Prob has been said to death on various threads but mybe good time to summarise people thought of how we all want to approach to the rest of the season till draft / trade time

For the rest of the season
Though i hate the thought of finishing last i think we have to do this to get the best kid in the land and have first option in the PSD. Knowing that the Hawks prob wont win many more and as Crawf has said on the footy show they are not trying to win i believe we have to keep half a game behind them and only work to a win when the hawks win a game. ALso i dont think with the way the list is playing we will have to much trouble but i dont want to be on the bottom for 70% of the season and then have the Hawks drop below us like they did to the tigers last year. This years draft Number 1 Pick means more than previous years drafts and i have to think we have to target Murphy who from all accounts is a first year polaying senior prospect and primarily for the midfield.
The Kids of this year need to continue to develope in the Nullants which are by all accounts steam rolling along and it would be fantastic if they one the VFL GF this year would give them confidence and winning culture.. Also being played in the VFL gives them 100+ mins playing time.
These are only my thought which some agree and some disagree but i do belive that come draft time many people will kick themselves if we miss out on Murphy and all for what maybe 1-2 more wins in a year that was lost after the Tigers thumped us.

Draft / Trade time
I believe DP will be in another heavy list management mode where we will see certain players cut or traded and after the year we have had is justified i think.

My thoughts on trades are a mixture of things i have heard or what i would like seen.
I would look at trading Campo and Sporn back to Adelaide in the hope of getting Reilly and Ferguss Watts. Adelaide may be open for trade of Campo to get another esxpereinced head with Adelaide in the GF hunt.
Sporn may work out better for Adelaide than for us.
Why Ferguss W and B Reilly both are Melb kids who i have heard are home sick and want back to Melbourne. We would pick up a good young midfielder and a possible pack marker in Watts as a Whitnall replacement. Only thing i am not sure of is Reillys current contract if he is out of contract or still in.
Whitnall i think wont be at the club and i guess the options may range from the Cats / Dogs / Dockers or maybe even saints.
Options there would be to get somone of value ie Maybe Goddard from the Saints as i think Kosi will be too hard to pry and i am sure that the Kosi signing may force a player out.. With the Cats or Dogs maybe a Midfielder to bolster our list. Why Goddard from what i hear behind the scenes he is still not happy with is current contract and i still reckon he has blue blood in him and would be more useful to the Blues than the saints.
Another option would be to maybe look at grabbing Longmuir from Freo in trade with Whitnall could be an option and maybe havin T-LO may help get J-LO over to us would be ideal for a rucking / forward and maybe Whits would fit into the freo forward line with Pavlich / Medhurst / Farmer.

Other targets could be from WC maybe Gardiner / Kerr / Braun / Mcdougall. of those options i would chase Kerr if WC where willing to let him go.. From what i have heard WC looking to get Mitch Clark but will need a lower draft pick possibly from the Hawks or Blue to get him.
With other player trades maybe with Prender if he has currency and maybe a few others.
Then i am sure that there will be a few cuts as well to make way for some rookie elevations and trades / draft pick ups.

Season 2006
Make Stevo Captain as this stage best choice and seems media agrees to.

Elevate Smith and Santanta off Rookie list. the Kids in the VFL now slot into the senior list and we start to get a semblence of a new team free of the past couple of seasons.
We could have a list with a bit refreshed and have some spark in it
And depending on the draft we may get some decent trades if we can pull them off and also get a good crop of kids from the new draft / VFL regulars
So some of the new inclusions for Regular Senior playing
Betts
J SMith
Santanta
Hartlett
Russell
Bryan
Raso
Blackwell
(Most need a good preseason to build up as well)

Pick 1 ( Murphy)
Pick 3 ?
Some new trades out of the above list

Mix with Waite / Stevo / T-Bird / Walker / Fev / French / Carrots / Fisher / Simpson
Kouta will be there i expect for last season
Lappin - unknown
Campo - Traded
Whits - Traded
And there will be some of the recycles who survive the chop mixed in as well.

