TJ hit the Freeway!

[the ooze]

trade green and bruce I agree

but trade TJ

you my uneducated friend are a clown!!!!

TJ is not only a vital cog in the melbourne midfield but the type of player that wil thrive under a better game plan where his aility is utilised.

TJ has the most brownlow votes of any melbourne player over the past 6 seasons and should be seen as a major player for a flag push.

this constant TJ bashing is ridiculous he may not be the most consistant player but under a new direction he could easily become the next melbourne brownlow medalist.

this is a complete waste of a thread re-name it get rid of that useless pair of green and bruce.

More importantly, your nick would be endangered if TJ was traded off

 

[dee-molishon]

Alrighty then..... (read this and you have to agree....)

Someone said something about Nic Fosdike. Yeah he is Ok and wins a bit of the footy but the same as Greeny, Bruce and Trav.... is he going to be there for our next flag? I reckon the answers no.

People are suggesting ways to get Travis and Brad Green to be more of an asset for our team... it's to late for that. By the team they retire we most likely will NOT have a flag which is what footy is all about.

And as for the arguement of 'Travis is a star why would you trade him?' 'Green and Bruce are good players'. Nathan Thompson was a good player, Jonathon Hay was a good player but the Hawks traded them for 2 first round picks and i think a 2nd rounder. Their departures also fast tracked the development of Franklin, Roughead, Boyle and even Williams and from memory they used one of the picks to get Grant Birchall.

'Western' says we need a CHF... how can get one of them plus a FB and a CHB with our Pick Four? You have to give something to get something and Bruce Green and TJ would fetch something good from teams like Adelaide, Fremantle, Sydney etc.

RandB... Now buddy, you may see it as a case of quote 'this player can go, that player can go' but its not. It's only guys who i believe we will not win a flag with that can be used to get us players that will win us a flag. And as for you saying Port are no good because they got belted in the Grand Final ...you are a joke. They have a team set up for the next ten years for god sake! They have been able to make the Grand Final just three years after winning a premiership... Melbourne could learn a lot from them. They cut players to bring in young guys who are going to take them places rather than doing a Melbourne and keeping on guys who are good but unfortunately wont win them a flag and accept mediocore 5th and 6th placed finishes. Now wonder we haven't won a flag in 43 years.

If we just continue on as we are then in five years time we will have a good midfield, average forward line, laughable backline and pathetic ruck division. Look at the last few premiership backman......
2000 - Fletcher
2001, '02, '03 - Mal Michael, Leppitsch
2004 - Wakelin
2005 - Leo Barry
2006 - Glass
2007 - Scarlett, Harley, Egan (to a point)
2008/'09 - Carroll / Holland?? Dont think so.
I am willing to endure a few years of pain due to the trading of Bruce, Green, Travis and others if it means building a backline to win us a flag.

all good well thought out points flashh!!, and yes i do agree with u backlines win premierships, if u think about it u dont have to score many points and kick many goals if ur backline is great because u know the opposition want score many points either.........but to me premierships are won in the middle..........if u have a really good mid-field that wins more ball than the opposition u get more inside foward 50's and u get more chances to score, so even if u have a inferior foward line to the opposition u get more chances to score and it kind of cancel's each other out.........centre half fowards arent even there anymore........tell me centre half fowards these days who actually play centre half foward?? None of them do they all lead up to the wings, aslong as u have a good set of hands it doesnt matter how tall u are........look a ryan o'keefe, ashley hansen, travis cloke perfect examples as a centre half fowards, johnathan brown and barry hall both play closer to goal these days, geelong scrapped the whole centre half foward idea this year........remember they were playing henry playfair at centre half foward before this year, they didnt play one this whole year and they still won the flag

As for nik fosdike yes i was the one who suggested him, dont think he gets a fair enough run at sydney and i believe you could get him for a pretty cheap price, take a look at the 2005 grand final he can play!!

 

[RandB]

Alrighty then..... (read this and you have to agree....)

Someone said something about Nic Fosdike. Yeah he is Ok and wins a bit of the footy but the same as Greeny, Bruce and Trav.... is he going to be there for our next flag? I reckon the answers no.

People are suggesting ways to get Travis and Brad Green to be more of an asset for our team... it's to late for that. By the team they retire we most likely will NOT have a flag which is what footy is all about.

And as for the arguement of 'Travis is a star why would you trade him?' 'Green and Bruce are good players'. Nathan Thompson was a good player, Jonathon Hay was a good player but the Hawks traded them for 2 first round picks and i think a 2nd rounder. Their departures also fast tracked the development of Franklin, Roughead, Boyle and even Williams and from memory they used one of the picks to get Grant Birchall.

'Western' says we need a CHF... how can get one of them plus a FB and a CHB with our Pick Four? You have to give something to get something and Bruce Green and TJ would fetch something good from teams like Adelaide, Fremantle, Sydney etc.

RandB... Now buddy, you may see it as a case of quote 'this player can go, that player can go' but its not. It's only guys who i believe we will not win a flag with that can be used to get us players that will win us a flag. And as for you saying Port are no good because they got belted in the Grand Final ...you are a joke. They have a team set up for the next ten years for god sake! They have been able to make the Grand Final just three years after winning a premiership... Melbourne could learn a lot from them. They cut players to bring in young guys who are going to take them places rather than doing a Melbourne and keeping on guys who are good but unfortunately wont win them a flag and accept mediocore 5th and 6th placed finishes. Now wonder we haven't won a flag in 43 years.

