T-34

All this thread has done is reinforce my delight at how tight our club has become. No leaks,no stupid decisions,no anything to complain about,so we have to debate benign issues like alternative strips. My two cents worth is that we are part of a competition which now requires an alternative strip preferably predominantly white, which we have complied with,along with everyone else who wish to compete in the AFL. End of story. My 15 year old daughter likes our clash jumper and wears it to every game,preferring it to our traditional jumper. I understand those who prefer our traditional red and navy jumper,as I do,but clash strips are now a fact of life and the sooner we accept that mostly white is part of the new landscape the easier it will be.

No appearance by Jamar while I was there, but I did miss the first half hour or so. Several others not on track either including Watts,Clarke,Dawes,Kent,Toumpas and Blease.

I popped down for the last hour or so but have little extra to add to demonwithin's wrap up. Compared to last pre season Roos is far more "hands on" involved than Neeld was, and will show players what he wants by pulling them aside and physically showing them how he wants things done, saw him do this on a couple of occasions with Fitzy, who was making mid fielders kicks look poor through bad leads. He pulled him aside, showed him what he was doing wrong and then explained what he wanted, which Fitzy then put into action. Also noted when Gawn and Spencer were doing laps how much Max has filled out, still not the finished article but has certainly put on some size and will benefit greatly if he can complete a full pre season. Loving what I was seeing and it also looked and sounded like the players are enjoying what the new regime have brought to the table. Don't know what this will equate to in wins but I expect a reasonable upswing in our on field endeavours. Happy to answer any queries if I can.

It is alleged to be $2m a year over 3 years but why would you start believing the press now ? Rarely have been accurate with much written about our club over the recent past, just because it's a positive article I'm still inclined to take the figures being bandied about with a grain of salt. Confident in those in power to have negotiated as good a deal as possible for the club and more than comfortable that this deal is for 3 years which gives us some time and breathing space to crack on with the business of becoming a top club again.

No the Quigley referred to is a Big Footy poster who does a yearly mock draft. Definitely not Emma Quigley whose mock draft will be much closer to the actual order than the Big Footy one will be.

As long as it is navy blue with the red yoke I don't give two stuffs. Far too much hand wringing over collars, stars and emblems, in the general scheme of things they aren't overly important. Fix the big things and the small things will fix themselves.

Demon shop is having a clearance sale today, clearing the decks for apparel with new sponsors on? If true you would expect an announcement before draft day, new recruits wearing new sponsors would seem apt.

Just looking to be competitive for longer.

Doesn't leave a lot to [censored] and moan about if true. Might mean all we have to post about is positives. Hoping this post pans out.

Sydney played in the GF 1996 and made finals in 4 of the 5 years up to Roos taking over during the 2002 season. This is a long way from being a bottom team.

Roos seemed to make resigning Watts a priority, a sign he had a definite plan on how and where he would use him. I trust in his vision.

Thanks for that explanation however determining what a player is worth in a trade is all relative and is clearly linked to a clubs needs and what they value a players potential to aid their team at. Looking at it merely through stats is the biggest mistake made because the vision of where and how that player plays at one club could be completely different to the club who is bringing him in. At this point in time I will back in Roos and co. over Barrett to get these choices right for the MFC and our needs.

Don't really care about his rating as no one would actually recognise him as any sort of expert. D+ rating from an F- journalist.

If he is over his injuries and can get in a full preseason, then the ball will be in his court.

Our club merchandise (jumpers ) is not sold through major retailers whereas clubs such as Collingwood,Essendon,Hawthorn etc.can be purchased at Target,K-Mart,Big W,Best and Less etc., Melbourne gear can only be had at Rebel and AFL shops. Did raise this with someone at the club about 2 years ago or thereabouts but was fobbed off with an inconclusive answer but it was acknowledged that the club gear was not being supplied to these chains, would seem that this is still the case. Never explained why this was happening but would explain the low figures as it is not as easily accessible as many of our competitors.

Kind of agree with this however it has already been seen that players from weaker teams are happy to walk to stronger ones for less coin, so this does not necessarily depend on a stronger clubs ability to pay more.Unfortunately that burden will also fall onto the lesser clubs as that is what it will take to lure free agents who are chasing the dollar to a club who has little chance of winning a flag for the foreseeable future. Free agency is here to stay however it will never assist any club to rise up the ladder, but it will aid some to stay at the top.

The one real positive here is whether it is Freeman or someone else, I have faith in the new coaching panel to develop them properly. Certainly haven't been able to expect that for sometime.

Jakovich by the length of the straight. Nothing compares to going to the footy and knowing you have a player who is a good chance of racking up 5+ goals week in and week out. Easily the most fun player to watch in my time ( 48 years ) and I had mates who barracked for other teams who came to watch Melbourne play just to see Jakovich do his thing.

Understand where you are coming from but if he takes the pressure off a developing youngster and allows them to come along without having to do it all themselves then it is a pick well spent.

Why would they complain when it was brought in, after all they wouldn't expect to lose anyone through FA, they thought they would be able to pick the carcasses of those clubs at the foot of the ladder. After all FA is only there to assist the top clubs top up their lists at the detriment of the lower clubs. The fact they are having a whinge about it is absolute gold.

One thing we possibly need to get our heads around is working to the Roos type model, not necessarily getting one star with pick 2 but with players he is confident will play roles for him, will add to the team and are solid citizens. Some of the players he traded for at Sydney had the rest of the clubs sniggering but he backed them in and developed them into their roles perfectly. He may see this in these two blokes, and considering we still maintain a top ten pick we shouldn't dismiss this scenario so readily. Trading in picks for unpolished gems who no one else rates highly was a speciality for Sydney and we need to damper our expectations of getting a recognised star and swap it for trust in what Roos sees as the bigger picture, and his coaching and development abilities. After all isn't that why we are so excited about getting him to the club ?

Not willing to support a known clubman who is well liked by his fellow professionals, but willing to support a loose cannon who most experts doubt his ability to apply himself to the level necessary to succeed, hence the fact no one was willing to take the risk inherent with drafting him. Byrnes did little on field for us last season but at least he is willing to make the sacrifices to be as good as he can be and to share this with our inexperienced list. Garlett could be great but not for our list and the type of culture they need to build. Of course posting holiday snaps on twitter is a heinous crime and he will need to be harshly dealt with on return.

Has anyone heard where Bassett is going? Could he finish up at MFC? Would seem to have done great work at Norwood and may be worth a shot at an assistant coach position.

I could live with this if it actually happened. Two experienced mids, two who have been in the system for a couple of seasons and two top end kids would be a fair return.

Funnily enough the thread is called Trade/Draft rumours, CK has heard something and passed it on as rumour,for that I thank him as it gives us all something to debate. Don't care who his sources are and don't care if none are right. When he posts it in a thread called "This is what is 100% happening and this is my source's name to back it up" then I may question whether it's from an impeccable source. As it is a rumour thread I don't demand this and would really wonder why anyone would, treat it for what it is, a rumour. To all who have posted something they have heard no matter the source, thanks from someone with no contacts within the club. '