Demons hoping to lure Ball by offering him the vice-captainc

[Shades]

MELBOURNE is hoping a leadership role at the wooden-spoon club attracts disgruntled St Kilda on-baller Luke Ball via the pre-season draft in December.


http://www.theage.com.au/realfooty/arti ... 53288.html

[goodie]

Bit of a slap in the face to the leadership group at Melbourne

[Spinner]

Bit of a slap in the face to the leadership group at Melbourne

Group???

I would say McDonald and thats about it......

If Millar is vice captain its because there is no one else.

[ace]

MELBOURNE is hoping a leadership role at the wooden-spoon club attracts disgruntled St Kilda on-baller Luke Ball via the pre-season draft in December.


http://www.theage.com.au/realfooty/arti ... 53288.html

"We've got a very talented group with all the picks we've had over the last two drafts, and this one coming up, so we need a real mentor and role model. "I think everyone who knows Luke knows he's an outstanding young man."

He could mentor them in the art of portrayal of your team mates.
Melbourne could soon lose all their young kids to other and better clubs.

[bobmurray]

I hope Ball goes to Melbourne....

We've sent some good players to Melbourne in my time,about time we sent them a GOP.....

[Moccha]

Bit of a slap in the face to the leadership group at Melbourne

It just goes to show that Melbourne doesn't have any leadership.

[Armoooo]

Lol, a player that walks out on his club given the vice-captaincy... that's a good message for the youngsters...

[bigred]

Have fun with that Bally.

[Eastern]

With Luke out of the country on holiday for a couple of weeks I cannot even begin to imagine the many and varied loads of crap that his manager, Paul Connors and the manager's spin doctor, Greg Denham will pedal out !!

[4ever_saint]

I am shocked.

I was so sure they'd offer him the full captaincy

[i_luv_nick_riewoldt]

I think its rather amusing.if luke goes .. from top team to worst team.

Many more years down the bottom for the dees!

[Mr Magic]

It's interesting reading over there on Demonland.

One fellow who plays for Old Xaverians has this inside gossip apparently from teh Ball family:-
Paul Connors ia an Old Xaverian.
Ball went to Xavier.
Connors manages a number of Demons players - Miller, Watts, Blease.
Connors has spoken previously to this 'Old Xaverian' and assured him that the Demons are going to be a power over the next 10 years.
Ball's family (all Xavierans) are upset with the way Ball has been treated at the Saints and that it was never about money but about the way he is being played.
They think that they will be playing in the finals in 2011 when McDonald hands the captaincy over to Luke Ball (after 1 season as VC).
Luke Ball will lead them to their next Premiership.

Do we appear as deluded as this?

[Thinline]

It's interesting reading over there on Demonland.

One fellow who plays for Old Xaverians has this inside gossip apparently from teh Ball family:-
Paul Connors ia an Old Xaverian.
Ball went to Xavier.
Connors manages a number of Demons players - Miller, Watts, Blease.
Connors has spoken previously to this 'Old Xaverian' and assured him that the Demons are going to be a power over the next 10 years.
Ball's family (all Xavierans) are upset with the way Ball has been treated at the Saints and that it was never about money but about the way he is being played.
They think that they will be playing in the finals in 2011 when McDonald hands the captaincy over to Luke Ball (after 1 season as VC).
Luke Ball will lead them to their next Premiership.

Do we appear as deluded as this?

I read that Old Xaverian s*** and all I could think of was Old Man Ball dusting off his musket before a fox hunt and Mrs Ball sneaking in another Gin and tonic to top up from the seven she'd had at lunch...all the while every man and his dog is dropping in to the manse and offering their ten cnts worth about how hard done by the young buck seems to have been. 'Wouldn't have happened back in the day, Jeffrey. Next thing they'll be giving women the vote!'

Really, could this whole sordid f*** up play out any WORSE for LB?

Melbourne or Richmond or Freo... From St K, a club that can carry his good with his bad, to any number of clubs where his inability to kick and run will see him - probably - completely pantsed every week.

