PaulRB

Hey Stuie just because another person doesn't agree wholeheartedly with your view of a topic does not mean they "lack understanding" or are "confused", they just see it from a different perspective to you.

I suspect that Caroline's story was prompted by the opposite of what she claimed, i.e. that the AFL is actually going to do nothing. So she's trying to stir the pot and set the AFL up as weak when they announce their "verdict", hence creating a "story" that the media can masticate on for a couple more weeks.

The Melbourne are not a "credible destination" is total crud. Last year we poached Clark from under Freo's noses, are they therefore more or less attractive than us? This year we beat the Doggies and potentially others for the services of Dawes, are they therefore more or less attractive then us? Who did we seriously target to have them choose to go to another club? Cloke and Ray chose to stay at their current club, all the other players we targeted we got. Only one club landed a "big fish" in the Bummers landing Goddard, and we were not interested in Goddard for the same reason the Saints were not interested in keeping him, he's too old for our window. Who did North add? Who did Tigers add? Who did Adelaide add? Etc... Sick to death of media regurgitating the belief that we are the perennial runt of the litter. It's total rubbish.

The key to what we've done is to provide experienced support and leadership to the cluster of talented kids coming through the club so they develop to their full potential. If we can get an across the board improvement of 10 - 15% this year from Clark (a full year uninjured), Dawes (back to his 2010 form), Jones (continued improvement), Grimes (2nd year captain and his first full season), Trengove (2nd year captain and should get is body right in 2013), Frawley (back to 2010 form, settled backline), Tom McDonald (another preseason of work to build his strength more) Blease ( realised in 2012 that hard work = success, is a convert), Watts (maturing well and able now to build on his frame and compete with men all over the ground), Howe (knows he could be a star if he works), Tapscott (had to trim down in 2012 and develope more strings to his bow, should be capable and confident all over the ground) Garland (played out of position in LATE 2012 has capacity now to play front or back) McKenzie (with Dawes and Clark to target should add more offensive disposals to his defensive style game), Viney (bang, knows whats required, hungry as, like to see him play forward pocket when not in middle), Strauss ( confidence player for whom injuries have stymied his momentum, if uninjured has line breaking capacity), Taggert, Tynan, Gawn, and pick 4, (Should all be pushing hard to play AFL games and if they are they'll have improved by more than 15%) If these 19 young men improve we'll be well on the way to climbing the ladder. Good trading period and it would seem we have the players and processes in place now to improve.

Read earlier in the year Craig talking about what they were looking to get out of training up North and he described the benefit as being another way to test and extend the players mental and physical capacities i.e. by training hard in the humidity.

Hey dees64 but if you're going to comment on or analyse our "draft picks in the past decade", you might want to include all the other top 20 picks we've had that are travelling ok, including our two young captains, etc...

We actually picked up Hogan, Barry, Dawes and Viney for picks 3,13 and 26, as the initial deal for Hogan/Barry for Pick 3 and 13, also gave us the pick 20 we used on Dawes. Big win, but the media have their beliefs that the MFC are a basket case and are happily twisting the facts to support this....

MAybe we're trying to Help the Saints deal with West Coast to get Ray?

Barrett uses the term "scatter gun approach" to describe anything more complex than Goddard to Dons. A simpleton who believes his own dribble.

Given Tippett can now not be traded today, he may end up in the ND which would increase the chances that Toumpass or Grundy will be there for us should we want them..?

Where's Stuie?

Tippett Likely to enter draft according to AFL chat... with GWS interested.

As they say "You've gotta break eggs to make an Omelette". We wanted Pedersen for our structure, roles and game plan, and Gysberts was languishing...

Martin and late pick for 33?

14 games at Casey?

Says more about Morton than Harrington.

Gysberts played 1 seniors game (9 disposals) and 14 Casey games in 2012.He was unable to break into one of the worst teams going around this year... being picked with an early pick gets you only so far.

Don't like losing high pick players, but Gys played 19 games in 3 years, was spoken of pre-season as a soft trainer with low fitness. He's been evaluated by Neeld, Craig and Misson and they decided to trade him. I'm ok with their decision.

Somehow I think Hulk Hogan would look better in No# 5..?

He won't play for WC unless a plane load of their current players crashes into the Nullabor plain.

Was a poor deal in 2007, now we're just looking to move on.

Recruited Cale in 2007, that's 5 years to work his way into the team. Moving on.

Pedersen hops to Melbourne Deal done, welcome Cam.

If you are trying to re-build a club based on hard work, commitment to the plan, and hardness in the contest, then you draft OUT those players lacking in these attributes, and draft IN those with these attributed in abundance. OUT: Moloney, Gyberts, Morton (prob?), Cook, etc... IN: Viney, Pick 4 (Wines?), Hogan, Dawes, Pedersen, Byrnes, Rodan. No point holding onto a player who does not fit into the team or culture you are trying to build. Good luck Jordan. Welcome aboard Cam Go Dees.

Could be a great mentor to Barry and some of the others young forwards.