I am actually a bit disappointed we have signed Cross, he wasn't getting a game at the Dogs last season, so there must be a reason.

Yes we needed a bit more in the midfield, but a guy on the wrong side of 30, doesn't kick goals and is slowish, yes courageous, but has the game passed him by?

We tried this last year with pretty mixed results. You get experience as a young guy by playing games, I hope he doesn't hold one of the young ones back by playing

The other 3 signings, yes all for them, Vince is a proven goalkicker as well as a midfielder and the other two could be anything

He won't be playing midfield, he will bne playing half fwd and spending some time on wing.

If Cross is that good why was he dropped from a team that won ?????? games in 2013. If he was that valuable he wouldn't have been let go. He will probably get some good footy under his belt at Casey with an occasional run off our senior bench. Thankfully he won't cost us much in terms of picks. A good ordinary player, his stats flatter him.

Dogs problems aren't in the midfield.

If Cross is that good why was he dropped from a team that won ?????? games in 2013. If he was that valuable he wouldn't have been let go. He will probably get some good footy under his belt at Casey with an occasional run off our senior bench. Thankfully he won't cost us much in terms of picks. A good ordinary player, his stats flatter him.

Very immature attitude. It's so evident that the Bulldogs only strength at the club is inside ball winners. Liberators, Wallis, Koby Stevens, Boyd, Clay Smith to an extent, Hrovat, Picken.

He's best 22 for them but they also now need to develop their young mids to save themselves a StKilda situation where their whole list just flops. Very smart list management. But if you think cross isn't going to help our team next year- and more so on the training track than on the field you've got rocks in your head.

If Cross is that good why was he dropped from a team that won ?????? games in 2013. If he was that valuable he wouldn't have been let go. He will probably get some good footy under his belt at Casey with an occasional run off our senior bench. Thankfully he won't cost us much in terms of picks. A good ordinary player, his stats flatter him.

The same reason the MFC pushed our heart and soul player James McDonald out the door

the Bulldogs are idiots

He won't be playing midfield, he will bne playing half fwd and spending some time on wing.

That concerns me even more, what keeping Terlich, Barry, Kent, Blease out of the side?, I will wait and see, hopefully I am wrong, if I am i will put my hand up

I just think he has had his day.

Spoke to quite a few other teams supporters at work this morning, we all chat as we arrive, they all thought we have been doing really good business with Vince, Tyson and Michie but none are sold on this, same as me

Very immature attitude. It's so evident that the Bulldogs only strength at the club is inside ball winners. Liberators, Wallis, Koby Stevens, Boyd, Clay Smith to an extent, Hrovat, Picken.

Griff & Cooney don't mind getting there hands dirty also.

They have an aging list with there A/B graders so he was always going to be in trouble.

He will be great for us as he is a genuine hard nut who can win his own pill. We really lack there and I'm excited to see him line up next year.

However.....

even with these inclusions our midfield is still rated a C and probably remains the worst or one of the worst in the comp. Which is still an improvement from last year when it was well and truly the worst in the comp and by some distance.

The things we have going for us this season will be instead of losing at stoppages 9 times from 10 we might only lose 6 or 7 from 10.

What excites me is that if we stay fit, our forward line could be that effective that winning 3 or 4 stoppages from 10 might be enough to be really competitive.

The same reason the MFC pushed our heart and soul player James McDonald out the door

the Bulldogs are idiots

We absolutely need some experience in there to take the heat off Jones and help the younger guys. Its about playing a role.

That concerns me even more, what keeping Terlich, Barry, Kent, Blease out of the side?,

If they are good enough they will play

You want to go back to the Bailey days and gift games to kids that arent ready?

No thanks

I love it that our hatred of Barrett has led us to discover this.

I'm shocked that the word "Barrett" isn't censored as it is extremely vulgar and offensive

Clearly there has been an emphasis on bigger bodied mids.

Vince 186cm

Michie 185cm

Tyson 187cm

Cross 187cm

+ either Freeman, Crouch or Sheed?

Cross won't be warming the bench. The reason he was let go by the Dogs was purely because they have amassed a small army of inside mids, and he had slipped in the pecking order in a club that is rebuilding. But it's no shame being behind Griffen and Liberatore. He still was averaging 22 touches and will easily be one of our best midfielders from the get go. What he has lost in pace he more than makes up for in his desire to win the hard ball.