Sweet Jesus. As much as his behaviour has s*** me, one can't help but pity the poor bugger.

[SainterK]

I think if he didn't mind playing for a lower ladder position club, he wouldn't have only nominated Collingwood....

[SydneySainter]

Where ever Ball ends up, I still hope he does well.

[Milan Faletic]

Well if vice captain at a bottom team excites him more that playing in a possible premiership....go enjoy that!

I know what Robert Harvey would do. Are you as good as Robert Harvey, Luke?????

[Spinner]

I think if he didn't mind playing for a lower ladder position club, he wouldn't have only nominated Collingwood....

Yeah, I tend to agree with that line of thinking.


Remember there were strong links with Essendon especially with his friendship with Watson..... But he obviously wasnt interested in going there, I assumed because of the prospect of playing finals.

[Moccha]

Seems like the whole Luke Ball saga is being driven by the journo's. It will be interesting to see if Ball decides to nominate for the draft.

[Wigsy]

But he may have just nominated Collingwood as first choice rather than excluding all others. Still, I'm sure he didn't quite have Melbourne in mind. Surely, however, it's still a reasonably easy sell by the Dees. Apart from the lack of supporters, success, and anything that nears a real footy club. He does have the prospect of joining a number of top 5 picks that exceeds even our own. Whatever he decides, I'll never boo or think otherwise of him. I can understand that he feels quite unloved. I think that is fair enough. You're still talking about livelihoods and careers; he needs to take care of his own world and not just train his guts out and hope that that is good enough at St Kilda. But I'm hoping that the 10% chance of him coming back to the Saints is still possible.

[Mr Magic]

He could have made the following statements:

I'll go anywhere
I'll go to any Melbourne Club
I'll go to any Melbourne Club with a realistic chance of playing finals
I'll go to Collingwwod, Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn, WB

But he chose to say
'I want to go to Collingwood'

You have to ask yourself why he chose to make that statement.

One answer jumps out at you:-

Because Collingwood had obviously negotiated a deal with his manager.

Does anybody honestly think he mentioned Collingwood (and only Collingwood) without any discussions with them prior?

What 'screwed up' Luke Ball's trade was Connors' other client Darren Jolly becoming avaialable and Collingwood choosing to use their only round 1 draft pick on him, rather than on Luke Ball.
Once that was done it was always going to be pushing 'sh1t up hill' to get a deal done.

Now all the 'moaning' about why wouldn't St Kilda accept pick 25 for him?

Carlton gave up pick 26 to Brisbane for Lachie Henderson (a 19 year old who's played about 12 games) as part of the Fevola trade.
Does that give you an idea of what pick 25 was worth. No wonder WB didn't want it.

[Beej]

He could have made the following statements:

I'll go anywhere
I'll go to any Melbourne Club
I'll go to any Melbourne Club with a realistic chance of playing finals
I'll go to Collingwwod, Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn, WB

But he chose to say
'I want to go to Collingwood'

You have to ask yourself why he chose to make that statement.

One answer jumps out at you:-

Because Collingwood had obviously negotiated a deal with his manager

It was also reported that Judd had an agreement with Carlton months before he made the decision to move there yet nominated Collingwood and another club anyway, didn't he?

Even if Ball nominated five different clubs, he still could've had an arrangement with Collingwood prior. It would have made it seem like he was genuinely undecided but opted for Collingwood.

But why bother?

Luke Ball chose Collingwood because if he wasn't playing for St Kilda, he wanted to go to a club with a promising young list that had just made a prelim and which also happened to be the biggest and most well supported football club in Australia with amazing facilities and perfect location.

And he may have supported them as a boy.

[Mr Magic]

He could have made the following statements:

I'll go anywhere
I'll go to any Melbourne Club
I'll go to any Melbourne Club with a realistic chance of playing finals
I'll go to Collingwwod, Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn, WB

But he chose to say
'I want to go to Collingwood'

You have to ask yourself why he chose to make that statement.

One answer jumps out at you:-

Because Collingwood had obviously negotiated a deal with his manager

It was also reported that Judd had an agreement with Carlton months before he made the decision to move there yet nominated Collingwood and another club anyway, didn't he?

