Big Col

If we lost both Gawn and Grundy I think we'd probably go with Schache/McDonald combo before Verall. He's just a project player ATM. I'm still trying to get my head around having the best two ruckman in the AFL in the same team. It will make it difficult for a prospective ruck to get a game, but maybe Verall is far enough away that he only just comes right as Maxy retires.

DAISY!!!!

Let's just call it the Harry Potter round

On a fairness level, the Showdown should be held that round so that no team is disadvantaged playing against ADL or PtA. But instead, I'm sure they'll try to maximise crowds and have ADL and PtA headlining separate 'blockbuster' double headers, so eg GWS v Freo is the curtain raiser to PtA vs Syd. I guess, as long as they rotate this round each season, the advantages will even out (in theory)?

We've got to be a good shot at taking out next year's AFL basketball 3x3 comp. J Smith / Petracca / Farris-White seems a pretty handy side.

Interesting ideas DS. I like the general gist of adding restrictions early and loosening them later. It would become very difficult and probably unlikely to see movement of star young players. Do you have any thoughts on mature-age recruits? ie is a 21yo recruit treated the same as an 18yo (year 1) or come in at year 4? Do you have any thoughts on clubs trading players involuntarily? As an aside, I've long supported the raising of the draft age to 19yo or even 20yo. I might start another thread re that but helping protect teams from losing high draft pick kids was one of the reasons I support it.

This guy seems pretty handy. Where is expected to land in the Draft?

Exactly. If we ended up re-signing LJ then we wouldn't want to sign Grundy. f we were to sign up Grundy and the LJ trade with Freo (or WCE) fell over we'd end up having to give LJ away. There is a lot of pain for everyone if a deal doesn't happen.

Travis Johnstone was unbelievably good in that 3rd quarter. It was a crazy game for emotions. At the end of the game I walked home from the MCG all the way to Brunswick, randomly swearing and kicking things.

If you watch a highlight reel of Robbie, you'll notice how many goals he kicked on his left foot. He was a right footer but when it was appropriate to use the left he did so. And his non-preferred left foot was better than most peoples preferred. None of this awkward shifting to get on the preferred side that so many (most?) footballers today do. When watching youtube clips, I remembered another thing about Robbie. It was his state-of-origin games in the 1970's that announced him as a superstar. In the 1970's, the Demons were a lowly team for the most part and never got their games played on the Sat night replay (typically the last Qtrs of two games would be played, and a highlights of a third) so non-MFC fans never got to see him. When SOO games were played EVERYBODY got to seem him. As a little kid, I was very proud of him at the time - circa 1977.

Sam Walsh

Demonland voters have once again picked the same winner as the Club - and in this instance have the same Top 6, albeit slightly different order.

Add 150 more games, maybe a Brownlow, another 2 B&F and another 3xAA (excluding all his Premiership medals) and much as I hate to say it...move over Robbie Flower. That Gawn and Petracca are in the same team at the same time is nuts. We have to win at least one more premiership and hopefully 2-3 more with these guys in our team.

and Clayton will win more. I am sure he will be considered amongst the best 3 Demons ever, and possibly the best, once his career is over.

That we managed to pick up Petty in that draft makes it a superb trade in hindsight.

AFL is very hard to predict Only 3 out of 10 people predicted Geelong to even make the finals and the highest spot was 7th. They were also the most predicted as 'set to fall' All 10 had GWS in the finals and most of those were in top 4 or GF. Nobody saw Collingwood's rise. Most people got sucked in by the Bomber propaganda Me? My best 'outsider' result was probably picking Freo as an improver.

Games off or reduced playing time? 4 managed rest games, in addition to the bye, might be hard to swallow if it's perceived that resting a 6x AA player would have tipped the result in any game he's 'managed'. 1 'managed' game and lots of 50-60% game times (shared with Grundy) might be better.

Wasn't that Fritz? But heh, I've only watched it 500 times and I may have got confused ...

In the end I don't think he will really choose a new team, but the response from Hawthorn will play a part in him remaining engaged with the sport (along with the final washup after Clarko and Fagan and Burt have their say) I guess what struck me was the way he regarded this as above his loyalty to his team (and he's a big fan) and even considered swapping teams.

A Hawk friend rang me this morning devastated. In a long conversation he said he could no longer support Hawthorn and asked me to prepare a pitch for Melbourne. He'd be choosing a new team. And much as I'd love to recruit a Dee, I told him to take caution because sadly Hawthorn may not be the only club (eg we know about problems in Collingwood) to have behaved like this and the events of today may lead to others speaking out. I would be appalled if something similar was revealed at Melbourne FC. This is bigger than football.

It's modest, but I think the extra 2 rookie spots will really help, in conjunction with the 2nd and 3rd round picks. Nth's VFL side was regularly getting smashed, which is not a good place for their young players / high draft picks to develop. The two extra rookie places will make their VFL team more competitive (VFL salary cap is just $120k, so these 2 rookies will earn the equivalent of the entire VFL salary cap) as well as provide a larger pool for the Roos to find a player. While they could end up trading the picks, I think a good crop of young kids playing a season in a competitive VFL team (with the VFL cap being used to recruit some mature players) would be better for them. Thankfully, they didn't end up with a 1st round pick. Their 2nd round is still #20 which is a decent pick.

Wow, and we didn't even make finals that year.

I'm warming to the Grundy recruitment idea after initially being highly sceptical. Having him with the Dees would feel a bit like (NFL references coming here...) the 49rs in the late 80's that had all-time great Joe Montana as quarterback and the 2nd best Quarterback in the NFL at the time Steve Young as the backup. (Or perhaps it's more like Stuart McGill playing in the same team as Shane Warne) How could they work together? It has been suggested in the media that they could split their roles as 'forward half' and 'back half' ruckmen. We would have a ruckman always one kick ahead or behind the play while the other competed. I think this is a better type of idea than 'rest as a forward'. Max a kick behind play is where he plays some of his best footy. Splitting ruck duties 50/50 would likely extend Max's career instead of 80/20. I can also envisage kick-out scenarios where we split our two ruckman between left and right sides - or perhaps left and centre. We send Gawn one way and Grundy another. We then draft a young ruck to replace Grundy and we have 4-5 years for them to make good, rather than 2-3 with Max.

Regardless of the reasons, it would seem ludicrous for any team let alone an MCG tenant to develop a game plan not suited to the home of the Grand Final.

Great mark and goal to JVR.