nutbean

I noticed that - nice touch...and unexpected as I dont think I ever seen Neeld smile

There is stuffing up and getting into a bit trouble and then there is the above - on social network just before draft time. At least Daniel O'connor ( who i also dont want) made noise about wanting it bad and going to do all the right things. This kid is a giant no for me

I wont put his smile down to be drafted by us only - saw lots of footage of the kids turning up to the draft and Jimmy was on the screen alot - he seems to always be happy and smiling - good to see a kid with such zest for life - I think we have got ourselves a gem of a kid

Not sure I agree - I dislike the little twerp as much as anyone but I am not going to read into whether he liked or didnt like the club, respected the 31 or didnt - in my opinion he had one motivation and one motivation only for leaving - $$$$$$$$$ - the rest is all academic.

I have said in this in two threads so I will now repeat it in three. On a purely positive note - I trust in the club to keep the footballers it wants to keep. Having said that.... Free agency has made it easier for players that have served a club for a number of years to freely move. For homesick boys - the system doesnt allow for easy passage home ( especially to non Victorian states) unless the home state has a very early pick in the PSD or the club which the player wants to depart from plays ball. Mitch Brown wanted to come back to Vic whilst still in contract - WCE said no. Mitch Clark said he wanted to go home and Brisbane dealt with the best offer not particularly worrying what he wanted. Wellingham got to go home because Collingwood wanted him out and got a first round draft pick for him. As far as players wanting to "go home" unless the team the player wants to go finishes bottom, the club has the whip hand.

I have seen enough false dawns to last me a lifetime so in the words that Ronald Reagan borrowed from Vladmir Lenin "trust but verify"

I think the jumper is so revered that the club is trying to lift the curse that has plagued it since RDB made it so famous and return it to its former glory - a bit manufactured for mine but there are so many other things going on that are exciting this to me is a bit meh.

I didnt know whether to go with "mispell" or "misspell word worng" - i thought "mispell" was little more sublte

trouble with these clips ( and this is no disrespect to the posters) is everyone looks like a worldbeater - love the hands on Herbert and Bench looks like a skinny Boomer Harvey with those moves. Having said that - go back to Casey Sibosado whose highlight reel looked great and was touted on Demonland by many. Rookied by Freo and delisted end of 2011

I believe that refers to our midfield last year who certainly didnt turn up at the ground to play

I'm not into slanging either - and I am not sure where I suggested for a second we are a top 6 club. We are all entitled to our opinions but expect them to be robustly debated especially when they have more holes in them than swiss cheese. Wellingham was Collingwoods 5th best onballer ( 6th best if Ball wasnt injured) and recruited as a rookie who indeed wanted to go home and was accomodated by Collingwood who had rather large salary cap squeeze with the re-signing of Cloke. Collingwood made little effort to keep - they made a good effort at letting other clubs have a sniff and getting a first round draft pick out of WCE. Compare that to Travis Boak who wanted to come home and leave a club ( a club that had at least 3 top flight coaches say "no thanks") and go home - Port wanted very much to keep him and did exactly that. So to repeat a third time - it is rare that when a club really wants to keep a player from going home that they fail because without the co-operation of the club the player is at, unless the interstate club has first pick, the system is such that there is no guarantee where you will end up if the player stands his ground and decides to leave the club.

I usually let it go but it was more the irony of the mispell that had me giggling.

please explain the mechanism to get an interstate player home ...... please highlight the last player that a club really wanted to keep that went home (interstate) again - Clark and Tippett both declared their intentions to go home and they went ...ummmmmm

Keep kids by creating a winning culture, but that aside....... You didnt read my post all that well I'm thinking.. Lets take Hogan as a case in point - lets say that his two year contract expired now and he wants to go home - with WCE and Freo way down the pecking order in the national and PSD would you care to explain to me how you think he will get home unless we trade him ? The only real danger is that a player can walk out at expiry of contract if he is happy enough to go to the club that has the first pick in the draft. In summary - unless the club/state of choice has first pick or can trade into a first pick, or the player is an unrestricted free agent or doesnt care which club he goes to - this notion that a player can pack up and go to back to his home state does not exist.

First of all - I am not the spelling police but "no faith that they will get it rite" did tickle my irony meter. This interstate go home thing is now a nonsense. Free agency doesnt allow unrestricted movement until a decent amount of time has been served. So after two year or three year contract expires, if a player says I want to go home, the club can basically say no. It is up to us to trade him if we want or unless the players homestate club has first pick in the PSD, take his chances that no one else will take him. Mitch Brown of WCE said he wanted to go home was contracted and the WCE said no. Next year he may say the same but if GC and GWS are bottom two then if opts out then thats where he may end up. That's why Mitch Clark who wanted to go home didnt get there and the same goes for Tippett. Players are only getting home now through the good grace of the club - ie StKilda and Cripps. It is up to our club to make players want to stay

So what does that tell you? For all diatribe on this site about how could recruiters get it so wrong and if only we picked x instead of y - the only certainty that remains is that this is not an exact science and there are lots of top 10 picks who have failed to live up to expectation. In my mind, when I hear Hawthorn and StKilda supporters say "yeah - Judd is good but we are really happy with Hodge/Ball" - they are kidding themselves - Judd has been so far ahead of those two it just aint funny. The Watts/NikNat debate is legitimate as they were almost touted as equal no 1 draft choices so a decision had to be made but Scully was so far ahead of the pack as the number one pick that there not a millimetre of room for debate. All those saying we got it wrong with Scully are hindsighting to the extreme as there was zero chance of him not going no 1 to our club or any other. No guarantees in drafting, people - no guarantees

I believe in a gesture of "jacked off" with the unprecedented targeting of our club we should take Adelaide's first two draft picks

"arrangement ? did I say arrangement ? I meant flower arrangement...I meant derangement...it was tongue in cheek..it really was tongue in cheek" - Chris Connolly circa 2012

since Ronald Dale, a cursed number if you ask me.

I will be pleased with either Wines or Toumpas as the real experts (aka - demonlanders) or split down the middle on who we should take but are basically only offering up those two - at least we shouldnt see a "WTF??" like we did with Cook/Gysbert

doesnt even begin to describe what I was thinking

and yet when Viney was interviewed earlier and asked who we should take with our first pick the name he mentioned was Toumpas...go figure

and I will also borrow from my 'Ology post and state that you lost all credibility when you said you agreed with Bluey ... (love ya Bluey)

Whilst we didnt win enough contested footy last year compared to other teams, the actual amount of contested footy we won as a percentage of our possessions was way too high. It was highlighted many times that we had too many on top of the contest and if we did get it our run and spread just wasn't there. I believe Toumpas from the little I have read can get his own ball AND run and spread - isnt that the best of both worlds ?

I also have a very solid source also that Jimmy T will be ours (shhhhh ! its nomoremrniceguy)