We don't have a "bucket of cash". We're not even in a position to lure a 28 year old AA forward home from interstate due to salary cap pressures.

I'm a conservative by nature. If it's a choice between 'pie in the sky' or 'healthy dose of realism', I'll usually adopt the latter. And it's not a case of giving up. We need to develop our own through the National Draft and Rookie List. We haven't had enough picks in either for far too long.

Anyone notice how Hawthorn delisted a 96 gamer who's in their leadership group ? At Melbourne the same player would have been retained and gone on to play 150. We don't turn our list over nearly enough. We usually don't have enough picks in the draft. We keep Ward, Godfrey, Luke Williams, Nicholson, Smith, Lamb, Ferguson, Armstrong, etc, etc for far too long.

Bell is just becoming another example. Lyon spoke of list cloggers. We're the experts.

It's not about the buckets of cash or Murphy's past history but rather, it's about the perception the club creates about itself which many supporters simply help perpetuate. If you paint yourself as a loser and see yourself as one, then you become a loser.

Sadly, we're all probably guilty of this!

List clogging is a good point. Growing our own is also reasonable. Just that we have no track record of doing so. I'm conservative by nature too; neither of us like putting faith in deals where the evidence for success is sucky.

On Murphy, we're about to stop paying our most expensive players aren't we? Doesn't that mean that even when we drop our player payments to 92.5% we'll still have some room to move? And as I thought it, 92.5 was what the AFL wanted - if we were able to lure a potential A grade player to Melbourne, then the AFL would be quite understanding and supportive, I'd think.

So, your argument comes down to money. If we had it (or found it is a brown visy cardboard box), would you agree with chasing murphy?

Yet it does seem strange that by mid Oct, Carlton have still not reportedly signed their No.1 draft pick from 2005. Something has definitely happened because Carlton were close to signing and finalising his contract when they were trying to get Fev's signature. Add to that securing Warnock in the trade period....suddenly the salary cap? They've reportedly backed off O'Keefe, why? Salary Cap?

Murphy has a good head on his shoulders, he's in business. He and his manager would know his market value. You're probably right maybe he is not happy with his offer from Carlton...at all? Finished 2nd in their B&F to Judd, maybe there is a squeeze going on.

If true, why wouldn't Carlton have looked during trade week? He hasn't been mentioned at all in any discussions. Surely, if they were going to part ways, they would have looked during trade week. Murphy could have looked at going to a decent club, and Carlton could have got something for him. I'm with Hannabal on this one.

Anyone notice how Hawthorn delisted a 96 gamer who's in their leadership group ? At Melbourne the same player would have been retained and gone on to play 150. We don't turn our list over nearly enough. We usually don't have enough picks in the draft. We keep Ward, Godfrey, Luke Williams, Nicholson, Smith, Lamb, Ferguson, Armstrong, etc, etc for far too long.

Bell is just becoming another example. Lyon spoke of list cloggers. We're the experts.

You're speaking of Tim Clarke, right? I didn't know he was in the leadership group, but that just shows the differences between Hawthorn and Melbourne, doesn't it.

Titan, why? Not one person has given one reason why not to target Murphy. People have written reason why we cannot succeed, or why they don't think we should bother, but none of them are reasons not to - they are just reason why our chances are poor.

Targetting Murphy (IF we have some bucks to play with - it is a fairly big 'if') forces Carlton to pay him, and/or makes him doubt carlton's ability to continue to pay him. IF we can lure him, it is a huge win. IF we cannot, we lose nothing and may help hurt carlton and maybe they'll get caught.

Not having a go is, in my opinion, just another example of supporters having a defeatist, poor-me mentality.

The only way we could afford O'Keefe would be to delist all of Dunn, Bell and Chris Johnson I would think.

Getting Murphy would be MASSIVE for us. He is a number 1 draft pick, who has shown he can match it with the best. Until this year, he, like Brock, was a teenager copping the number 1 tag every week and still racking up over 20 touches. He is a well rounded midfielder who plays both inside and out depending on what the team needs. His skills are his weak point, but theyre still better than most of our team, and are only a weak point because he is very good at most things!

Adding him to our midfield would be huge. He is a potential All Australian midfielder and star of the comp. For his age, there is noone better. Mclean and Murphy together would be a great pairing IMO The opposition would struggle with tagging then And we'd get alot more ball.

If we can lure him away from Carlton, it would be our biggest coup I can remember. I'd throw alot of money at him. He'd sure be a favorite at MFC. We'd effectively get two #1 picks this year then. Watts, a key forward, and Murphy, a star midfielder.

Whilst I have nothing against having ROK.. He simply isnt in our budget etc. It does also seem to fly in the face of previously noted sentiments by the club to go the youth road. Strange , to me, that the club would even voice this.

PSD to be interesting for sure.

i hope we offer as much as we possibly can for murphy to either lure him out of carlton or make them lift his price

doubt there is any chance we can get him though