ANyway i think we will have some improvement and maybe can go similar to the Tigers ..... i think after this year from Hell DP will have to weave some magic and get some wins on the board and show all the members that we are heading back up the ladder and i think the semblence of the above list will do a lot to show some results on the board.

" well these are just thoughts anyway look forward to people having there own thoughts as well on how we approach the rest of the season .. Draft - Trades and the list / captain in 2006
I didnt put down names that would be cut as i think the last 7 weeks will show up who will stay and who will be gone.

I'm not sure why Stevens is always mentioned as our next Captain???? For me, he hasn't done nearly enough to warrant that role yet!
And if he wins the B&F (as quite a few media personalities suggest) i'll hand back my membership! Has had a discgracefull season!

Problem is, if Kouta is to hand over the Captaincy, there really isn't anybody to give it too?

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Can't get J-Lo has re-signed

see Heffernan rule

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

I'd offer Kosi the captaincy to see if that lures him over...He loves the role at the Saints and I think he could be a decent choice considering the lack of genuine captaincy options...

Grant Thomas has a plan for a brighter future for the Saints, just like Collo's plan for the Blues

Thomas' plan includes BJ and Kossi.

The saints won't be releasing or trading no 1 or 2 draft picks.

To say that BJ is unhappy with his currant contract is just nonsence. He was offered heaps more by Carlton and the Filth, but opted to sign on for two more years with the Saints.

.

I would love to see us do a trade for another early 1st or 2nd round pick and get Murphy to go into the draft and not to the the Lions under father/son.

In the PSD I hope we pick up someone like Bartel from the Cats who appears to be unsatisfied with the Cats first contract offer.

What role has he got them pencilled in in his corporate double talk empowerment process circle jerk that he calls a coaching plan?

Thomas plan is to have those guys without a position....
........Kind of like a reverse Kama Sutra...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Funny one that, cracks me up.

Dont buy the book if you cant touch your toes.. It comes with a warning "you will crack"...

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

Never hurts to shake the tree Garth and maybe you are right about BJ but we will see what the salary shakup will be on the saints

Anyway as i said its speculation and nothing wrong with trying to picture the rest of the year the Draft and the 2006 side.

Another thing i would chase up would be the assitant coaches maybe getting Shaun Rehn / J Longmire .. or a Voss type..ect but i hope as Collo has written the assistant coaches will be looked at as well. The best assistant coach the Blues have had in the past 5 Years was Woosher and unfortunately he is now happy leading the competition at WC i hope we find another one like him.

not sure what the obsession with Goddard is. I know we missed him because of the penalties, but I reckon Wells was a much bigger loss. At present Goddard is the worst performing #1 draft choice going round. I'd love to get Kosi, or at least put his price well up to cause the Saints probs, but 4 year deals on ridiculous sums is what got us into such grief in the first place. He's been really injury prone over the last couple of years. Happy to get him but not on the sort of contract that Elliott was dishing out. There have been very few stars picked up in the PSD. Last years # 1 was Knobel!!! Maybe we'll get someone good, but who knows.

Good to see you back garth, you maybe are a bit touchy because the Saints are on the brink of throwing away another certain flag. Anything less than a flag would be a failure given they have the most talented list. Be a pity if they end up with an away final against the Lions.....

How's your man hamill going, on target for a top 20 in the b&f, 16th or 17th at least. Value for money there, how would he go if he actually got on the field occassionally......

We missed you... glad to see you're back.

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Newest Baby Blue Member
Tom Cameron - Born 20/03/10

Haha Dreaming!

you're on the right track, but our players really dont hold too much value. only way we could get a whitnall/campo for young gun is if we threaten them with our number 1 PSD pick, and thats only going to work for guys out of contract.

Reilly is a gun and there are 9 other melborune based clubs that would take him with open arms, so it's going to take better than a aging outside midfielder who is under performing and probably on more money than reilly plus one of our off casts who cant get a run in the one's to land someone like brent reilly alone, let alone getting watts aswell.

need to be more realistic

Our only hope come trade time is that clubs will accept our trade offers on the basis of "Potential "

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