Earl Hood

Our most damning handball stat is how many don't hit a target from close range.

And that we handball at too closer range. If our man about to be tackled gives off and hits the target our bloke is only a foot away and gets wrapped up by the same tackler too often!

It has occurred to me that the AFL could have alternative strategies for dealing with the MFC. It could provide draft aid with an extra pick anywhere from 1 to early second round or several second rounders. Going by Mark Evans latest thought bubble that seems now unlikely to happen.

The alternative strategy, Plan B for 2015 maybe to use the FIXture to hide us away from the spotlight like some ugly, deformed child of the competition. You know the drill zero night matches, multiple Sunday twilights, play as many bottom 8 clubs as possible and shunt us interstate as often as possible. Oh hold on that was this year's draw! Maybe the AFL has already implemented plan B.

If it really was an equal draw and we were playing absolute rubbish games against the top teams regularly in prime time I think the AFL might be thinking harder on how to help our on field performance.

i will never forget his attempt to justify melbourne's punishment for non tanking in a press interview

pure monty python

he proved himself as the perfect commiss stooge

i think team-afl is in big poo and for once jeffry was right on a football issue

Good one DC I still remember that presser, we were being hammered for not tanking, it was cringe worthy. But to be fair to the Gil he was thrown to the lions by AD who should have faced the press as Numero Uno and of course the real culprit was Adrian Anderson who went on an inquisition off his own bat while AD was away on arduous Olympic duties.

By the way has anyone ever seen the AFL's tanking report into the MFC? Tanking is always thrown up against us in these PP discussions yet I believe if we had not been on AFL welfare and were say in the position of the Pies we would have called their bluff and said we will see you in court. The AFL would have then backed off into some face saving discussions with us. Let's face it Caro had a direct line to the AFL at the time and all she had were ashen faced officials, some odd player moves and some comments from Connelly.

We can't miss both the priority pick and band 1 compensation. The AFL wont let it happrn

But I assume the Frawley compensation formula is set down explicitly and if his contract is not big enough we dont get first rounder? On the other matter the priority pick formula is opaque and dependent on an economics professor. Is that true? And it is now also dependent on the latest thought bubble from the AFL executive about some player tragedy scenario as bizarre as that may sound. So summing up we could indeed be screwed on both fronts here, continuing the MFC curse.

AW reporting Melbourne prepared to put, Watts, Toumpas, Grimes and Trengove on table. They want 5 picks inside Top 20.

Not sure how they would know this.

Not sure offering thosebplayers up will get you picks inside 20!

I think the loss of Mitch Clark needs to be factored in. His departure was due to exceptional circumstances and as such should be covered by the spirit of the rule.

You can add Jurrah to the equation as well, if we are talking tragedy scenarios. We took a big gamble to give indigenous player from a remote community a chance to show what talent is out there. It ultimately failed due to tragic split in Jurrah's community and extended family. Jurrah and Clark gone in tragic circumstances that would put a hole in most Clubs lists!

Just on SEN I heard something about the PP. I caught the back-end of the report so I didn't hear who made the statement, but what I did hear was, "...said it will be unlikely that Melbourne will be granted a priority pick." It was a serious report, not some [censored] journalist making the statement, so I can only assume it was an AFL official.

I think the club is obliged to ask for one, but considering the number of top 10 picks we have, the compensation we're going to get for Frawley, not to mention the cap space we have, I don't think the AFL will give us one.

EDIT: Wow, F-L-O-G is censored?

It was AFL Operations Manager Mark Evans saying a PP was unlikely because the rule was kept really to deal with some sort of player tragedy scenario? Huh, they make it up as the go. The wording of the rule makes no such reference. Then what is a player tragedy? A death such as Troy Broadbridge or if a player wrecks his knee in a match? Does Mitch C qualify? If the tragedy happens after the draft how do you give a club access to a priority pick? Evans is making it up as he goes.

As the Executive advises the so called independent AFL Commission of Drones you can pencil in a big No.

