PaulRB

Struggling to see what deals could be done to satisfy Richmond in all this if its not GWS he's going to (and their special poaching rules). Would Martin be worth our Pick 2?

Shaw plus picks to tigers...

Pies Tough deal to get done.

It's awesome! sweet.

Given Roos' consensus style of communication, I'd be surprised if the prospective Senior Assistant has not been discussing this with Roos as it has evolved. The speed of the selection process implies that the delay on announcing the Senior Assistant is simply because they are still involved in the season, not because they are yet to decide...

Its clear that Roos' forst official assistant coach appointment (Allison) is not the Chosen One... And while we're on that, an ode to Roos as MFCs new coach http://youtu.be/g5gQSYRsor8

Ouch - http://images.theage.com.au/2013/09/11/4738419/aasp11afl3-20130911150036181960-620x349.jpg

Jack Watts to play with the intensity and courage of Jonathan Brown.

Given we lured Clark away from his prefered destination (WA) would we be interested in Polec?

It you look at Roos record with drafting, he seem to target team with red hot midfields and looks at midfielders that are struggling to get a game, i.e. Kennedy from Hawks. Dom could be similar?

Well get PP after our first pick (i.e. pick 3). Typical AFL style compromise. And not a bad result for us.

We need a star midfielder or two... and they too are best picked from the top of the draft. Judd - Pick 3 Hodge - Pick 1 Pendlebury - Pick 5 Murphy - Pick 1 Thomas - Pick 2 Deledio - Pick 1 Cooney - Pick 1 Goddard - Pick 1

Ablett, Judd, Hodge, Barlow, Pendlebury, etc... we need one of this calibre and we'll only unearth and develop one via a high pick (trade for or develop). The MFC needs a star mid-fielder or three... all efforts should be directed to acquiring these players because we're going nowhere till we have them. Stockpiling tall forwards cause we can, is daft.

A high draft pick, mature, seasoned player finishes 5th in B&F of the team that finished 17th... Disappointing. Taking his AFL player ranks as a guide he would be the 2nd best mid at Melbourne, which would equate to the 6th best at Hawks (just above Isaac Smith), or 8th best at Geelong (just above Joel Corey), or 7th best at Swans (above Craig Bird)... He's not going anywhere to play finals because on present form he'd be lucky to get a game in a top 4 team...

Even if Boyd is super talented, he is young and tall, meaning he'll need to be developed and eased into AFL footy with a good amount of time playing VFL. So we'd not benefit fully for a year or three... Hogan has just completed his year in the VFL and I doubt will be fully comfortable and dominating in the AFL for a couple of years. Given we have invested in the development of Fitzy, and Gawn as tal forwards (ruck) and have Dawes and Clark we simply don't need Boyd, unless we can trade one of our existing talls. And given the ego nature of trades we'd get alot more for a No# 1 draft pick requiring 2-3 years dev than any of the others given injuries etc... We need mids, got to trade.

Is there any word on what qualifies a player or assistant to be a likely coach? I'd love Captain Kirk to be the successor simply for the romance and symetry of it, but have no idea if he can actually coach well at this level... Is he? And why are people saying Ling would be a good coach?

If this guts Essendon, they can alway go begging for a Priority Pick after 7 years for 34 wins...

They have put it out there from the announcement today. Hence, it's on the table that they are likely to decide Melbourne's next coach with the appointment of the Senior assistant.

Voss? or Kirk?

Just reported in AFL site "Players union pushes for Bombers' release". Could be an opportunity or two for us?

Let the fun begin!!! Go Dees.

Perhaps the AFL should simply give us the picks they recently took from the Bombers...

Occurred to me that if you were an ambitious assistant coach you would be jumping at the opportunity to join Roos at Melbourne. The main reason being to learn from an experienced senior coach how to develop, lead and rebuild a team from the bottom of the ladder such that they can assail the top of the ladder. Given new senior coaches are generally appointed to struggling teams at the foot of the ladder learning how to take them up is the core skill required of any new coach. I suspect that MN having spend his apprenticeship at a successful Collingwood never fully understood the challenges of taking a team from bottom to top.

For a sobering look at the low quality of our midfield check out the AFL player rating gizmo (http://www.afl.com.au/afl/stats/player-ratings/overall-standings#club/CD_T90/position/midfielder)... Depressing.