4 minutes ago, rumpole said:

Can Tom Browne play?

? 

53 minutes ago, The team we love said:

Tom Browne from On The Couch reported on the show tonight that Melbourne are the front runners for Gaff should he head East. 

I could've told you that! Seriously I don't put any stock in anything these new breed journos say, more likely to source info off here than anyone connected in the footy world.

Tom the snake Morris. Not Tom Browne. 

Gaff was on talking footy, said he was a dees supporter and will decide what he wants to do at the end of the year, watching it I reakon he is gone, not sure if we can afford him or not McDonald brothers and Brayshaw might cost us a bit more than we anticipated, gaff though would slot in our midfield nicely 

1 hour ago, brendan said:

Gaff was on talking footy, said he was a dees supporter and will decide what he wants to do at the end of the year, watching it I reakon he is gone, not sure if we can afford him or not McDonald brothers and Brayshaw might cost us a bit more than we anticipated, gaff though would slot in our midfield nicely 

Tyson and Vince would clear up a little space you'd think

1 hour ago, brendan said:

Gaff was on talking footy, said he was a dees supporter and will decide what he wants to do at the end of the year, watching it I reakon he is gone, not sure if we can afford him or not McDonald brothers and Brayshaw might cost us a bit more than we anticipated, gaff though would slot in our midfield nicely 

I think this the key... the players mentioned will probably command together at least $300k per year more than we would have budgeted at the end of 2017. That $300k plus whatever say Tyson is being paid at present is probably what we have set aside for Gaff.

So .. how do you find the money... pay cuts, future loading the youngsters, asking one of the well paid senior players to take a longer term view (coaching) and then there is the least attractive ... trading  a good player for a draft pick and salary cap relief.

Very hard decisions needed.

we can keep both macs, brayshaw, give vince another year AND get gaff

we're very well structured financially from a salary cap perspective

(allegedly)

5 minutes ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

we can keep both macs, brayshaw, give vince another year AND get gaff

 

Yeah but would that be fair on the rest of the competition?

 

i wonder what gaff would be thinking now the way we are starting to look.. pretty attractive option i would think ?

 

26 minutes ago, Rocky said:

i wonder what gaff would be thinking now the way we are starting to look.. pretty attractive option i would think ?

It's looking pretty nice at his current club too Rock.

 

 

 

Yes yes yes. Gaff would be another star and make our midfield completely awesome. 

I think we would have to consider the retirement of Vince to fit him in. 

Which of our player/s would we be prepared to lose from our list to accommodate a player such as Gaff?

OOC or FA: Gus, TMac, OMac, Jetta. Who else? 

Not playing seniors: Tyson, Jeffy, JKH, Stretch, Hunt, Wags, Frost

Veterans: Bernie, Lewis

Removing a half a doz players to fit Gaff within the SC doesn't make sense. We have a set minimum number of players to list in 2019 and don't have unlimited draft picks. 5 poor players are not equal to one star.

I'm thinking we may need to trade for Gaff even though he's RFA. This has been the trend in the last few years for quality, eg Danger

Edited May 29, 20187 yr by Moonshadow

i haven't forgotten how bad gaff was last year. he was soft and uncompetitive and offered no spread. maybe he was injured i'm not sure

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 11:25 PM, Rocky said:

i wonder what gaff would be thinking now the way we are starting to look.. pretty attractive option i would think ?

 

Especially when we beat them over in the west.

If we have the room then great but the McDonald brothers or Brayshaw won’t come cheap now, I assume the club would be banking on Vince and Lewis finishing up end of next year at the latest, that then frees up space 

1 minute ago, WERRIDEE said:

Especially when we beat them over in the west.

 

I saw Werridee posted and I assumed you had posted our best 22 for next season with Gaff in the side.

So disappointed!

I have it on no authority whatsoever that the recruiters and financial dept had this mapped when they traded out of the first round next year. I also have no source to cite when I say that the recruiters have been cultivating long-term relations in their planning for targeted players. And I certainly can't state with any credibility that this is basically a done deal, all but secured between player and club well in advance.

But I do believe these things to be true, and can confidently invoke a Denuto contention.

 

2 hours ago, Skuit said:

I have it on no authority whatsoever that the recruiters and financial dept had this mapped when they traded out of the first round next year. I also have no source to cite when I say that the recruiters have been cultivating long-term relations in their planning for targeted players. And I certainly can't state with any credibility that this is basically a done deal, all but secured between player and club well in advance.

But I do believe these things to be true, and can confidently invoke a Denuto contention.

 

I would concur @Skuit, it's a bloody well run FD and trading out of the first round seems naive - but the FD are not naive - something is a cooking...

I’d assume we’d get the McDonald brothers and gus’s Contracts done first then sit down and see how much we have to play with 

Looking forward to the DEES GET OUT THE GAFF HOOK headline 

My biggest concern: if we take Gaff the Eagles will retaliate in a couple of years by offering Hogan the mother of all contracts. They would see him as the perfect replacement for Kennedy when he retires. I'm starting to think we shouldn't be too greedy with free agents and concentrate on maintaining the list we've already got.

both meth coke and the jokers will offer hogan a mega-sized contract no matter what we do

what's interesting is that, at this stage, he WON'T be a free agent at the next contract negotiation

of course, it's not within the realms of possibilities that the afl will arbitrarily declare that his pre-listing year on our list counts, or that 6 years is the new free agency marker, or what have you

make hay while the sun shines with hogan; the story is gonna be there every year that one of the wa sides is into him in a big, big way cos he's a mega-sized talent

As a restricted free agent Gaff will probably come at a high price simply because the likes of North Melbourne and St Kilda will bid up his dollar price. (Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume Eagles only have to match the price of the club he wants to go to. In other words if there are three clubs bidding for him and he picks the lowest offer it is that offer that the Eagles must match.)

From today's Age:

"Melbourne, despite the club’s enviable young list, have the salary-cap space to make a strong bid for free agent Andrew Gaff should the star West Coast midfielder decide to come back to Victoria.

The Demons, who successfully fended off other Melbourne rivals to land Jake Lever last year, are understood to have enough room in their salary cap to have a tilt at Gaff – or another seasoned recruit – despite having their own free agent, Tom McDonald, still to sign and the emerging Angus Brayshaw out of contract."

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/demons-have-room-for-andrew-gaff-20180529-p4zi9a.html

21 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

 

From today's Age:

"Melbourne, despite the club’s enviable young list, have the salary-cap space to make a strong bid for free agent Andrew Gaff should the star West Coast midfielder decide to come back to Victoria.

The Demons, who successfully fended off other Melbourne rivals to land Jake Lever last year, are understood to have enough room in their salary cap to have a tilt at Gaff – or another seasoned recruit – despite having their own free agent, Tom McDonald, still to sign and the emerging Angus Brayshaw out of contract."

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/demons-have-room-for-andrew-gaff-20180529-p4zi9a.html

 

I'd be staggered if that were true.. would take some really creative accounting and a lot of our players taking below market value.