Off field, his elite training standards are well known. Talking about the influence of Rodan or Byrnes off field was paying lip service in comparison to what Cross will bring to the club. He will be invaluable in that regard.

Considering we're getting him for nothing, to question this decision is either extreme pessimism or ignorance. Cross is an excellent get.

I am actually a bit disappointed we have signed Cross, he wasn't getting a game at the Dogs last season, so there must be a reason.

Yes we needed a bit more in the midfield, but a guy on the wrong side of 30, doesn't kick goals and is slowish, yes courageous, but has the game passed him by?

We tried this last year with pretty mixed results. You get experience as a young guy by playing games, I hope he doesn't hold one of the young ones back by playing

The other 3 signings, yes all for them, Vince is a proven goalkicker as well as a midfielder and the other two could be anything

Read all the media and press surrounding the end to Cross' time at the Dogs. What you'll find is a theme generally along the lines of: 'someone had to go'.

The Dogs have a lot of problems, but the midfield is not one of them. Indeed, in that regard they're quite the opposite to us: strong midfield, terrible spine.

As for your line about getting experience by playing games, we've been trying that since 2008, to little success. It goes to show that it's not all about playing AFL football (in fact, Toumpas' best improvement game from, after a brief stint at AFL level, working hard at VFL level). Cross will lead our kids both on and off the field, and when he's out there, he'll be doing what he could also be doing for the Dogs if they didn't have an abundance of mids - working hard at stoppages and leading from the front.

The Daniel Cross to Melbourne thread on Bigfooty makes interesting reading!

Many Doggies fans sad to see him go and like other supporters they reckon he'll be a good fit for us.

In fact the general consensus seems to be that we made a good decision in recruiting him.

The other interesting comment from the thread is the general feeling (not just Doggy fans) that this year we are not taking a scattergun approach to our recruiting and it is more professional in its approach.

And this from a Bigfooty world skeptical of all things MFC!

Damien Barrett is a bias [censored], forgets that North Melbourne just picked up a player of exactly the same age and somehow thinks that's going to take them from the most inconsistant bottom 8 side in the comp to top 4, really knows his stuff.

Dom Tyson in my opinion is ahead of any other midfielder in this draft by some distance anyway, guy is an absolute jet so getting him and pick 9 imo will prove to be a huge steal.

Michie cost us a 4th round pick and has the potential to be an extremely good player, not spoken to one dockers fan that wasn't sad to see him go, some even said they'd rather keep viv and send Sylvia back, shows how highly rated he is.

Vince as a straight swap for sylvia is a handy upgrade, will walk straight into the 22, make an impact, help the young talent develop and bring some experience to the place

and if you wanted to find 2 blokes to teach a group of young blokes how to train and carry yourself as AFL footballers it's Daniel Cross and Nathan Jones.

extremely good trading imo.

I have to admit, I love what our club has done since the season ended for us. I don’t usually have the ability to watch the post season trade period but this year i was. The fact that we have been able to replace Silvia with an experienced midfielder and add 3 other midfielders of varying age and experience into that mix does fill me with excitement.

As for Barret the [censored]. When i first started reading Demonland (around the time of Neilds sacking) i could tell there was a fair bit of hatred towards the man from people on here. I had no idea who he was as i have been living in Sydney and Canberra and luckily we don’t get the footy show till real late. As for the Media coverage of AFl well we are lucky to get a page and even that if filled with the red and white pansies or the GWS drop kicks. However over last 3-4 months i have been introduced to the [censored]. The first time i saw him i thought he was a tool but didn’t know who he was. Then over the last couple of weeks i have actually grown a hatred for the man and i don’t hate too many people. Girlfriend a swans supporter, best mate a Collingwood supporter so i have a pretty high tolerance to morons. But Barret takes the cake.. Has this idiot ever played any form of sport at all. He seems to me the sort of guy who got picked last at school and every year disappointed his parents.

Cross says that the signing is complicated! What exactly do you think that means?

