If he ever plays AFL again and it's not for Melbourne, it will be a travesty.

I would have a guess and suggest it's also part of his recovery. Fitness and feeling healthy can help someone with mental illness tremendously.

I would have a guess and suggest it's also part of his recovery. Fitness and feeling healthy can help someone with mental illness tremendously.

I would have this guess too.

I agree, I'm sure if he did decide he wouldn't mind playing again he would be welcomed back

If he ever plays AFL again and it's not for Melbourne, it will be a travesty.

What is the process? When he inevitably comes to the realisation that he has made a huge mistake and he wants to come back to footy, do we have any claim to him whatsoever or will it be another club's brilliant luck at our expense?

I know people want to dream, even fantisize over this idea but .

Maybe everyone just needs to move on and let it be or dare I say there will be threads ad nauseam to this ideal.

Sometimes things in life just dont work out.

I wish Mitch happiness, as would I anyone. Im just not bothered by this any more. Our success isnt built on him, it never was.

and we move on

I would have a guess and suggest it's also part of his recovery. Fitness and feeling healthy can help someone with mental illness tremendously.

If he's feeling like getting up & going again, then he's slowly improving imo. inner mojo slowly returning.

best of luck Mitch.. we all miss you mate.

What is the process? When he inevitably comes to the realisation that he has made a huge mistake and he wants to come back to footy, do we have any claim to him whatsoever or will it be another club's brilliant luck at our expense?

surely would hinge around his families home address?

surely would hinge around his families home address?

so it's just up to him? He can just choose? It is not in the PSD or anything? Why is it any different to an 18 year old going through the ND? Is there no process of compensation that we gave Brisbane a pick 12 and spent huge amounts of money to have him for 2 years? I'm asking seriously if anyone knows the rules?

biggest comeback in AFL history is a fair bit of a stretch.....

Jason McCartney would have something to say on that front, as would ramanauskis or however you say his name ha, heck even our boy Schwarta!

If he ever returned, he'd just nominate for the draft like anyone else. We would have no special claim to him, but you'd like to think that no other club would take him before our first pick. After that it would be fair game.

so it's just up to him? He can just choose? It is not in the PSD or anything? Why is it any different to an 18 year old going through the ND? Is there no process of compensation that we gave Brisbane a pick 12 and spent huge amounts of money to have him for 2 years? I'm asking seriously if anyone knows the rules?

thats not what I was getting at. as far as I know, even tho Mitch has retired, & been payed out? If he's able to get himself well, to the point of being capable of playing in the AFL again, then I'd imagine a key to this would be that he stays in the same city as his family.

Now, I see his name still on our Lists? so I assume he isn't delisted yet. so I wonder if he's able to be traded at end of season, to a club of his choosing.

What is the process? When he inevitably comes to the realisation that he has made a huge mistake and he wants to come back to footy, do we have any claim to him whatsoever or will it be another club's brilliant luck at our expense?

Huge mistake? He's sounding happier and healthier than he has in at least a year, possibly more. His decision to retire cannot in any way be construed as a mistake.

Huge mistake? He's sounding happier and healthier than he has in at least a year, possibly more. His decision to retire cannot in any way be construed as a mistake.

oh you know him do you

If he ever plays AFL again and it's not for Melbourne, it will be a travesty.

Get ready for it.

If he ever returned, he'd just nominate for the draft like anyone else. We would have no special claim to him, but you'd like to think that no other club would take him before our first pick. After that it would be fair game.

Hopefully he would keep things quiet but let us know so we pick him up late in the draft. But to be realistic as soon as he nominated for a draft, some clubs would be all over him. But good luck to him, what a lost talent to football. God it gives me the grips losing Mitch.

I can remember arguing a case in 2011 after he had played 10 games for us and kicked 29 odd goals that he was as good as Buddy who the AFL were going gaga over that year. He was taller, a better pack mark, as good below his knees and a better kick for goals, and he spent time in the ruck as well. But that argument died when he did his foot! Typical MFC outcome really.

so it's just up to him? He can just choose? It is not in the PSD or anything? Why is it any different to an 18 year old going through the ND? Is there no process of compensation that we gave Brisbane a pick 12 and spent huge amounts of money to have him for 2 years? I'm asking seriously if anyone knows the rules?

The AFL is riddled with political correctness. If he did come back and nominate us he would come to us.

What im worried about is because he is delisted, and just say he decides to comeback next year, isnt he fair game for any club to draft?

Maybe we could get a special compensation from the AFL that because he had depression and the special circumstances that he be allowed to go to his club of choice which would be us.

Jason McCartney would have something to say on that front, as would ramanauskis or however you say his name ha, heck even our boy Schwarta!

Peter Hudson's comeback in the helicopter was pretty good too.

What im worried about is because he is delisted, and just say he decides to comeback next year, isnt he fair game for any club to draft?

Maybe we could get a special compensation from the AFL that because he had depression and the special circumstances that he be allowed to go to his club of choice which would be us.

Short answer is yes he would be open to all clubs in the draft.

If he were to, and I highly doubt it, return to the AFL it would be through the draft.

He's fair game for all. Anyone thinking there'd be some sort of gentleman's handshake are even more delusion and glossy eyed than those thinking its likely to occur in the first place.

This isnt going to happen.

Theres more to life than football and hes now come to appreciate this fully.

A great dream, but highly unlikely -Tattslotto type odds.

IF, big IF, he decided that he wanted to return to AFL, perhaps to enhance his mental health recovery, AND attained the requisite fitness levels, would the AFL be prepared perhaps consider using their discretion, as they undoubtedly can, and in the interests of "mental health awareness", perhaps even supported by a certain former Hawthorn president and Beyond Blue chairman, make some sort of "special case scenario" that would allow him to return to MFC without being subject to normal draft conditions?

Just a thought bubble really.

Delisted free agent??

I agree that it would be the longest of all long shots for him to come back (assuming of course that coming back would mean getting back to his 2012 form, which is another thing altogether), but wasn't there a rule introduced after Mal Michael retired from Brisbane and then went to Essendon? I had the feeling that there was now a clause in contracts that says if the player retires, then he can't be drafted by a different club for two to three years, or something like that ...