I think Cloke is not excited by Buckley's reign, over the self flagellation at Collingwood, and looking for a new challenge.

The decision to join Melbourne would come with the prospect (and challenge) of being part of delivering our 13th premiership.

Neeld intimately knows the value he could bring so if we go hard for him, I trust the benefit will eventuate.

Too many people on here hedging their bets in case he picks another team, so they can say "we don't want/need him anyway".

We should always go hard to get the best.

I also think that Cloke jrn and srn are selfish crazy bastards, in that they want top dollar and would be prepared to swap Melbourne-based clubs to get it. Nose despite his face, sort of. It's like they have some mad Spanish blood in their lineage.

Is Travis really as good as what David is pedalling ($1 mill plus p/a), partic in a bottom 4 club?

Do we really want David hanging around the MFC sticking his nose in more than he should?

Is it value for money if he gets very little supply?

I'm not so sure it's the dollar amount as much as it is the security of a longer-term deal. People ridicule the Clokes but what's Cloke Snr really doing that's so bad in looking after his son? If his delaying tactics land his boy an extra year well I'm sure he doesn't give a rats what people think about him.

And why would his next club worru about Cloke Snr if Trav is tied away for 5 years?

We can have our cake and eat it too here. Mids, mids, mids through the draft and big Trav as a FA.

Time to think big Demon fans.

We get Trav, and Boak, Caddy and others returning to Victoria will see the MFC as a major player and an attractive and exciting club to be at.

Option 2

I believe the salary cap is $8.21million per club.

With a young team with few stars we would only be spending 92.5 % on this and past couple of years, however according to all reports we have been spending 100% by prepaying some players (i.e. Davey may have already recieved all of his salary for next year).

This allows us to squirrel away 7.5% of $8.21 million per year or $615,750 p.a.

Assuming we have been doing this since we cleared our debt we should have a war chest of $1.8 million plus.

Hence, Cloke.

I can't make up my mind between option 1 and option 3

Neither can I, but I'd like to introduce to the table of discussion option 4: Cloke & Caddy.

Cloke + Caddy + Viney and Toumpass = me resigning as a happy member, ill resign regardless but id prefer to have a smile on my face

Cloke + Caddy + Viney and Toumpass = me resigning as a happy member, ill resign regardless but id prefer to have a smile on my face

Exactly!!

Getting a couple of these boys will define this club as a true player - it's about the future, getting the young uns' on board, getting the oldies excited (only talking about yours truly).....

Support for big Mitch is paramount - don't worry about Cloke, the boy can play and he's the consummate professional.

I'm swaying towards Boak too - he is a gut wrenching runner and strong. He wasn't intimidated by Sewell at all.

Cloke + Caddy + Viney and Toumpass = me resigning as a happy member, ill resign regardless but id prefer to have a smile on my face

Yeah that's not bad at all. My dream draft would be Cloke + Viney + Boak + Caddy + Toumpass. It all depends on Viney at a later pick and a trade for Boak and Caddy but I can dream.

I will be dissapointed if we end up with none of them, Boak, Cloke or Caddy.

Unless of course we get others who are good experienced players such as Sewell.

Sewell Viney Toumpas would still be a big win.

I'm not so sure it's the dollar amount as much as it is the security of a longer-term deal. People ridicule the Clokes but what's Cloke Snr really doing that's so bad in looking after his son? If his delaying tactics land his boy an extra year well I'm sure he doesn't give a rats what people think about him.

And why would his next club worru about Cloke Snr if Trav is tied away for 5 years?

We can have our cake and eat it too here. Mids, mids, mids through the draft and big Trav as a FA.

Time to think big Demon fans.

Hey, just because some are not sold on Cloke - myself incl - doesn't mean they are not thinking big.

David Cloke has been a thorn in the Magpies side at various times with his big mouth and family conflict of interests. In the past, he has suggested taking his various sons to other clubs if one son's deal is not met. His interfering could be an issue at MFC. David, of course, is very vocal in putting his son's interests first. That's what any father would do. But is this in the Clubs best interests?

Two big forwards on massive money (about 20% of our TPP) and a bunch of kids with unproven potential (Jones excepted) running around the midfield. Hmmmmm.......

What I am saying is that unless we get Boak or a couple of FA quality mids or a mix of these in '13 and '14, then the money spent on big power fwds in Clark and Cloke may not be money well spent. That's why I believe the priority is mids, mids and mids.

Get Cloke, get Boak, get another FA such as Montagna, get 2 x high draft pick mids, get Viney and I'll be creaming myself. A tough ask, though (not necessarily the last bit...)

