Hannabal

Brendan Fevola makes my skin crawl. I'd rather watch and listen to him in preference to Russell. Hate the guy.

I've had chats to Paul Connors at Casey Fields watching the TAC carnival. He manages Watts and Blease, amongst others. He's quite aware of Casey and its attributes. However, he may well have asked about training possibilities around Gosch's paddock.

He's 25, not 30. Did anyone see how good he was in the GF ? Ross Lyon obviously wants the game played a certain way and for what ever reason Ball ended up on the outer, but that doesn't mean he won't be suited to a prime contested ball role at Melbourne. He's a terrific midfielder that would add polish, hardness and contested ball winning ability to our midfield. We've had the worst midfield in the competition, so why would you even think about a HBF over a proven mid ? Someone like Ball would be the perfect foil for Scully while he finds his feet. If he's not available I don't mind the McDonald option.

Ball's manager Paul Connors looks after Watts, Blease, Miller and a few others. Connors is well aware of how good we're going to be in a few years. He's well equipped to talk to Ball about our on-field prospects. It gets back to how quickly we expect to be playing Finals and start becoming a genuine contender. I suspect that this will have a bearing on his decision.

One is a Best and Fairest winner and an All Australian midfielder who has toughness and courage personified and one is a Half Back Flanker. You can please yourself, but I'd take Ball every day of the week.

Fancy Saints supporters saying that about a player that walked out on them. Ball has averaged 20 games a year over the last 7 seasons, but supposedly that average is about to be halved. Yeah right. I hope we get him.

North are gutted at losing him. Plenty at the club have tried to convince him to stay. He's been a required player, which is why he wasn't traded last week. They didn't offer him a contract that was designed to make him walk. Obviously his body is a massive concern, which would see many clubs steer clear of him, but he's a fantastic footballer. Just a natural talent. And Rhino, if Freak says he's "overrated", what does that tell you ?

That's absolute rubbish as usual. Ball has been a better footballer than McLean. At his best he was far harder, a better clearance player, and faster. We all know that injuries have cruelled him, but he was AA for a reason. McLean has never gone close to AA. And getting back to hard/tough. McLean was never hard. I thought he would be, but who has ever seen McLean go for the footy in the kamikaze style of Luke Ball, Selwood, or Voss ? Ball used to get concussed every second week due to his kamikaze efforts.

Paul Connors manages Jack Watts and Sam Blease, as well as Miller and other Dees. Connors knows that the Dees will be a powerhouse in the not too distant future (I know this first hand as I'm another Old Xav ), so he'll not bag the Dees. It really gets down to whether Ball wants to go to the reigning wooden spooner coming off a GF. That will be the crux of the matter. He needs to be convinced that we're very quickly a chance of playing Finals footy. I occasionally chat to Paul because our boys are friends at Primary School. He knows I'm a Dees nut and unprompted recently said to me "you'd want to be a Melb supporter for the next 10 years". This was on the back of getting Scully and Trengove together with our recent acquisitions. Ball knows we'll be good. Just how quickly is the key ?

Technically four options, but in reality only two.

There's a lot of room.

Jake Niall: "Trade for show, draft for dough".

At the same age Jamar was half the player Mumford is now.

Pick 9 for Jamar is completely fanciful. The guy is serviceable at best. It just won't happen. And Jamar plus crap player, plus crap player, plus crap player still doesn't = pick 9.

I'm wondering if a poster has ever had worse luck than you. Everything you predict becomes the opposite. Most recently, we were never going to have picks 1 and 2. We have access to every player in the draft from pick 10 onwards. Isolating a static pick proves little. Why is pick 11 suspect just because another club may have stuffed up the same pick years ago ? The better way to look at it is to pool the likely players to be considered at such a pick, i.e players taken between picks 10 and 20 in any given draft. Follow ? Didn't think so.

With reference to balance perhaps you'll now list his failures.

I know it's bordering on unbelievable, but earlier in the year on 7's Sunday morning show I twice heard Robinson say "youse" when referring to his fellow commentators. A journalist. I don't expect you to believe me.

Jamar isn't worth a top 20 pick, so I'd only consider trading him for a player. Little wonder that Melb have offered him a 2 year deal. Unfortunately, he's worth more to us than anyone else. The spud.

You've got to be joking. Jamar isn't worth a top 20 pick. "Jolly shades Jamar, but Jamar is younger"

His big body is required in the forward line and his leadership amongst a young group is valued.

Naturally, I'm talking future tense, as neither have played AFL. Does one have to explain the bleeding obvious, Barry ?

No need to apologise, but suffice to say I take your opinion with a grain of salt. And I'm quite happy to label both stars. I have no doubt.

I didn't go into too much depth as I'm aware of doing the 'Dappa Dans'. I was talking more of "hard nosed" mids, which is why I didn't refer to the Blease type, and I rate him btw, but I want that hard core that can be the driving force of a tough, but effective midfield. And it might be a Jones or Moloney, but I suspect that we need one more hard mid with a bit more class than those two. But yes, the Sam Blease type will be every bit as important to our future success. And when I say "type" with reference to Blease I'm in no way insinuating that he's soft, but he's more a fast running, line breaking, ball carrying and goal kicking mid.

Scully, Trengove and Morabito are the three standouts. Trengove may not have the X-factor, but he'll impact on more games more often. He's the footballer's footballer. We need to get a core group of hard nosed mids that rivals the best in the land. Brisbane had Voss, Black, Lappin, and Power; West Coast had Judd, Cousins, Kerr and Fletcher; Geelong have Ablett, Selwood, Bartel and Corey; Saints have Hayes, Montagna, Dal Santo and Goddard; and Melbourne have had plodders. Scully, Trengove, Grimes and one more in their age bracket are pivotal to our future. I don't really rate the talls that are likely at 11 and wouldn't mind a Koby Stevens type to add to the group. I'm hoping that we might be able to trade in a promising tall.