binman

it would be ironic if Mitchell was in a similar boat to Kennedy at the hawks. Good but up against so many good mids that he gets squeezed iut

didn't he come 5th last year?

I like how Buckley calls him H

Bomber would have a good sense if he has what it takes and I assume he would let roos know if he is. Ticks a few boxes. Still young. Experience as an assistant, including a good stint under a premiership coach in bomber. Has he remained in the game since he retired playing?

Disagree WJ. Well about the bolded bit. Whilst EFC have decided to be uncooperative and litigious the players haven't been uncooperative thus far. They participated fully in interviews and were not a prty to the recent court case (i suspect Grace advised them not to to for this very reason ie to do so might threaten a deal with ASADA). ASADA will be keen to wrap this up and six month deals will be the best lever they have. If the players receive show cause notices it will be very hard to convince the players to knock it back and instead subject themselves to years more uncertainty. In that sceario the crack inthe wall that might have just appeared with Ryder might become a full breach.

EFC would have to be on drugs to take Blease

no it didnt

Spot on diesel. Well said. Probably a good point to draw a line under this and close thread?

I would love for the bombers to lose this weekend and receive a negative finding from Middleton on Monday. Gold.

You're a real glass half full kinda guy old dee (insert smiley emoticon)

Spot on Dr. And this thread is a perfect example of the attempts of some to impose a view. Look at the powerful group think here - from the get go the subtle tone from the majority of posts is along the lines of - 'don't post your PC rubbish here, don't impose your values and if you do you will be shouted down as a wowser and told to keep you thoughts to yourself'. As i posted earlier. Ironic

Dude. I know.

That's ironic. If you look at this tread there have only been a small number of posts criticizing the stupidity of the players or responding to the many apologists. The vast majority of posts (the rabble if you like) have been from people seemingly fearful of the all encompassing threat of the nasty PC monster. no sense of humour! don't people get satire! boys being boys! what's the world coming to! get over yourself you wowsers!rabble,rabble,rabble Feels much like an echo chamber to me

DL is a lot better when it sticks to footy. When it strays to a subject like this I find the glimpse into people's world view frequently disturbing. Dressing up as a convicted pedophile satire. Right. And what is this business about Harris being made a figure of fun and in fact that's a good thing because it embarrasses him? Lets for the moment ignore how stupid that is and pretend for the sake of argument that it is a position holds some water. How then does a player dressing up as a victim of child abuse fit? Is the victim a figure of fun? Does lampooning a victim of child abuse equate to satire? Forget Rolf Harris. Think about his victims. I doubt they see the humour or satire.

See post above yours. Next year, assuming we actually have the cash, we effectively have $1 million more a year we can spend on players. That has to give us some traction

500k is a fair bit of extra coin to be able to offer a player. Also as of this year (and retrospectively for 1, maybe 2 years) clubs who have not used their cap can effectively bank it and exceed their cap to he same amount in future years. Meaning for at the least the next two years if we wanted to the dees (and any other club paying unders) could pay 105% of the cap

Yep. Another unintended consequence - an example of the damage - is the Lake scenario. People seem to forget he didn't leave as a free agent. He was traded the year before he became eligible because he said he wanted out and the doggies wanted to ensure they could at least trade for him. They could have held firm and got the AFL compo but then hey would have had a disgruntled player on the list, no guaranteed daft pick (ie they may not have got a first round given i think his contract is pretty low) and a wasted year of development of a young bloke. Surely such a scenario where a player has a struggling club over a barrel and can force an early end to their contract was not the idea of FA. And again the bottom clubs cop it becase they lose vital sesnoir players to club who have a surfeit of such players. There is discussion somewhere on DL of this exact scenario playing out with Dangerfield.

Yes but clubs like the dees are only playing 92% and have lot more wiggle room because contracts are often front loaded to ensure they can even meet that mark. Clubs like the Cats barely can move and even have to ask players to take cuts (or accept lower than average amounts). But yes i guess that applies more to bottom clubs that genuine mid range clubs.

I don't blame BP alone as i assume he was acting on orders from Bailey and perhaps even Schwabb on what type of players to target. In my opinion at that time we made a disastrous miscalculation on where the game was heading. Those making the call predicted the game was moving to an outside running game (basically the hard running Geelong game with attractive chains of possessions as players in waves brought it down the ground) in which a players like Blease would be perfectly suited. Unfortunately whilst this partially came true (moving the ball in waves, important to have players with pace) the game became much more combative with an even greater emphasis on contested possession and defensive skills where an unfashionable grunt player like Puopolo would be very valuable. We backed the wrong horse and are still paying. Though even with that in mind BP did make some shocking calls. On Blease, in what could be the final comment from MFC this review from the coburg v scorps game from Brad Miller could really be about his career thus far: Sam Blease: Sam had 22 disposals and one tackle. We found Sam won a fair bit of the ball, playing on the wing and high half-forward. However, we got no advantage from the majority of Sam’s possessions. Unfortunately, again, he made selfish decisions on the day and chose to go sideways or backwards with a switch kick, when we need his run-and-carry and ability to drive through the lines and be far more damaging.

Who is Stevens?

I do. What i also believe is that the AFL didn't think though the implication properly and stupidly thought their compo system would adequately address the issues of lower clubs being hurt by FA. They should have only agreed to FA with the proviso that top 4 clubs at end of home an away were ineligible to get FA's. That way clubs like the Hawks and Cats couldn't just top up to remain at the top (which contradicts the whole draft concept) yet if they chose their club judiciously FA's could still get to a club on the rise and with good chances of progressing up the ladder (eg say North). Such a system would enable mid run clubs to be use their extra coin to attract FA's and give sides other those entrenched in the top 4 a chance to rise - which would support the whole logic of the draft system not hinder it.

Would not surprise me if the coin to go to Geelong was not huge. They would still be a very attractive proposition for Frawley. I would assume the MFC would have an inkling of this potential and as i have posted before suspect the request for 'special assistance' (not a PP - what's all that?) is about maximising our FA compo and shoring up pick 3. One can only hope that if he goes to the Cats it coincides with their much delayed drop down the ladder and our long hoped for rise up the ladder. It would be nice to to meet in the middle of the table.

For the posters who had a shot at me for questioning JKH's body language (in his last game before being dropped) perhaps you might also consider having a shot at Brad Miller. This from the VFL player review from the last scorps game: 'We’re trying to encourage Jay to maintain a high level of positivity in his body language throughout the game, as it’s an area that can sometimes bring him unstuck'

Good post ww. I concur about dunn. He has been average last six weeks. Crawley - who I reckon has been OK - took a lot of short steps tonight. If that's his last game for us he's lost some respect in my eyes

Spot on nasher re Scott. His pathetic whining body language over decisions that didn't go their ways was driving me insane. What a [censored]