Harrisonrules

I suggest he needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut...whether swimming or writing

Mike Sheahan suggested on the strength of Stuey Spencer's 2 best on ground in two winning grand final teams he was probably our best rover ever. His comment on a Stuey Spencer book launch day was possibly a little sentimentally influenced but not inappropriate. However, some other rovers shouldn't be overlooked for the honour. Percy Beames who represented Victoria in both cricket and football was best on ground in three grand final wins. Surely he has a right to this honour. Maybe someone else has a suggestion and some memories of some of our favourite rovers would be great to hear about.

Our game on Friday night was possession football. If that's the modern game we have finally come on board. It means the game is about turn overs. When you have it kicks and handballs must be spot on. Hence the you pas type play rises in importance. Get it to him more than to Nicholson. When opposition have it players like grimes, tear lick, georgiou are gems for they compete so well. Strauss would be better on a wing as someone to receive and deliver deep into the forward line. I don't find him competitive enough for back line.

Will play a lot of the new kids and mid range quality. Our top players need to be ready in 6 weeks not now and will mostly be protected from unnecessary rough and tumble until the weeks before. One or two elite players will participate to lead the way. Probably one of Grimes or Jones per first couple of games.

Basically meaningless. AFL website rates nat jones at 91, the only demon in top 100 players. Measuring him against other teams, he might score about a six. Nine is head in the sand stuff

No not the extent of the 1996 attempt. Three hawk players all carry some value. Savage (22?)Sewell (29?) and Ellis (25?) all have positive and negative sides to their history. Together I figure the would make a tidy package deal. Picks 20 and 38 and if necessary 54 or jamar. Jamar would be of great value to the hawks. On top of best junior midfielder at 18, it would give us a good age spread of players of the types we could use.

I must admit to a certain anxiety over what we do with pick two. On the one hand not all extremely high draft picks - 1to 3 - turn out as hoped for. Neither does bundling a few average players for the one high pick. The essendon example of getting Lloyd as a priority pick for a few average bomber players was the best example of a big mistake by a team wanting to build depth quickly. Two average players that play perhaps 5 years at most does not equal one great 10 year player. I hope we get this one right

Aish still only 17

I posted this elsewhere but will bring it into this proper thread. I'm proposing we trade Clark to freo. They need another big forward for a flag. In return could we entice a quality midfielder from them. Naturally I'd love fyfe hill or Mundy but would you settle on Barlow and their first round pick 17 or whatever it is. I think we will develop a great forward line even without Clark and he might not ever come up so well again. Surely roosy could pull off a good trade with his mate Lyon for the good of both teams. Be daring

Would you take hill or fyfe for Clark. They need someone like Clarke. We need a champion midfielder. Take a risk

I was told today we had offered him $500,000 pa over 4 years. Announced on radio. Is it just a roomer?

Thank goodness that's 2013 over and done with. Now our 2014 year starts. Cann't wait for the trade week and draft. Best time of the year for the lowly dees. All I want for Christmas is my two good midfielders. What about Mundy for Clark

Garland still overrated for our final eight tilt. Not as good as Rivers and even Rivers very modest on the big scene. We measure to many of our players against one another. Comparisons with the top echelon are way off

Why would you even bother to read her anymore. She trolls the AFL for sludge, reports what she wants from leaked information. I've also given up on 360, the Footy show and Kevin Bartlett. I live a very happy life just going to watch the demons, win lose or draw. ..Oh for at least a draw. Football is becoming football again for me. Sick of all these ego maniacs who have tried to become bigger than the game itself. Even Jake Niall wrote about Melbourne's tanking this morning in the Age. When did we get fined for tanking. News to me. Very little truth or enlightenment.

Premiership teams have an elite midfielder. You never cut off the possibility of uncovering one. First port of call is always the draft when you have a high pick.

Talk of what to do with pick two and Roo's public interest in Martin for pick two has disturbed me. Roos is presumably around for two to three years and maybe sees value in trying to civilize Martin. But after that he is gone and we could have a Scully part 2 problem on our hands. Pick two is a treasured pick. We don't just want a good midfielder. Premiership teams have elite midfielders. Our search must be for a few elite ones. I know there are no guarantees with any pick, but the conventional wisdom says trust your high draft picks. With Boyd presumably going at pick one, then that leaves us with the chance to pick the best midfielder out of this years pack. I want this years best junior midfielder, not a problematic ex tiger.

I'd be more comfortable if the bulldogs got one as well.

Yes you are so right, the operative word for both he and Byrne is A BIT and add to that no future. What's the point

This has little to do with Roos. It's all about whether his North American wife wants to live in Melbourne for the next five plus years without seeing him. It's her price, not his.

I'm sold on the idea

A teams performance begins with the effort of the players. The actual quality of the team is greater than the sum or the parts. The system elevates that quality to its great heights. That is the coaches task. Good systems (related to philosophy of the coach ) accomplish some extraordinary performances. Regrettably the poor system can produce a result lesser than the output of the players. Neeld has not shown any ability to lift our team performance beyond the effort of the players.

Would another team pick him up? For heavens sake don't give them a chance to find out. Let him go when he is 27 and find out then. He's got to be given the big mans time to develop. God all the attributes. Has a better leap than big Max, whose jumping ability is very limited. Max was rested because he was buggered. These two can develop together by alternating months. No hurry. On this forum we criticise the club for its poor record of developing players. Have the demonlanders have no idea of what development is. These two ruckmen need time. patience and encouragement

Many were against Swarta's comments. I agreed with him for its the only way out of this mess. Someone else has to have a better approach to coaching to lift the team. The young Collingwood players who come in and do well are not necessasrily better than ours. Put Toumpas, Tapscott in Collingwood and they would be considerably better because the way their team plays helps lift the young. The quality of players is important, but being able to lift the team to performance which is greater than the sum of the parts is what coach is about. Our lack of effective game plan holds our collective effort back. Swarta had the courage to say the unsayable but what I know numerous others wanted to say.

If you can explain the game plan, please go ahead, not only do supporters want to know but radio commentary are baffled. But then you may be more perceptive than every one else. Hand balling to players in hopeless situations has to be connected to game plan. Reminds me of the bad early days of Bailey. Despite saying he would not throw 18 players behind the ball to stop the flood, that's what he did, the few occassions we did break free through the middle we had no forwards to kick to but a wall of Colliwobblers. The limited McKenzie is capable of nothing but scrounging. They say he is a tagger. He couldn't stop Sidebottom, at the same time Swan ran amuk. His dinky little handballs are usually to someone covered. If you think that's smart coaching I'll go hee. He gets a couple of kicks per game. We are playing with 17 men, while Magner is wasting away at Casey. Unfortunately Neeld has a string of bad decisions. Every one erodes confidence and trust.

Not an adequate assessment of ruckwork.