Even if Ball nominated five different clubs, he still could've had an arrangement with Collingwood prior. It would have made it seem like he was genuinely undecided but opted for Collingwood.

But why bother?

Luke Ball chose Collingwood because if he wasn't playing for St Kilda, he wanted to go to a club with a promising young list that had just made a prelim and which also happened to be the biggest and most well supported football club in Australia with amazing facilities and perfect location.

And he may have supported them as a boy.

SO because he wants to go there we should just make it easy for him to get there without worrying about any ramifications?

That's the whole point that RL and our Club are being berated over.
That Luke Ball wanted to go to Collingwood and we should have just accepted whatever Collingwood wanted to give us in return.

That's the point I strongly object to.
I don't care what his reasons for wanting to leave are - money, game time, toothless women. It makes no differnece to me. He wants to go, then he should go.

But to expect us to roll over and provide the lubricant to be reamed and then berate us because we didn't do that is just so much hypocritical bs.

ANd what is even sadder is that there are Saints fans who have fallen for this complete BS sh1t. I just heard another one on SEN saying how he's lost faith in RL becasue of the way he spoke after the contract was rescinded. This is the type of idiotic supporter that has 'kept us in our mediocre place' all these years.

We're playing for keeps with the big boys now. They will do anything to destabilise us for their own benefit. We have to become as ruthless and professional a bastard as them.

[Milton66]

He could have made the following statements:

I'll go anywhere
I'll go to any Melbourne Club
I'll go to any Melbourne Club with a realistic chance of playing finals
I'll go to Collingwwod, Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn, WB

But he chose to say
'I want to go to Collingwood'

You have to ask yourself why he chose to make that statement.

One answer jumps out at you:-

Because Collingwood had obviously negotiated a deal with his manager

It was also reported that Judd had an agreement with Carlton months before he made the decision to move there yet nominated Collingwood and another club anyway, didn't he?

Even if Ball nominated five different clubs, he still could've had an arrangement with Collingwood prior. It would have made it seem like he was genuinely undecided but opted for Collingwood.

But why bother?

Luke Ball chose Collingwood because if he wasn't playing for St Kilda, he wanted to go to a club with a promising young list that had just made a prelim and which also happened to be the biggest and most well supported football club in Australia with amazing facilities and perfect location.

And he may have supported them as a boy.

SO because he wants to go there we should just make it easy for him to get there without worrying about any ramifications?

That's the whole point that RL and our Club are being berated over.
That Luke Ball wanted to go to Collingwood and we should have just accepted whatever Collingwood wanted to give us in return.

That's the point I strongly object to.
I don't care what his reasons for wanting to leave are - money, game time, toothless women. It makes no differnece to me. He wants to go, then he should go.

But to expect us to roll over and provide the lubricant to be reamed and then berate us because we didn't do that is just so much hypocritical bs.

ANd what is even sadder is that there are Saints fans who have fallen for this complete BS sh1t. I just heard another one on SEN saying how he's lost faith in RL becasue of the way he spoke after the contract was rescinded. This is the type of idiotic supporter that has 'kept us in our mediocre place' all these years.

We're playing for keeps with the big boys now. They will do anything to destabilise us for their own benefit. We have to become as ruthless and professional a bastard as them.

I believe that your logic is on the money here.

If Luke is half as intelligent as he's made out to be, then he would have been aware that there was possibilty that the trade may nt come off.

IMO, the questions as to why should be directed at firstly his manager... who had the biggest conflict of interest happening with Jolly / Ball.

And to the filth, who made the play, then decided to not offer what was required.

Luke, needs to take a long look at whom he was listening to.

[saint75]

Luke, needs to take a long look at whom he was listening to.

Cutting the apron strings would be a good start.....

[Milton66]

Luke, needs to take a long look at whom he was listening to.

Cutting the apron strings would be a good start.....

Posted this when he got dropped... his family was upset that he wasn't getting enough game time. Good source fom Luke's mum.

As for the reasons why he got dropped, I am unsure.