binman

Boak would obviously be a good get, but i reckon his asking price will be pretty bloody steep. Caddy will be cheaper (and prob not as good i suppose) and he fits the right age profile ie we would get 10 years from him if he stays ft whereas we might only get 6-7 from Boak who is 3 and a bit years older i think. to be honest i haven't really seen much of Boak either so i'm not in very good position to judge value

I doubt it (though as i said i don't really have a sense of how good he is). What about 13, Ricky Bobby and Bate (and they promise not to touch Viney).

I see in today's Age Caddy is yet to resign with the Suns (whereas many of his team mates have). Now we know he wanted to return to Victoria last year IIRC we tried a last minute deal to get him. Two questions. Would we want him and if yes what would it take to get it done? I haven't seen enough of him to decide if we would want him, but we are definitely in the market for quality mids. He had injuries last year but has had 2 (?) pre seasons and would be a relatively known quantity. Would be a ready to go recruit in the right age range. If we did want him i could see several trading scenarios (assuming we finish 16th and GC last): We give GC our late first rounder (giving them picks 1 and 13ish and possible a priority pick) and a couple of players (say Dunn and perhaps Bate or Petterd who is a QLD boy) to get the deal done. We give GC pick 3, a straight swap (giving them picks 1 and 3 and possible a priority pick). Might need to chuck in a player to get the deal done We can't get a deal done with GC, he goes into the draft , we do some variation of the above deal with GWS for them to let him slide to us (they prob wouldn't be super keen on a player determined to go home to Victoria). Blease could be in the mix for trading with GWS perhaps An interesting twist to the above deals would be factoring in Viney. In any of the above scenarios we could chuck in another half decent player (perhaps Martin) for them to let Viney through to us, allowing us to take him second round. In this scenario it would be pretty hard for the AFL to prove any Viney related trading. Thoughts (partic on whether we would want Caddy)?

Ok. You are so affected by Scully leaving and how he chose to do so that you hope a young fella trying to make his way in life is injured so badly that it ruins his career. Right. I'm no psychologist but i would reckon by any measure that is a pretty unhealthy level of anger. TimD are you in the house? Anyway each to their own.

I am passionate about the dees and footy but I could care less about Scully to be honest. He left in bad circumstances and evidence strongly suggests he lied. Neeld believes in the reality bus, i believe in the karma bus. And by that i don't mean i hope someone lays him out on Sunday. Quite the contrary i have no desire to see him hurt and less desire to see one of our players get weeks for hurting him (or even be distracted at all from trying to win the game, a game i reckon is one of the more important games for the club for years). If people want to boo, go for it i say, but as i said i could care less about Scully (one might say he is persona no grata) and i couldn't be bothered. I'll save my passion for the inevitable poor decision we'll cop (perhaps a 50 for shoving Scully over - the umps will be watching no doubt). What i will say is we are a funny lot, footy fans. We had no probs luring Templeton, Moore and more recently Clark to the dees with huge offers but go bananas at a player who dares leave our club for top dollar. Yes it would appear Scully lied, so perhaps that adds a bit to the equation but i do recall Clark telling the bears he had to return to WA for family reasons and Freo said at the time they thought he had verbally committed to playing with them. I'm not calling him a liar by the way, just pointing out the potential inconsistency. As Grant Thomas has said lying is part of footy DNA .

Scully came from the hallowed earth of the MCG? How primordial. Perhaps there's Wurundjeri story or myth that could be applicable. Something to do with Snakes, Suns, earth and karmic retribution

Yep absolutely. Ticks all the boxes for a high vote getter in the Brownlow - prolific midfielder, respected, tough (ie goes in hard which seems to be valued by umps if you look at winners over last 20 years or so) and is in a team that is winning (a critical factor and one that will count against Ablett). Great chance and i'll be splashing the cash.

Good to see we haven't been sucked in by Sheeds and are remaining calm and clear headed

Yes quite true however in non-diplomatic usage, referring to someone as persona non grata is to say that he or she is ostracized. Such a person is for all intents and purposes culturally banished, so as to be figuratively nonexistent. Not speaking about someone would be consistent with being non existent and a person being ostracized .

Yep the tread topic is "Scott Thompson may win the Brownlow". So to clarify, your contribution to the thread is you don't care if he does as he became person non grata (sic) when he left the dees. I presume you mean persona non grata btw. As a persona non grata i would have thought he wouldn't be spoken of, someone whose name should not be mentioned. Which, given you also don't care if he wins a Brownlow or not, begs the question why you bothered posting then (or indeed even opening the thread given the title might have given you a clue that it was about a player who is, to you, a persona non grata)

Sheeds is a beauty, gotta hand it to him he knows how to spruik. Also no a bad way to legitimise a new club - create a traditional rival. That normaly takes a couple of decades he's done it in 12 months!

Perhaps Ben Hur could stop posting on Demonland and write his own blog instead. Given his unbelievable level of football knowledge and acumen it would become an internet sensation and be a must read by any serious footy person. Clubs could scale back their investment in recruiters and opposition analysts and just read his blog - think of the money they would save. Just look at his thoughts on Cameron - the best player in the league in 5 years and Watts just a good average player. Genius wasted on his fellow Demonlanders. He deserves a much bigger audience!

