PaulRB

Not injured, not able to hold his spot. Only conclusion is that he has spat the dummy and as they say "his papers are stamped". I liked his bullocking runs and long punts.

I hope you are right, that he is that good, and ready to roll come March 2014. I remember we picked up a promising Key forward a couple of years back with the first pick in the draft, and he plays as a back flanker these days. Shows promise, but it's taken 3 years... Similar progress from Hogan takes us to 2017...

To pass pick 4 to GWS for Hogan is in part designed to discourage GWS from selecting JW and allowing us to take him 2nd round. Does not make sense to select a player we need to wait a year for otherwise.

"The Crossing Guard", directed by Sean Penn was his best movie in last 30 I reckon. Heart breaking.

Last I can see is jaw injury - Nicholson to miss up to three weeks - from the 30th July. He would be a chance this week.

Gone 18. Green (retiring) 22. Moloney 45. Lawrence In limbo land, but keep if works out 24. Jurrah 3. Bartram 36. Davey Shown Sufficient potential/improvement Should Make it 17. Blease 19. Strauss 25. McDonald 34. Martin 35. Tapscott 26. Nicholson 44. Bail 49. Magner Have potential but too early or too injured to tell 5. Gysberts 37. Gawn 42. Spencer 30. Sellar 39. Jetta 21. Cook 32. Evans 41. Davis 43. Taggart 46. Tynan 47. Couch 48. Fitzpatrick 50. Sheehan 51. Williams

Makes me think that as opposed to Greeny being pushed to leave, he is keen to finish and move on in his life. I suspect if you can not see yourself being a part of our next successful phase, the prospect of another gruelling pre-season pushing yourself harder than ever before with no guarantee of games would be unappetising. Best wishes to you Brad, may you live long and prosper.

Getting Cloke will massively boost our chances of landing a quality mid or two. They are not mutually exclusive, if any thing the opposite.

Agree on not wanting to overpay, but given we have to pay 92.5 - 95% of our TPP each year I would be appalled if we were paying our current team as much as the Pies or Cats or Hawks need to pay their players (i.e. our boy are yet to get close to, yet alone win a flag) so we should have scope to pay more to players coming in (i.e. Cloke). To my thinking, if we land Cloke, we are a year closer to finals and GF. And I am really tired of waiting.

Given Neeld knows Cloke intimately, he'll know what he needs to thrive, be it midfielders, structure etc... The reason why we should throw the kitchen sink at Cloke, are not just the fact that he is a consistently high performing, premiership winning, All Australian CHF. Getting Cloke sends a clear message to experienced midfielders contemplating Melbourne as their next destination. US getting Cloke shouts, "The MFC is serious about winning our next flag, and soon!". Then there is the membership effect, how many extra members would "Cloke joins Melbourne" generate? I recall that Hird and Bomber to the Dons paid for itself in memberships in the first year. So would an extra 3000 Melbourne fans join (or renew) on a $250 membership if we got Cloke leading into 2013? If so, we have just added $750,000 to our income.

The take the tally from when the "likes" were introduced. I like the idea of the "Dolt award". Don't mind the "vote for" award as well as it rewards sheer volume (i.e. notoriety). I prefer a stats based award for quality over the season, hence the "Most Liked" award... and dividing by Number of posts (since "likes" introduced) means we are talking about quality rather than quantity.

Why not tally all members "Likes" divided by the "Number of posts" and whoever has the highest score is most popular (or at least most "liked")?

This thread is exactly why the AFL should change the rules so that... Every team plays every other team by end of Round 17 At the end of Rd 17 the draft order is set. This removes any motivation or talk about the benefits of losing (improving draft position) from Round 18 to 22/23. It makes winning the unambiguous goal of every team, even if they are playing new players, and shipping their established players of for early surgery, etc...

Irrespective of where Cloke ends up, the last lines of this article "Pie Botch-up" has got to put a smile on your face... And Trav playing for the Dees next year would salt that wound nicely...

Check his stats for this year and his contested marks and marks inside 50 are at least double the next Pie player... And that's him having a bad year in a premiership contending team. An some here say "pass! he's not good enough for the MFC". Wow. No really WOW!

Look into my eyes... "There is no tanking in the AFL."

All kings were once Jacks... I'd also see him as a plan B Big forward, if the Cloke trade falls through.

Sellar has heaps of upside and the struggle at, then being dropped by AFC, means he has the critical ingredient, Hunger. A couple of Neeld's pickups from last year have that ingredient i.e. Magner, and Couch. He drops some marks he should hold, yet rarely gets beaten. Is versatile with a big body, able to play ruck which means Clake should rarely have to pitch hit in the ruck. Another preseason, confidence and a bigger engine and we may have a regular 22 player. I am a fan.

Now the mo is gone the "real" Dunny will flourish. I like his agro and think the new coaching group will help him improve as a tagging HBF/defensive forward.

Yep it does. But this year there is a clear change in direction that is resulting in several "sacred cows" being put on the block, and a sense that this is our big chance to boost the list's experience (via FA), and unearth a geniune star via the draft.

The only way to be optimistic about this year is if you subscribe to the "one step back to take two steps forward" strategy. This year, "the one step back" involves: Getting games into the next gen, have then playing a solid brand of footy, Pushing the players hard to improve their fitness and mental fortitude Identifying who to keep and who to cut at end of 2012 Rebuilding the leadership group after a disastrous 2011 Bedding down and fine tuning the new FD, game plan and "elite" training regime Hence the focus on "non-winning metrics" such as the development of young players, defensive and clearance stats, marginalising of former leaders who are under-performing, etc... Otherwise known as "rebuilding our foundations".

Biffen's in trouble.

Interesting watching the Charlie Walsh interview he was talking about using the bike as a low impact training tool for Melbourne players. Of the Injuries there are - 3 x knee injuries 3 x foot injuries 1 x calf 1 x achillies 1 x ankle 1 x back 1 x shoulder From Melbourne injury list: Clint Bartram (knee) - season, Jamie Bennell (knee) - season, Mitch Clark (foot) - season, Aaron Davey (foot) - season, Max Gawn (knee) - season, Mark Jamar (calf) - 2 weeks, Stef Martin (foot) - test, Cale Morton (shoulder) - season, Ricky Petterd (Achilles) - season, Rory Taggert (back) - season, Jack Watts (ankle) - test

Mids are not the only ones to put the ball inside 50.

Cloke is No#1 for putting the ball inside 50m at Collingwood.