Thoughts....

[auditor]

Would we be interested in luring Brian Lake to Bomberland?

[s'dreams]

Hmmm ... think we may need this one to make the finals this year.

Brian Lake, preacher, author, motivator, and entrepreneur, has a heart to see the church come into a deeper intimacy with Jesus. Brian travels throughout America and the nations of the world carrying a strong healing and miracle anointing and also used extensively to help ignite passion in the church and to pursue holiness.

The other Brian Lake - No. If "luring" - would more be looking at an experienced ruck or KPP forward at this stage.

Cheers - STI

[Mrs Mercuri]

Nah the Doggies wont let Lake go anyway, he is in AA form this season.

What about West Coast premiership player Adam Hunter... read on the afl website that he is "considering his career" out West which pretty much means looking for another home... would we be interested at all??

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

[Crazyman]

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Do you seriously think anyone would want Chook...IMO, unless he a) gets his body right for next year and b) has a blinder and proves everyone wrong, I can't see any AFL club wanting including GC17 and West Sydney when they enter the comp...

[swoodley]

Nah the Doggies wont let Lake go anyway, he is in AA form this season.

What about West Coast premiership player Adam Hunter... read on the afl website that he is "considering his career" out West which pretty much means looking for another home... would we be interested at all??

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Hunter will retire more than likely as his shoulder is stuffed. He has struggled all season and would be of no benefit to us at all.

[Mrs Mercuri]

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Do you seriously think anyone would want Chook...IMO, unless he a) gets his body right for next year and b) has a blinder and proves everyone wrong, I can't see any AFL club wanting including GC17 and West Sydney when they enter the comp...

I was just putting it out there...... considering that PA have NO ruckmen after Lade and Brogan they may seriously look at getting Laycock. There arent many other ruckmen out there not getting a go at the moment.

[robbie67]

Port Adelaide have said they want a "ruckman". That rules out Laycock.

...and yes Brian Lake to Essendon. Maybe they will just give us Gilbee, Cooney, Griffin, Higgins, and Murphy as well...............if we ask really nicely.

[Windy_Hill]

I think sometimes people think the AFL is like the meat market that is the European soccer competitions. You know, just pick a player, write a cheque, deal done.

The only time players in the AFL move from one club to another is;

1) Homesickness (less common these days)
2) Cant settle with current club due to personality clashes with other players/coaches
3) The player is useless and is off loaded for anything half decent

How many Christiano Ronaldo deals do you see in the AFL (eg, great player, in his prime, switching to another club) - only one in the last 15 years - Judd to Carlton

If you ask me, even a deal as good as Prismall was for us, its is an absolute rarity and only happened as the player was badly injured and playing for a team with 10 better midfielders. Hey, Prismall may end up being a top 15 mid-fielder and we will be very happy but he will never be as good as Ablett, Bartell etc.

So why would the Bulldogs let an obvious star of the future leave to come to Essendon unless he qualifies under points 1-3 above? It simply wont happen. There is not a culture of club jumping in our competition and even if there was, there exists too many mechanisms to prevent such a thing from ocurring.

AFL trade period is a complete joke - days of boredom culminating in 6 players (most of whom we havent heard of) being traded for Draft Pick 47 or 56.

Our best bet to develop an edge on the playing field will not come from trying to take players from other clubs but through

1) Investing money into junior scouting and talent identification techniques so that we maximise the value of our draft picks. This includes having a high degree of sports medicine expertise on board to ensure we dont lose players like Selwood in the future simple because we thought he was injury prone.

2) Investing money into training facilities that are not only state of the art but motivational/inspirational for the players. Take a look at Man Utd's training facilities - is it any wonder thay have such a strong record of developing home grown players

3) Invest in the best coaches, physios, medicos, dieticians, sports psychologists, footwear developers, trainers etc. Essendon is sitting on $20 Million and is not doing anything about using it. This is the problem with Peter Jackson, he is a great commercial manager but doesnt like spending the cash. Apparently its there for a rainy day when the club's on field performance drops resulting in lower revenues. well guess what, we have been shite for 5 years now and we are still making money including the best sponsorship deal in the AFL with Samsung!!! Time to start spending the rainy day money boys

[andrewb]

Don't be surprised if Prismall is considered in that company in a few years... I put some stats up on the other site for Inside 50 conversions and Prismall is converting 30% of his inside 50s into scores this year - miles ahead of judd, rich, pendlebury, etc. From the limited action we've seen, his disposal is elite (averaging over 80% efficiency) and he can win a lot of the ball. Considering that he's 7 games out of an ACL and averaging 25 touches a game I'd say that he's the best midfield prospect on our list by a mile.

