diesel

All the debate about Jordie's worth misses the point that he is one of the few who apply defensive pressure in a team which is supposed to have this as its mantra. There is also the issue that just about every midfield we have competed agaisnt this year has been better than ours, so it's a neccesity to slow the opposition down. Can Jordie play two-way footy? He won't last in the side forever if he doesn't. That's really l that needs to be said for now I would have thought.

I'd put my money on this coming from some bored, storyless journo trawling through here for trade ideas and has stumbled upon NAH's posts. If Collingwood are into getting a ruckman I hear Josh Fraser will be available (and people give us [censored] for drafting Jack Watts!)

It's amazing when you consider some here and at 'ology rated him a plodder and would even have traded him. Of course some of these prophets will now claim he hasn't got much to beat but his personal improvement is undeniable and he would walk into any AFL side. Criticism was he is slow and he's not super quick but the work he engagaes in doesn't require it. His hands and disposal have improved 100% since he got to the club. He has developed a good engine and I can only marvel at how fit you would have to be to end up at the bottom of so many packs and still run every game out. It will be a well deserved Bluey for the unofficial Captain.

Given Beamer "hasn't be able to adapt" it's hard to see how Neeld would justify keeping him? How many more games are you going to give a bloke on the downside of his career to pick up a game plan? Keeping him and playing him at Casey next year is a waste of his and the MFC's time. Having said that I'll still be a bit shocked if he goes, two out two most recent Bluey holders gone Was just as interested in Neelds comments in the article about Colin who like Dunn seems to have won a reprieve and might even be considered a candidate for the leadership group next year? I read it twice and that's what I got out of it anyway!

Agree, they can realease the shackles next Monday.

After falling out with footy for a number of years this was the game that sealed the deal for me becoming a Melbourne supporter. So it looks like it's my 25th Anniversary! It also probably proves the point in my case that a club needs to back up postive aspirations and talking with on-field performance to capture supporters long term.

Caddy will stay at GC.

Hell will freeze over before you see this. The deeper you look the more comprimised and contrived the game and its running are.

I reckon that's about a 5:1 against, based on the fact that getting him was instigated by the new FD and heavily involved Jade Rawlings. Clarke would most likely be kicking 6 or 7 against us this weekend.

Don't start me. After yesterdays inpet unpiring display I really need the 6 months off to get over them (as well as the footy club)

We have a lot of soft supporters, obviously. It didn't go unnoticed by me commenting to those I was with yesterday. However what really helps drive people away from the football is when the AFL (aided by the MCG) sanitises the game as well as the ground. Over the last 10 or so years the football experience has been eroded by those in charge and they need to be held acocuntabel which this thread does.

Cook would have played 10 games by now, been torn to pieces by the AFL's best defenders and have had what litlle confidence he had shattered.

Won't know for a while yet. One is playing in a team who are absolute rubbish and one in a side which is going OK. Natanui is however, currently the most over rated footballer in the League for what he actually does.

Clearly people did care. Are you aksing us to run up the flag in the manner you object to the players doing? Not much we in the stands could do to arrest the mess, but to honor a Champion of the club, at our home ground, it did matter.

Was like the final kick in the guts for a miserable season. At the ground where the game and team evolved from that some moron could do that, not once, but twice shows a s pecial kinf of ineppetitude. I've also had a gutful of seeing opposition highlights at qtr breaks. Do they show visitors goals at AAMI stadium? No, don't think so! If they did that at a football ground or ball park in the US they would run the idiots in cahrge of the buttons out of town.

Your not wrong. Amazing how people will write a bloke off as expendable just because they haven't seen him play for a litlte while. I don't precieve that we have a surplus of rucks ATM. As we've seen they are prone to injury, even Spencer I'd keep for a another season at least and then weigh things up once Max and Martin are back on the park.

As I understood it no one came and spoke to him about his future/retirement/exit until he was bailed up (so to speak) and told it was time to go a few weeks form the end of the year. Pretty poor given he spent around 6 weeks on the sidelines with a hammy that year, which would appear to have been the perfect time for a sit down and chat?

Depends which media idiot, ex-player or footy follower you talk to. WE all know tanking is deliberately loosing games. In any case this doesn't involve Melbourne so in the eys of the media it will be a non-issue, smart list development, prudent and great forward planning.

Perhaps, but the player will have known form a long way out that he was likely to go because those discussion will have been had from a long way put. The way James McDonlad left was a disgrace. He may not have bene happy or agreed and he may well still have tuned up at GWS but at least he wouldn't have had to turn up at a presser looking stunned. I hope to god a lot of our supporters can put aside their sulkiness at our season to come out and thank Greeny in a respectful way i.e. by showing up. He helped give me my best personal moment in attending the footy with the SF win against Carlton in 2000 and for that alone I would congratulate him.

"We could", clearly I'm not presenting a fact. To pay 100% of the TPP with no fundsriasing and we would have to cut somewhere else (or go into debt), simple maths surely?

Let's put it another way. If we didn't raise money last night we could still pay 100% of the salary cap but remove a few of people from the FD, some from admin/membership, cut back some community programs. Whichever way there are short and long term implications. In the meantime other clubs are quietly fundraising, stealing our people, going after our players and opening the gap on us. These fundraisers I am convinced are now a permanent fixture, don't expect them to go away, even if we get financially stable and win a flag.

They do. I believe Collingwood had a fundraiser last week. We are on catch-up but effectively behind because of a smaller supporter base. It's footy inflation.

As I understand it Tarrant came back to Collingwood on a much lesser contract than he was on at Freo and less than his market worth. Apprently he was keen to end his career at Collingwood. I won't be at all surprised however if that is it for him and he ends up on their coaching staff next year or in some other capacity working for the CFC. Nudge! Nudge! Wink! Wink! hey Eddie

It's become more a discussion point later in the season because he's actually talking about the avg. age & games we are putitng out each week. With players like Davey, Jamar, Moloney, Bate, Clark, Bartram on the sidelines we have become younger and less experienced. Not sure about Adelaide's figures but I reckon this is where it's at. This isn't to condone performance from my poiint of view though, we should still have walloped GWS on the weekend.

The improvement I have seen in 2012 is the emergence of 2-way footy. Blokes who were used to all out attack without accountability have not surprisingly struggled. This willl take time. Our forward line will continue to struggle without the cattle down there and it's made worse by a midfiled that has not often won the clearances, also resulting in additional pressure on our backs. Our deffense IMO are the foundation of being able to turn this around. They'd be superstars with a better mid & forward set-up. It will take some shrewd drafting and trading for the 'J' curbe to appear in 2013.