nutbean

you can say that again

I am with you Jimmy. Every year I firmly believe we can make the finals right up until after the first quarter of the 1st game of the season...then poof...all hope gone.

We don't and I may revise my "25" but I fully expect Roos to trade 2 or 3 for something established ( if he can) as he expected the lift last year to come from Tyson, Cross and Vince - not from Salem and JKH.

Couldnt disagree with you more and Roos has stated that he believes the drafted kids are the great unknown and doesn't like relying them. This is where we need our seniors to perform. You don't hear of Hawks and Swans talking about how a draft pick will come in and win us games yet we expect big things from Hogan and first year draft picks. What we need is our 25 plus footballers to be stars and these kids come along to be bit player cameos. Not rely on them to pull us out of our misery

We are seriously lucky to have him at the club but he is the only selling point we have at the moment

We offered that 3 for 1 offer to Carlton already but the baulked at the suggestion - their unrealistic offer was a straight swap Gartlett for the kitchen sink.

Didn't I read that they don't want him at the club ? Makes it very difficult for Carlton to play hardball unless there is a second suitor.

Had I known that those sort of ads were popping up I never would have become a life member

I thought you wanted the dogs to trade us Bontempelli not scare them away.

Subjective - but don't necessarily disagree. I think that the message is that you "hope" an untried TAC player will impact whereas we had insight into Dom Tyson - he had a couple of preseasons and showed he was at home with the pace of AFL ( albeit copping a few injuries). People who are just expecting that Brayshaw/Petracca will waltz in and be stand outs in our midfield from day one (like Tyson was) may want to lower those expectations a tad. That is not to say that they will not be fine footballers but maybe not world beaters from day one.

At this time of year you have highlighted the rather large problem - try and get him him - at the right price

Of the top 20 last year - you could argue that Bontempelli was the only year one player had a big impact year one. To a lesser extent Aish, McDonald, Kolodjashnij , Billings, Dunstan showed they will be good players and played some reasonable football but big impact in year one ( the likes of Tyson at our club ?). The rising star Taylor was drafted at 28.

This doesn't sit well with the "reverse diamond" theory. Most of our players are diamonds right up until the time they don't sign a contract extension or opt to leave and apparently they magically become become a piece of dirty old carbon.

Whilst I like the looks of many of the juniors if history tells us anything ( and not only for the MFC but for all the clubs) is the chances of players being "ready made" are low. The number of players who come in and make a huge impact in season one as opposed to the number of players drafted is small. The highlight packages we see are those boys playing against their own age. Even some experience in the WAFL and SANFL is not a sure sign as these comps are well below the pace and intensity of AFL. Holding on to the belief that getting two highly rated junior midfielders into our club will have this huge impact for us next year will probably end in tears.

Everyone needs a big preseason - having a great fitness base cannot be underestimated. Dawes faded after a good start to the season. It is the back end of the season when you see the benefit of a good preseason.

H_H - witnessing those times I put it down to two reasons. 1/ During his prime there was a leaning to give votes to down and dirty, in the trenches type of players - Wells, Fowler, Icke - even Big Bakes was a rough and tumble ruckman 2/ He set such abnormally high standards. His ordinary games were still very good but we came to expect absolute brilliance every week. ( and most weeks he delivered that). No disrespect to Laurie Fowler - but he was a "throw himself under the bus footballer" and his good games would get him BOG whereas the expectation on Robbie was much higher. My opinion for what it's worth. For what it is worth - he is the best footballer I have ever seen play by a long way. ( outside of the MFC - Leigh Matthews). He could do things that left you breathless. Yes he could mark, yes you couldn't figure out which foot was his natural foot. , yes he was quick. But it was his dancing feet that made him special and made many footballers look absolutely foolish. His turns, baulks and spins were poetry.

agreed

ooops - add them to the list. I guess I just scratch my head at posters suggesting that a player who is looking for success is mad to go any of the four clubs I mentioned ( and Port). Poster were ridiculing Geelong saying they are finished - maybe they are finished but you stall decline by getting in players like Frawley and Clark to improve your list.

Yes... yes they can. Everyone wants to win a flag but they are not the easiest thing in the world to come by - however if you wanted to go to a club where you are going to get immediate success - you would pick one of four teams - Hawks, Swans, Freo or Geelong. This "end of window" theory does happen to all teams but you try and stop that happening by developing your youth and recruiting well - something that all four of the teams does ( although Lyon/Freo is not as big on regeneration as the other 3). Bottom line is that if you want to leave your club for instant success you couldnt go past picking Hawthorn.

A question - has any club "matched" a free agency offer ? From my memory, once a player says he wants out whether restricted or not - they have gone. We slammed the likes of Frawley for his commitment to the club - do you really want to keep a captain of your club that makes you bid under FA rules to keep him ? edit - having said that - I think he will sign up again

ewwww Correct.

That goal had a trivia moment in it. The ball gets over the goal line - with our then full forward jumping up on the line. Can anyone name the full forward ( not hard to figure out - but I had almost blocked out that he had played for us !!!)

I actually hope that if this is the case that this little snippet makes its way to the list. I know we chop and trade players without too much sentiment but it will send a message to the group that if you want to "put you contract talks on hold and just concentrate on playing footy" there may not be a contract waiting for you when you are ready to talk.

Some here don't understand it either. You all do understand that there is a formula that gives a compensation BUT the AFL has the flexibility to alter the pick if they are not happy with the outcome. Having said that - they should have given Hawks a lower pick for Franklin and given us nothing for Sylvia. If they didnt adjust the Franklin pick I couldnt imagine them adjusting ours.

Yeah..Gartlett, Fevola, Mtich Robinson....ohh wait...