Solution: Give us a mini draft type pick for the best 17 year old that we are required to trade.

Doesn't effect the draft.

Another team benefits.

We get an experienced player.

been my preference all along. Has recent precedent of sorts i.e a leg up to a struggling team ( new ones count here also )

as you say neednt impact draft picks as such. a win /win etc

far too logical to ever happen though lol

It's been debated in other threads whether we should draft the best available youngster or use the PP to trade establised mids.

I'm for doing the latter because of our glaring inadequacy in the midfield that needs immediate help - help that a first year player would not be able to provide in terms of leadership and playing capability.

I misread.

You're right, and the AFL can stipulate that we trade the pick or picks they give us. The sanction all trades anyway so if no team gives us something decent then we can be granted the pick at the end of the trade period.

My only problem with the mini draft pick is that it's more unfair to the other clubs. Give us a PP and everyone moves down the draft order 1 spot. Not such a huge problem for a lot of picks.

Give us a mini draft pick and we benefit but the real winner may be the club we trade it with which really disadvantages the other 16 clubs.

Barrett should examine the facts. We've had 2 PP recently. 2008 second round - Blease and 2009 first round - Trengove. Both are still with the club and whilst they aren't setting the world on fire not ever player drafted high does (particularly when you've had bad recruiting and development) and both have given us the opportunity to improve as a team and we can't.

The rest of our high draft picks are completely deserved. We earnt those picks as the fixture dictated. We got Hogan through the Scully compensation and that was completely fair. We lost a number 1 draft pick to a team willing to pay him 1mil a season.

The funny thing is GWS and Gold Coast just took huge chunks of first round picks and no one was too up in arms. Yet to give us one pick is some travesty now?

The guy is agigantic [censored]. Insinuating we did a deal to get Viney in he 2nd round, and that we were unable to keep Scully, omitting the fact that he was lured with huge cash, the Cats couldn't keep Ablett either, they must have a [censored] culture too then.

If Barrett was on fire, I wouldn't ---- on him !!! He is not objective. Look at the facts.

barret may wear glasses but i would still punch him

Young Lib

What Damian fails to address is that the AFL is NOT just made up of other Clubs.

Each club has its own passionate band of supporters. Melbourne has nearly 32 000 members and I am sure, If we were at all successful, we could be up about the 50 000 mark.

The AFL has gone to amazing lengths to ensure that the Suns and GWS will be successful. Enormous resource, personnel and draft picks has ensured that both of these clubs will eventually be very competitive.

Let's go with Damian's thinking about Melbourne, we could ensure that Melbourne finish on the bottom every year. I am confident that the AFL would not want that! Even the AFL have worked out that an equalisation culture is necessary. Extra support does not guarantee success. Dear Damian, draft concessions, etc do not guarantee success!

We have been a basket case in recent years and the AFL have intervened to give us some professional support. They want an 18 team very competitive competition. They want the weekly footy tipping to be a tough task. Melbourne supporters are entitled to some success, just like all other club supporters. We do need 'on the ground' support, if we get a draft concession then the AFL have made that judgement, NOT Melbourne!

We will take any support on offer.

I am offended by Damian's comments...I have been a Dees supporter for over 50 years and I want just 1 Premiership before I help subsidise the flower growing fraternity.

You are a' tool' Damian and have absolutely no idea about the passion, true supporters have for their club.

I will continue to be a Melbourne Member and hope desperately to taste some success in the near future.

Do not tell me that I don't deserve success, Melbourne supporters are vital members of the AFL community. You Tool!

Lets face it. Most AFL Journalists and commentators are just AFL sychophants.

I don't want any more 'special help'

all it has done has entrench us with a loser's mentality and provide ammunition for everybody to attack us all (even more than the do/would anyway). What has it

Jack Watts and Tom Scully have provided us all with so much negative emotion I wish the pair of them had never been born.

If the AFL are serious about equalization then it starts with bringing us up to AFL standard.

how about a credit scenario - priority pick this year and lose first rounder in 2015?

if we traded pick 17 and 19 in 2008 and pick 11 and 18 in 2009 we wouldnt be sitting on the bottom, trade for established players.

Hahaha great logic NFI!

I don't want any more 'special help'

all it has done has entrench us with a loser's mentality and provide ammunition for everybody to attack us all (even more than the do/would anyway). What has it

Jack Watts and Tom Scully have provided us all with so much negative emotion I wish the pair of them had never been born.

What a post.

I disagreed with the first line.

Wanted to point out the hypocrisy of the second line.

And was revolted at the third line.

Bravo.

