Dees2014

DN played in Defence sometimes because he was so bloody good at it. In fact, Carey described him as by far his best, most challenging opponent. It was quite valid for him to spend time in defence on occasions, particularly to break the rhythm of an opposition side. It is testament to how good a forward he was that he actually spent the vast majority of his time in attack particularly in his latter years. His physical presence was intimidatory. So could Dawes if taught how to do it (perhaps by DN himself). It is a feature we badly lack in the team, and would be a great addition to the captaincy.

The guy is 24, which means he has been in fottbal about 6 years, where he was learning the rope the first two years. Since then he has played pretty consistently until his injury this year, which happens. We do not have anyone else on our list with his level of finals experience except maybe Byrnes, and he is over 30. A premiership player, key position, has at least 6 years left in him, who is also smart,there no-one equivalent on our list. He could be another Neitz

Can I suggest David Neitz has been our best Captain in the last 20 years, ahead of Jmac and Lyon. In my view he was truly inspirational in a generally pretty successful Demons side. He was also a key forward, sometimes back. I think it depends on the personal qualities of the individual rather than what position he plays.

It is interesting you know, but if GWS can't afford Martin as a result of salary cap issues from the Buddy Franklin deal, we do not need to use pick two for Martin, we can snare him in the pre-season draft. Under those circumstances, he certainly would be a steal, although I still have serious issues on how his recruitment sits with Roos' "no [censored]" policy, as Dimetriou opined on "Talking Footy" last night.He would be a great pick up though at number 2 in the PSD - another astute Roos move?

I think the ideal person for Captain next year is Chris Dawes: a premiership player, over 100 games, would be in the first ten picked every week, by all reputes someone of impeccable integrity, and smart, even before he completes his Law degree!!! It is interesting the commentary around Dustin Martin (as much as I would be dead against him coming to the Dees).. A number of the commentators when discussing Martin coming to Melbourne say "Martin and his mob would run rings around our young and inexperienced leadership group". I think it is part of the narrative which has developed over the last three years or so of us being the laughing stock of the League. Almost painted by some as amateurs among pros. Now much of this has dissipated since Roos has arrived, but it is really important from now that everything we do is hard nosed and credible in the eyes of our opponents so they cannot any longer get a "free kick" at us from our naiveté. As it stands, Dawes, even at 24, is the most experienced player at the club. I don't think we could do much better, and would be highly respected by the football world. What does everyone else think?

I really think this misses the point. If I was in Watts position, I would have put contract negotiations on hold too given the disfunctional nature of the club for most of this year - indeed for most of the time he has been at the club. He wanted to see hope, and he wanted to see progress. It is a testament to Roos interpersonal skills (in stark contrast to Neeld's) that he was able to convey both to Watts so quickly. Clearly Roos now has a narrative which not only gives people a confidence about the future of the club, and indeed excitement, but also his ability to get the very best out of his playing group. he says continuously that one of his primary jobs is to make each individual player, the best possible footballer he can be. If he is successful in this across the playing group, then we will not be in the top 8 next year, we will be in the top 4! Melbourne has one the the youngest, most naturally gifted (given our number of first round picks) and the worst performing in terms of matching skill to performance. The upside is huge.Watts knows this, both personally and collectively. So do most of the others. No wonder they are excited. We should all rejoice in this. If Jack Watts by putting his contract on hold in some small way made the powers that be work that much harder to get the best possible outcome for the club then terrific. He has done us all a favour.

Well said RR. There seems to be very strongly held views here with very little facts to back them up. Your posts on this subject have been admirable.

Junk? really. My writing has been called many things. People have disagreed with it, but I have never had such a vacuous argument of such sophistication as "junk". Well done. Thanks for the constructive, well argued comment.

I am happy to let it run its course. We will soon see who is right.

WJ, I realize there is a difference between performance enhancing and recreational use, and the AFL's drug's policy is primarily, but not entirely, about recreational drugs. My point was more the philosophical difference in approach between a law and order approach and one base on a medical one with the user as its focus. This applies both to recreational and performance enhancing, and they both have very different outcomes.