Yep i absolutely agree. Our midfield is by far our biggest problem, it must be close to the worst in the league at the moment. In fact not close, it is the worst We need a bit of grunt obviously but perhaps more so we need some speed and players who have great hands and are top shelf kicks of the ball. Like a smaller version of wattsy (who has the best hands in the team and is also the best kick - i know i've said that before, i just can't stop) I know everyone needs that but we won't climb the ladder until we improve in the guts. We have enough big guys

Wouldn't mind Cameron

Noooooooooo! Please say it aint so Joe

Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark Clark

Sometimes JM your negativity just is so boring. The OP wasn't moaning. Please give the bad ju-ju a rest - it is so tiresome and distracts from the positive stuff you often contribute. Scott Thompson is one of my all time fav players full stop. I loved him at the dees and it was a massive loss when he lost him. I'm really pleased for his success at the crows and wish him more success. But this thread topic was about his chance of winning the brownlow (which i actually think is a great bet and i'll be getting on) not a moan about us losing him (even though jurrachane noted it was a bummer we lost him - which it was!)

I'm confused. I think we agree. We will get Viney in the mid 20's. I'm not sure about the propaganda machine though. Neeld will have the final say and if he wants Viney bad enough we won't risk losing him. Conversely if he wants another player more i'm pretty confident he'll do what needs to be done. I don't have any idea of the talent of the under 18's, its enough for me working out our current team. I'll leave the analysis to the professionals.

No i don't agree. We declared our hand before Neeld came on board. I have no doubt Neeld won't be swayed by any previous deal or sentimentality. if he doesn't think Viney is top 5 we won't pick him. He has flagged this already

But as i have said nominating Viney will be a big call from either GWS and GC, they won't do it to just to avoid giving the dees a leg up. If they nominate him and we don't elect to take him well we have the choice of either the best or second best player (as defined by likely top 2 picks by pundits and clubs - and there usually is two stand outs). Mighty big risk for the franchise clubs. High stakes poker and we have the upper hand. They pick Viney, we fold and pick up 1 or 2

I wonder if clubs will steer away from menzel as both older brothers have had (similar) knee problems and i heard Doc Larkins say there can be familial genetic predisposition to certain injuries such as the ones they have had. Hardly sticking my neck out though, more like an anti stick the neck out!

That's just not the case. By any measure he is not a superstar. He may become one, sure (as Watts will) but is in't one at present. What are you basing your assessment on? The game last night? He had 25 possessions, which is good but not earth shattering for a guy who spends so much time on the ball. This is the most possessions he has had in a game at AFL level, ever. He certainly influenced the result with his display in the second half, he was terrific but this one of the few times he has actually done so. Instructively the Hun gave top votes in the game, not to Natanui but Sellwood. If he was a superstar he would be a monty for AA selection this year surely but he won't be selected. Don't get me wrong i reckon he will become one of the best player in the league, a superstar if you will. But so will Watts and i stand by my statement both clubs will have won from the deal.

This is a very interesting situation. The AFL have publicly warned the clubs on this but very hard to prove a deal has been done (eg for a favorable deal in later years, or a quiet agreement not to target out of contract players etc). The really fascinating bit is whether GWS or GC would risk selecting him if they don't really rate him, say top 5. Also both clubs have already drafted alot of mid field talent in i would have thought, Viney may not be the sort of player either clubs is after ATM. I suppose GC could do with some grunt but GWS seem ok in this regard If they did select him they would have to be pretty sure Melbourne is going to take Viney and as much i'd hate not to have him at the dees (we so need a player like him) they won't if it they really think there is a much better option (it would have to be much, much better though given they would be breaking a commitment and we know what Viney can offer). If either club picked them and we called their bluff (ie chose not to take him) we would then get the nominal 1st or 2nd draft pick of the so called super draft. A pretty big gamble for GWS and GC and i don't think when its all said and done a gamble they'll take just to stick it up the dees. Its big business and you don't take that sort of risk out of spite. And beyond the risk of giving up a player who might otherwise go pick 1 or 2 you would make an unnecessary enemy of a club who has money to spend on players and may be looking at some point to use that money to lure some of the young stars they have assembled. I reckon given all of the above there is every chance we will get Viney in the second round, meaning we 'd have 3 first rounders (2 of them high first round) and a gun. Happy days

He's a talent no doubt but there is no way we got the wrong player. In time both clubs will win on this deal.

I thought he had a pretty good game but yes this was a bad turnover in terms of timing as he had multiple players free, which if hit could have taken the ball inside 50 and perhaps we might have got a goal. My mate, a demon fan, said to me - as soon as Morton hesitated - "he's gonna stuff this up" and sure enough he did. But a bit of perspective. Both Watts and Trengove each turned the ball over with a poor kick and a direct goal and on both occasions each player elected to kick left footers (when they could have used their natural foot).