Take it with the grain of salt that it's worth, but media over here have Lachie Neale heading east to a Vic club at seasons end and report that Freo will have to cough up $1M a year to keep Fyfe.

Their list is a shambles and their supporter base is already deserting in droves.

Ross took his shot at a flag and just missed out but in the process has decimated the list.

2 hours ago, McQueen said:

Take it with the grain of salt that it's worth, but media over here have Lachie Neale heading east to a Vic club at seasons end and report that Freo will have to cough up $1M a year to keep Fyfe.

Their list is a shambles and their supporter base is already deserting in droves.

Ross took his shot at a flag and just missed out but in the process has decimated the list.

Do we even need teams in WA? Maybe we can just scrap Freo and Methy? Anyway, I take it, of course, that Neale is on his way to the MFC.

Great post. Like us in 2007, they thought they had some quality kids coming through, but in reality those kids were still very unproven, and unfortunately in our case they turned out to be pretty damn average (Ferguson, Sylvia, McLean, Miller etc). Not saying Freos will be as bad, but they seem awfully confident they can turn it around when aside from Fyfe and Neale no-one is proven at that club under 24.

9 hours ago, AdamFarr said:

Do we even need teams in WA? Maybe we can just scrap Freo and Methy? Anyway, I take it of course that Neale is on his way to the MFC.

I think there's too many teams in Melbourne and the MFC should relocate to WA.

2007 was weird. But the Daniher era really kind of set the club up for the past 10 years. When we were down, we were bottom of the barrel. Long losing streaks. Bottom 3. Awful stuff. It wasn't Daniher's fault at all, he got more out of an unprofessional football club than anyone else could have at the time. We had a decent team. But we just sort of lingered mid-range for too long and didn't have a good bridge between experience and young talent coming through. He also drafted poorly with the likes of Bate, Miller, Armstrong, etc.

Melbourne of the 00s was North of the 2010s. 

16 hours ago, Nascent said:

I don't get it. Wario is a boss in battle and goes alright in GP mode. Best of the heavyweights in my opinion. Still, Yoshi is my player of choice.

I'm guessing it was because he says "I'ma gonna win" with such confidence before race and screws up the rocket start.

And agreed, Yoshi was the best kart in '64.

In answer no they aren't.  Fremantle are cashed up and will be able to lure the best Western Australia kids back from East coast.  Melbourne will not be able to match the offer Fremantle will put to Hogan and it's not just the Footy stuff, the amount off money he will make from third party deals will be massive, a little media deal here, a coupe of appearance deals.  They will have massive room in their salary cap once they clean out some older Stalwarts at the end of the year.  The tall forward from GWS will be on a Fremantle training program at this very moment.

Fremantle we raid clubs, you watch the amount of home sick kids that will go home over the next 1-5 years.  Money induced home sickness

For me, it is a reminder how quickly fortunes can change not only in football but life. Roosters one season, feather dusters the next. It is also a reminder that like businesses, the challenge for all clubs is to balance the immediate needs with the long term. Unless you continue to freshen your list with young talent and make hard decisions with the older players and also the middle ranking ones (we have a few of these) you are going to eventually hit the wall.  Fresh players and fresh (coaching) ideas are key to long term success.