Agree there are rules and then there are AFL rules, anyone knows that AFL rules are more interpretations than rules. Unfortunately due to the AFL's integrity, high moral standards and ethics they don't let anyone know the formula for these rules so they can change them after they sniff the prevailing breeze and not get called out on it. The AFL stand for integrity, just ask them...

No best to ask Eddie first if you want the right answer!

Collingwood who have the fixture from Heaven minus a couple of Sunday night matches to maximise their income while we do the twilight Sundays against GWS and similar that starve us of income and sponsorship, they are the best arbiters of equalisation measures.

Happy that one is out of the way. We did not need a half committed Ling as our heir apparent coach. If he was interested in coaching he would already be into it full time.

There's no doubt that what happened yesterday was pathetic, an enormous step backwards, and a blight on the year.

Even with it, 2014 far outranks 2013.

We won four games. We should have won another 3, and we could have won a further 2-3.

Last year we won 2, and that was that. In a competition with more crap clubs, too (i.e. this year is more competitive).

Is it fear of failure that has stunned this group into inaction? If so why now

A draft analysis showed that the worst drafts were 2003 and 2009. Howz that for bad luck!!! It has to all turn and soon!!

No it is not drafts it is about player development didn't you know! Obviously they were bad years for development right across the league. We are largely to blame here of course for the lack of developing the early picks in those years.

I reckon we go big time for Ablett, Roughead, Dangerfield, Talia and Fyfe. If we get those guys in we can be competitive Maybe. Although I admit we may have to give up something to get these guys, say Blease, Tappy, Strauss perhaps.

Sorry I just woke up!

Talking on the couch saying that Peter Jackson should go to Paul Roos and say you can't trade these early picks unless say pick 3 went for two top 20 picks

basically said we need to flood the club with good young talent and focus heavily on development, time for a traditional rebuild with some decent people in charge

I think we have been there, circa 2007 to 2010. The blueprint was kids and more kids at the expense of older players. That was a disaster of 186 proportions! I think all we did was develop a crèche mentality for young draftees who were told too often success would just happen because they were the blessed.

We then started to draft in a mix of older players and some raw youth and that has proven itself not much better I am afraid. Of course that outcome has been impacted by the Neeld effect, by the loss of Clark, Jurrah, the injuries to Hogan and on and on.

Where to next I wonder? I believe Roos will try to flood the club with recycled players who can play a role but more importantly have demonstrated themselves to be mature, coachable, AFL standard journeymen. In the hope of making us middle rung competitive.

Evans can make a recommendation but it's the Commissions decision.

Unfortunately the commission are drones who swallow whatever AFL management serves up to them. We saw that under Andrew Dimwit often enough.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-concedes-melbourne-could-receive-priority-pick-and-if-loses-james-frawley-could-have-top-three-draft-selections/story-fni5f91a-1226879331080

"AFL football operations manager Mark Evans would not debate hypotheticals, but indicated a special assistance selection, if awarded, would not fall in the first round."

Don't think it'll be pick 1, a small chance of a pick following where we finish so pick 3, and more likely a second round pick (IF WE EVEN GET ONE!!)

I wish Mark Evans would stop working from Eddie's script! The top teams are laughing, they all originally built their list from bottoming out in uncompromised drafts with one year of poor play, getting priority picks, or third round father son picks, etc. The expansion clubs and three years of compromised drafts plus Free Agency has locked in their superior positions. I am talking the Hawks, Pies, Cats of course and these are the hypocrites who now rail against any concessions to the strugglers and Eddie is their megaphone.

I heard the guys on SEN announce it, first response was no way of course. Rohan Connelly was adamant that we didn't deserve one. You should only get one if you are a serial poor performer he claimed. At that point I think the Ox nearly fell off his chair, eight years isn't enough pain it seems. The tanking allegations were brought up as usual, now 4 years ago. It is interesting how everyone argues against it based on we don't deserve it, we wasted our chances, we tanked etc, no one wants to look at solutions. Fact is we are a cot case, that is a liability to the AFL brand so it is in everyone's interests to get us competitive again. We need draft help and that could come in the form of an end of first round pick,; in fact struggling clubs need more shots at good picks as the draft is a lottery, you can't be sure exactly who will make it, only that the odds are better that a top 20 pick will make it versus a third rounder.

