Lucifers Hero

Given that Bennell has been in WA for the last 3 weeks, I call BS on the meeting with Nev and Roos.

A very unusual story where the Bulldogs have asked the AFL to investigate a leak of their game plan for the Elim Final to the Crows: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/western-bulldogs-bring-in-afl-to-investigate-leak-to-adelaide-crows-20150922-gjsmi7.html "It is understood defender Michael Talia, whose brother Daniel is the Adelaide full-back, is at the centre of the investigation. Talia, who is out of contract and likely be traded, did not play in the last three games of the season, including the final in question. Fairfax Media understands that the club had been concerned that information - specific to the elimination final - had been passed from younger to older brother." Probably very innocent brotherly chat over a drink or the family dinner table. Still, pretty dumb especially as they were playing the next weekend in such an important game.

Bernie also named in the Coaches AA team: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-09-22/vince-named-in-aflca-allaustralian-team "AFL COACHES have taken a different approach to naming an All-Australian team, ditching traditional positions in favour of modern tactics." Its great to have a player that is an AA. Great achievement for Bernie at this stage of his career. I reckon he got a lot of his Coaches votes because in so many games he was able to lock down an opposing star while having a great offensive game himself! Really delighted for him.

Well done Bernie. Just shows that journos know zip! I would back the Coaches view every day of the week!

Caro said the same last night. She added that Danger was determined to get to Geelong without them giving anything up. Ostensibly, because he wants them to be successful when he gets there so he doesn't want them to trade and give up their 1st round pick(s)/player. She said that he might do a 'Luke Ball' (same Manager) and go into the PSD. But Garry (God bless him) piped up and said he would never get past the teams below Geelong...paraphrasing here: Demons would throw the cheque book at him and work out later how to get him to love playing for the club. That would put the 'cat' among the pigeons for the AFL...of course it won't get to that. We may need more popcorn!

Great idea 'binman'...with the '1812' or the 'William Tell' playing loudly across the ground so that any idiots that decide to boo will be drowned out!

There are mixed reports on whether Adam Goodes will join the retiring players motorcade on GF day. Everyone, especially the image conscious AFL, is afraid that he will be booed which would be a sad blight on the game and on many Australians at the game. So they may not try to hard to get him there. Carro game up with a great suggestion last night on how to avoid the risk of booing: Put Chris Judd in the car in front of Adam. (She mentioned someone esle equally famous for the car behind but I didn't catch it). Altho if WC fans are there en mass they would probably boo anyway. He is a proud Australian from a persecuted minority who has reached the pinnacle our sport and our country can give. In a motorcade there would be only one reason to boo him and it isn't pretty. At the end of the day, it is Adam's call. He deserves to leave football with a final appearance at the mighty MCG with cheers ringing in his ears. Edit: I think Carro's suggestion for the car behind Adam was Dustin Fletcher...not sure

I read the trade rumour threads and that player 'x' is a 'ball getter' or 'hard at it' or 'a clearance machine' or 'is competitive' etc. But I am not reading about any players that are fast, skillful or blessed with footy IQ I hope that if we trade away Watts and Toumpas and Howe we find some players that give us some skill, IQ and outside run in their place..

The two sides of why Goodes gets booed has been covered ad nauseam in previous threads. This thread has run its course so as its opener, may I suggest it is closed.

