IRW

Most likely the truth is that the Cats will want to explore all options before doing the deal with Jared.

I suggest he's a back up plan and he has staed that he wants to remain in Victoria I believe so any Port Adelaide offer is irrelevant.

Fingers crossed I hope he stays for some good times,heaven knows any MFC backman pre Watts deserves some.

I have been following his site and Demonology for about 8 years and every year at this time of the year, you can just about script every post word for word; only changing names.

I have nothing against people jumping up and down suggesting this is who we should trade for whomever or we have to draft this bloke etc in fact I admire supporters who try to help the club in making difficult decisions.

What I do have a problem with however is that nobody gets things right.

I haven't a great recollection of draftees names but the names Salopek and Polec immediately come to mind, very much wanted but not got.

If we had have taken them this site would be in meltdown now.

I never heard a bleat from anyone wanting Rioli, of the Cyril variety that is, but I dare say that if he was in this draft; Jack Viney's name would not have been mentioned and there would be threads saying Hogan who? and who is Toumpas and Whitfield etc.

Do posters read the papers and think he sounds good, lets get him, or do they follow the combine to make their decision, or do they look at videos (dangerous thing to do if you play golf) and like what they see from 2 minutes of a players whole career or do they actually go to games and look out for potential players.

The funny thing about all this is that on Demonology at the time of the Scully drafting, someone (no I won't mention your name Deers ) posted stats from the u18s carnival that showed Scully's Kicking efficiency at about 70%, so I posted that maybe he is not as good as he is cracked up to be. Well that went down like a lead balloon but in retrospect it wasn't too far off the mark. And I'm just a nobody that lives in Thailand and to be honest I don't have a clue but I have played a lot of footy do look at things objectively.

Can't see why people get so worked up about the trade/draft period. What is going to happen is going to happen and there is nothing you or I can do to change it.

Is there any one that contributes at this time prepared to tell us of any player that you have pushed in the past who turned out to be a spud?

BTW IMO any recruiter that bypasses anyone by the name of Rioli or Motlop had better have a damn good reason.

Fair enough Skills but I reckon a KE of 70% is Wattsesque while the reason folk are so over the top about the latest messiah Jack aka Viney is partly because of what we saw on TV when he had his jaw broken....he came straight back at Wojinski looking to get it on. The other Jack all 196 annd 89 of him just stood back and watched!!!

I think its reasonale to dream MFC could build a 'culture' around the likes of young Jack, while Watts types will sleep easily knowing they can display their skills in safety with those sorts of blokes in the side.

Neeld got it seriously wrong with both Magner and Couch, there was probably 20 better players available, thus his assesment of Dawes is really concerning and probably clouded due to personal friendship.

Top of the morning to ya Blue.

Thats a really long post for you

If you got a job at my local fish and chip shop you could do it while you work.

There's a guy works down at my chip shop swears he's Elvis.

He's a liar though, I reckon its TJ

Most of MFC's coaches are actually inexperienced in their roles....except for Brian Royal.

So the jury is still out on most of them I guess,

we need another foward, thats why the club is looking at dawes

im a fan of getting wellingham as he too is a classy outside mid

byrnes was recruited for the same reason

and this is why i beleive melbourne are not showing as much intrest in caddy as other clubs( big bodied).

I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere but Dawes will cost MFC Martin decent and pick of some sort.

Ad for Wellingham its pretty clear he wants to go home,apparantly isnt intersted in talking to MFC and his 'classy outside skills 'come with a kicking efficiency of 55%!!!

Some would say that therefor he fits right in I guess but I doubt its going to happen

3 or 4 since I've been here anyway

Thats one that got away I think,though he possibly wouldnt have wanted to come back to the bottom of the ladder again

Anyway all is not lost, MFC apparantly have managed to retain the multi experienced Brian Royal.

ooh another Watts thread, oh goody

10 to 1 it runs to 25 pages

Watts, Malthouse,Denham,G/F intensity,Neeld.......make that 35 pages

The only thing that proved is that Robinson doesnt know his stuff....as if that needed to be proved

True but Chip's item only went up this morning while Jonesy has been on the site for six days.

I reckon pretty much all that can be said about Jones has already been said during the season,only leaving a long list of mea culpas to be made by those who I assume spent years deriding him.

At least I assume the experts here were as blind as their mates on Ology.

Chip on the other hand has been very much ignored.His form was ordinary,his attitude apparantly questionable and he's probably playing injured.Nonetheless he usually won his position...that's how good he is

I would have thought there might be many threads about him during the season,if only out of concern for his position on the list or his place in Neelds plans.

Jonesy....almost A grade,heart and soul committment,inspirational,skills improving each season,decision making likewise.Every liklihood he can get even better... What else is there to say? A bit of practise and he can be club spokesman given his twitter output; he's certainly more interesting than the Jacks.

I find it strange that the club champion should elicit the least number of views on this forum of the seven players included to date in this series.

Perhaps it tells us something about ourselves?