If we just continue on as we are then in five years time we will have a good midfield, average forward line, laughable backline and pathetic ruck division. Look at the last few premiership backman......
2000 - Fletcher
2001, '02, '03 - Mal Michael, Leppitsch
2004 - Wakelin
2005 - Leo Barry
2006 - Glass
2007 - Scarlett, Harley, Egan (to a point)
2008/'09 - Carroll / Holland?? Dont think so.
I am willing to endure a few years of pain due to the trading of Bruce, Green, Travis and others if it means building a backline to win us a flag.

"RandB... Now buddy, you may see it as a case of quote 'this player can go, that player can go' but its not. It's only guys who i believe we will not win a flag with that can be used to get us players that will win us a flag."

With all due respect you are not the only person in this forum I was commenting about so don't take it so personally. Many posts in this forum are about getting rid of players with not much real elaboration. I think you are giving yourself a bit too much credence my friend. I am not against trading players if it will beneift the club but in the posts I read there was not too much rationale. To say we need to start from scratch is just a generalistic comment. All of a sudden you write a big essay to justify your comments but if you leave yourself open in the first place that is your fault. Everything I said about Picket was correct by the way. I didn't say TJ is untradeable etc I said this is getting rediculous with all the names being tossed up. Also one of the reasons we have not won a GF for so long is because off field we have been behind the other clubs... gee I wonder why we aren't getting Judd? Our recruiting has been very suspect for a long period of time because we haven't got enough KPPs and have got too many light mid height utility type players. Butchering our list wont solve our lack of eye for talent for KPPs.

"And as for you saying Port are no good because they got belted in the Grand Final ...you are a joke" -Bad comment!

1) I didn't say that at all - I said their experience was reflected in the result. You watch, they will start going out now for experienced players. They are talking in the forums how they need another Picket Hardwick etc.

2) If you want to get personal by calling me a joke then save that sort of thing for Bay 13. We both have opinions and are entitled to them.

 

[RandB]

**BUMP**

I think this was one of the more in depth threads on the fundamental direction of the club with respect to our list last year - even though it was initially about just TJ.

I don't make a habit of bumping threads (in fact this is my first one) but I think the relisting of Josh Carr by Port goes a long way to showing the value of mature players within a young list and backing up some points made in this thread with respect to both Port Adelaide and the comparison to Melbourne.

Whilst Port didn't want to get rid of Carr when he left, they certainly overcooked things when they got rid of many other senior players at the end of the following season. Mark Williams subsequently realised this prior to the 2007 season. The way they swung the axe left a huge hole in their senior leadership stocks and subsequently they have now brought Carr (three years later) back in to their side, a player who turns 29 next year. Port are undeniably a young rebuilding team like Melbourne and I think my Port analogy in this thread last year has been vindicated on a certain level and my call that they would bring some experience back into the team was spot on.

Of course the relevance of all of this is in relation to the debate about whether we should have gotten rid of Green and Bruce amongst other seniors as an avenue to achieving a young list and a rebuild. Not only did we desperatley need the assistance of Bruce and Green this year with limited leadership on the field but of course we had already started rebuilding the day Bailey walked in the door - even if many Melbourne supporters could not comprehend this at the time.

In the two trading/draft years Bailey has been at the club we have taken to the list with a blow torch. We have had 19 players go from our lists, many of them senior players. The turn around in our list has been massive and we have done it whilst holding on to what decent senior players we have. Not only did we need them to help support a young list but the proof was in the pudding during trade period that clubs were not relinquishing much quality for senior players anyway. Green and Bruce were very important around the ground this year but specifically down back where they assisted our defence which has emerged as one of the more settled young backlines. Our defence has a fair way to go before we can hang our hats but it looks pretty good for the long term. Bailey had confidence to stick with those players and give them a go because of the senior players he had to assit them (floating back) with Green and Bruce amongst others.

I for one beleive that we have managed our list fantastically in the last two years. I am not prematurely calling all of our recruits to be successfull but compared to where we were in 2006 with a top heavy team aiming at a flag we have rejuvenated the side as best possible IMO and with the spread of talent we have recruited we should have some great players (hits) and not too many duds (misses).

Getting back to Port Adelaide, they too have rejuvenated their list but bringing back Carr into the side shows that they value hardness and maturity in the middle of the ground to help lead the younger players. It goes to show that you can't just start from scratch with nothing but youth, you need to develop the youth to a certain level with a sprinkle of important senior players and we have just the right blend atm.

Now that Neitz, Holland, Yze and White have finished up (which was on the cards) we will have just two players 30 or above playing next year in McDonald and Robbo (not including Whelan who turns 30 in November '09). Our list is looking good and with good picks in the draft next year (I didn't really want to go there but we all know we'll be around the mark) we should have a fantastic list for the future.

 

[Clean Heels]

Im of the opinion that we shouldve offloaded Green - even more
so after he was holding us over a barrell..

When the Bullies were showing interest in Robbo, I also thought at
that stage - that it was a no-brainer to let him go..

But, whats done is done, I think Bailey has done - and is doing - a magnificant job..

 

[Colin Grigson]

Im of the opinion that we shouldve offloaded Green - even more
so after he was holding us over a barrell..

When the Bullies were showing interest in Robbo, I also thought at
that stage - that it was a no-brainer to let him go..

Unfortunately, you need some senior players around the club to help the youngsters come through. I don't think trading Green and Robertson would have been a great idea as it would have left a gaping hole in terms of senior experience at the club. Those guys have a role to play, not just on the field, but also in helping to nurture the younger talent on the training track...

Besides, we wouldn't have got decent draft picks for either of those players had we decided to go down that path...