Robert Walls buys into EFC coach. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/robert-walls-questions-the-chase-for-john-worsfold--an-ordinary-coach-20150920-gjqnp7.html About Worsfold he says: "Now Worsfold is an interesting case study. As a player he was very good. As a captain he was inspirational. As a person they say few are better, but as a coach I think he was ordinary. In 11 years as senior coach of one of the best-resourced clubs in the country, and with the best ever centre square combination (Cox, Cousins, Kerr, Judd) he finished with one premiership (by a point) and a 53 per cent winning rate. It was also on his watch that a drug culture festered that ultimately ruined the club's reputation. The people in high places at the Eagles at the time will always question whether enough was done to control a dangerous situation. When Worsfold left, the team sat 13th on the ladder. Now, less than two years later, with a progressive new coach, the Eagles are flag favourites." About McCartney he says: "McCartney looked to the future and played kids. In three seasons, 16 youngsters debuted under him. He put tough demands on them and started to set high standards as he knows what's required to build a premiership team. Problem was, some of the oldies couldn't cope. They started to [censored] and the younger ones became affected too. Macca was too tough, too defensive. It's no fun anymore, they whinged. When the captain walked out, the club panicked. McCartney, who had a couple of years on contract, read the play and fell on his sword for the good of the cause'. A fairly convincing set of arguments from Walls. However, I suspect EFC arrogance will make them go for a 'successful' coach. All to our good!

I guess Frawley drew the short straw to be the 'dummy' and model that yellow and brown monstrosity!!!! Here is our version of the 'Ugly Sweater'. How the AFL expects to sell them for $80 I will never know! Max doesn't look too happy about being the model either but at least our jumper looks decent!! I wonder how much Gawn was paid to agree to be photographed in that You can imagine the changeroom banter!!

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-09-19/swans-champion-adam-goodes-calls-it-a-day?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=RSS+feed%3A+AFL+Latest+News No fanfare, no fuss. No sign or wave to the crowd. He announced it to his teammates after the game. A football career doesn't get much better than this: Games: 372 Goals: 464, fourth on the goalkickers list for the club behind Bob Pratt, O'Loughlin and Barry Hall. Premierships: 2 (2005, 2012) Brownlow Medals: 2 (2003, 2006) Career Brownlow votes: 162 including 30 best-afield performances (to end of 2014 season) All-Australian: 4 (2003, 2006, 2009, 2011) Sydney Swans co-captain: 2009-2012 * Goodes holds the VFL/AFL games record for the Sydney Swans, and has played more matches than any other indigenous player. * Goodes also won the 1999 Rising Star Award, was named in the Indigenous Team of the Century and captained Australia in the International Rules Series. From the beginning he has excelled. Champion of the game. Adam Goodes deserved to be carried off last night. Best wishes Adam.

We may not need to worry 'Steve': '...West Coast Eagles' great Glen Jakovich - a former teammate and close friend of Worsfold - has declared Worsfold will join the Bombers, with Guy McKenna his deputy'. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-trade-news-its-now-patrick-dangerfields-decision-say-waiting-geelong-cats-20150919-gjqe2t.html#ixzz3mAfVgWB9 But I'm a bit worried that Crows or Blues might pinch Macca as their 'mentor coach' ala Roos/Goodwin. Keeping fingers crossed and waiting nervously...

The CB minimum senior player payments for 2016 are: - base pay $83,240 and match payments $3,605 per match - for 22 games = $162,550 pa. This will be a lot higher under the 2017 CB. How much more each player gets depends on experience, performance and perhaps incentives. Melksham is 24 with 6 years experience, played 114 games and has a good B & F record. Mahoney and Viney will make sure a WADA suspension is covered in the contract. In fact, I would expect the AFL has specific clauses included in all Ess player contracts who have changed clubs. I am happy Goodwin and Macca will make a good selection decision based on list requirements. I am happy that Taylor and Viney will make a fair trade with EFC. I am happy that Mahoney and Viney will negotiate a fair contract that is in sync with other MFC/AFL players of similar age/experience. Nothing to worry about folks!

Interesting that Clarkson didn't give Frawley so much credit. When asked about Frawley's 'great job on Tex', Clarkson said...well, our plan was for our mids to cut off supply to Tex and other forwards and that is how it panned out...or something like that. Frawley still has some way to go, I suggest to have the confidence of his coach!

That is how I read it. It is possible HL (for example) had several BOG but a lot of 0/40. But a BOG may not get 40/40 Maybe we have harsh markers. But the votes show all players have been a long way from coaches' expectations.

