Lucifers Hero

Todd Viney - the gift that keeps on giving: " It's understood Lewis' link to the Demons stemmed from a strong relationship with former Hawks assistant and now Melbourne player personnel manager Todd Viney. Lewis mentored Viney's son, and now Demons star Jack Viney during Jack's days playing in the TAC Cup: . http://www.theage.com.au/afl/hawthorn-hawks/afl-trades-2016-hawthorn-say-jordan-lewis-wants-to-stay-despite-melbourne-hopes-20161014-gs2lnm.html Its almost like Lewis is one of the Dees family!

While we are all looking at the Hawks it seems that Goldstein may be on the move: "A source close to the Kangaroos told WAtoday Goldstein wants out of the Roos because of a personal issue and was seriously considering moving west". http://www.theage.com.au/afl/west-coast-eagles/afl-trade-week-shock-is-roos-ruckman-todd-goldstein-heading-to-west-coast-20161014-gs2gd7.html Hawks and North have both blindsided their players. Moral of the story: No surprises- a club can be ruthless but treat your veterans with respect or else other players will be looking for the exit!

It was reported yesterday that Jordan Lewis selected the Demons as his (only) club to approach and that Hogan was a major attraction (paraphrasing the story). Even if the Lewis trade does not happen, that he has said that goes a long way to making us a 'destination' club. It is reasonable to think that other players will think, '...gee if Lewis thinks that maybe we should have a closer look...' Lewis did us a big big favour nominating the Dees! Put us on the radar, so to speak! The value of Jesse's signature cannot be underestimated in making us a 'destination' club. Mahoney alluded to that at the time of the announcement.

Yes, 'time will tell' with just about every post on Demonland! In the meantime I'm happy to see the spotlight on the smug Hawks for a change, sit back and enjoy it. Popcorn time! For too long the spotlight was on us for even the most trivial things. It feels really good for us to be the dignified club, which didn't leak and even now has refrained from making any comment to anyone in the media while the mighty Hawks are scrambling and in 'damage control'...yes, very dignified by the Demons to say nothing even after the news broke!

I assume that means the Hawks board - they probably flipped yesterday when it hit the news and pulled the plug. Clarkson may start to feel some heat from the media, fans and his club for the first time in his coaching career. 'Midas' no longer.

Hawks re-contracted Burgoyne, Hodge, Mitchell, Gibson this year, when they were 2 games clear on top of the ladder, perhaps thinking they had the 4th flag in the bag. That may well go down as their biggest blunder! Then our baby Demons came along and beat them playing fast, relentless football, giving them a view of the future and we started their fall from the top of the ladder. Then they watched GWS dismantle Sydney the same way and must have been shocked to see WBD run and run their way to the flag. Clarkson saw the fast running football of the future and didn't like his chances of competing. So he started reneging on the deals with his champions sowing the seeds for a 'winter of discontent'... Have to wonder if Clarkson has panicked. Wouldn't be surprised if some of Hawk's multi premiership players who are playing for 'unders' watching this week unfold will call their managers to look for other opportunities and a chance to earn some decent coin before they retire or get 'pushed' by a ruthless coach. Our victory over the Hawks may well go down as a watershed game that started the demise of the once mighty Hawks

Collingwood's arrogance has no bounds: "The Courier Mail is reporting the Magpies offered Levi Greenwood for Rockliff and also wanted the Lions to pay a major part of Rockliff's wage next season" WOW, that is such an insult to all concerned - offering a player they want to offload for an AA Captain! What are they on! I guess it is typical. Btw his contract is not $800k - that is what he (reportedly) wanted when he tried to renew his contract mid year. Lions balked big time, so it would be fair to say his contract is somewhat less than that. I'm not a fan of recruiting Rockcliff but if the Club were to go down that path and it appears there are no other takers, we should be able to get him for a reasonable and fair offer to the Lions. Rockcliff may need to take a bit of a haircut on his package as well, to fit our 'we do not pay overs' policy. Edit: Just saw this on Barrett's 'Trading Places'. I know he is not always reliable but when there is no bidding competition 'bargains' can be had. Brisbane Lions the Lions get offered any pick under 35 for Rocky ... ... they'll take it. As it stands, no club is prepared to do that. Says a fair bit about where he's at.

