I'll add a caveat to that:

I will be impressed when we can retain blokes with market value when there is another party offering them a deal as well.

As far as I know, Jones or Gawn had entered into negotiations with us alone. There was no other third party coming forth with a concrete offer.

When another club has put an offer to a lot of our existing senior players, and maybe this is just me, they have always turned tail.

Yes, because obviously Gawn had no prospects anywhere else.

And Jones would struggle to attract interest the way stars like Sylvia and Frawley did.

In the last few years, we've come out well ahead on every player who has left (Scully, Sylvia, Frawley getting us Hogan, Vince and Brayshaw is just solid gold. On par with the Hawthorn deals of mid 2000s. Poor Fremantle, again.)

In the meantime, young, quality players are signing contracts and developing nicely, and we're having no trouble at all attracting proven middle quality players to fill roles.

La de da de daaaa de doo, I wont let MFCSS get to meeeeeee!

Yes, because obviously Gawn had no prospects anywhere else.

And Jones would struggle to attract interest the way stars like Sylvia and Frawley did.

In the last few years, we've come out well ahead on every player who has left (Scully, Sylvia, Frawley getting us Hogan, Vince and Brayshaw is just solid gold. On par with the Hawthorn deals of mid 2000s. Poor Fremantle, again.)

In the meantime, young, quality players are signing contracts and developing nicely, and we're having no trouble at all attracting proven middle quality players to fill roles.

La de da de daaaa de doo, I wont let MFCSS get to meeeeeee!

Where did I say that they could attract no interest on the open market? If they had gone forth and said that they were taking offers then perhaps they might have been given an offer. It is a positive in one sense that they didn't consider looking anywhere else but to go on about it will get you into Donald Rumsfeld style known unknowns.

What I said is that no other party had offered them a deal i.e. they had actively pursued them without any prompting. If we get to the stage where people of the Chip Frawley/Jared Rivers vintage consistently look at our club and say that they think their chances of being the best player they can be are at our club and that the place they can see as most likely are Melbourne then I will be satisfied.

While it could be argued that Jonesy might have been in the position I mentioned before, it should also be mentioned that he is the captain of the club and therefore had a lot more invested in the club than others.

It's nothing to do with MFCSS. I genuinely believe we are on the right track as a club. It's just that I saw a lot of this in 2010 and 2011 and we saw how that movie ended. It doesn't guarantee it will happen again but I say just be cautious.

Any news as to why James Harmes hasn't signed a contract and been upgraded??