I think the "10 signs" list is the perfect personality profile for Adolf Hitler, but not sure about Mark Neeld. I personally think he was someone promoted way beyond his level of competence, and had the sort of personality (and lack of confidence) which covered it up with aggression and lack of empathy. It is poison for any Organisation to have a leader like that, but is not as rare as you might think. I have come across several in my corporate career. It doesn't take long for those organisations to start falling off a cliff

The coalition government threatening to force a change in the AFL's three strike policy on drugs has nothing to do with WADA/ASADA. It is more akin to the difference between a law enforcement approach to drugs control (the Coalition) or a Medical one (the AFL). I have written extensively on how stupid and counterproductive the Richard Nixon inspired war on drugs has been. It doesn't work, promotes criminality and the profits go to organized crime outside state control (and the tax system). Far better to take away the market for criminals by having it taken away from organized crime by having it controlled and supplied by the state but under the supervision of the medical profession, where the welfare of the victim is at its heart. ( I can send you a 30000 word paper on this very subject I have written if you are interested). This is really what the AFL's policy is all, having players welfare as being paramount and in the hands of the medical profession. Brandis and his ilk in the coalition are driven by their ideology around Law and Order where they see the solution to these things as chasing the criminals (including the victims) and locking them all up. The welfare of the individual has nothing whatever to do with it. This however does not affect WADA/ASADA. They are there to enforce internationally agreed protocols about drugs in sport. The Organisations who sign up to this, and nearly all sporting Organisations around the world do, otherwise they would be regarded a pariahs. The sporting organisation agree on a certain level of testing, and this can vary from sport to sport, but once drug cheating is detected then it is up to the local equivalent of ASADA to evaluate the seriousness of the offence and issue infraction notices. If the offenders are subsequently deemed guilty then an automatic two year ban is imposed ( which can be lessened to six months if there is a high degree of cooperation or mitigating circumstances). The latest revised WADA codes are calling for the automatic bans to be increased to four years. Since Essendon have fought this process most of the way, when the infraction notices are issued, which I have no doubt they will be, they will more than likely come with two year bans. Given the Coalition's hard-line Law and Order approach, rather than lessening drug detection activity, they are likely in my view to demand a greater frequency of testing. This will also likely come with a demand that positive tests are immediately made public, rather than the way the AFL code operates which leaves it in the hands of the club doctor for the first two positive tests, and after the third make it public. Any public diclosure will of course be accompanied by a huge media circus, and so a much greater number of young men's lives will be ruined as a result of it than would have occurred under the current AFL policy, and much less likely that they will eventually be cured. Great humanitarians are people like Brandis!

It still doesn't make any difference. The afl may drop the case for financial, political, whatever reasons, if ASADA/WADA have a different view he will still be charged. That is the way it is.

Actually, she is by far the best investigative journalist in the game. Some of us might not like what she writes sometimes, but she is always first to break the big stories, and usually she is right. As far as Richmond is concerned, she makes no secret that she is a tiger fan (after all her father was long time President of the club), but she has been very severe in her criticism of the "jail-bird" salute by Dustin Martin ( and by Andew krakou (sp?) before him). Her test will be where she goes from here. The Federal Police have been very concerned for a long time about organized crime infiltrating elite sport in this country. People like Wilson should be at the forefront of exposing it. It will be interesting if she has the courage to do it in Richmond's case.

Again, there is a serious misunderstanding of how it works. Has absolutely nothing to do with government funding. If it did, then it certainly would be political, as governments can alwaysbe bought, blackmailed, lobbied by their backers and supporters, whatever people do to gain a political advantage. To do this to ASADA/WADA would be the equivalent of governments interfering with the judicial process.that might happen in a dictatorship but it is very rare indeed in our system. It is also why WADA can override the local equivalents of ASADA because many of then are subject to corruption, and if this were to happen it would call the whole system into disrepute. One of the reasons why drugs in sport has cleaned up its act internationally is due to this. It is not perfect but it is a hell of a lot better than it used to be, and fora country like Australia, subject to an established rule of law, it is about as good as it gets. It is interesting that these powerbrokers still seem to think they can get around these things (think Essendon with their established political connections). They can't, and we are a hell of a lot better off because of it.