Great exposure for the women's team 'waynewussell', well done! Bbo - you can be so exasperating, sometimes - that is so demeaning. On a different note the club has a new tab on our website AFLW which gives so much info about the player profiles, news etc and will soon have the fixture. Worth a look at it.

Clarkson has always been a loose canon and it was Chris Fagan that held it all together. He has only been gone 10 days and it starts to unravel. Clarkson has upset a big batch of players suggesting they be the ones to go to GCS or like Mitchell and Lewis to move on. They have all accepted 'unders' to play there. It may well be everyman for himself in the future!

Headline: Hawthorn in Damage Control! Hate to gloat but gee it is sweet to see that club with egg on its face!

A destination club at last!! I would imagine a number of Hawk players would be feeling less secure knowing the 'encouragement' Clarko gave Mitchell to go to WCE and starting to look elsewhere!

Hardly sounds a convincing rebuttal - usually that is code for 'we are open to discussions'. Hawks still need to get the O'Meara deal done and take 3 picks to the draft. Currently their picks in 2016 are: 23, 36, 54, 72, 90 and 108. So they give up a batch of 2017 picks and or players...some water to go under the bridge before they land the the Big O! If not Lewis maybe we can lure someone else away form Hawks?

Brett Anderson (SEN reporter and Demon supporter) was just on SEN. Both he and Huddo had not heard anything from or about mfc trades. (That is a worry because it is player managers who are the chatty ones). While I'm very happy for us to not leak, time is marching on to get things done. I don't think we should simply chase any player whose name is mooted in the media. However, I will be really disappointed if we don't get a Max backup.

Gil washed his hands of it six months ago: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/essendon/afl-boss-gillon-mclachlan-says-jobe-watsons-2012-brownlow-presents-afl-commission-with-its-most-difficult-decision-ever/news-story/f31c498b2bc4d7546ac6228df0f7a30c Gil says: “I’ve made it clear to a number of people that I would not sit on that decision. Hopefully no one will think I’m trying to shirk that dreadful responsibility, but because to perform my function as the CEO in the lead-up and during I need to have conversations that would look like I wouldn’t necessarily come in with clean hands.” What else would we think! He is just totally incapable of making a decision and a strong need to be the 'good guy' and has hand balled it to the Commission. No respect at all for him.

The media seems to be running the line 'poor Collingwood' as the comp picks the AFL have given out make it harder for Coll to get its father/son picks (Brown and Daicos) as those comp picks have reduced the draft points their picks now attract. Hello, it is the ridiculously generous offers that Collingwood gave Wells and Mayne that caused the AFL comp picks to be so high. They only have themselves to blame! Sheesh!

I didn't compare the two. I clearly said I would prefer Enright by a country mile. To repeat: My point was that having recruited Chaplin, how many rookie coaches can a young developing team have? Especially without the guiding hand of a Roos or a Balme at the helm. The role Roos or a Balme had/have is very different to player and coach performance that Macca now has. They called the shots on all things coaching and player management decisions while others had day to day responsibility for making the decisions happen. Folks, please read what I actually write! Definitely, checking out now

They went when Macca did, as did Cam Mooney. McCartney still reports to Goodwin rather than the other way round. McCartney is more of a senior assistant. Yes, we have experienced people in other positions at the club: Viney, Mahoney etc and agree it is great to have them but they are not day to day coaches, nor will they be calling the shots. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have Enright. My point was that having recruited Chaplin, how many rookie coaches can a young developing team have? Especially without the guiding hand of a Roos or a Balme at the helm. Anyway, will leave it at that.

