La Dee-vina Comedia

Welcome Bob Bob to the board. And I'm old enough to remember when '2 bob' was worth something.

Heard him on 3AW this morning: he's retiring from the Herald-Sun will continue with 3AW football and Fox the article formerly known as 'Mike Sheahan's Top 50' will remain with the Herald Sun and will presumably be [insert name of Herald-Sun Chief Football writer]'s Top 50 in future refused to name his successor when asked by Peter Blunden (Herald Sun's Managing Editor - Sheahan said it would be like Cameron Ling advising Chris Scott who Geelong's next captain should be) said Wayne Carey was the best footballer he's ever seen, with Leigh Matthews second said Ron Barassi was the best coach Personally, I think he was a great football writer and speaker. I dread who his replacement might be. I suspect Mark Robinson would be the favourite...but he's definitely not in Mike Sheahan's class (and wouldn't be my choice).

Mind you, this JT might have been our second pick on the day, as was our other JT - but we can expect a big difference in skill levels between a pick in the 50s and pick 2.

Although West Coast won in 1992 - their 6th year in the competition; Adelaide in 1997, their 7th year; and Port Adelaide in 2004 which, from memory (I'm happy to be corrected), was their 8th year in. Of course, poor old Freo is still waiting...

Don't forget teams had much bigger lists in those days, so teams recruited larger numbers of players to fill out two teams to play each weekend. I have no recollection of any of the players from that draft who never got to play a senior game, but they might have ended up playing a large number of reserves games...similar to players today who play solely for Casey.

If you have a choice between conspiracy and [censored]-up, go with [censored]-up every time. I'm not saying conspiracies don't occur. Of course they do. But if you spend all your time looking for conspiracies, you'll end up wasting a lot of time and energy. So, by all means those who want to can continue to imagine a conspiracy. I'll just accept it was a [censored]-up.

Does this qualify for unco? I remember a game when Nicho came on from the bench with his tracksuit top still on. He probably didn't even get as far as the boundary line before he realised, but it was funny to watch.

Getting back on track and still talking about tattoos, I note that someone has likened one of our new draftees to Dustin Martin. I hope our newbie plays like him, but doesn't disfigure his body in the same way.

Actually, if there is no eyewitness to confirm identity I would have thought it was a good defence. Mind you, if the defendant did what he is charged with, I hope the jury has sufficient circumstantial evidence to find him guilty.

What a shock (twice)!

And I forgot the obvious "He gets his own ball"

I like the idea. But is it allowed? Can a person employed by or working on behalf of a club talk to another club's players at any time? (I know there was a 'window' for GWS in November 2010 to do something...was that discuss or actually offer contracts?)

As much as I like Frawley, Rivers and Garland, none is really able to play on the gorilla's like Cloke and Dawes. Neeld would, of course, have noticed how we were unable to stop Cloke last time we played the Pies. I had thought perhaps Sellar was recruited to play as a big bodied defender, but Neeld's comments suggest otherwise. I like a few astute comments on this board: that any pick over 40 is not really a 'risk' that if he gets a two year contract we can re-assess in 2 years time and if he's made it, great, and if he hasn't not a lot of damage that it allows Watts, Dunn and Bate to play a different role - that of the 4th tall or running players

I like to think I ask the significant questions on this site...has the Melbourne FC ever had a player called Rory before?

Well, it's time to predict the most important thing about draft day. What comments will the clubs, their recruiters and their recruits say? Will we get the time honoured "I couldn't believe player x was still available when it came to our turn" or perhaps "I couldn't read player x's number out fast enough"? How about "We drafted for best available" Or, (a new one, just for this year) "I really had hoped Brendan Fevola would find a new home, but he didn't fit with our plans at this time". Which top ten draft pick will say, "I wasn't sure if I was going to get picked at all...I'm just glad somebody wanted me". And then there's the simple, but effective "I'm stoked". i find this the most exciting thing about draft day. Oops, almost forgot my favourite "We expect player x to be a 200+ game player for us"

Touche.

For what it's worth, I don't think there's any such thing as a good tattoo. Reminds me of a report I received in a previous life where I was advised that a particular individual should not be allowed to do something because he was "involved in a bad murder". I often wonder how that differs from a good murder.

Interesting how much assessment of Prendergast in this thread is based on who we selected and not on who we didn't. I would have thought any proper in-house performance assessment would also consider who wasn't picked (and was available) and the reasons why Prendergast didn't select him. Of course, we know who wasn't selected, but we don't know why.

So is Lynden Dunn's

Yes, he officially won by 31 lengths. Here's a good story from Belmont Stake's official website He started at odds of 1/10 that day. Secretariat also was the highest (of 3) non-human athletes in ESPN's list of 100 top North American athletes of the 20th century. And, I repeat, I'm not a horse racing fan. It just captured my imagination when it happened.

While I'm satisfied with Prendergast's performance, I think only McKenzie and to a lesser extent Bail can be considered from this list to have "made it" and therefore I don't think we should claim he has a "massive strike rate" at this stage. Davis and Lawrence are yet to play a game, Tom Mc has only played two (albeit impressive games) and Evans and Nicholson a handful each. Jurrah's case is different. He only ended up in the PSD because, as I understand it, he was unable because of his remote location to lodge for the National Draft by the due date. If he had been in the National Draft I suspect he would have been picked up there rather than "slipping" through to the PSD. As our Prime Minister would say, probably a bit too much "hyper-bowl".

You may or may not be right. But Prendergast can't be blamed for recruiting players Neeld doesn't want. He could be criticised if he had recruited players Bailey didn't want - but I see no evidence of that. I assume Prendergast followed instructions with respect to what Bailey thought were the needs of the club at that time. I have no doubt one of the instructions given under Bailey was to recruit players with character (although in hindsight I think he failed with a certain Pick No. 1...but that is in hindsight. I don't recall anyone here being critical of the recruitment of Scully at the time). In short, I have no idea whether Neeld wants to retain the services of Prendergast. But, given the almost complete change of assistant coaches and fitness staff since Neeld's arrival, it's not impossible to foresee that this year's drafts may be Prendergast's last.

The (a) and (v) explanations were included in the printed edition of The Age. Although Tom McDonald wasn't.

Two things... 1. Does anyone else find it odd that the Melbourne FC website story quotes Michael Gleeson from The Age as if the only way the club found out about the profit is from the media? 2. Does anyone know whether Melbourne FC received special funding from the AFL last year? if so, perhaps we are still a 'poor' club. But hopefully moving in the right direction.

So Geelong's decision in 2003 was as successful as eleven other selections over 25 years and had no negative salary cap implications.