Pink Freud

Amazing. These people who compose mock drafts What do they do the rest of the time?

According to Patrick Keane's twitter - "As Jacobs delisted himself from the Port Adelaide list, he does not qualify as a free agent, and can be selected by any club at the Draft." Presumably, this means that its possible for an uncontracted player doesn't have to wait to be delisted. Doubt he'll end up at North but we won't get him.

Would not be surprised at all if Caro's sources on the Neeld story are identical to those of her current line of stories. Same agenda. Same target.

There is one thing that is noticeably absent from this conga line of accusations against the Melbourne Football Club. Despite all of the material presented, there is not one single piece of evidence pointing to the fact that Melbourne tanked. Not a single suggestion that the players were told by coaches and/or officials to go out and not try their best in a game of football. Moreover, there's no doubt that the Melbourne team was a weak side that year but the three games used to illustrate suspicious conduct of games were against the Swans at Manuka where we couldn't win even when we had stronger teams, the Richmond game where we led when the siren sounded and the last game of the season when we played against the top team. You wouldn't believe it but we were the bottom side. The article makes it sound as if we were the red hot favourites to win! If this vault is supposed to be some secret venue for a sinister cabal of plotters, how the hell did they get pictures of those blokes inside the place with smiling faces? Is it a crime to discuss the club's position or the fact that its supporters were discussing what we all knew as fact? That you win five and you don't get a priority pick? It was the major talking point at the club at that time just as the same thing was the major talking point at Carlton in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and at various other clubs during the decade. Holy [censored] Batman - if they presented this speculative crap in a court of law as proof of tanking, the case would be thrown out in five minutes.

Hickey to Saints for 13 and an exchange of later picks.

It's only SportsNewsFirst but we do get a mention here - Stevens could head into draft

Bah, humbug. To borrow a phrase from a well known nobody, the way they're going they'll soon be known as the Geelong Bears!

Wow. Yesterday will now be remembered forever in the club's history as the day the RDL opened and also BTW we also picked up Jack Viney at 26!

Then again, I ask the question whether a football club actually has a foot that can be shot?

It was obvious that he had lost his prowess as a journo when he sat mouth agape in front of Brock McLean and failed to question him on his true motives for leaving Melbourne. No self respecting journo would ever allow someone to make the claim that he left a club because of tanking, pardon me, experimenting and then accept the fact that he went to Carlton of all clubs. Mind you, it's got the better of the AFL and their investigations officers for a while too.

Close but no cigar. Viney didn’t make AA last year but he would have been close and he would’ve been a definite AA this year but for injury - Metro dominate AA selections 2011 All Australian Under 18 team: Defenders: Jed Anderson (NT), Michael Talia (Vic Metro), Brandon Ellis (Vic Metro), Brad Crouch (Vic Country), Brody Mihocek (Tas), Alex Forster (SA) Midfield: Billy Longer (Vic Metro), Dom Tyson (Vic Metro), Stephen Coniglio (WA), Jaeger O’Meara (WA), Toby Greene (Vic Metro), Will Hoskin-Elliott (Vic Metro)
 Forwards: Chad Wingard (SA), Sam Mayes (SA), Lachie Whitfield (Vic Country), Ben Kennedy (SA), Jonathon Patton (Vic Metro), John McKenzie (Tas) Interchange: Mitchell Grigg (SA), Brodie Grundy (SA), Taylor Adams (Vic Country), Clay Smith (Vic Country)
 Coach: Rohan Welsh (Vic Metro) Assistant Coach: Matt Armstrong (TAS

6. Colin Sylvia 5. Jack Grimes 4. Jack Trengove 3. Tom McDonald 2. Nathan Jones 1. Jack Fitzpatrick Special mention to Benny Hill.

Was anybody vital missing from the GHS Giants team that caused them to suffer such a horrible flogging at the weekend?

I grew more than 15cm between the ages of 15 and 20. Add that sort of height to his body and get him into some weights and he won't be too small by the time he's ready for AFL action.

Possibly Boak because we probably can't afford both Boak and Cloke. The price of Cloke and his baggage including his old man is a frightening prospect. Boak, Viney and one or two midfield recruits plus Taggert and Gysberts would transform our midfield.

The problem is that due to the misfortunes over at 'ology we've inherited some more sophisticated mature posters here and this thread is simply a downright embarrassment. Perhaps it should just be called "The BS Thread"?

Aussies won their semi in a nailbiter by 4 runs and play India who thrashed the Poms in the final tomorrow.

Surely that record is held by West Coast and not us?

Except that Aaron Davey wasn't picked for Casey while Matthew Bate was picked for both Melbourne and Casey. Are they trying to shelter him from the media hordes who would inevitably descend on Casey Fields if they knew for sure that Davey was playing? I don't know but am strongly of the belief that Davey should play in the VFL untl such time as he proves his right to a game with Melbourne. To leave him in Perth and not play him on Sunday would, in my view, be foolish.

Reckon he's taking the [censored]. The failure of the club to provide accurate injury lists has been a long running sore point of a number of posters on this site. We learned more about Nicholson's injury from posters here than from the club and that sort of thing happens regularly with player injury reports from Melbourne.

I agree with the OP that the way the team plays tomorrow will very much define its character. The club has declared its hand this week in the way in which it dealt with the Mifsud and the Polis issues. In both instances, it demonstrated it's complete integrity (as opposed to the shonky conduct of Demetriou, Thomas and Mifsud - not much decency there). In that respect, we've already won off the field. Even if we don't get the four points in Perth we will ultimately win and be successful in the long run. That said, I hope the 22 who run out for us tomorrow will play their part.

Apologies if people were expecting a report from me but I had to compensate for the free morning with a late shift and we've only just finished cleaning up. I didn't take notes but there was a good little crowd out there today although conditions were not as sunny as I was expecting. The simulated match practice was interesting and entertaining, especially given that it's four weeks to go before the first intraclub and several players were either absent or obviously still doing rehab work. I had great difficulty picking up who were the newer players so I will concentrate on the one newbie who I did recognise immediately and that's Mitch Clark. There have been some unfavourable comments from Brisbane suggesting he won't make it as a key forward but I think he will make it. He looks more solid than he did playing for the Lions where he was shaded by Jonathan Brown and Bradshaw. I disagree with JumpinJeremyHowe about him being a bit slow. He moves alright and he has soft hands in the marking contest. If you think that JumpinJeremyHowe is biased because of his namesake then forget it. He could become something special in a very strong forward line. Where will they fit them all because Petterd was good and Liam should also be important up forward. Stef Martin also continues to improve in leaps and bounds. He proved he was a good back up ruck last year and I think he'll go better again in 2012. The midfield will improve if the training is any indication and I agree 100% that Moloney will be important but Gysberts could step up as that ball gatherer who not only gets it out of the middle but is creative once he's in the clear. Some people have suggested that Neeld delegates to assistants. He looked pretty hands on to me and he's designed a training routine that is so much more intense than I've seen in the past. All that means nothing if they can't prove themselves when the real thing starts.

Training Times The weather forecast is that it's becoming fine and sunny with a max of 24. Perfect conditions for Casey Fields this morning and I have the morning off. Hmmm...

I agree with Redleg. It's not so much the game up there that's the problem but rather, that the recovery takes so long. How often does a team follow up a game in Darwin or Cairns with a win?

Sorry to nitpick but would it be possible for this thread to get back on the subject of today's training by any chance?