I hope not. We have enough rookie coaches having recently recruited Troy Chaplin, Egan and Goodwin aren't that experience either. Ditto, Cross is inexperienced as a development coach. Is Shannon Byrne still with us? We suffered badly when Neeld came in as a rookie coach and brought in some quite inexperienced coaches. I'm not comparing Neeld to Goodwin, just saying there is a limit to the lack of experience on a coaching panel, especially with such a young team and a leadership player group still learning the ropes. While we have Macca as a very experienced senior coach, we don't have a 'coaching director' ala Neil Balme to stand back and co-ordinate it all and 'call the shots'. Roos performed this role along with the senior coach role last year. Anyway, do we even have a coaching spot available? We have lost 2 and added 2? If we didn't have Chaplin I'd be all for Enright, in fact I'd prefer him by a country mile.

Rockcliff apparently shows little respect to his teammates especially junior ones and is to known have a tyrant like leadership style. He and Hanley went to Bali for their end of season break while most of the team went somewhere else; nothing inherently wrong with that but doesn't show a lot in the way of leadership from the captain and vice captain. He recently got into hot water over some derogatory tweets. Very poor role model. Also has big tickets on himself. On the football side he gets a lot of possessions but doesn't do a lot of damage. Compare him to our own Captain Jones who arguably has gone thru tougher times than Rockcliff to see where the latter has failed as a leader and as a senior player/role model. It is no wonder their young players want out year, after year! We don't need his type around our club.

Our 2nd rounder is now 29 My summary of FA compensation picks, at the time they were handed out, is: Richmond for Vickery: Band 3, 2nd round = pick 26 North for Wells: Band 3, 2nd round = pick 32 Freo for Mayne: Band 3, 2nd round = pick 23 Note: but it is a moving feast so hard to track all the machinations. Plus Brisbane priority pick impact. Our 2nd round pick was 26 so the Brisbane pp, the Vickery and Mayne comp picks put us back 3 places, now our pick is 29. The Wells one doesn't affect that pick as they finished higher than us on the ladder but it does put all later picks back. Gee, Collingwood have certainly handed some big gifts to North and Freo...you have to wonder what on earth they are doing! Here is the latest draft order with all the machinations Indicative 2016 AFL Draft Order

For those who are interested Whispering Jack has opened this thread in the Women's League Forum: So, follow our new draftees over there. Our high picks are 8 and 9. A thoughtful touch by Pederson. He tweeted: It's been a long time coming! All the best to everyone that gets drafted in @aflwomens draft exciting times ahead

By the way, the story broke overnight in Perth, not by Purple this article is @ 4.56am http://www.theage.com.au/afl/west-coast-eagles/afl-trade-bombshell-could-hawks-premiership-hero-sam-mitchell-be-headed-west-20161011-gs04fv.html

I can't imagine Hawks (nor Adam Simpson) dragging Mitchell thru some shoddy horse-trading. People need to understand Hawks do not operate like 'greedy' clubs like Coll, Ess or poorly managed clubs. Hawks are very very professional. Hawks need: the list spot (none of their players will go to GCS) the salary cap space and a nothing pick to take their 3 minimum draftees as they will use all their other picks to get Mitchell (who want picks, not players) He is so highly respected they would let him walk for a nothing pick to get him where he wants to go.

Its worth listening to the interview. He had been thinking about it for a while and only discussed it with non-ball people. Didn't think that Hodge was even aware of it yet. Coaching appeals to him. Would only consider 1 or 2 clubs and the pull of working with Simpson was a big factor for him. Sounded to be as much of his doing. Highly mature and dignified man and interview. As I said above I wish he was coming to us - he is exactly what we need at our stage of development. Edit: he said it is a win for Hawthorn, WCE and the Mitchell family.

Sam Mitchell is being interviewed on SEN. Said it could help Hawthorn if he played somewhere else. Sounded like he would leave. Reluctant to say it but purple does have excellent contacts - he is usually right. TBH, I wish he was coming to us - we desperately need a confident on-field general. A few months ago I posted it would be good to get Hodge a a playing coach, if his contract wasn't renewed. Mitchell would fit the playing coach role perfectly and would be excellent for our players. His on-field leadership is unsurpassed.