Jaded No More

Sauce? Steven King + Gardiner > Ferguson.

Hugh Sandilands... any relation to the giant from Freo?

What I want to see is a new coach giving White no more than 50% time in the ruck. We are never going to move on and develop replacements if we insist on letting White ruck for the majority of the game. I expected White to do no more than 50% of the rucking in 2007, but he continued to be our number 1 dominant ruck. Jamar is actually a good tap ruckman, we should utilize his skills there because he does little to nothing around the ground. PJ has to get better, otherwise he won't survive. Practice may not make perfect, but it'll definitely tell us whether or not he can cut it. Will be interesting how this new Meesen guy is used. Will he automatically be given 2nd ruck with Jamar as depth and PJ playing elsewhere on the ground, or will those 3 have to battle it out on a rotation policy?

On the half forward flank, to help keep the ball in the forward line and exert some pressure on opposition defenders when the ball is not marked directly. He's a lovely mark and kick, but IMO his influence in the midfield is minimal. He will never be a champion midfielder, but he could be a champion half forward.

I understand where you are coming from Old, but Neita deserves to go out on his own terms. Even for a team that is focused on growing and building, Neita is a huge asset. Who better to have around the club as a leader and a benchmark for the kids? Besides, he can still play a bit. Newton and Bate are not ready to be the main forwards just yet. There is starting fresh and building a new culture, and there is ripping the heart and soul out of the club. Neita should play next season and celebrate our 150th season, just don't expect him to be kicking bags of goals each week.

It would be nice to get the membership forms first...

There is no doubt that having no pre-season is a big disadvantage to any player. My worry is that we can't carry him if he consistently can't participate in pre-season training. He has to get his body right and he has to start delivering. Eventually, the excuse of injuries won't cut it anymore.

I've quite clearly met him in a difference capacity to you. Whenever I've met him he's been extremely arrogant, even before he was drafted he was arrogant.

Damn it! Cotchin would be a good reward for having a crap season yet still not tanking like those bastards from Princess Park. I'll be praying for a miracle, but I'm sure that even if Cotchin is taken with a top 3 pick, that we'll still get a good kid with pick 4. It's an early enough pick where the return is generally high. I would however like to stay the hell away from anyone who has/had/is showing signs of having OP.

We could get Whitnall, or I can just pull on the boots and play for Melbourne. For one, I'd do it for free. I'm about as fit as he is, and I don't have any brothers I can take to court. The man is finished as an AFL footballer, so unless we've somehow turned into a retirement village for NQR players, I suggest we leave him alone.

We obviously didn't think he was injured, and his age was a good fit at the time as we thought we were a chance to win a flag. From memory, we didn't pay a whole lot to get him, and he gave us good service. His time with us was short, but I really enjoyed having him in our forward line. IMO our forward line was at its most productive when he was on the field. I wish we could find a 'crumber' like him again, big, aggressive, and with a magical boot. We absolutely lack forward pressure, especially when Davey is running around in the midfield.

Perhaps TJ can win games off his own boot, in fact, I'm sure he could, but he never has at Melbourne. I don't remember him ever winning us a final. Even that night against Adelaide, when he played to his true potential, we still did not win. It was not for lack of effort on TJ's behalf, but the point is, his performance did not win us the match, it never has. mo64 summed it up beautifully. There are more than one reason why we traded TJ. If he behaved off the field and trained the way Bruce or Green or any of our other senior players do, I believe he'd finish off his career in red and blue, unfulfilled potential and all.

I had a bit of a thing for Michael Clark, but man he was a dud! Would you rather have kept pick 20, or get Ben Holland? Keep in mind that we could have chosen someone good with pick 20, since we are not Richmond and we do know how to draft. Vardy was a great get, but he was too old and too injured. A shame because he was a gun right up to his retirement. Medhurst is a troll!

It's because I'm posting on Demonland while doing INCOTERMS calculations. My aging brain can't focus on more than one thing at a time.

Oh dear... And I didn't even have jaggerbombs last night!

