Lucifers Hero

Hmmm, good points rjay and B-B-P...I'm still in the optimistic and hopeful part of the off-season! I'll wait till round 4 to give in to the MFCSS blues!

Our opportunity to win round 1 is increasing: O'Meara is unlikely to play due to ops to both knees in London yesterday and the silence around Gary A's shoulder problem is looking ominous! While I don't want to rely on opps injuries to win games it would be fabulous to win our 1st game! At the G on a Sat afternoon no less!!

In summary ASADA issued SCN, players decided not to contest and trying to rush it thru to AFL Tribunal hearing where they think they can plead and win their case. ASADA told their lawyers to back off and the process will take the time it needs to take altho some journos are saying the hearing will be heard in Dec. If players lose they think they will be able to serve penance in off-season/early games. Also, Workcover is about to start investigating EFC. 'Dees2014' thinks their will be some real nasties here for EFC Board...they may even need to borrow some of those Port 'jailbird' jumpers!! Last but by no means least Bomber has lost the plot, left the coaches association, refused to pay his AFL fine and virtually disqualified himself from coaching in the AFL again. EFC having gone very cold on him. He may need to retire to a hermits life with all his millions. But I actually like Bomber and he has been the only semi-good guy in this sorry saga...

If you really want to know: - Hird's opportunity to be smashed by the Federal Court again happens next Monday - Challenge to the Board at AGM: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ron-gauci-and-jason-cunningham-to-run-for-essendon-board-seek-change/story-fnp04d70-1227113945695 The longer it goes on the more of their seasons get derailed. Suitable self-inflicted punishment! BTW our 'Dees2014' has flagged there is a lot more nasty stuff to come out!

Pigdog!

I think the answer is 'yes'. The other option for a player is to delist or resign from the club and put themselves into the draft. Others may have more specific knowledge but I think the only way a player can be a DFA if he is delisted by the club (which is what Port and Sydney have generously done).

Didn't assume this but thought he had become the forgotten recruit and perhaps he could at least make the Interchange/Sub list in some of the 2015 team posts

Ha? No room for Billy our very own S.O.S.!! Have to disgree with you here BB.

Any room for Stretch? Ok I won't post this response to our hypothetical teams anymore. But I feel we have forgotten about him as he went so early in the recruiting process. He may well be one of the greats for us!

Any room for Stretch?

Any room for Stretch?

Agree. Feel comforted that we have an 'un-live' pick 43 (Stretch). So recruiting in terms of our age profile: - 3 - (18 year olds), - 2 - 22 year olds, and - 2 - 26/27 year olds Looks ok from a team balance point of view but I pray that they turn out to be good decisions. Time will tell: I now fluctuate, almost daily from great excitement to good god I so hope this new recruit works out!

For all our collective DL angst about losing players to Free Agency, the Delisted FA's aspect of the policy is working well for us: Cross and now Newton. Perhaps this is where clubs like us (and Saints with Membrey) can make FA work for them. It does require their club delisting them and both Sydney and Port have done the right thing by delisting good players to let them choose their own club. Nonetheless, great opportunity for lower clubs. Edit: Can't imagine those 'impossible to deal with clubs' like Essendon or Collingwood ever treating their players so well...they would demand 1st round picks instead.

With the recruiting of Ben Newton confirmed the club has decided that: - Ben is better than anyone at pick 40 and we will go to the draft with just picks 2 and 3, or - We will use pick 40 if a really good player is still there and we then delist a contracted player. Either way a really good result for us.

Now officially a Demon!! Newton switches Power to join Melbourne "General manager of player personnel Todd Viney said the club had kept a close watch on Newton throughout the season." "He looms as a shrewd acquisition by the Demons." Good to see we are getting players we target during the year (Frost included) and not just those NQR at other clubs (as in our 'moneyball' days). Me thinks we may have had a word in his ear early on so he didn't take up the Port contract. We chose not to trade for him and Port were good enough to delist him to chose his own club rather than force him into the draft. Well done by all and welcome Ben.

Is this post to justify your choice of avatar Agree with your sentiments tho.

We are forgetting that during the DB years reports were that the players called the shots particularly how/when to train. This was at a time when we had a mediocre player leadership group. So yes, very difficult for new, young players to get the development they needed and deserved. Sam could have worded his comments better but they aren't much different than what we all think. Hope he really makes a go of it this time. edit: it would be nice to change the title back to Sam being a Cat...

Consider our list (with known recruits): -Only 7 players have played more than 100 games. 7 !!!!! -There are 7 players under 20 years of age, 5 aged 21, 10 aged 22 to 25. This age/experience profile is totally out of sinc with other AFL lists. So why worry about using pick 40 and 53 in a 'lottery' for more 18 year olds. It also may explains why Roos offered supposed 'duds' contracts...we need some experience!!! If a good prospect with experience comes up, who MFC consider offers more than a contracted player I am sure they will have the fortitude to delist that player. Otherwise draft pick 2 and 3 it is!! BTW we will still have 2 rookie spots for other experienced players who may not find a home during the main draft. Doubt we would rookie any 18 year olds though.

Firstly, not all those players were re-signed during Roos tenure! What is so sacrosanct about using all the draft picks??! Surely it is the resultant list that counts not the method of getting them on to the list. Consider our list (with known recruits): -Only 7 players have played more than 100 games. 7 !!!!! -There are 7 players under 20 years of age, 5 aged 21, 10 aged 22 to 25. This age/experience profile is totally out of sinc with other AFL lists. So why worry about using pick 40 and 53 in a 'lottery' for more 18 year olds. It also may explains why Roos offered the other players in your post a contract...we need some experience!!! If a good prospect with experience comes up, who MFC consider offers more than a contracted player I am sure they will have the fortitude to delist that player. Otherwise draft pick 2 and 3 it is!!

In 87 they did it for Robbie!

I'm referring to the decisions made by the AFL admin that don't need to go to the Commission and seem to favour Carlton...

...it pays to have a past champion captain, rhode scholar, influential man about town, as the AFL Commission Chairman...

Essendon haven't fared well with the 2015 fixture. They have only 4 night games about 1/2 of 2014. Is the AFL planning for them to not be very competitive? If players are suspended presumably coaches/sports science staff etc are prohibited from 'training' players at alternate premises...so can't see them being 'game fit' until mid-year. Just hope they don't 'tank' the season.

PJ's reaction had a 'no-comment' element feel to it. Disappointed? While we have a really difficult draw in rounds 4-7 it opens for us after that. So feeling optimistic for a much better year. I'm delighted we have the ANZAC Eve game and hope it becomes an annual event. This game is a big plus for us.

I would reluctantly add Jesse. All the talk is positive but he didn't finish the one game he played to manage his game time and he didn't play any part in the next Casey game. Have niggling doubt on how he finished up. Hope the medicos have learnt from their poor handling of him in the practice games early this year. Will sigh with relief when he has played out a few full games be it Casey or AFL.