Personally, I think they should just ditch priority picks. I mean, if Melbourne don't deserve on this year, no team will ever deserve one.

To be honest, I understand where people are coming from when they say 'MFC does not need handouts, MFC needs to stand on its own two feet.'

We have been stockpiling high draft picks, Priority Picks and compensation picks for years and we have gotten worse.

Our race to the bottom in 2009 clearly had an adverse effect on our club's culture, whether or not it is tanking is beside the point. MFC's naive reliance on draft picks in place of hard work is a major reason why we find ourselves where we do in 2013.

MFC must create a winning culture. Will another Priority Pick assist with this or will it simply continue the cycle of our playing list & club relying on others for success?

Creating a winning culture and using whatever means are available to level the playing field are not necessarily contradictory. Hawthorn, for example, obviously did both.

Personally, I think they should just ditch priority picks. I mean, if Melbourne don't deserve on this year, no team will ever deserve one.

I agree, just ditch the whole idea, get it off the books so to speak. If an extraordinary situation happens down the track then revisit it without all the baggage attached.

I have said this before. I will say it again.

If I were an administrator of the AFL, I wouldn't give Melbourne another priority pick. I hope Peter Jackson is able to talk them around or get some compromise out of headquarters but based on our history, I would say no.

At least there are a few above who recognize the issue. If it was Carlton getting assistance in this manner there would be outrage here.

But the facts are clear. The AFL's job is to maximise the competition and while we are performing the way we are we are hurting it. And our incompetence in selecting players in the past has provided other clubs with much better picks, a fact they ignore.

Our performance warrants assistance on that there can be no argument, but I can see "the elephant in the room". It's a real issue. Those that can't are just blind.

Great idea Mr Barrett. Ignore the facts and write an emotive article that will appeal to the masses. That should sell a few papers! ......... and who cares if all other Clubs and their supporters hate our guts? That's the way most around here would prefer it anyway!

Personally, I think they should just ditch priority picks. I mean, if Melbourne don't deserve on this year, no team will ever deserve one.

Should've been done when they revised the whole rule. Every time the issue arises there wil be conjecture and clubs complaining. If we don't get one now then in 3 or 4 years time if another club asks we would have a pretty strong case of arguing against them receiving one. Why can't the AFL just get rid of the whole thing I'm sick of hearing about PP's and all the scenarios being put up here if we get one.

Really? A North Melbourne person complaining about something? Surely not, that's never happened before

MFC must create a winning culture. Will another Priority Pick assist with this or will it simply continue the cycle of our playing list & club relying on others for success?

Don't know but free agency means that there is a vicious cycle where weak teams like us will get weaker, with any decent FA's wanting out. We need to be helped toward competitiveness at least to break the cycle.

I agree, just ditch the whole idea, get it off the books so to speak. If an extraordinary situation happens down the track then revisit it without all the baggage attached.

We are the extraordinary situation.

To be honest, I understand where people are coming from when they say 'MFC does not need handouts, MFC needs to stand on its own two feet.'

We have been stockpiling high draft picks, Priority Picks and compensation picks for years and we have gotten worse.

Our race to the bottom in 2009 clearly had an adverse effect on our club's culture, whether or not it is tanking is beside the point. MFC's naive reliance on draft picks in place of hard work is a major reason why we find ourselves where we do in 2013.

MFC must create a winning culture. Will another Priority Pick assist with this or will it simply continue the cycle of our playing list & club relying on others for success?

I have a lot of issue with the bolded sentence.

It's the sort of ignorant bullsh*t I'd expect from an opposition supporter that knows nothing about the club.

Since 2003 we've had a total of 2 priority picks. 2. Picks 1 & 17.

Hawthorn had picks 2 & 3 as priorities, as a comparison.

High draft picks are not some extra "reward" for finishing lower.

They are our draft position for having to put up with a rubbish bottom 4 team year after year.

We get 1st round draft picks just like every other team in the competition, who by your logic must have been stockpiling them too.

Compensation picks are fair compensation in return for losing assets.

They haven't come in without us losing something valuable in return.

It's inflammatory language to make a redundant and ill-considered point.

As much as people are against it .... As much as I'm glad we didn't pay scully overs, people seem to forget we lost a number one pick that we genuinely didn't really want to go.

People can go an get farked as far as I'm concerned.

The a afl commission can make the decision and if PJ think its a good idea then it most likely is !

Poor Melbourne, not get favourable media coverage even in light of outrageously inept business decisions.

Damn you Barrett and your frustration at reward for ineptness!

As BB said above, MFC have actually assisted other clubs by effectively squandering our draft picks in the recent past.

This is not about getting an unfair advantage or relying on others for our success.

It's not like we'll be making priority pick applications hear after year.

It's about not having to start as far back when rebuilding.

This is just an effort to claw back one of the many picks we've wasted.

And you can't tell me that GWS really needs another pick 1, or rather the much-sought-after pick 1 to barter for more assets.

They are, along with GCS, exceptionally asset rich.

It's one thing MFC isn't.

Poor Melbourne, not get favourable media coverage even in light of outrageously inept business decisions.

Damn you Barrett and your frustration at reward for ineptness!

Don't act like MFC is the only team that has ever been helped out of this position.

If we get a PP I'll take it as you don't look a gift horse in the mouth but if we don't get one who cares; no point whinging and moaning just get on with the job.

Personally, I think they should just ditch priority picks. I mean, if Melbourne don't deserve on this year, no team will ever deserve one.

