Good Times Grimes

I think his timing on breaking his leg was awful. He was just cementing his place in the side, and now he's got to recover from the injury and when he returns to a full training load will be behind several others for a spot in the best 22. I really hope Straussy makes it, but I think there are others who are going to be well ahead of him in 2012.

There's a professional NHL player by the name of Cal Clutterbuck. I definitely don't think there's room for two Clutterbucks in pro sports, that's for sure. Otherwise we'd be cluttered with Clutterbucks.

Looking forward to hearing how the new draftees look. Any/all reports are greatly appreciated

Obviously it depends on who we're playing, but my best 22 would be: FB: Bartram Frawley Tapscott HB: Rivers Garland Grimes C: Blease Moloney Gysberts HF: Martin Watts Howe FF: Green Clark Jurrah Foll: Jamar Sylvia Jones Int: Trengove McKenzie Bail Nicholson (Sub) Emerg/Reserves: Davey MacDonald Bate Gawn Evans Morton Bennell Jetta T. MacDonald Dunn Strauss Edit: I did this off the top of my head, so please forgive if anyone notable is missing.

Since we haven't won in 47 years, I think the majority of Demons supporters are like-minded in that they just want to see one premiership in their lifetime. Anything more than that is a bonus.

The updates on Gawn sound awesome. I really hope he gets some games for us in 2012, I definitely think that he is up to AFL standard, even though he isn't finished his development. It will be very interesting to see how Martin, Jamar and Gawn are used this year, and whether they will all be played in the same side or not. One thing is certain though: we are not lacking in our ruck stocks.

I got told off by the boss for doing it on one of my first days of work. Completely ridiculous if you ask me.

Oh how I would love to see us poach one of GWS's young stars, just as he'd be coming good.

You'll see

Looking forward to seeing what he can do. Low risk, high reward it seems.

I can't stand BigPond. I usually don't even bother trying to get videos through there...YouTube is the way to go, it seems.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nathan Jones will one day be the captain of the Melbourne Football Club. He has everything you look for in a captain: a great work ethic, plays every game, he's a consistent performer, loves the club and he's a great role model for the younger players. I have no idea why MFC supporters constantly criticize him. I think he is going to thrive under Neeld and become one of our best players.

Wow, there's a lot of bad tattoos in that group.

I'd rather see us take a punt on someone like Couch. He seems determined to be on an AFL list, whereas Aussie seems like he couldn't care less. He consistently showed up at the beginning of preseason looking like he ate a waterbuffalo. As much as I loved when he was fit and firing, this indicated to me that he needs constant supervision in order to be able to remain in shape. This is not the attitude of an AFL footballer.

I know he's young, but Jack Fitzpatrick seems a little bit unco, based on his only performance. Then again, the talls often appear this way.

This is on the money. Some players are late bloomers (and it is very difficult to figure out which players these will be), while some appear to have enormous amounts of potential that they never actually reach. Although you have better odds of drafting a star if you have a higher draft pick, there's no reason you won't be able to find a diamond in the rough with a late pick. I think in recent years, BP has been able to do very well in unearthing players such as McDonald, Jurrah, Bail (who I think will be a star), Fitzpatrick, and McKenzie with late National Draft picks, PSD picks or through the rookie draft. Our earlier picks under BP earlier picks have also, in my opinion, been quite good. Leading up to the 2009 National Draft, just about every scout in the country had Trengove/HWMNBN as the 1/2 picks with Martin behind them. I'm happy with his later selections of Gysberts, Tapscott and Gawn as well, who all look like they'll be 150 gamers. In 2008 the jury was out on a consensus number 1 pick, and despite criticism in his first couple of seasons, Watts is gaining confidence and looking to be worthy of that title. In 2010 we drafted Cook because we desperately needed a KPP, and he appears to be a work in progress. However, with our second pick it looks like BP unearthed an absolute jet in Howe, who seemed to be relatively unknown to many in the football community at the time. I think BP has done as well as any other scout during his tenure at Melbourne, and I'm sure Neeld realizes the quality of work that he has done for the Demons.

Yes I think it's allowed because they have been removed from the list before having their position on it reinstated. If he does get drafted, I think it's more likely he'll be a rookie, in which case it's definitely allowed (see Michael Newton and Tom McNamara).

Appears as though he's a 'glass is half empty' type.

Hopefully this shows the other kids that they too can leave, and GW$ never amounts to anything other than perennial wooden spooners.

Here's the link:

But how many ways can you really go about leaving a club while leaving a good impression? The only way I see it is that he will continue to deny it until it's late in the season and the pressure becomes to much, before saying that he has agreed to a contract and will be a GWS player. I can't wait to see Eddie's reaction.

You're absolutely right. Neeld needs to find a way to change his attitude and make him have a desire for the ball. Will be very interesting to see if this can be done.

I think GWS moreso than GCS, since GWS is a much more undesirable place to live. It would be hard to not enjoy life on the Gold Coast, and being professional footballers I think many of them will realize that it comes with the job.

I attended the majority of games in 1997, but they've all kinda blurred into one big loss. The first I can remember well was Round 8, 1998 when we beat the filth by 3 points. After seeing a game like that one it would be impossible not to become a Demon fan for life.

But if you think of it this way: Geelong paid all that money and they received premierships, b&f's, brownlows, etc from Ablett. They paid for what they received. We didn't pay Scully anywhere close to that because he never signed any contract other than the customary 2 year entry-level deal. Say Scully had signed an extension and played 8 years for us before being poached by GWS and delivered what Ablett did; sure, we would have ended up paying him roughly similar wages to Ablett, but we would have also received all the accolades that Ablett delivered. You're not losing out on money if you're getting premierships in return. That being said, if Scully had played for us for 8 more years, theres no way to say that he wouldn't have been a complete dud and we would have received next to nothing had GWS taken him. All in all I'm happy with the 2 compensation picks we received because there's no way to tell whether or not Scully will amount to anything, and we got rid of a selfish, money-hungry player.