry on this [censored].

Not a criticism of Kent, more of the scenario he was placed in. I went back and checked and in the club's post draft summary he was presented as an inside mid with speed. He played pre season as a mid/wing and Casey as a Wing resting HFF. He gets elevated to the 1's to play FP.. Its not his fault we literally had noone to play, but it was clear it wasn't his position. I'd be very surprised if you saw him lining up as a full time FP under Roos this year. I truly believe it's the one position on the ground you cannot teach. The resting midfielder who goes forward never plays as a crumbing forward, always a floating type.. Swan goes forward often marks it but you'd rarely see him at the feet of Cloke. I know I'm rambling now, but my point is I respect Kent for having a crack last year, but they're asking him IMO to play one of the most specialist positions on the ground with no idea how to do it. Kent's far more potential to be a better player than Nahas, but Round 1 sadly I'd much prefer the Lebanese Prince.

Good in technique, sadly just doesn't do it enough! From 2009 to today, his average tackles per game has fallen each and every year. It's not good enough as the game is now focused so much on forward pressure. We have a glaring need in the FP position, and I'm not meaning this in a racist way, but can't help but think we miss the spark that comes with an indigenous footballer, their general presence and fear in the opposition of knowing anytime they can run you down. Even at over 30 Aaron still scared opponents. I'd love another fast, defensive minded goal sneak... Just a little bit more consistent than our old mate Aussie though please! Dayle Garlett would be an excellent get late in the draft if still available. Tell him before drafting him, no matter the form he'll be spending a year in the 2's and see how he feels and attitude after one year. That said I'm off topic, but worst comes the worst Nahas would be an improvement on Kent.. no offence to him.

Another tough night sleep for Travis. There are plenty of reasons to forgive the players. The coaching and development teams from the years of 2007-2013 have proven to be the worst in AFL history. Mark Neeld, our most recent messiah cannot even get a job as a line assistant coach. How a board elected him to lead our whole club is a farce. Sadly, the players who have developed to be high grade footballers are the ones who force themselves success. Jones and Frawley are literally the only two. We may never know how good the above mentioned players are, and we have ourselves to blame for that. Petterd is a perfect example of a player, widely consider a dud here, who run around with a 90,000 crowd in the middle of September due to a team who used his potential. This Site is nothing without outlandish statements, but I'll be gobsmacked if im not sitting here next year praising Roos for catapulting Strauss well beyond the 'good average footballers' of Clisby and Terlich. I guess we will wait and see.

Clubs get desperate today.. Last day to clear space and or non required players. I hope we go hard at say a Buntine today with pick 53. Chances are they'll say no, but add some doubt about him coming home next year regardless and see what we can do. Come on Josh one more!!

Few people need to have a lie down and a rest here!! It says he'll be back training before Christmas. Given 5th year pros and later don't go back until Nov 18th he'll be missing at most 3 weeks of pre-season.. 3 weeks which is spent primarily of fitness. Watching Chris as a pro it appears that is one area he prides himself on and I'd be seriously surprised being in Arizona if his basic level of fitness wasn't already fairly decent. He'll be training full throttle post Christmas when the whips are cracking and we're working on our ball skills and structures for 2014. That to me is all that matters.

Further more we're talking about component AFL men now. Schwab, Neeld and Connolly would waste a valuable pick on a player purely to satisfy another... What a ridiculous idea. With Roos and Jackson they'll rely on our wins to keep players.

Just in the thought, dependent on how our midfield stacks up in the first few weeks I reckon we could give Pies a good go this year. Far better back and forward lines.

He's athletically excellent, one of the fittest players at the club and had a brilliant year in 2012. This year he wasn't bad.. His kicking is spoken of often, not going to rehash that debate however, he needs some serious work on his one on one efforts also. I couldn't pick anyone better to coach him than Roos, look at what he did with Ted Richards but it was frustrating how often in a marking contest he'd be beaten. Has shown and has the potential to be a top 5 CHB in the league, but even listening to him talk he seems so passive and tame, which when up against the biggest strongest players in the league just won't cut it in 2014.

Not to take the topic too off hand but have you heard Doug Walters and David Campese on Fawad Ahmed... Closet racism at its finest.

Adam Tomlinson went to Trinity with Dom Tyson and they're best mates. Would definitely be him as GWS won't let Treloar leave. But he's not worth it, not for us at least.

Give up now, if that's your baseline you'll be incredibly disappointed.

Interesting, the player manager I often get my news from told me at the start of the week that we were pursuing another person from Sydney 'very actively'. Said player was not keen on the direction of the club. Was very secretive about it, but I gathered from that it was another player from GWS, but given the facts that may or may not be true it could change everything!! I'll pretend I have no idea and run with this GWS player and see what I can pry. Keep us informed though GNF, your info at the moment is elite!

Very immature attitude. It's so evident that the Bulldogs only strength at the club is inside ball winners. Liberators, Wallis, Koby Stevens, Boyd, Clay Smith to an extent, Hrovat, Picken. He's best 22 for them but they also now need to develop their young mids to save themselves a StKilda situation where their whole list just flops. Very smart list management. But if you think cross isn't going to help our team next year- and more so on the training track than on the field you've got rocks in your head.

Let's not forget that last year out of 40 tipsters in the two big papers, 23 tipped West Coast for the Minor Premiership, 40 tipped them for top 8. 1 tipped Port Adelaide for the Wooden Spoon, and 0 tipped them for top 8. Is it a wise bet, probably not, but these days anything truly can happen. I don't think we are as far of as we were this year. I thought on list we should be about the 12-14th best team in 2012. We've added more talent, and we've got one of the best coaches of the decade, with brand new developers, and coaches. We have a new board, President, direction of the club and formula to success. Am I confident we will see success? Yes I am. Am I confident it'll happen next year? No. But never say never.

I've heard brilliant things about this kid.. I've ever found myself saying take him on these forums on his supposed attributes, but I've never even seen him play. Anyone got some video of him? Can't find any in the last few pages here..

It may end up happening but currently that's a lie. There are about 16 clubs ahead on where Taylor would like to go. Tyson coming might have helped, but Adams specifically told his manager to not enough discuss with us... He has no interest so let it go.

28 and 10 days too.. Only just out of 27 which if is what he was we'd say is a perfect age for who we're targetting. Ignore age and appreciate the quality he will bring.