I don't think you understand. ASADA are NOT a political body. They are there to enforce the laws resulting from international agreements to do with doping in sport. Often these laws are more severe than local laws are. In the AFLs case, they have voluntarily signed up to these codes. If they had not they would be the laughing stock of the international sporting community, and one thing the AFL fancies itself as being is a world leading edge sporting Organisation. It is unthinkable it would do otherwise Having signed up, they take whatever judgements ASADA brings forth, and as I have said here on previous entries, if WADA are not happy with the punishment handed out they can come in and over rule ASADA's finding via an international appeals mechanism, which has been done successfully on a number of cases internationally. The doubters amongst supporters and some clubs in the AFL that they can play the "appealing to the court of public opinion" to put pressure on ASADA/WADA will have zero effect on the outcome. These bodies deal in fact, not in public opinion, and politics has nothing whatever to do with it. There still seems to be people at Essendon who still do not understand this. Essendon's abuse of the rules seems clear. I would be amazed if there weren't a number of infraction notices issued in the coming months. That is why very few clubs who understand the realities of this will not deal with them even if players are given free agency. ASADA will still be hanging over them even if they move to another club and the suspensions will be the same. Why would a club take the risk on a player no matter how good they are.

Good point. I would say two Agrade mids, one teenage mid, and one mid 20s hard bodied mid like a Barlow out of second tier comps. A crumbling small forward. Back up ruckman - let's go for Hasnath again for the hell of it, a running tall back, and then the next best three aft that depending on talent available

They have all the powers they need, and they can usurp ASADA if they do not believe they ASADA have given out sufficient punishment

Absolutely he is, and it won't be in the positive IMHO.

Heath Shaw is not Rhys Shaw. Very different characters. So far as I know Rhys was never associated with the rat pack, even at Collingwood

I don't think some people understand the process we are going through here. It doesn't matter what either the NFL/AFL or their clubs think, laying infraction notices and the subsequent legal outcomes is initially entirely in the hands of ASADA. The legal process will run its course no matter what the players do. Furthermore, if WADA, the world body, thinks the local body, in our case ASADA has squibbed it, they have the power to impose their own sanctions which over ride everything else. And lest people believe "well that won't happen" it has happened in the last four years in cycling, swimming, football, and baseball. If Essendon are guilty and and all the evidence suggests they are, no amount of expensive PR and legal teams will help them, and "appealing to the court of public opinion" as they say they want to do, will help them even less. I predict by Febrary next year, about ten Essendon players will get infraction notices, and another three ex Essendon players at other clubs. All will be given 2year sentences, and then watch the writs fly. Essendon will be essentially broke by the end of 2014 and will be bailed out by the AFL. The bill will be enormous and will stretch even the AFL's very deep pockets I also suggest this is nothing for us non Esendon supporters to be happy about. It will seriously hurt the whole competition, including the emerging Demons.

This in my view is in the same category as Didak. Shaw is a senior member of the Woods rat pack We would be buying trouble, totally against the "no [censored]" philosophy. I can tell you, Roos wouldn't wear it in a fit.

We don't need key forwards, we need gun midfielder, and a class crumbling forward. Trade our picks to get them. This is a transformative opportunity - one we will not have again hopefully for another decade or more. We must get it right. Boyd, although clearly hugely talented, would be surplus to our requirements right at this time, but he would be hugely valuable to us as a trade commodity for one or two A-grade midfielders. We should do it, and I'm sure Roos will.

Did anyone else notice the report in the Age yesterday, suggesting Eddie Betts was up for trade, and St Kilda and North were in the hunt. Along with elite midfielders, I would have thought a gun small forward should be right up there as a priority. Whenever I see Betts play, he really impresses me with his speed, his ability to win the ball, his defensive skills and dare I say it goal kicking ability. Seems perfect for our new regime. Anyone have any inside knowledge about this?

We are looking for a quality small forward. He is quick, an elite runner, and if he could improve his kicking, may be a chance.