Arrrggghhhhh the irony........The worst journalist in the industry bagging the worst team in the industry!

What a post.

I disagreed with the first line.

Wanted to point out the hypocrisy of the second line.

And was revolted at the third line.

Bravo.

yeah good one would you like to explain in any way what is wrong with it

what sort of idiot thinks the way forward is to continue accumulating the likes of Morton, Gysberts, Blease, Cook, Strauss, Watts, Trengove, Scully and Toumpas. Instead of beind=g a smartar5e [censored] why don't you actually substantiate yourself and explain to me how these supposed assets have helped us.

then you can address the obvious lack of heart and confidence in our playing group and how that relates to being bottom-dwelling draft-miners for 7 years

Hahaha great logic NFI!

Watts and 2 established players in 2008, Scully Trengove and 11 and 18 for established players in 2009, your a dead set clown , we swapped McLean for pick 11 in 2009 and copped Gysberts, they relied on to much youth and had no experienced players, now there talking about trading pick 2 for an established player, it's to late, we copped Blease, Strauss, Gysberts and Tapscott, FMD who has no NFI you clown......

Watts and 2 established players in 2008, Scully Trengove and 11 and 18 for established players in 2009, your a dead set clown , we swapped McLean for pick 11 in 2009 and copped Gysberts, they relied on to much youth and had no experienced players, now there talking about trading pick 2 for an established player, it's to late, we copped Blease, Strauss, Gysberts and Tapscott, FMD who has no NFI you clown......

I agree with you. How this is even up for debate is bewildering to me. It is obvious that since the appointment of Bailey we have put 100% of our eggs in the high draft basket. What is also obvious is that this approach has turned out to be a complete and utter failure. We have built a side with no desire or clue how to win, that nobody has stepped up to lead and has no successful culture whatsoever. I think we should trade anybody of any value and all our picks to get in experienced quality players that have some sort of clue about what it means to be successful in the AFL. We have done this we Dawes and Clark but we need to keep pushing it, it is the only way back.

Happy to get that. Unbelievably some on here aren't.

they probably think we don't deserve it redleg

The contention of his article is fine, it's just that he can't write anything without coming across as a condescending [censored].

Although Damien is a massive attention-seeking [censored] with a great head for radio, I get the "woe is me" part. This club, and playing list, need to grow some proverbials and get on with it, priority pick or not.

It's time for some old fashioned backs to the wall, us against them mentality. Then our success will be so much sweeter. No more Jack Watts "I need others to show me the way", and more Jack Viney "only I can get us through this".

btw, congrats on Rising Star nomination, boy. If it wasn't already apparent to some, you're a keeper.

No priority pick for me thanks no mini draft no concessions just get the off field [censored] right and develope the players we have and recruit in the future draft picks arnt the problem its what we have done once they start full time employement with the club

We're still talking about THIS guy?

Never mind his poor fact-checking, or his grandiose predictions that invariably never come to pass. Never mind his whiny sanctimonious vitriol against what are, in essence, entertainers, writing and condemning as if he were investigating corruption in the highest echelons of the government.

He once started an article with the following sentence:

"THEY do a lot of things wrong in the United States, but they do a lot of things right, too."

There has probably never been a worse sentence written by someone paid to be a writer. It's just an inflated way of saying, "They do things in the US."

I've got this wonderful image of him sweating over how to begin the thing, writing that, and kicking back in his chair, feet on the desk, "nailed it".

Don't get hot under the collar about this guy; he's got about as much knowledge about writing---and about Australian football---as the poet William McGonagall, but he's far less entertaining.

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by Bergly Sanders

Waste of space on football stories, knows nothing about the game. He's a bigger girl than Carro.

Who the fark did this little "Ambulance Chasing Nerd" play for.or more appropriately ..WITH.. Apart from himself ? He and that other football Journalist (what a joke) "Hutchy" on Footy Classified are a good pair. of non entities... Typical of most "wannabes"

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by [email protected]

I don't want any more 'special help'

all it has done has entrench us with a loser's mentality and provide ammunition for everybody to attack us all (even more than the do/would anyway). What has it

Jack Watts and Tom Scully have provided us all with so much negative emotion I wish the pair of them had never been born.

I am sure that comment would be offensive to their parents whatever we think of them.. Let's not get too nasty..

The contention of his article is fine, it's just that he can't write anything without coming across as a condescending [censored].

Which is because his prose follows his ego. The guy thinks he is the Essendon drug story, yet really in the 6 months or longer he's been tracking it I'm yet to really see a scoop. He did well to get the interview with Kyle Riemers but you get the feeling anyone with a bank cheque could've worked that out.