You're right, our senior players are complete underachievers, which is why Bailey is trying to build a team around our kids. TJ is a supremely talented guy. It would seem reasonable that a number 1 pick, who earns $400,000 a year would finish in the top 10 in the B&F more than twice in 10 seasons. Compare him to Junior, a far far less talented player. Junior has won back to back B&Fs and made the AA team at 30 years of age after a knee reconstruction. He is the sort of player who gets the most out of himself, and deserves our admiration. Neita has won plenty of accolades in his career, while Robbo has been in our top 3 goal kickers consistently for around 6 years. He also won a B&F, and finished in the top 10 more than twice. White has been an AA, a B&F winner and has carried us in the ruck for nearly 10 seasons. He does his bit every week. I agree with you completely on Bruce. He is also an underachiever, who I would have been happy to trade for a top pick. Unfortunately, he signed a new deal at the start of the season, so we couldn't trade him. Green is a different cattle of fish (yes, I said fish ). I think if he stayed up forward he would have been a far better player. He is an average midfielder, but a good leader. He brings a lot to this club off the field. Speaking of off-field issues, while all of our senior players are prone to underachieving, they have all represented the club with pride. They do the right thing off the field, and they are good ambassadors for the MFC. TJ was not, he loves to party, he loves a drink, he has issues with gambling and he lacks motivation. While I completely understand that supporters are saddened by his departure, I cannot understand the anger and abuse they are sending towards the club.

We might get Cotchin and this is a problem... If we get him, we should declare November 24 a day of celebration. He is a freak, as someone already said. I highly doubt West Coast won't choose him if he's available at pick 3, and there is no guarantee that Richmond will take Morton either. Cotchin will be a great replacement for TJ. You can never have too many class midfielders.

He speaks so well. Really really thrilled to hear that we're getting more support and development staff around the place. He said we'll have 2 development coaches next year, and I think this year we had none. Also said that we're looking, over the next 3 years, to bring a group of young players together. So quite clearly, we are not in a premiership mode.

The point of trading him is that we got an early pick which we can use to draft a kid who will be around for 10 years and will be part of a premiership side. The other point relates to discipline and off-field behaviour. He was setting a very poor example and Dean Bailey doesn't want to have to deal with crap like that from his senior players.

How do you know who we'll get with pick 14? You a fan of Bate? Jones? Dunn? Bell? They were all picked at around the same number in the draft. Besides, TJ is not going to be the difference between winning a flag or not, either. He has never won a final off his own boot, and he's unlikely to be around when we're challenging for a flag. Heffernan had nothing to do with the Woey trade, nothing. We traded Woey partly because he wasn't performing, and partly because we couldn't afford to pay him. I'm not even going to touch the Bell and Grgic comparison. It's so stupid, it's laughable.

What the hell? We got Pick 14 for Woey, which was used to draft Bell. Bell has 10 years of good footballer ahead of him. Woey just retired from the WAFL. We won BIG time from that trade. I wish supporters wait and see if we win again with this TJ trade. And even if we don't, I hope they don't jump off the bandwagon like the spineless supporters that they are. Club > Player. If you don't agree, you should go support tennis/golf/one of many individual sports. Sorry to sound so harsh, but honestly, this is bordering on insane. TJ won ONE B&F, no Brownlows, he never even made the AA side. A bit of perspective!

Watts is a tool... Was never going to make it given his attitude. He was a Collingwood jumper away from being FIGJAM.

The difference between Sylvia and TJ, is that Sylvia loves a contest. I also think that, despite appearances, TJ did love the club and was attached to the jumper. Sylvia doesn't strike me as the sentimental type. I do however agree that Sylvia needs to quickly change his ways or he'll be another player with 'potential' and nothing to show for it. You only need to look at his mate Brock, who was drafted the same year, has also struggled with injuries, and is not as naturally gifted as Sylvia. The difference in attitude and application is huge, however when they first got drafted, I think we all believed that Sylvia will be a better player. Now I'll be happy if he ever measures up to Brock.

His knee issue aside, I'd look at him if I didn't think that he is only capable of playing a lead and mark type role. We don't need anymore marking forwards, we need crumbing forwards and forwards who can apply pressure on the opposition when the ball hits the ground. He might be small, but much like Robbo, he plays as a tall leading forward. He'll make our forward line too one-dimensional.

We wanted Byron to have a mate. I actually think Whitnall would make a good coach one day, because he is a very smart footballer, he just lacks the physical attributes.