It saddens me to read all the unpleasant, nasty comments about Clayton. He is a champion player who has won four best and fairest and has been twice the winner of the coaches award. A higher, more meaningful award than the Brownlow in my humble opinion. He is battling to show his true form at the moment as a result  of fitness and past personal issues. He loves the club and was looking delighted when Kynan Brown's debut was announced. I would hope that I am only appealing to a small minority and that the vast majority would agree with me. Talk of trading is ridiculous and an insult to the man. Show some fairness please and give Clarry some breathing space. Negativity does not help his cause.

12 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie said:

Talk of trading is ridiculous and an insult to the man.

You might want to let the club know that. The rest of us are just following suite that he was/is potentially on the table.

Edited June 24, 2024Jun 24 by John Demonic

Thanks Bobby.

Yes, he is really struggling this season, and it isn’t clear what should be done to help him and thus help the team, the supporters and the club.

I agree 100% though that bagging him relentlessly can only make it all worse. 
❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙

As Paul Roos once said, "Every player is tradable"

If the right player and offer was there for us then I have no doubt the club would look at it.

No one is going to take the lengthy contract hovering above his head but.

One things for sure, if we trade him we’ll still be paying part of his contract. I’m open to it but can’t see it happening. 

Fair call. I've been critical but your right, it doesn't help. 

35 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie said:

It saddens me to read all the unpleasant, nasty comments about Clayton. He is a champion player who has won four best and fairest and has been twice the winner of the coaches award. A higher, more meaningful award than the Brownlow in my humble opinion. He is battling to show his true form at the moment as a result  of fitness and past personal issues. He loves the club and was looking delighted when Kynan Brown's debut was announced. I would hope that I am only appealing to a small minority and that the vast majority would agree with me. Talk of trading is ridiculous and an insult to the man. Show some fairness please and give Clarry some breathing space. Negativity does not help his cause.

There is also our cause.  It needs to be a joint effort.

40 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

As Paul Roos once said, "Every player is tradable"

If the right player and offer was there for us then I have no doubt the club would look at it.

No one is going to take the lengthy contract hovering above his head but.

He said that in 2014. 

There was no Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, May, Lever or Kozzie going around then.

I've been waiting for comments to start berating him for appearing generally happy while not being in good form. Like he is somehow letting us down by not being miserable enough.

So far we remain on this side of the sanity line on this, at least.

I think we're all in the fog when it comes to what to expect of Clayton Oliver even for the rest of this season, let alone next year and the rest of his contract. It's frustrating and people are going to vent periodically.

Say what you want about clarry, but even in his current form he is a better option than any mid running around at Casey. 

They're using AFL matches to get  him fit. We might still see clarry somewhere near his best by seasons end.

One thing I saw on the weekend was his genuine joy and celebration when Petty kicked that goal. It was over the top joy and celebration and spoke to me of a player (Oliver) who genuinely cared about his teammate (Petty) who he knew had been struggling for form. It wasn't about the game situation it was about Petty.

That's an important aspect of buying in to the team. And it's good to see that while his form is down.

Maybe he does move on to get a fresh start but I hope he stays and returns to his best. It's been a joy to watch him so far in his career.

Edited June 24, 2024Jun 24 by deanox

16 minutes ago, tilly18 said:

He said that in 2014. 

There was no Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, May, Lever or Kozzie going around then.

He's been quoted as using this same philosophy at the Swans when he had the likes of Goodes, Hall, Kirk, Micky O etc.

I'm also a big believer in this. Every player has a price and a trade capital. I think a genuine fresh start could actually benefit him similar to how Jesse Hogan is reaping those benefits. 

It won't happen though, no one will touch his contract.

Edited June 24, 2024Jun 24 by dazzledavey36

7 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He's been quoted as using this same philosophy at the Swans when he had the likes of Goodes, Hall, Kirk, Micky O etc.

I'm also a big believer in this. Every player has a price and a trade capital. I think a genuine fresh start could actually benefit him similar to how Jesse Hogan is reaping those benefits. 

It won't happen though, no one will touch his contract.

I don’t think you know much about culture if you think every player is tradable. Gawn?  I think not. 

I thought I heard on radio today that he is still averaging just under 25 disposals a game in 2024. That means he is #1 on the MFC list for average disposals to this point in time this year. So much silly talk here about trading him... Sheeesh!

He’s a $1m+ a year player whose salary is indexed to total player payments for the next seven years who had no preseason not through injury but by decisions made of his own volition 

He is nor immune to criticism and we need to hope like hell he returns to being the professional he was

13 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He's been quoted as using this same philosophy at the Swans when he had the likes of Goodes, Hall, Kirk, Micky O etc.

