binman

Great point. He was consistently bagged and i recall quite a few posters saying he is would never be much better than a b grade plodder. He's not A grade - yet. If he keeps improving he will be and must be an amazing role model for the younger guys. Our younger players all need a couple of years of hard training and development, after which we can better judge where they are at. Three good examples are Gysberts, Strauss and Blease. All have great potential but have suffered from bad injuries and are not yet fit enough. It will be a real test of Neelds development skills to see where they are at in 2 years time. The other one is Spencer. I was impressed with his efforts on the weekend. Big unit who is unlikely to reach his full potential for another 4-5 years as is the case for most ruckman (ie mid to late 20's). Three obvious examples being Jamar, Jolly and Maric. Spencer is a keeper.

Except Howe doesn't need their help to get into the air!

In a year such as this any win is a good win. Stats were interesting as they matched us in most of the key stats at half time (and at the end really) but we were up by 8 goals. For instance they had more inside 50's. I thought that in the first quarter and a half we moved the ball into our forward line the best we have for ages and our back-line worked really well together. There were some really well weighted kicks to position and only one on the full (a record for us this year) I liked the game of Spencer and thought Sellar was ok. Moloney was hopeless. I hardly ever bag players but couldn't help giving him a couple of (small) serves. A player can't really help being slow but jeez he's a plodder this year and a couple of his efforts were slow of thinking and half hearted. Blease was good in spurts and could be the small forward we need as he reads the ball well and has the pace. But defensively he still has alot of work to do. A couple of times he just jogged along as GC moved the ball when a full on chase was in order. Nice to see Green marking and kicking well. Howe was a highlight, he has such great hands. Jones keeps getting better in my book. His evasion skills have improved and as i have noted before his kicking has improved out of sight,. he nailed a couple of bullets today. Fantastic both have re-signed. All in all, whilst the last quarter and a bit was pretty poor i thought we played pretty well. I was reflecting that it was heaps better than the woeful game against them near the end of last year. The line was 25 points and we near doubled so well done dees.

I was there but had no idea he hurt himself. Not sure how i missed it if was so obvious but there you go

And to top it off he has re-signed!!!

Donuts! Hot donuts! Ridiculously expensive but at the moment the only reason my 6 year old daughter wants to go to the footy

I have no idea Thaiman, it wasn't my poll. You're right there is no way he's not going to not be at the dees next year and we would have to have a year worse than this one for him not be there in 2014. But if a weeks along time in football a years an epoch.

Great post - balancned, with no hysteria. I hope Cook turns out to be a good pick. He's going to have to work hard to get there it would seem, based on Neelds recent comments about him not being fit enough yet

Then one wonders why he didn't go camping or to dream world. Swanning about in London whilst the games are on (as guests of corporations who no doubt expect him to attend various functions etc) does not seem the best way to spend quality time with the kids. Sort of like me taking my kids to Flemington and telling my wife we are having quality family time.

I only have the one block, though i have to say posts like this certainly make me consider doubling the blocks. I tend to not read your posts in full thaiman but this being unusually short and sharp i got to the end of it before skipping it. How on gods earth can you say with such confidence that no 'other club wanted him including Collingwood'. If you have evidence of this please share. If not and it is just your opinion then give us a spell - i mean 'try to understand this concept'? Pleeeease!

I have been putting on weight now for some time as precautionary measure in the event i ever have a knee problem requiring stem cells

Amazingly i actually thought the Hun's Mark Steven's suggestion in today's paper of averaging ladder position over the season a really good idea http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-news/its-high-time-to-roll-the-tanks/story-e6frf9jf-1226440727157

Like, for example Darling. Joking - please all ignore, i was feeling a little trolly!

