Pates

Blues were a rabble but at least they had a home and facilities to show off, we had a construction site. And yes I agree that the $$$ got him to Carlton, but we had very little to offer.

I'd edit but I can't so......?‍♂️

I might be wrong about this but I was under the impression that even in the training in 10's model there is still no equipment allowed to be shared, this includes a footy. I could be completely wrong on that though.

Is that really on the table? I would've thought having that one round in the bag opens the door for more options for the AFL, only reason I could see them removing it is if they decide that in unbalances the Home vs Away games for each club. As an aside to that, would one option the AFL table maybe be (as a way to avoid unfair advantages that the WA clubs keep sooking about) to actually try to create as many neutral games. ie play Melbourne vs WC in Adelaide, WC vs Sydney in Melbourne etc Obviously you then play Melbourne vs Pies at the G, WC vs Freo in Perth. This then eliminates the potential of certain clubs getting unfair home ground advantages. Imagine the uproar from the cats fans! ?

This will be an interesting one to see the final result. I'm just old enough to remember how good Todd Viney was, at the moment he just edges out Max but I think by the end of their careers Gawny will have the chocolates. Hopefully edged out by Max being a premiership captain! ?

Loved Jimmy; heart and soul player, great athlete, worked hard to get his skills up to scratch, and simply a club legend. On Jonesy, for someone who has the knock of not great skills he's kicked some absolutely cracking goals over his career. Maybe people will argue he was the cream that rose to the top during an awful period but I think that's disrespectful to his guts, endeavour, and underrated abilities. One's a champion, the other is a legend.

Schwartz could've been our Wayne Carey, once in a generation type player. His knee reco's reduced his overall impact over his career so for me it has to go to Neitz. What a great combo they were though! (Slightly off topic, I can't work out why we haven't got either of them as kicking coaches at the club. Both of them had awesome technique and penetration on them!)

All three Brayshaw's? Sure I'd take that.

I understand the WA fans having a bit of a sook, especially as the AFL prevented the WA clubs from training in larger groups (I still don't know what authority they actually have to control that). Each state's teams were going to come across their own advantages and disadvantages, fact is that surely at some point WC and Freo will have to have an extended stay on the Eastern seaboard because if they are going to play games every 4-6 days where exactly are they going to have the time to train and recover if they keen flying back to WA. My thoughts are that the WA government already have an in principal agreement with the WA clubs to let them and interstate fly in-fly out, but they are trying to get some leverage to gain their own advantages/deals before officially agreeing to it.

I actually don't blame him for that, we were a rabble at the time, we brought him to tour AAMI Park before it was built. We really didn't have anything positive to offer him, still sickens me he chose the Blues though. VISY ambassador my [censored].

What's led you to that statement? We haven't even seen what the fitness staff have managed to do with him and as a PR exercise it would be a stupidly expensive one to do. I would say the club got him in thinking he's probably at best a 50/50 chance to return to footy with meaning, given his incredible talent it's a gamble that's worth taking. The one thing I agree with you on is that he's not going to be considered until he gets through a practice match scenario.

100% nothing to hid from with that now and I hope it's gusty, cold, wet, and miserable!

When Gaz left Geelong he helped them to a premiership and won a Brownlow medal and then like Scully was given a godfather deal he couldn't turn down. The cats fans had every reason to be humble and thankful to him, particularly being the son of a legend, anything other than class would've looked ridiculous. When Scully left the Dees as you pointed out he was offered a deal the 99% of the population would have taken, I didn't have any ill will towards Tom and I thought the villains in that show were GWS for putting a young bloke in such a difficult position. Tom played well at GWS but his first few years weren't outstanding, they were good. If Jimmy really did ask Tom to guarantee a commitment, essentially to a dying man, it was an awful position to put him in. One of the stories goes that he asked if he had agreed to leave already, that is a fair question, and if Tom lied to Jimmy at that point then that's not on. As for the Dees fans, it was comical and a little embarrassing at times but I don't have an issue with it. You can't compare Ablett's departure to Scully's, completely different people and completely different times in their career. Personally I would've welcomed Scully back with zero hesitation were he interested.

I remember when Roos came on board one of the first things he identified was our awful track record of development, we created quite a number of "good players" of the years and maybe one or two developed above their supposed raw talent, but when it came to top 10 & top 20 picks we were terrible for a long time. Look at Travis Johnston, such incredible talent, he should've been a champion for us. I even look at Cale Morton, yes he was skinny but he showed some bloody good potential in his early years. I can't go on without mentioning a certain Jack Watts, probably the most miss-managed player our club has ever had. I could run a list a mile long of players that showed they had fantastic attributes to them and they needed someone to harness that potential into a consistent footballer.

How many WA players do we have that are over there? I hope they will be making the best use of it they can.

Hard to go past Todd, a legend of the club. Flash no slouch himself though! Flash could (and I think should) lay claim to revolutionising the position of small forward where it was previously almost accepted that an off day for a small forward would mean they have no impact at all and that was that. The forward pressure Aaron brought to us was something not seen before and his first 5 steps were the fastest I've ever seen from any Melbourne player. Best part was, other clubs were afraid of what he could do! I just love that moment in his second game where he got the ball, stopped, the tigers players hung off from him because they thought he would be too agile, and he ended up splitting them in two!

I would say I want it less knowing it's close to certain that we won't be able to have crowd there to enjoy it. I'm a Liverpool fan and barring them deciding to void the season, which I don't see happening, we will be winning our first premiership in the "premiership era" in front of no fans and no parade to celebrate. It does leave a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth as I had even planned on being there for the celebrations.

It's interesting people remember Trenners pre-injury as being slow anyway, I certainly don't. I'm not saying he was going to win any 10m sprints but I felt he had enough power out of his first 5 steps to get away quick enough. I remember a tigers game in particular (I think it was his second year) where he was a powerhouse. He had the attributes to be a gun, he lost them from the injuries (and I also join the "miss-management" group as well). Scully was always seen as number one, and really we saw enough to suggest it was the right move. For me the debate was always Trenners vs Dusty, I think we went for better character over raw talent (not that JT was talentless). Nobody picked Fyfe to become the player he has.

White was just at the end of his career when I first started getting into footy, I certainly remember him being a fantastic player but I really loved Wheels.

Pert doesn't seem to be doing a bad job (relatively early days) but I really wish we still had Jackson at our club.

I can't remember which commentator said this but I this it's true, Brayshaw doesn't seem to impact as well when Viney is in there doing his "rough and tough" thing. Against WC he was extremely poor, he just didn't seem to know where to be. I am by no means putting a pen through him because he still ranks as one of my favourite players but I agree that this has to be pressure point year where he gets back to his 2018 form or we look to use him as a way to gain some outside class. The three that I've mentioned all suffer from the same affliction of poor disposal inside 50, they just need to take that micro pause to look at WHERE to put the ball, even if it is a long ball at least spot positive areas to go to.

Give it another year or two and Clarry will probably overtake him but runs on the board, Robbo was underrated for a while and became a fantastic forward for us. Loved by the fans and he was the first to return that love.

To me it feels like the NRL are rushing things because they have to, they are really desperate to get things going as quickly as possible whereas the AFL does have a little bit more of a luxury to do things "right".

That one broke my heart, I was shattered. I also vaguely remember that we had a clear free kick not awarded in the lead up play. I think I might have actually cried a bit that night, Daniher brought us so many great memories and he deserved a win to send him off.

Watching the Geelong elimination final right now, jeez we looked good in that first quarter. Tom McDonald clunking almost everything that comes his way.