It partly depends on how much weight they give to the "elephant in the room". There's no denying we've set the bar for being shithouse, but there could hypothetically be a team that endures a sustained period of failure that doesn't engage in "conduct unbecoming". The worst punishment the club received was the investigation itself, which no doubt took its toll, but the fine is a bit of a joke when effectively the AFL is paying it off with the league's best available coach thrown in as steak knives.

The case for a PP is strong, but clouded. I no longer care if we get it or not, I'm just sick of it. The club's reputation and standing in the game is utter dirt, and this isn't helping. Would be quite happy for PPs to be ditched and never spoken of again.

Sometimes you have to look behind these sorts of comments from journalists. Usually they ape the club they support. The most recent example of that was the way mark Robinson in the herald sun and on AFL360 for so long refused to face up to the Essendon drug scandal and Hird's central role in it, and was continually scooped by Caroline Wison in the Age and Patrick Smith in the Australian - to Gerard Whateley's continuing embassassment on AFL360. Frankly it is beyond me why Robinson still has a job. He is a lightweight.

With Barrot, I dont know who he supports but I suspect Collingwood or Hawthorn - the two Melbourne clubs most vocally against additional MFC assistance. He is a [censored], but not a very influential one. I don't think he is worth the time of day frankly.

Let's move on, get continuing and building success, and that will just make the Barrotts of this world even more angry and resentful. And that I'm sure will please all of us.

Damien Barrett supports North Melbourne.

Funnily enough, Brayshaw has already had a whinge about priority picks too.

The elephant in the room is only relevant to the perception of any assistance.

It isn't relevant to whether we should have draft assistance or not.

Since that elephant there have been 4 seasons, two of which have netted a total of 6 wins.

The rule is there and has been used in a way that has not evened up the league - giving the Pies Thomas two years removed from back to back flags is not evening the competition. They didn't deserve it if we wish to talk about the D word.

We need it and the league needs us to have one.

The elephant in the room has to forklifted out at some point. I am not going to hang myself and my club on the schadenfreude of others.

Anybody else listen to 'rumour files' on 3AW breakfast?

Ross's rumour, this morning, was that we weren't going to get a PP. Hate to say it, but he's usually on the money.

As the rest of you have said, it's outrageous. Their argument just doesn't make sense. You're a basket case, so you don't

deserve a priority pick. That's exactly when you do deserve one.

Jeez, two wins all year...

Hawks get Roughy and Buddy (and are about to get a premiership) Pies get Pendlebury and Swan.

We get zip.

Have to disagree there, Ross very rarely gets it right from my listening.

I don't know if we will or not but most of his rumors over the years have been way off the mark.

If we do it wouldn't surprise me if we got Essendon's pick, which wouldn't throw the draft out too much and would slightly appease the other clubs.

If we don't qualify based on our record, noone does and the rule should be scrapped.

I think that's the core issue, we have been so woefully bad the last few years that really if our performances don't qualify us then just scrap it because no one ever will.

For the record I actually couldn't give a stuff about it. We are getting pick 2 in this years draft, many agree that we have the makings of a very good spine it's just the midfield is completely useless....at the moment.

Paul Roos is proven to be very good at getting the most out of under-performing players, we have many first round draft picks in our team, and I fully expect us to be aggressive at trade time. If Port Adelaide has taught the competition anything this year it's that things can be turned around quite quickly and Roos himself said earlier this year that it's not as hard a job as some might think. The AFL's worst nightmare is that they give us the PP and next year we finish 10th and above, and look like we're on the rise.

I really wish they'd just abolished it altogether.

The elephant in the room is only relevant to the perception of any assistance.

It isn't relevant to whether we should have draft assistance or not.

Since that elephant there have been 4 seasons, two of which have netted a total of 6 wins.

The rule is there and has been used in a way that has not evened up the league - giving the Pies Thomas two years removed from back to back flags is not evening the competition. They didn't deserve it if we wish to talk about the D word.

We need it and the league needs us to have one.

The elephant in the room has to forklifted out at some point. I am not going to hang myself and my club on the schadenfreude of others.

The elephant in the room is the fact that it's about time we just rolled up our sleeves and got on with it instead of whinging all the time - it's starting to sound like Shinbonerland around here not Demonland. Sure ask for a pick, make your case and argue for it and take the pick if they give it to you but if not it's not the end of the world. We can turn this ship around with or without the PP, it's not essential it's a luxury.

The elephant in the room is only relevant to the perception of any assistance.

It isn't relevant to whether we should have draft assistance or not.

Since that elephant there have been 4 seasons, two of which have netted a total of 6 wins.

The rule is there and has been used in a way that has not evened up the league - giving the Pies Thomas two years removed from back to back flags is not evening the competition. They didn't deserve it if we wish to talk about the D word.

We need it and the league needs us to have one.

The elephant in the room has to forklifted out at some point. I am not going to hang myself and my club on the schadenfreude of others.

Of course it's relevant. We're talking about effectively fraudulently acquiring a PP that year, and the debate is about the merits of awarding another one. Anyone who isn't completely blinkered on this issue would acknowledge its relevance. Again, it's a matter of how much weight is given to it, not whether it is relevant or not.

The elephant in the room is the fact that it's about time we just rolled up our sleeves and got on with it instead of whinging all the time - it's starting to sound like Shinbonerland around here not Demonland. Sure ask for a pick, make your case and argue for it and take the pick if they give it to you but if not it's not the end of the world. We can turn this ship around with or without the PP, it's not essential it's a luxury.

Couldn't agree more. I'm glad to see this sort of view being expressed in a bit more numbers on here.