I don't see the harm of giving Dawes a one year performance based contract. Either he gets his body right and plays some good footy at AFL level, or he isn't good enough or is injured and he spends time at Casey helping Weideman and Hulett develop. Don't see how we can lose out of this deal, especially with neither of the young forwards ready and if injury hit it would be good to have a strong back up to come in. 

57 minutes ago, TheOxWhisperer said:

All you Dawes bashers out there need to take a good hard look at yourself. The bloke has no obligation to reject what we offered him so judging him based on his high wage is plain unfair. If your boss offered you a ridiculous pay rise would you reject it because you didn't think you were worth it?

He has played the majority of his games at the dees on one leg and goes as hard as anyone, despite his conditioning. He is not the most talented player to grace the afl, yet after last weekends effort it should be clear why it is fairer to judge a player on effort rather than outcomes. 

I think he is a good role model for younger players. Unfortunately he can't perform at an AFL level on any kind of above average level let alone at a high level.

Good luck to him in the future.

1 hour ago, beelzebub said:Dawes and pick 27 for Hibberd and third rnd pick  , remember they are currency to GCS and GWS !!

Not anymore, the AFL have changed the rules WRT the points

56 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Not just the players, coaches as well.

We need to be careful here. We don't have that many experienced players around the club, yet alone players with their heads screwed on and a premiership. Also, Weideman is not yet ready, and Pedersen isn't really a KPF.

For mine, keep Dawes on a short-term, performance-based contract, unless there's someone similar we can get in the off-season.

Brad Millar mark 2, and we saw what happened there.

It was mentioned in another thread, but i wouldn't be against cutting Dawes loose and picking up Petrie to fill this void.

Unlike Dawes, Petrie can go into the ruck. Would give the Weed and Hulett another 12 months of development.

1 hour ago, Rod Grinter Riot Squad said:

Dawes AFL career is not over, but I suspect he is finished at Melbourne

Obviously we all have different opinions but mine is that he would be much better off starting his corporate career the day after Casey finish their finals push. I would be stunned if he got picked up and placed on another AFL list

Edited August 24, 20169 yr by fndee

1 hour ago, TheOxWhisperer said:

All you Dawes bashers out there need to take a good hard look at yourself. The bloke has no obligation to reject what we offered him so judging him based on his high wage is plain unfair. If your boss offered you a ridiculous pay rise would you reject it because you didn't think you were worth it?

He has played the majority of his games at the dees on one leg and goes as hard as anyone, despite his conditioning. He is not the most talented player to grace the afl, yet after last weekends effort it should be clear why it is fairer to judge a player on effort rather than outcomes. 

His boss Nathan Buckley did not offer him a "ridiculous" pay rise. Dawes was head hunted by Neeld supposedly with a pay offer of around $500-600k. Probably in the top 2 or 3 paid players on our list. He would've known the expectation to perform for that amount. 

Yes, we had to pay someone to get near the SC. Yes, he's a mentor to the young guys. Yes, he had old man's calf and an assortment of other injuries. Yes, he gives his all when he's on the park. Regardless of these, it would be fair to say his 4 yrs have been underwhelming.

And comparing a sportsman's pay with the average Joe is not apples and apples.

Edited August 24, 20169 yr by Moonshadow

Can I suggest we show a bit of respect to our players and don't slag off at them. Surely we can discuss someone leaving or a trade, without rubbishing a guy.

Needs one of those gloves that Cloke used against GWS!

But realistically. It's a performance based occupation. We've paid him in excess of 2 million bucks for 40-odd goals. The club needs to do better than that.

12 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Can I suggest we show a bit of respect to our players and don't slag off at them. Surely we can discuss someone leaving or a trade, without rubbishing a guy.

Some poster's lack of respect on here is pathetic. We know if confronted they'd go back into their shell and can only throw mud from the safety of being behind a keyboard.

Luckily, it says more about them than it does the player.

His experience and leadership is very important in the current group.  If you have ever seen the players as a group of field you quickly realise the position he holds.

As mentioned we don't have much in the way of experience and leadership and if the coaches thought he was valuable enough in that regard to keep around I'd understand. 

 

I did find this strange considering i thought he moved to melbourne partly because he didn't want to play ruck :

However, he is confident he can play a valuable role as a second or third forward who can swing into the ruck.