Once we get Hille back into the ruck and get Watson, McVeigh and Welsh back to their best I am confident that we'll have a top 6 midfield. We probably don't have the star power (at least it hasn't been recognised yet) but we have quality and serious depth.

[robbie67]

Once we get Hille back into the ruck and get Watson, McVeigh and Welsh back to their best I am confident that we'll have a top 6 midfield. We probably don't have the star power (at least it hasn't been recognised yet) but we have quality and serious depth.

If...when....but.......maybe.........

like:

wait until we get Calthorpe and Olarenshaw back to full fitness, that will give the mid-field the depth it needs:

with a bit of discipline Lewfatt and McGrath will be like having two Michael Long's in the team:

Mercuri, Wellman, Wallis will all be back to their best next year, and 2002 will be 2000 all over again:

with Laycock, Bradley, and now Gumbleton, our future big man stocks have never looked better.

[hillchaser]

Agree with your thoughts Windy.

If...when....but.......maybe.........

like:
wait until we get Calthorpe and Olarenshaw back to full fitness, that will give the mid-field the depth it needs:

with a bit of discipline Lewfatt and McGrath will be like having two Michael Long's in the team:

Mercuri, Wellman, Wallis will all be back to their best next year, and 2002 will be 2000 all over again:

with Laycock, Bradley, and now Gumbleton, our future big man stocks have never looked better.

Even though you ripped on me for daring to suggest that we drop Stanton .. I'm man enough to admit that this is a very funny comment .

[hillchaser]

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Sorry I though you said Port were looking for a ruckman

[Mrs Mercuri]

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Sorry I though you said Port were looking for a ruckman

LOL wow people have really jumped on my potential idea.... seriously (no smart ass answers please!) if not a ruckman then what exactly is Laycock??

[swoodley]

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Sorry I though you said Port were looking for a ruckman

LOL wow people have really jumped on my potential idea.... seriously (no smart ass answers please!) if not a ruckman then what exactly is Laycock??

Laycock is a....oops, wait a minute....you said no smart arse answers

[dom_105]

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Sorry I though you said Port were looking for a ruckman

LOL wow people have really jumped on my potential idea.... seriously (no smart ass answers please!) if not a ruckman then what exactly is Laycock??

Laycock is an enigma. I doubt even he knows what he is.

[hop]

The Herald Sun today also said that Port Adelaide would be trading for a ruckman this season... should we offer them Laycock??

Sorry I though you said Port were looking for a ruckman

LOL wow people have really jumped on my potential idea.... seriously (no smart ass answers please!) if not a ruckman then what exactly is Laycock??

You just can't do that!!

[rockhole]

With our ruck stocks abysmally low, I cannot see the club getting rid of Laycock esp after the effort we have put into him to get him back on the park.

i believe that they will give him one more shot at proving whether he has the goods to be an AFL footballer or not.

He certainly has a lot to prove before winning back this site.

[Mrs Mercuri]

With our ruck stocks abysmally low, I cannot see the club getting rid of Laycock esp after the effort we have put into him to get him back on the park.

i believe that they will give him one more shot at proving whether he has the goods to be an AFL footballer or not.

He certainly has a lot to prove before winning back this site.

Yes so it seems.

[Sismis]

People said exactly the same things about Hille at the same stage of his career.

It is a pretty consistant rule. The big guys take longer.

[Rossoneri]

When Hille was 24-25, he had the heart of a pea, now he should have been AA ruckman last year and not having him this year has killed us (though Ryder has come through)

Salopek seems to be on the outer at Port. I have seen him play and seems to be an ok player, not sure who would have to give up more out of Port and Us in regards to swapping Salopek and Laycock. I reckon we would have to throw in something else, but might be worth looking at.