I believe we need draft assistance to help restore our list to a competitive position.

We will continue to be unable to make use of high-end draft picks unless and until the culture at the club fundamentally changes.

I thought we'd done a lot of work this year to push beyond the kinds of efforts we saw today. Clearly that is not the case. Turning over the list might continue to assist, but as it stands, a priority pick won't do us any good if we're not able to rid the mental problems plaguing the side.

For that reason I'm not fussed about a PP at all. If we get one, fine. If we don't, fine. Either way the focus of the club has to be on fixing the current group of players, the majority of whom will be here next year.

So what is wrong with the majority of the current group? If we knew that we could maybe fix it. I will go with all the help we can get, an extra pick may help. In the end if we can get two or three more competitive beasts who have some talent onto the list we may begin to turn this ship wreck around. The lack of leadership in this group at the moment is just appalling!

Listened to the Roos pressed. A bit worriedn that it was all about them, the players and not about us the club, players and coaches.

Can't believe the Hun gave Kent our best player. His disposal was disgusting.

Yet oddly enough Kent is a good kick, especially for goal, although he should have handballed off on the one where he hit the post. His efficiency was poor today but is that because he is trying to set something up as opposed to others running at 70% who do nothing but chip it around? Not sure just asking but to me Kent had plenty of upside in a better team that drives the ball quickly into the forward line. And that is not us by miles.

Am donating my MFC membership money to charity next year. Thankyou. Good bye.

Mully don't go just yet. Are you Maynard G Crabbs or Gilligan? Can you confirm before you go?

Bah, the AFL won't do a single thing!! For years we have held our own destiny in our own hands and we have drafted pathetically!!

Nup, we have no one to blame but our previous coaches and shizen recruiting people!

Et Tu Bruti?

I think it is Et tu Brute but what do you mean, that we were done in by those we thought were on our side? Hmmm yes maybe you are right!

yep love the new jetta

Yes Jetta, Jones held their own and I thought Max tried hard and once he gets his hit out radar right he will be a great ruckman and he showed some agility at ground level I hadn't seen before. Salem showed he is likes a contest but needed to do more. Kent has potential as well as Tyson but that is about it for the glass half full view of that debacle. On a par with anything we dished up under Neeld given we where playing an undermanned side of full of kids. Actually it might be much worse because under Neeld no one knew what they were supposed to be doing, but under Roos they all have a well drilled role to play, yet could not execute. I mean these guys train full time but watching them today at times it looked like it was a scratch team thrown together for a social match.

Where to from here AFL? This club needs draft assistance big time!

Oh and by the way have the Pies been tanking or something? How else do you get smashed by the Lions at the Gee unless you have developed a losing culture from tanking? That is what I was led to believe two weeks ago, by Paul Roos and Caroline Wilson. Perhaps with Collingwood its a hangover from the 2005 tanking for the Daisy Thomas pp!

Yep another great descion by neeld to trade him.. He always showed promise, I'm not suprised his shown this form. Would be a lot better on the list then fitzy & spencer. Having said that I think he relishes the #1 ruck spot and rucking alone. So not sure how he'd go playing the Pedersen role as forward- part time ruck. But gee I wish he was still on the list.

Always liked Stefan thought he could be anything but always got an injury just as he looked like taking command of the first ruck posy for us. But there was no doubt he could play but there seemed to be issues with his attitude when Neeld came in. But then being an intelligent type he was probably appalled at the culture Neeld brought in and didnt conform to the requirements of the time. Mark it down as another stuff up.

Could be our forward line against West Coast next week.

Good point. Anyone know what Pedo did wrong to be dropped? I know team balance was an issue with Max coming in but Pedo had been in form and can play both ends.