poita

I don't get why people still have their knickers in a bunch about Scully. He accepted the offer of a lifetime, which nobody in their right mind would have knocked back given how short the average AFL career is. Look at Trengove - we all admire his loyalty, but he could well be out of the game by the end of the season, and what are his income prospects for the rest of his life? And with two first round picks in return, we hardly lost out over the deal. Who cares if Scully said he was staying during the season? He could have said he was leaving, but do we really want to operate like the NRL where half the team has signed to play elsewhere by mid season? Franklin supposedly met with Sydney the day after Hawthorn lost the 2012 GF, but it didn't stop him being a decent player in 2013.

What century are we living in? The employment agreements also mandate that pre season training cannot start until a certain date, but we have negotiated around that. I'm pretty sure that the sharpest minds at the club can find a way to get the game played on Saturday and still give the players two days off. As much as some people disagree, this is an entertainment business and you go where the people are. They are not at Cranbourne at 2pm on a Thursday.

I have plenty of time for both Clisby and Magner, and would love to see them do well (although preferably not against us). Both are considerably better players than some others who were given far more opportunities over the past few years.

Totally agree. You'd think sporting clubs would want supporters to come and watch them play, but this one certainly doesn't. They can't do it on the weekend because ?????

Hi All. I have received an invite from Robbo (thank you) and have joined the league as PC Demons. If original coaches return I am happy to make way, but I am looking forward to being involved. Obviously as a new coach I would prefer to start with a clean slate, but will happily go along with the majority either way.

I'd be happy to join in if you are looking for new coaches.

Our record of nominating and developing leaders in recent years has been nothing short of abysmal, and I remain sceptical that this group is a significant improvement on previous years. Jones is the stand out player and leader on our list, and deserves to be stand alone captain. Dunn, thankfully, seems to be far removed from the player who gave us mediocre performances interspersed with moronic actions over the first 8 years of his career and deserves his title. Grimes is also clearly a leader, and I am glad he remains part of the leadership group, but clearly he needs to step up as a player this year. After that, I'm not so sure. Dawes proved with his two shameful suspensions last year that he is not a leader, and I'm disappointed that Roos hasn't given him a roasting for these. Lumumba has not played a game for the club and was shown the door by his previous club for not toeing the party line - what part of that says leader?. I love Cross and the way he approaches his footy but, if he is still a walk up start by round 23, it will be a fair sign that none of our fringe midfielders have stepped up.

The one and only thing that matters regarding the match day experience is the quality of the game. Everything else is a load of crap that most people tune out to. If the team ever plays properly, we will start attracting crowds and the experience will improve exponentially. Having said that, I'm pretty sure that nobody would object to a curtain raiser. Ideally a stand alone VFL side, but any genuine game would do (eg VWFL games). Actually, the one thing that the club should do is partner with Metro Trains to get supporters to the ground cheaper. It is ridiculous that the cost of getting to a game is about half of the cost of actually attending the game.

Just my opinion, but some strange ideas being raised here. Dunn and Jamar have been underwhelming for most of their careers and hardly provide an example of something to aspire to. I don't doubt Roos' commitment whilst he is here but, with a three year ceiling on his tenure, he will end up coaching less games than Bailey. He is hardly an icon of the club. And Jackson, for all his excellent work, has no place on the banner. Please keep it to the current and past greats of the club, those who have excelled over a long period of time.

That would seem to be about the right level for Tapscott. I don't recall him ever dominating in the VFL.

Clearly the ruck prospects available this year were lacking in both quality and quantity, given how few were taken across all drafts. However, our ruck brigade is as poor as any in the competition and we need to fix this in the near future. I have no view on Hannath as a player but, if we were eager to draft him, the circumstances in which we missed out on him were a sad indictment on the club at the time. Jamar has barely played a decent game in three years, and should have been traded at the end of 2012 (instead of Martin). Clearly he is an okay tap ruckman, but he is a liability around the ground. Gawn is the best overall ruckman on our list by some margin, but obviously can't be relied upon to play regularly. I like Spencer's work rate, but his lack of kicking and marking ability limits his upside. King is unproven and will need to show something at Casey this year. There were times last season when we lost nothing by having Pedersen in the ruck, who at least can take a mark around the ground. Obviously that doesn't work against a top notch ruckman who would destroy an undersized opponent, but there is an argument for having a utility ruckman in certain circumstances.

The probability of either Gawn and Jamar making a noticeable contribution to the forward line is so minute such a number is yet to be invented. I think our best hope is to tether Hogan and Dawes to a goal post each, and have a group of crumbers at their feet. As long as they can make a contest in the air, we should be able to at least hold the ball in our forward line for longer this year. Just tell the midfield to kick the ball long as soon as they get it, rather than going backwards and sideways.

There is still a far better strike rate with Irish kids than there is with New Zealanders. How much time and effort did we waste on Maia Westrupp?

Well done to all involved. That is the best possible news. Now to repay Nathan's faith by winning a few games in the next five years.

The first thing Dawes needs to do is stay in the forward line. Unless we are defending a 1 point lead in the last minute of a game, there is absolutely no reason he should be wandering around the wing / half back line.

Some of you people need to get over yourselves. If Tom had his time again, I'm sure he would do things a little differently, but you can hardly blame the guy for making a decision to set himself up for life. Particularly in an industry in which the average career lasts for about 4 years. Why should he have any loyalty to the MFC, particularly when we all knew the place was a basketcase? He is a professional footballer who had the misfortune to be drafted by the club at its lowest point. As if any of you would not take the money and run if someone tried to poach you from your current employer with a guaranteed 6 year deal at 4x your market wage.

If there is a spare place, please include me. Team name will be PC Demons.

Tapscott and Strauss were both poor selections, who were never going to make it in any circumstances. I would love to visit the parallel universe where Blease was taken by Hawthorn at pick 16 and see how his career panned out. Nevertheless, it does feel like the end of an era and hopefully the next crop do a better job.

Both Robertson and McDonald came to the club through the national draft and were subsequently demoted to the rookie list. I don't know or why that happened - it certainly wouldn't be allowed today. I would suggest it has been quite a while since we have had a decent player taken directly through the rookie list - perhaps Wonnaeamirri was the last.

No thanks to the AFL for their pathetic coverage of the rookie draft. How hard is it to keep the draft tracker up to date?

Tall midfielder from the ACT.

They still haven't updated the team page to show profiles of the players we picked up in the trade period - why would you expect them to show news items on a timely basis?

(a) We didn't turn the list over enough so we didn't bring enough young talent into the club. We could easily have delisted the likes of Strauss and Tapscott last year, and have been no worse off, other than a few $$ down the drain. (b) I'm not 100% sold on Salem becoming a genuine AFL midfielder, and both JKH and Hunt are both utility types, rather than meeting our number 1 need of getting our hands on the footy more. Hunt seems a long way off being an AFL player and I'm not sure how he fits in to Roos view of an ideal fit for AFL football.

Time will obviously tell how we fared last night, but the two big ticks for me are: (1) taking footballers over athletes, and (2) taking pure midfielders / key position players over utility types. It has been a long, long time since we did that. I think last year's draft was a missed opportunity, although I quite like JKH, but I feel quite positive this time.

I know that Colin Wisbey was fairly highly regarded at the time, but I wouldn't be using the opinions of someone who had Maric at 8 and McNamara at 14 as the voice of reason in this scenario. Note also the absence of Dangerfield from that list. It doesn't seem like too many people saw him becoming the star that he is today.