Cross says that the signing is complicated! What exactly do you think that means?

he was talking about incentives that would trigger a second year of the contract

he was talking about incentives that would trigger a second year of the contract

Cheers. Obviously would then have some KPI's to live up to.

A little thing I whipped up of Cross, looks good in the Red and Blue!

Doesn't look too unlike Anthony Ingerson

If we can get 2 years of solid footy with him dishing it out to some outside runners, that's two years we're not relying on a kid to do the same thing and let them develop naturally. That's also two years that it's not left up to Nate Jones to be the only solid body in the scrums.

Scattergun approach? The [censored] has no idea! We've gone for two experienced mids with consistent output, one with 3-4 years left (offsets Sylvia) and the other 1-2 (maybe a 3rd going by what someone said they reckon his body holds up pretty well). We've then offset that with bringing in a very talented mid from GWS who some have touted as the next Simon Black, and brought a semi-mature recruit from Freo who couldn't break into a midfield with the biggest depth in the competition who's a clearance king for his WAFL side. Mid, Mid, Mid, Mid, and probable mid at pick 9.

Very pleased with our trade/FA period this year. There could be one or two more little moves but I expect we've more or less run our race.

Well done Dees!

Read all the media and press surrounding the end to Cross' time at the Dogs. What you'll find is a theme generally along the lines of: 'someone had to go'.

The Dogs have a lot of problems, but the midfield is not one of them. Indeed, in that regard they're quite the opposite to us: strong midfield, terrible spine.

As for your line about getting experience by playing games, we've been trying that since 2008, to little success. It goes to show that it's not all about playing AFL football (in fact, Toumpas' best improvement game from, after a brief stint at AFL level, working hard at VFL level). Cross will lead our kids both on and off the field, and when he's out there, he'll be doing what he could also be doing for the Dogs if they didn't have an abundance of mids - working hard at stoppages and leading from the front.

I love the hypocrisy on this site, last year we had 'we should play the kids", "why we getting older players who can't get a game with their Club", now it's Daniel Cross and the orgasmic sounds coming from the board are positively embaressing.

I have an opinion, I am happy to be proven wrong, I will put my hand up, as you know I will

As for the experts on Big Footy applauding the move, wow, Big Footy.......most have to type one handed....

If Cross is that good why was he dropped from a team that won ?????? games in 2013. If he was that valuable he wouldn't have been let go. He will probably get some good footy under his belt at Casey with an occasional run off our senior bench. Thankfully he won't cost us much in terms of picks. A good ordinary player, his stats flatter him.

They already have Boyd and Gia so they couldn't keep another pensioner on the list. Cross was the unlucky one.

They already have Boyd and Gia so they couldn't keep another pensioner on the list. Cross was the unlucky one.

On the other hand, you could argue that Cross is the lucky one!

I love the hypocrisy on this site, last year we had 'we should play the kids", "why we getting older players who can't get a game with their Club", now it's Daniel Cross and the orgasmic sounds coming from the board are positively embaressing.

I have an opinion, I am happy to be proven wrong, I will put my hand up, as you know I will

As for the experts on Big Footy applauding the move, wow, Big Footy.......most have to type one handed....

Last year we took on players who were well past their prime and some who never had a prime. Cross is at worst a good mentor to the younger players and at best a solid performer in the midfield.

My negative on this is I hope he doesn't come at the cost of someone like Taggert.

There's nothing wrong with your opinion or Barrett's for that matter (although I do think his description on here is pretty accurate), at the moment nothing has been proven. It was the same last year when we all put on the rose coloureds and the Barrett's of the world were probably proven right, at least in the short term. The one thing they didn't get last year though was the value of Hogan, the long term game.

In the end the only KPI that counts...The Scoreboard...will as always be the ultimate decider.

Damian Barrett ‏@barrettdamian 18h

I fear the scattergun has been produced. For the second year in a row

Haha what a [censored] - just listen to him on trade radio, comes of as a fawning loser - also has all these extreme opinions about teams/players/trades then when interviewing anyone about them goes to water like a meek little moron.

"Do you think the Roos can make the Grand Final in 2014 Terry?"

"Nup"

"Do you think Dal Santo could be the difference between the Roos making the GF in 2014?"

(pause) "No"

LMAO