corowa

I have a long memory and I still hurt when I think of how Sydney poached our best up and comer, Gerard Healy way back in Doc Edelstein's time. I have never forgiven the Swans, or Healy, for that matter. Poaching Perris would be a drop in the ocean compared with what Sydney did to us, but it would be a good start towards suitable retribution.

No! He would regard this as 'clever recruiting', since it was one of the 'power houses' that pulled it off. It certainly set as backwards, as Wellman was a competent coach. But as a cellar dweller trying to climb up a few steps, we'd be seen by Barrett as poachers. Names such as his need to be kept in the memory for retribution when we are again a successful club and can snub him for his past reporting crimes.

Equalisation is great, but it should also apply to areas that the rich and 'successful' clubs take for granted as being their domain. For example look at the number of Friday night games in prime TV time given to Collingwood and Hawthorn. Look at the small/non existent number of times 'top' clubs have to play at Geelong. If you don't treat 'less successful' clubs equally then you have to take other measures to even up the competition. In any case who could care less what other clubs think about our 'hand outs'. I prefer to call them 'compensation' for the way we are not treated in so many ways as equal to the 'top' teams.

Drafting seems to be an art that we (MFC) have failed to achieve. Some ordinary players but a lot of selections that fail to make the grade or certainly not meet the potential they showed. Discussion here has thrown up several youngsters that posters believe we should take with pick 2. Aish, Billings, Dunstan, Sharenberg and Sheed are five of these. Going on past form there is no guarantee that our repeated 'poor' drafting choices will not reoccur this year. Relinquishing selection 2 for a proven mid-fielder might be a wiser choice than using it on a kid with potential but with no guarantee that he will meet that potential. Whether pick 2 is used on Dustin Martin - he can play, but he does come with 'baggage', or another proven player is open to conjecture and is one of the reasons why Paul Roos is being paid such a big salary. I don't envy him his choice. I do hope he makes the right decision.

Your choice of Williams over Roos would place you in the minority group, rufus, but your are entitled to your opinion. Unlike Roos, Williams has two distinct personalities, one of which borders on irrational, if not 'crazy'. We'd be unlucky enough to get 'crazy' Williams.

We seem to be excited and, hopefully benefitting, by going down the path of appointing 'outsiders' who were successful at other clubs. Peter Jackson and Paul Roos are just the start. Appointing former MFC players as assistant coaches would be 'dangerous' in that they would have played in a team that had scant success and an 'ordinary' culture. Someone from Geelong, or Hawthorn or Sydney might well bring years of positive experience with him.

Hindsight is great, especially when evaluating the wisdom of draft selections. Jack Viney was a good mate of Wines, but he also stated that Toumpas was an outstanding footballer - one of the best he'd seen. My take on that is that Toumpas should be selected before Wines. Wines, while performing admirably, has benefited from having a good group of on-ballers to work with. Compare them with our lot. I have every confidence that Paul Roos will develop the skills that Toumpas obviously possesses and will make him an outstanding footballer. Might I be cheeky enough to suggest a Robert Flower like one?

Surely we can get 'optimistic' without getting 'ahead of ourselves'. A top coach will attract 'good' and 'proven' assistants. Hopefully even a successful mid-field coach. A top coach will persuade players who might be looking elsewhere to stay. Paul Roos has the skill to develop 'marginal' players, of which we have many. Paul Roos's appointment is likely to interest free agents or out of contract players from other clubs. Compare this with recent years where these players have laughed at us and wouldn't contemplate joining us, unless paid huge money. Paul Roos' appointment will encourage members to renew and others, including past members to join. It will be a catalyst for attracting new sponsors. The media will take a positive interest in us, instead of treating us as a joke. While I'm confident about a big on-field improvement, I'm not getting a head of myself.

Andy D has not always been a massive fan of Paul Roos. Didn't he accuse Roos of introducing a brand of football at Sydney that was dull and boring, or words to that effect? If I remember correctly, it was the year that Sydney won the premiership.

My son has a friend who is a very keen supporter, attends all matches and is a mate of one of the players. The word is that Roos will be announced as our coach on Thursday night at the function that is being held.

It's sad when the highlight of the season for us is the pending draft. It's even sadder when we feel that the draftees are going to quickly and automatically turn our fortunes around. Oh, well. Gees, I can't wait to see who our first draft is. Hope he's a gun mid-fielder!

I agree fully, old dee. Clubs don't want to risk their top players playing State of Origin football. How would we be if Jack Viney, for example, wrecked his knee and couldn't play with us for 12 months? Clubs got around this by having their top players declared to be 'injured' come the time of these games. It was a farce. It is club parochialism that excites and drives the interest in our code, not State of origin games.