 

1 hour ago, TheOxWhisperer said:

admittedly he is not the most skillful guy in the country, but with a full pre season, young list and susceptibility of some blokes to play like wet [censored] socks, what harm is there to offer a bloke with some ticker and finals experience a reduced deal for one year and see if he can get back to playing servicible footy. 

 

I can defiantly see why we would let him go too, though don't you think a guy who left a recent premier, came to a basket case and gave his all throughout deserves a little more respect than sneering comments about playing in (insert [censored] country team here)? 

 

yes watts has more upside and is a better player, but I'm defiantly more appreciative of dawesies 2013-15 than I am of jacks. If you could combine watts talent and durability with Dawes ability to consistently have a red hot crack we would have just about the best player in the league.

 

all I'm saying is get of your high horse and show the bloke some gratitude and respect.

I think the only thing a full preseason would give him would be a lack of a rebuttal argument for some of the garbage displays that he has given over the past couple of years

1 hour ago, TheOxWhisperer said:

All you Dawes bashers out there need to take a good hard look at yourself. The bloke has no obligation to reject what we offered him so judging him based on his high wage is plain unfair. If your boss offered you a ridiculous pay rise would you reject it because you didn't think you were worth it?

He has played the majority of his games at the dees on one leg and goes as hard as anyone, despite his conditioning. He is not the most talented player to grace the afl, yet after last weekends effort it should be clear why it is fairer to judge a player on effort rather than outcomes. 

Might want to get over your angst. It's about Dawes as a player witg any relevance to Melbourne's future. Plainly there is none.

For a celebrated premiership player hehad one great day out and forever after  bog average. Not his blame, just what is.

Thanks Chris, and we move on I think.

Nice bloke Dawes. Hoped his body would hold up and he could build form. The body never held up it's end of the bargain, and we never got to see what we hoped we would when we traded for him.

He will find his way onto an afl roster. Not sure if it will be ours though.

1 hour ago, TheOxWhisperer said:

All you Dawes bashers out there need to take a good hard look at yourself. The bloke has no obligation to reject what we offered him so judging him based on his high wage is plain unfair. If your boss offered you a ridiculous pay rise would you reject it because you didn't think you were worth it?

He has played the majority of his games at the dees on one leg and goes as hard as anyone, despite his conditioning. He is not the most talented player to grace the afl, yet after last weekends effort it should be clear why it is fairer to judge a player on effort rather than outcomes. 

 

37 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Can I suggest we show a bit of respect to our players and don't slag off at them. Surely we can discuss someone leaving or a trade, without rubbishing a guy.

Guys come on. A bit of respect please. This bloke came to an absolute basket case of a club on its knees and being bailed out by the AFL. He may not have been able to walk the walk as much as we were hoping but his talk, his professionalism and his leadership both on and off the field has been exemplary and second to none. He has also had his moments on the field in some matches/patches. Yes he is on pretty good coin but we needed an injection of premiership/finals experience around the club where there was none (on the field).

He has provided us (off and on through injury & form woes) with a target up forward and allowed the FD to at least structure up a very inexperienced forward line while it developed from embyronic phases. His effort and attack on the man and footy (forward pressure/2nd efforts) have been first class and early on he was pretty much doing this in a void up forward.

Yesterday I watched him do a few run through at Gosch's with a fitness (physio/PT?) watching on probably testing that dodgy knee again. Let's just say he wasn't pulling up like a young Colt. He is not alone in carrying injuries at AFL level but the passion, effort and mentoring this bloke has provided the club should be applauded and appreciated.

We are not long of this earth guys. Everyone is blessed with certain assets and others with less. I saw one who was very much gifted today in Exhibition St going about his business. Old Neita looking as big as as ever but showing his age a little as we all do eventually. Does Dawesy have the talent/skills of a Neita? We all know the answer. But does he care any less, try any less or is he any less professional? I highly doubt it. My gut feel is that Dawesy is a great bloke and a great servant/clubman of the MFC. He surely deserves better than what some are dishing up to him in this thread.

This old saying is just as appropriate now as it was centuries ago....

"Be to his virtues very kind, Be to his faults a little blind"

 

I wonder if there's any chance of a Dawes/Cloke reunion at Richmond?