Good post Oucher. Punishing, or even investigating MFC in isolation would be ridiculous. I also, would like them to draw a line in the sand and basically say there has been a whole range of activities (such as those you note) over the last 10 years by a range of clubs that have the potential to raise suspicions and bring the game into disrepute. Whilst it is very difficult to legislate against such activities (eg resting players) they could advise clubs that from now on they will be investigated when there are suspicious activities (in much the same way betting irregularities are looked into). This would at the least act as a disincentive to play silly buggers. In horse racing not giving your mount the best chance of winning is a grave offence for jockeys, but often extremely difficult to assess. Stewards are required to investigate any cases where this (and other similarly grey area issues) may have occurred. The AFL could clearly define what they regard to be suspicious bevaiours and play a similar role to stewards in racing. No jockey likes to be investigated as it questions their integrity and it would at least give clubs pause for thought (or a con to consider) when deciding on how they might approach the last few games of a season. This would of course only have a limited impact on the behaviors of clubs. More crucially the AFL have to find a way to limit the advantage a club might get for being lower on the ladder, whilst still ensuring the principals of the draft and equalization are maintained. Tough ask but that's why they get the big bucks. The interesting part of the dialogue about tanking for me (and related to the horse racing parallel) is how it is defined. There seem to be distinction that many commentators seem to make between going out to lose (tanking) or not giving your side the best chance of winning a given match (such as last season Geelong resting 5-6 of their best players, or sending players off for non essential surgery before season's end), which seems to be accepted practice. Going out to lose would require a coach to instruct players to miss shots at goal or other specific direction. However no one is suggesting this has occurred (though there is a hint by BM an Bailey they have been put under pressure to minimize the chance of winning). All the examples of so called tanking seem to involve a coach not maximizing the chance of winning a specific match, which as i said many commentators seem to suggest is ok. If this definition is used there will be hundreds of examples, including this year.

The law of the jungle?

Have i missed something? I can't understand why anyone would expect MFC to 'come out swinging'. Against what, against who? We tanked pure and simple, and of course we we not alone in this, so we can hardly take the moral high ground What's McClardy going to rail against? McClean? phoeey - who cares what he says. The AFL? They haven't done anything wrong in this so far. Playing it with a straight bat is the approriate response in my book.

I like Sloonie's idea. Strip us of our 8 points this year and not allow us to play for points for the rest of the year. That way we'll have picks 1 and 2 in this year's draft which has nice symmetry to it

Let the ignore function be your friend.

We've already been punished! We got Scully with that coveted number 1 pick and look where that got us.

We support HT all the way. We will honor his contract

I agree, i heard him this morning and there is a bit of an edge there (i hadn't heard him talk about the dees before). I know part of it is theater and to deliberately wind people up (nothing like angry callers to give a talk back show a bit of fizz) but he was pretty scathing and dismissive in his tone, particularly in his comment that he knows for a fact Cloke not interested in going to the dees (what's his source?) Seems a bit weird to me to feel such seeming disdain about a footy club. I could understand if he was a player and there was a history there but he is a reporter

As i have posted before injuries, particularly who they are to, is key to a teams capacity to play to potential and win games. Again as i have said before it is an issue that seems to be constantly downplayed in terms of its importance. The dees have, by any measure, had a terrible run with injuries this year (and not great last year) and this needs to be factored into any objective analysis of our performance this year.

OMG! WE HAVE A NEW TONATOPIA !!! EXCLAMATION MARK!!!!!!

I'm coming round to that line of thinking BJ but i'm still not convinced. I have been thinking he simply isn't worth the sort of money that has been discussed. In my humble i reckon he is really overrated as he's only had one a half really good seasons. But structurally he would really help - two power forwards with Clark being able to spend more time in the ruck would be great. On the other hand what does it matter if we pay overs for him if we have the money in our cap. It has to go somewhere. Exactly the same discussion was being had about Clark last year and look how that panned out. It would be a big thing for the club and i'm sure help team morale for a big name player to come to the club and it would definitely create a buzz, which would please the sponsors. Also as several posters have noted not having to use any draft picks to get him has to be worth something and needs to be factored in when weighing up the pros and cons. So i'm a swinging voter atm, though i have to say i wouldn't mind seeing him rampaging around our forward line in a Melbourne jumper round on 2013

I disagree. Caddy wants to come back to Melbourne. If he puts himself in the draft GC get nothing for him. if he goes into the draft i doubt GWS would be keen to take him as he want to live in Victoria nad having a disgruntled young player is no good for them. We then would have the next 2 picks (assuming Viney goes in second round which i'm confident he will). I doubt we'd use them but doggies might use their number 5, another Vic club might have a crack or we get him with pick 12-13. If he goes into the draft GC get nothing, zilch, nada (you get the idea). So it is in their best interest to do a deal with a Vic club and we are in a good position to deal. I assume Caddy will also want to help GC get the best deal possible and this is only possible if doesn't go into the draft. As i've posted before i could see us getting him by giving GC our pick 12ish and say Petterd (a QLD boy who may actually improve in new surroundings- and GC need some mid 20's players) for Caddy and a quiet agreement from them to not nominate Viney. Pick 12 and an ok player is alot better than nothing.