This is a table I posted last week after the B & F. It lead to some discussion on DL as to how the B&F is voted and different thoughts were posted so I contacted the club. Today I received this response, so am posting it for interest: "At the completion of each game, four members of the match committee rate the players performance from 0-10. The votes are then added together and the total is the votes awarded for that game. As such, a player can score between 0-40 votes per game." My take: If an average of 20 for the season is a 'pass', only Viney 'passed'. Really shows what the match committee thought of the year. Hopefully, next year we see the top 8-10 players in the B & F get an average of 20-30 votes per game. Is that too ambitious? We will then have a core of B grade players a few A-grade.

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/38451-delistingstrades-at-end-of-the-season/page-101?hl=delistings Melbourne delists: Fitzy McKenzie Riley Bail No surprises I guess but always sad a demon player go. They did their best in tough circumstances. Wish them well. That makes at least 6 list changes.

Thought him to be 'serviceable' rather than 'successful'. Others may have a different view. I also put Petterd and Miller in the 'serviceable' category. Thompson & Jolly were 10+ years ago. I was referring to players supposedly 'scarred' from the Bailey/Neeld years that other clubs have given short shrift after taking them or have no interest in now. So it will be difficult to offload players. On a related note...I was glad to see Dawes as one of the players Denham mentioned as up for trade. Dawes may need to brush up his law studies for when his contract expires next year.

Traccin in the USA: Part Four This impressed me: "The challenging part of these exercises was that all my life, when I jump and then land, I land with a bent knee and drop really low. But all of these actions are about landing with stability around the knee and landing in a position that enables you to make a second move and play the next play. Would be good if this training routine could be given to other players as our weakness has been slow ball movement, often causing turnovers. Anything that reduces turnovers and improves our team's ability to 'play the next play' is a great advantage!

Pates, from the article above:, it seems Jones injured himself preseason and 'regretted playing' rnd 2 vs GWS so the club knew quite early in 2015: “The doctors’ reports and their assumptions was that I had [injured] it previously, but the things I did in the weekend before the season [started] aggravated it and inflamed the area – that’s why I got the real bad nerve pain.” An article on Jones and his captaincy: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-09-18/ill-be-a-better-captain-next-year-jones His injury aside, Jones has identified the two things he really needs to improve on: 1. "...two years in the role – albeit in varying situations – would allow him to have a greater understanding of the key playing leadership role next year". 2. “I was reasonably happy with how I went … but I found myself struggling at times with the tags and that’s something I’ll really work on over pre-season.” Our team needs better on field leadership so Jones improving this will really help us win/be more competitive in games. Looking forward to Jones achieving these goals in 2016.

Except for Martin, no Melb player has been successful at their new club and are usually de-listed not long after. Frawley has struggled to learn the Hawk's system. Sylvia trade went up in smoke. Now, reports are that clubs have gone cold on Howe and there is no interest in Watts. It seems clubs are 'gun shy' of taking MFC, pre Roos players. Has Roos made too much of the 'past mental scars' and the footy world believes him? The lack of takers for our players doesn't bode well for getting anything/anyone decent in return.

Ess offer the guy only 2 years and less $$ and they want A grade trade in return. If they truly valued him that highly surely they would better our offer! They start with such a ridiculously high ambit demand for trades that they get far too much in return. Given the reports on how we are handling Jeremy Howe's contract, I am confident TV and JT will not be conned!

I hope you are right SPR! He is getting a big, big rap from Tim Watson on SEN. -Said he was held in v high regard when last there. -That Beveridge inherited Macca's good work. -Would be good get for Ess. Tim is a big shaker and mover at Ess so I fear the odds of loosing Macca just went up. Macca turned down Ess Ass. Coach job last year to come to us so. Hope that whatever his reasons were then still hold, even tho Head Coach is a big, better gig.

The sentimentalist in me would like Worsfold to stay at the Crows. Now that Ess are after our Macca I have been jolted out of my sentimentality and desperately want Worsfold to coach Essendon!