Time to think big AND WISELY Demons fans.

I got to be honest I'm not keen on us going for Cloke on the $$$$ that he (or more specifically his father) wants. Don't get me wrong if we land him I will be proud of the club for landing him, but I don't know that getting a key forward such as him shoud be our main priority.

I reckon he will go to Carlton, right fit, right money.

I got to be honest I'm not keen on us going for Cloke on the $$$$ that he (or more specifically his father) wants. Don't get me wrong if we land him I will be proud of the club for landing him, but I don't know that getting a key forward such as him shoud be our main priority.

It wouldn't be.

Getting mids would be. But there is no Cloke equivalent midfielder that is RFA.

25 year old who is amongst the top 3 in the league at what he does.

Show me the 25 year old RFA midfielder we should give that money to and we will go get that guy.

The questions is not whether we want Cloke (obviously yes) but at what price.

If he commands more than 10-12% of the salary cap, then this exposes us to exactly the same market forces that Collingwood are currently experiencing.

Hypothetically, if you offered him a 3 year deal (and given the loyalty he is demonstrating currently), we would be mad not to expect him to play the same strategy in the marketplace again when that contract ends.

But a 5 year deal risks him becoming ineffective in the latter years through age or injury. And don't forget, the game changes every handful of months these days. Who is to say power forwards will still be a factor as new game plans emerge?

I am only for recruiting Cloke on reasonable terms.

Therefore I am strongly against recruiting Cloke.

The fat we've built into our salary over the past couple of years means Cloke should not limit our ability to pay our young "stars" more as the list matures.

We have no Buddy, Rioli, Hodge, Mitchel level players so we should grab what we can i.e. Cloak.

The fat we've built into our salary over the past couple of years means Cloke should not limit our ability to pay our young "stars" more as the list matures.

We have no Buddy, Rioli, Hodge, Mitchel level players so we should grab what we can i.e. Cloak.

You really love Hawthorn, huh?

Who is to say power forwards will still be a factor as new game plans emerge?

When the mids are bombing hail marys into the forward line in big pressure finals, strong marking power forwards are, and always will be gold.

You really love Hawthorn, huh?

No hate them with passion.

Point was, that if they can afford those players we should be able to add Cloke to our team without bankrupting it.

Cloke is a proven power-forward but I don't particularly want him at the Dees. Our need is class in the middle. Listening to Schwarz and Scott Lucas on SEN last night and they both agreed that our defence is in really good shape, and forwards stocks are OK - at least in terms of potential. It is our midfield that needs class and pace.

Having said that i am not all that convinced of Boak either. Since he became the flavour of the month I have seen himn play a couple of games and think there are players of equal potential to Boak not getting games at other clubs (two at WCE whose names I can't recall) who we should go after.

If Carlton get Cloke, and I reckon they will, I don't reckon they can also afford Goddard - the Dees should be in Goddard's ear as much as possible at the moment. He would bring some serious class and skill, even if he has no further improvement.

How olds Goddard ?

Watching Goddard against us last week, he didn't particularly impress me. I think we'd have to trade for experienced mids (i.e. Caddy, Boak, etc...) whereas we don't give up draft picks to get Cloak, just cash.

We can do both...

How olds Goddard ?

Drafted in 2001 - about 28.

Too old for us then.

I also think that Cloke jrn and srn are selfish crazy bastards, in that they want top dollar and would be prepared to swap Melbourne-based clubs to get it. Nose despite his face, sort of. It's like they have some mad Spanish blood in their lineage.

Is Travis really as good as what David is pedalling ($1 mill plus p/a), partic in a bottom 4 club?

Do we really want David hanging around the MFC sticking his nose in more than he should?

Is it value for money if he gets very little supply?

Very true comments and ones that should be heeded.

Cloke is averaging 2 goals a match in a team that has great deliverers of the ball to the forwards.

He has family baggage that you wouldn't possibly want to have around the place.

Steer clear of him. get a gun on-baller if we can attract one.

I would think our brand is currently 'on the nose' and i couldn't see too many players wanting to join us, worse the pity.

Still, money talks all languages. Just think of Judd and Scully.

I think David Cloke still has his nose out of joint because his other two sons were dumped by the pies. So perhaps he doesn't mind putting them through some pain. There was a lot of hype they were going to be superstars but turned out to be spuds. But from our point of view I question the merits of having two hugely paid big forwards essentially in the same role. It looks like we are trying to clone the pies forward line but we don't have the midfield talent that makes it work for them. The thought reminds me of the days of Peter Moore and Kelvin Templeton.