BREAKING: Dawes to the Dees is done. Dees give Pies picks 20 + 45 in exchange for Dawes and pick 58.

Good pickup, may have paid overs but his an important piece in our forward structure, need a big gorilla able to monster collingwood backs, while his form this year was not brilliant he is young enough and hopefully determined enough to turn it around.

Mark Neeld is going to win this club a flag.

Of that, I'm absolutely convinced.

Not by trading pick 20 and paying Chris bloody Dawes $500k a year he isn't.

Of that, I'm absolutely convinced.

What a waste of the "war chest".

I am almost certain now that we will take a kid at 4 and Viney and everyone else we bring in - bar Barry and Hogan - will be mature age.

That may change if Rivers leaves.

Glad to get it done - and I really don't care about exchange of picks in the 3rd round.

I wonder if we stood our ground on Petterd, but I don't know why we would...

Ron, we still need a midfield and we are about 5 blokes short ATM (a few who play and a few for depth).

FMD, but Neeld is decisive.

We'll get one more this draft and there will be some available next year, even if we picked a mid with pick 20 we'd still be short and now at least we won't have to hold our breath every time Mitch flies for a mark. I was a bit apprehensive but I reckon it's the right thing to do and it will give us a bit more experience in the side.

We have Taggert and Tynan as well and hopefully they'll come on and maybe Gys will wake up to himself an start to realise that this could be it if he doesn't perform.

Last year it was blatently obvious tht we lack key forwards, of course it was exasperated by Clark's injury... but even with him in we clearly need another genuine key target to kick to. There were a number of games last year where we got thumped, despite matching up well in the clearances, disposals and inside 50 stats, and it is clear why. With Clark and Dawes, followed by Watts and Hogan we should not have this problem for a long time. The fact is we needed this role filled and we simply will not get it with pick 20. The midfield should have the cattle to be a fersome unit in 2-3 years, we don't need to use 20 on that either.Well done MFC, this trade period has been a complete slam dunk for me so far.

Not by trading pick 20 and paying Chris bloody Dawes $500k a year he isn't.

Of that, I'm absolutely convinced.

What a waste of the "war chest".

I'm convinced you are wrong. Who else are we going to buy? Buddy? Honestly....enlighten us all on the alternatives given your are so close to the club and players I'm sure you know what we should have done with the rest of our cap and picks...

Happy the compo pick wasn't included.

Fair to say I will be genuinely shocked if Rivers stays.

Not by trading pick 20 and paying Chris bloody Dawes $500k a year he isn't.

Of that, I'm absolutely convinced.

What a waste of the "war chest".

In your opinion...

BTW, not many seem to grasp how the 'war chest' works in a salary cap system like the AFL. We have a ton of cap space that we HAVE TO SPEND every year and because we have no-one to pay we are putting blokes on normal contracts and frontloading the living bejeesus out of those contracts. We will have paid Dawes in the region of $400/500k but that is still a small dent and if frontloaded, we can try and tempt someone next year under FA or trades but we can't attract anyone because we are crap.

So Dawes will help us be less crap and help attract this Phantom Star FA that is out there and So Wants To Play For The Dees...

Does anyone know how long he sighed for?

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/149808/default.aspx

Welcome to the MFC!! Good pickup for us. Just to nitpick, the late pick exchange is ordinary. The Pies now have 17, 18, 20, 39 and 45. They won't be using 76 so that could/should have been thrown in, but whatevs. We now have a centre half forward.

We'll get one more this draft and there will be some available next year, even if we picked a mid with pick 20 we'd still be short and now at least we won't have to hold our breath every time Mitch flies for a mark. I was a bit apprehensive but I reckon it's the right thing to do and it will give us a bit more experience in the side.

We have Taggert and Tynan as well and hopefully they'll come on and maybe Gys will wake up to himself an start to realise that this could be it if he doesn't perform.

I know Robbie. We cannot fix all our problems in one draft. But, bugger me, what a draft so far!

For whatever reason, I've given up on the idea that we can develop players. I just assume that Taggert, Tynan, Evans and Gys won't come on, that Tapscott won't, that Gawn won't, that Sheahan won't - or that we cannot get them to come on to an AFL standard. If that changes - if this club actually figures out how to maximise the potential of their recruits - and a few of the seven I mentioned actually make it, then we are just a star away from being genuinely good.

We were always going to have to give a little to get a contracted player out of a club.

Good pick up by the MFC, and if we can get him back to the 2010 Dawes, we win!

Certainly an eventful trade month or us. Like adding Dawes to the mix. Big money, though. Neeld has very strong plans.

What happens in a few years time when these guys recruited on war-chest big coin want their contracts renewed?

We got the man we wanted with a week and half left to work on some other trades.

Good work dee's.

Twelve months ago we chased Dawes hard, we didn't get him so we got Clark instead.

Now we have both!

Not by trading pick 20 and paying Chris bloody Dawes $500k a year he isn't.

Of that, I'm absolutely convinced.

What a waste of the "war chest".

Neeld is building a structure here. We had a war chest during the Bailey years and fired all of our ammo at our own reserve trenches and the hospital tent.

Funny that both Neeld and Malthouse wanted Dawes. We would've spent a far higher draft pick on him last year - for our needs, Dawes at pick 20 is a good deal. And we've got Mitch Clark, principally it would seem because we couldn't prise Dawes off the Pies last year. What a genuinely top result.

We also have the money in the cap for him - so IMO the $500k pa is a complete red herring.

Neeld is literally transforming this joint in so many positive ways. Surely that's obvious. The MFC is currently being rebranded during this trade period - before our very eyes.

And Neeld knows what makes a good midfield and the importance of it - somehow I don't think he's missed that one.

Welcome to the MFC!! Good pickup for us. Just to nitpick, the late pick exchange is ordinary. The Pies now have 17, 18, 20, 39 and 45. They won't be using 76 so that could/should have been thrown in, but whatevs. We now have a centre half forward.

We might not need much past 58 anyway. Given we've got Dom Barry (berry?), Viney and pick 4 as well as Dawes and Byrnes and a comp pick that may be about 35, we are adding 6 blokes before even getting to draft pick 58. Add that one and it is 7. Now to see if we can trade Martin, Petterd, Morton etc.

Mark Neeld is going to win this club a flag.

Of that, I'm absolutely convinced.

Do you know what RB, faith and belief are things that take courage. I agree with you totally. There are plenty on here who take an easy option by picking holes in everything from afar because they base everything on facts...Mark Neeld is giving this club and the players belief and this will take us along way. Never before have players wanted to join our club, Judd, Burgoyne, Matera, Ball to name a few....why has this changed? Because Mark is getting it right and players he talks to can see that. Dawes, Byrnes come from great clubs with high standards - they wouldn't come to us if the club coach didn't show them a vision that has never before been part of our club.

We have the right coach and he is surrounding himself with the right team on and off the field.

Dees where the deals get done.

Glad to have Dawes wonder how long the contract is and if the pies are paying any.

a forward line structure...first time since 2006!

Clarke Dawes and hogan make for a massive headache for the opposition. We have more gorillas then the Melbourne zoo!

Is the second forward that we needed, think it cost us more than i wanted, but it is by no means a price we cannot win the deal over imo if Dawes fires. Great back up and foil for Mitch and Co.

People cannot complain that we are not going out with all guns this off season, Neeld want die wondering

How can anyone be unhappy about this?

We need someone to give Clark a chop out.

Dawes was definately best available, and at the age of 24 he could be with us for a good 8 years.

Be happy, we got what we needed and still have pick 4 to get a gun mid.