If there is one forgotten player at Melbourne it must be John Meesen. Maybe he will play a game or two now with a lot of their other ruckmen and tall forwards out, but clearly Melbourne are not too impressed with him. In Adelaide, the Crows would have to be very impressed with the play of Brad Moran. Maybe Melbourne would be happier with Moran, and they probably could have acquired him.
Melbourne sent pick 37 in the 2007 AFL draft to the Crows for Meesen. The Crows looked to the Kangaroos, a team with depth in the ruck department, and sent them pick 37 for Brad Moran. If Melbourne had just offered pick 37 for Moran they would be a better team now, and maybe they still could have acquired Meesen through the preseason draft or with another trade.
There is still time for Meesen to deliver for Melbourne, and he was named among Sandringham's best players last round, but if the Demons could pick between Moran and Meesen right now they wouldn't hesitate to take Moran.
In ice hockey, if a player scores three goals in a game all the fans throw their hats on the ice. In many sports the winning team pours large amounts of orange liquid over their coach. At the soccer, riots often occur due to the lack of action on the field. The winner of the Indianapolis 500 race drinks milk.
Some traditions don't really make sense, like Detroit Red Wings fans throwing an octopus on the ice or baseball fans in Anaheim waving a monkey above their heads, but they are things that those who fund the sports do seem to enjoy. Without the paying fans, there are no professional sportspeople.
Lance Franklin has at least four more games to play, so 100 goals is nearly assured. Many traditions are being taken away from people and the 100 goal celebration has been under threat for some time now. There are plenty of Hawthorn fans who cheered Dunstall when he got to 100, they probably want to do the same for their "buddy".
It isn’t like these people have not been on a football ground before with Franklin. During the breaks in play for the VFL and Under 18 games people saunter onto the field. The members and supporters who line up for autographs from Franklin at Waverley, during training and family days, deserve to be part of a celebration of his goal-kicking as they may be stopped from attending a Grand Final he plays in. The days of a club membership guaranteeing a Grand Final ticket are supposedly over, the occasional centurion celebration won’t make up for that but it is fun for the fans to do.
Player: Alan Didak
Why their team should trade them: Everyone already knows why.
Which team would be a good fit: Someone who needs goals from a small forward, to compliment their key forwards. That might be Brisbane.
Similar trade in the past: There hasn't really been anything too similar.
Possible trade scenarios:
Didak to Brisbane for Troy Selwood and Rhan Hooper
When trade week arrives, maybe it will have already been announced that Didak will be at Collingwood for 2009. But if he is moving, Brisbane could be a logical destination for a number of reasons. On the field, the Lions have Brown and Bradshaw and few others who can kick goals, so Didak would fix that. Off the field, Coach Matthews has in the past taken on players that other clubs would not touch, Lethal has the idea that he can scare people into doing what is right for the team and his success seems to indicate that he can do that. The Lions and Magpies have also shown that they can get trades to work, from Buckley to Wood. Selwood could give the Magpies someone that will do what Licuria did for them previously, while Hooper could add some needed dash to the Collingwood side.
Didak to Port Adelaide for Robbie Gray
Collingwood might think that Gray will be able to replace a lot of Didak's goals, and that could be correct. Gray does have the ability to kick multiple goals a game from a forward pocket. Gray is younger, cheaper and also from Victoria.
Paintball probably isn't a sport, although for a while it was on ESPN and the viewers can tell who wins as it is the guy without any paint on him, but paintball is a lot better than what they get up to every four years with their little air pistols. If they have pistol events, why don’t they have darts, very similar except darts has a lot more fans and an old English guy who yells out “one hundred and forty”.
If it was more like The Running Man, and the competitors were shooting at each other instead of little targets, it could be better for TV ratings. The traditional handball competition on Sunday TV shows is a lot more fun to watch than a pistol shooting competition. You can actually see the projectile in flight, the contestants are well known and Lou Richards is entertaining.
The 5-Rings Show and their shooting events don't really test a lot of skill. The venue is like a library, it mustn't be too difficult to concentrate there. When the LAPD have to get their guns out, it could be dark and noisy and the targets are shooting back, they are not only more skilful but do it every day of the year, not once every four years.
One reason why shooting is never going to be popular is that a crowd can't really sit behind the targets, although from the footage that is shown there really are no crowds at the venues. Shooting for goal during the AFL Grand Final with 95,000 fans screaming is a lot more difficult than firing off a pellet gun as a few family members and friends watch quietly.
Everybody knows how they got to where they are at the moment, so no need to go over that, but it may not be too long before the Eagles are contending again. The last time they started a 5 Year Plan, it only took a couple of seasons to complete it.
So the site has gone a bit yellow and blue, and over the next few days a number of West Coast stories will be posted. These will look at their drafting, their future and other areas.
Coming soon, a look at the Dockers will also be posted. They are probably going to have as much, or more, trouble as the Eagles will with rebuilding. The Eagles will get a priority pick this year, the Dockers won't. The Dockers also have been trading away picks, for Tarrant and J Carr, while the Eagles got a start on their rebuilding when they acquired draft picks and Josh Kennedy.
Maybe add Mr Miyagi, Chuck Norris and have the people actually hit each other and it might be a real event.
These people dress up in all this padding, like the guy in the suit that went around annoying bears, and then they jump around and don't even try to hit the other person. Some judges then say who the winner is when time expires.
St Kilda ruckman Steven King is more dangerous contesting a hitout with his feet than these taekwondon't contestants are, and King isn't even trying to connect with anything but the football.
Anything with judges deciding the outcome is always going to be seen as suspicious. It could be figure skating, a custom car show, a cake baking competition or taekwondo, if the outcome is in the hands of nameless judges you are never really sure that the right person won. That sounds more like a popularity contest, not a sport.
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