Actually the least number is reserved for Chip...the only long term A grader on the list...now THAT is strange

Time to vote Jeff back in I reckon.

No one else could 'sell' that sort of expenditure

What was embarrasing was watching Sinclair rough him up before the bounce on the QB game.

That was when Neeld was trying him out as a midfielder.

Last roll of the dice;stick him on a back flank and let him do some kick ins.

Bailey should have tried that in 2011 and Jack would be one season advanced on his undoubted potential by now

(I figure if this is a whack Jack thread then I may as well kick Bails a few times as well)

The despair on the faces of the team after the game told a story didnt it?

Even though Beamer had told previously me they understood the new plan but were unsure how it would stand up under pressure they, like everyone at the ground, obviously expected a better show than that.

I sat next to a recently retired champ that day who said something like "they're training all the flair out of them....maybe that will come later" and laughed when I suggested that at least they'd learnt to "play ugly".

Sitting on the other side of me was a Tibetan Buddhist Lama who asked why so many players were crowding around the Melbourne goal but not the Bribane goal.

But watching it again I think it is fair to say they got a bit better as the year progressed...unfortunately that was pretty much true of every team,so if Neeld is hanging his hat on that I'd suggest he might want to keep an eye on said hat in case someone takes it and offers it to someone else around round 10 next year.

Almost the greatest disappointment of the season for mine. Chip is the one genuine A grader in the list that Neeld inherited ... he looked hesitant and confused for the first half of the year and disinterested for the second. Hopefully, if he was carrying injuries then the strain of 3 years of incessant "incoming" just overwhelmed him and, as Rawling suggests, a good period of rest will rejuvenate him for next season. His contract finishes end 2013...will he be a restricted FA then?

He'd be the one the Cats could really want

Yes. (It was ugly football.)

2011 was better.

Any MFC winning GF would be better.

I'm looking forward to Bathurst on Sunday (and the next F1 race - that's much closer to living on the edge with the best in the world)!

Sorry WYL, but there is at least one thing better than football!

Bathurst on tv is without a doubt the most boring sporting event in the world. Actually motor car racing is the most boring 'sport' in the world.

Besides which, Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable,

..and we've just shown Beamer the door.

I put in a vote for Lord Buddha who said everything changes ,its hard/impossible to nail down anything tangible in compounded phenomona (like footy clubs) and besides in the end everything is in the nature of suffering/unsatisfactoriness.

Thats right & more...

Who would you back in a skirmish, mercenary soldiers or soldiers defending they're homeland & loved ones.

How did our diggers go in the face of insurmountable odds, in the mountains of Japan, & thru Sth Est Asia?

The emotions have to be behind the effort, and our relationships to everything we love is the most powerful motivating force.

'our' diggers went down witjout a trace in the mountains of Japan I reckon

.Certainly I didnt hear about them

interesting comments. I think back to 186 & am concerned that people working for the club at that time are still holding high positions.

Should they still be there??

The Board & Ceo positions are all under the microscope next year, in my eyes at least.

i reckon you've hit the nail on the head there.

CC and CS undoubtably have skill sets,the Board members may well be good businessmen but they contributed to the 186 as surely as the senior players.

Blaming Bailey, and now Beamer, is just pathetic scapegoating and more heads need to roll.

At present all the attention is being focused on the new coach while the back room sails along as before.

Essendon supporters are drooling over him.

And we thought OUR midfield was pox.

you're one season out of date I think....WERE drooling over him more like it.

Same as Bate and Footscray.

It is a hard cap.

I think Goddard is inetersting, essendon missed finals so i wouldnt sya they are a big club at present and havnt been since 2000.

Big clubs wont have the $$$ the OP suggest they should to throw around, if anything it means we can throw dollars at people and not pay anything extra.

Just wait until Eddie and the other powerful Presidents start to agitate for increased salary caps.

It's going to happen, 2 maybe 3 years max.

And the AFL will buckle because it will solve their problem of having too many Melbourne Clubs on the drip and allow them to keep proping up the franchises and wasting money in China and New Zealand

It was certainly the lowlight of my AFL year

The only difference being that I wont say it without the rider that after next season it MAY possibly look like the recession MFC had to have

what happens if no one picks up Beamer? Delist him ......and find out why the AFL is keeping the tanking investigation open until someone cracks ..........the shhits ?

If there is some quality around the joint that can be labelled 'culture' I reckon its pretty simple.

A well managed club without showboating CEO's or Presidents, who listen to the 'sub text' coming from the players who are led by 'quality' senior players.

Thats how they knew the players were onto something when they didnt want Wallace as coach.

Thats why when the players gave Morton work to do in order to get promoted;his goals in the reserves didnt count,his attitude needed to change.

The comparison with MFC is pretty obvious.

Forget about Stynes for a moment and think about MFC 's senior players and the way they tried to 'save' Bailey. Think about CS and CC and the way they presented and apparantly meddled.

Bugger 'no bottoming out', think about the management tanking and the damage that does to the self worth of the playing group