I would think that one of the gravest issues facing the AFL is that the divide between the worst 3 or 4 teams and the rest of the competition is becoming wider. The effects of this are enormous. No one wants to see teams regularly getting thumped. Week after week we have games of which the results are a mere formality. They attract paltry crowds. People lose interest. Television ends up broadcasting boring, one-sided matches that people either don't watch, or turn off part way through. An exciting, even competition with all 18 teams having some chance of winning most of their matches is the ideal scenario. It is within the interests and, indeed, for the longevity of the AFL that the AFL commissioners do something positive to restore a more even competition. Our club is quite possibly the one in the most parlous position. GWS is currently weak, but have loads of exciting young talent who will improve, as Gold Coast has improved. That we need a good 'kick along' is undeniable. The AFL cannot afford to have our club - with the important name of Melbourne - continuing to be an embarrassment. What form(s) this 'kick along' takes is open to conjecture. A special early draft pick would have to be one of the options being considered by the AFL. Despite past (mis)management of the club, something has to be done to get us competitive again.

If Watts was playing at another club and they kept saying what a great bloke he is, what talent he has, how he's coming on and above all that, that he is a 'required player', I think we'd wonder how serious they were. Unfortunately Jack is the perfect barometer of our club. He seems to be an articulate and likeable young man who is not willing or not able to mix it with the rough and tough world of AFL football. Might he 'come on' with a new coach? Perhaps. Might he become a regular top performer for us? Unlikely. Can we get someone in a trade deal with a tougher attitude who might help solve some of our problems - such as a good mid-fielder? It's worth a try.

It would make sense to me that Magner be given a try in the team. It's not as though he'd be taking the place of a more deserving mid-fielder. He should have been tried out weeks ago. Neil Craig would have a large say in this, I would expect. If this is the case, and he's not prepared to reward someone with good VFL form, then I would expect that we probably need to appoint a different senior coach for next year.

Although Neil Craig is an intelligent and articulate bloke who has had coaching success at Adelaide he has still had the misfortune of being at MFC during what is probably the worst era of our history. He has been part of the coaching team which has failed to develop players and win more than one game. Rightly or wrongly his suitability to be our senior coach has been tainted by what has happened these past two seasons. How big or small a part he has played does little to change the perception of failure that many members have regarding the whole coaching team. Neil Craig might well be the best person to coach the team but many would argue that it would be better to clean out our failed coaches and start with a fresh team.

I have a feeling that whatever decision is made it will work out the worst for us.

Perhaps we could go back to the 'old' days and recruit Lenny Hayes as a 'playing coach' (midfield, that is - not senior coach). I don't think he'd have any trouble getting a game in our midfield.

Our last coach was supposed to be going to benefit from his experience with the Pies. We all know how that worked out. However, I agree that Eade seems to now be the 'top' candidate.

No, I'm not a Bartlett. I grew up in Corowa and went to high school there (in the 1960s), but left the town many long years ago. Knew Bartletts in Corowa (Jack had a business involving fruit, I think). His son, Greg, was killed in a car accident over 40 years ago. Another lot of Bartletts had a farm out towards Buraja.

Saad bought a drink from a retail outlet, I would expect. Essendon players signed up to receive injections. Warnings would ring for me and many others at this stage. Saad is likely to get banned for 2 years. Seems heavy handed to me. If it was Chip Frawley or Nathan Jones I wouldn't be happy. Essendon players, rumour has it, are likely to be exonerated. Seems light to me. Then I hate Essendon as much as I hate Collingwood, so looking at things in a fair light with those mongrels is something I have trouble coming to terms with.

I wonder what the St Kilda player (Saad?) thinks about all of this. He's facing a two year ban for drinking a substance sold over the counter. And what about that Frankston player who has also been banned for two years? Level playing field? I think not.

While we could not claim that any of our coaches are 'setting the world on fire', there is little doubt that it is our midfield that most supporters would say is the core of our on-field woes. As Brian Royal is the midfield coach it is probably within reason to attribute at least some of the blame on him. As a matter of interest, who could name really good midfielders that have played for us over the past ten years? Well, there's .......... and, ah ............................ Not an easy task, is it?

Sorry to hear about Mick. The Sandrals are a highly respected family, having had a farm at Redlands, near Corowa, for a number of generations. Country football has always entailed considerable travel. We went as far north as Urana and west to Blighty to play matches. However, there was always a friendly country pub there in which to have a few (or many) drinks with the opposition after the game. Occasional pie nights at the pub after training were a highlight of the season. None of this strict diet mentality. Nothing like country hospitality.