 

It's either Dawes or the Pedo bear as far as I can tell. A forward line of Watts, Hogan and Weed just won't work yet without a big body putting on physical pressure. We saw how that worked on the weekend. It was interesting to see that Weed played fairly well with a mature, bullocking forward  in the team (as he had with Pedo against the Dawks) but was barely sighted without one.
On another note, Dawesy's cool head and willingness to come on board of the AFL's version of the Hindenburg has sometimes been underestimated around here. I will always remember that time when he fronted up to the presser with Neeld after we got beaten by the Toigs by six goals. That game was seen by some as nearly close to a victory by some and I remember Neeldy saying that he could at last coach if he was getting effort. It sounded like the justifications of a man who knew that he was drowning. I remember Dawesy almost had to set him straight at that very presser and set that effort was a non negotiable and that was a conversation that needn't be had. I found that fairly impressive but somewhat sad at the same time. It showed the leadership capabilities of Dawesy but also showed that the coaching staff had lost control of the playing group.

He has had his moments in a Melbourne jumper, Daweshy. The win away at Adelaide was an important one along the way. He wasn't just good in that game. He was dominant. It's a pity there weren't more games in that category.

I think his time at the club might be done but all things must pass as George said. 

10 hours ago, bing181 said:

Not just the players, coaches as well.

We need to be careful here. We don't have that many experienced players around the club, yet alone players with their heads screwed on and a premiership. Also, Weideman is not yet ready, and Pedersen isn't really a KPF.

For mine, keep Dawes on a short-term, performance-based contract, unless there's someone similar we can get in the off-season.

Brad Millar mark 2, and we saw what happened there.

If he was prepared to stay on the expectation that he may get very few AFL games on a limited contract then sure.......but the fact is the his body has continued to fail him and he can't be part of MFC AFL forward planning  

9 hours ago, AngryAtCasey said:

It was mentioned in another thread, but i wouldn't be against cutting Dawes loose and picking up Petrie to fill this void.

Unlike Dawes, Petrie can go into the ruck. Would give the Weed and Hulett another 12 months of development.

Petrie - an interesting short term thought. Does know how to play Etihad.  

This comment is patent rubbish...

"However, the 28-year-old is confident he has overcome the injury problems that dogged his first three seasons at Melbourne"

He's missed too many games again this year through injury and/or "player management" for this to be the case.

17 minutes ago, rjay said:

This comment is patent rubbish...

"However, the 28-year-old is confident he has overcome the injury problems that dogged his first three seasons at Melbourne"

He's missed too many games again this year through injury and/or "player management" for this to be the case.

He is just throwing it out there in the hope that people believe him.  His ability to get on the park, however, puts that to bed.

I had high hopes for Dawesy when he arrived at the club.  I think he provided good leadership for the younger players and worked his backside off to get himself right, which unfortunately for him, he wasn't able to do.  A club like Brisbane might look at picking him up, but with all due respect to him, I think his time at the club might be up.  

Would you swap Dawes for Daw?

1 minute ago, Cards13 said:

Would you swap Dawes for Daw?

The singularity of your inference hasn't escaped 

11 hours ago, TheOxWhisperer said:

admittedly he is not the most skillful guy in the country, but with a full pre season, young list and susceptibility of some blokes to play like wet [censored] socks, what harm is there to offer a bloke with some ticker and finals experience a reduced deal for one year and see if he can get back to playing servicible footy. 

 

I can defiantly see why we would let him go too, though don't you think a guy who left a recent premier, came to a basket case and gave his all throughout deserves a little more respect than sneering comments about playing in (insert [censored] country team here)? 

 

yes watts has more upside and is a better player, but I'm defiantly more appreciative of dawesies 2013-15 than I am of jacks. If you could combine watts talent and durability with Dawes ability to consistently have a red hot crack we would have just about the best player in the league.

 

all I'm saying is get of your high horse and show the bloke some gratitude and respect.

Defiant you are.

11 hours ago, Cards13 said:

I think he is a good role model for younger players. Unfortunately he can't perform at an AFL level on any kind of above average level let alone at a high level.

Good luck to him in the future.

Good role model for what? Dropping almost every mark that comes his way? Poor kicking skills? Taking a high salary so he can do his law degree and delivering nothing on field?

4 minutes ago, Diamond said:

Good role model for what? Dropping almost every mark that comes his way? Poor kicking skills? Taking a high salary so he can do his law degree and delivering nothing on field?

Some of the best coaches and leaders have been less than outstanding footballers. Some have never even played at the top level. Conversely, some outstanding footballers have failed as coaches.

Of all the players on our list, Dawes strikes me as the one with the best leadership credentials and may well be the one, should he choose that path, to be the most successful coach.