I'm also a big believer in this. Every player has a price and a trade capital. I think a genuine fresh start could actually benefit him similar to how Jesse Hogan is reaping those benefits. 

It won't happen though, no one will touch his contract.

I cant think of an A grader he traded out during his time at Sydney, except for Barry Hall which was a Kirk led revolt regarding his on field behaviour. 

Happy to be corrected.

Clarry is still in the top 40 for the whole competition for average disposals for 2024. He is ahead of quite a few of the AFL 'midfield darlings' on that list!

6 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

I thought I heard on radio today that he is still averaging just under 25 disposals a game in 2024. That means he is #1 on the MFC list for average disposals to this point in time this year. So much silly talk here about trading him... Sheeesh!

Clarry is our leading disposals per game player (though sadly and maybe explaining our dire position) number 43 in the AFL. 

CP5 is our next best at #50 and that won’t help for the remainder of the season 😢

Next, at #80 is JV7. No others in the top 100. 
 

Maybe that helps explain our season. 

Love Clarry and all that he has done for this club. 4 time b&f and major component in our flag. Up until this season arguably the most consistently brilliant Demon I have ever seen on a weekly basis.  Given the tumultuous off field problems and almost complete lack of pre season. It's a miracle he is even out there. I feared he might be gone.  Given the absence of Petracca and, to a lesser extent, Brayshaw he is the main man to be tagged. Champions work their way through it and he will. Meantime against North Viney was the beneficiary and one of the main reasons we won. Easy to understand media and others getting stuck into him. It's what they do. Beggars belief that any Demon supporter that has witnessed this champions career thus far can be so critical of one of our all time greats.' Form is temporary, class is permanent.' Never has a saying been more applicable than to the superb Clayton Oliver. Write him off at your peril. He is a Demon for life.

Clarry has done enough for MFC to deserve some breathing space to get back on track. Get a proper pre-season into him and hopefully he gets back to what he was next year. 

 

24 minutes ago, waynewussell said:

Clarry is still in the top 40 for the whole competition for average disposals for 2024. He is ahead of quite a few of the AFL 'midfield darlings' on that list!

This just shows how damn good he is at his best. He's having a shocking year by his own lofty standards, yet if it was anyone else they'd be a decent midfielder. It also exposes how much we relied on him producing exceptional performances week in, week out.

33 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

I don’t think you know much about culture if you think every player is tradable. Gawn?  I think not. 

I am of the belief that no player is bigger than the club and therefore, if the right trade comes along you should take it for the betterment of the organisation. However, to absolutely contradict myself, there are also players who are and should be an exception to that rule and Gawn is one of them. Petracca is probably our only other one at this point. For both of them it goes well beyond what they deliver on-field.

44 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He's been quoted as using this same philosophy at the Swans when he had the likes of Goodes, Hall, Kirk, Micky O etc.

...and how many of those did he trade 'dazz'?

Roosy could talk a good game.

1 hour ago, No. 31 said:

Clarry has done enough for MFC to deserve some breathing space to get back on track. Get a proper pre-season into him and hopefully he gets back to what he was next year. 

 

Absolutely he has.

Factor in that he is battling some mental problems as well, and the pressure to perform on a weekly basis, it cannot be doing him any good.

If he needs to take some time away from the game, he has earned it. However, if he is not meeting the requirements he has agreed to commit to, that is another matter all together. As such, i think he is just going through a down patch and is struggling a little more to come back to level pegging.

Either way, he is a champion of our club.

2 hours ago, Deelectable said:

Love Clarry and all that he has done for this club. 4 time b&f and major component in our flag. Up until this season arguably the most consistently brilliant Demon I have ever seen on a weekly basis.  Given the tumultuous off field problems and almost complete lack of pre season. It's a miracle he is even out there. I feared he might be gone.  Given the absence of Petracca and, to a lesser extent, Brayshaw he is the main man to be tagged. Champions work their way through it and he will. Meantime against North Viney was the beneficiary and one of the main reasons we won. Easy to understand media and others getting stuck into him. It's what they do. Beggars belief that any Demon supporter that has witnessed this champions career thus far can be so critical of one of our all time greats.' Form is temporary, class is permanent.' Never has a saying been more applicable than to the superb Clayton Oliver. Write him off at your peril. He is a Demon for life.

Well said Deelectable. You have summed up  the situation beautifully. Couldn't agree more.