Between the big name players fumbling under pressure and the administration fumbling under pressure we've produced one of the great downfalls from the high of 2021.

If the club thinks we need to make playing personnel changes in order to become a better football club then in theory I guess we should trust them. Trouble is their approach to player management over the past 12+ months has been nothing short of bizarre. Everything they apprently do seems to work to drop the value of our players and weaken any negotiating power.

If we end up paying one our greatest ever players to play his peak years at another club, while receiving bugger all back, then the club is going to see a backlash rarely seen before. And coming off a foundation that really isn't built to weather that kind of storm I think this is going to end really badly.

My gut feel now is that we need to move on the clowns who are driving our current method of managing the players and try to get all our stars back in the fold and on the same page.

1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

Who knows. This club is leakier than the Titanic on the way down. 

 

56 minutes ago, Deez21 said:

And if the board is shopping around players the FD wants to keep then what?

December seems like a good time for a board take over.

New president, new board, asap. Should have happened during the season, prior to list management decisions.

1 minute ago, biggestred said:

No one knows what it means but it's provocative. 

 

It gets the people going!

Plus you can earn up to 5% more BTC on eligible trades. You heard it here second.

1 hour ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I’m confused. Who’s actually selling the farm here? Us or Geelong? 

Rhys Stanley's farm?

So much of this story is confusing. 

Do we want to trade him, or not?

Does he want out, or not?

The fact that it’s so unclear is in itself an issue. We have repeatedly demonstrated a complete inability to control any narrative about our club. 

3 minutes ago, The Lobster Effect said:

Rhys Stanley's farm?

There's no doubt Clarry would love to give up the silver service from Max for the might of Rhys Stanley. 

Clarry at Geelong, with their culture and ability to support players, will win a Brownlow. 

They are a club that doesn't drop their load every time a player gets a little too ummm 'happy' at a nightclub in the middle of the week. They know how to keep their standards, without demanding perfection from players. They support each other from top to bottom. Chris Scott, an annoying [censored] that he is, would take a bullet in the media for his players. 

This is a club that knows how to SHUT UP and get on with it.

 

19 hours ago, Jeremy said:

You seem like the biggest [censored] on this site hands down 

Having fun on holidays are you?

2 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Kangaroos. Then next day, announced his extension. 

He did "meet" with the Kangaroos, but didnt he meet with Geelong before the premiership? (I realise this is a bit more than"not so long ago")

2 hours ago, Smokey said:

My advice to anyone who needs it - disconnect from footy media for a bit, focus on playing golf

If you think the clubs a mess wait until you see my golf game.

38 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

What does this even mean?

Maybe it was Tracc or Clarry, there could have been an ultimatum.

We would have to be properly dumb in the head to send him to Geelong of all places. 

4 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

If you think the clubs a mess wait until you see my golf game.

Even if you scored 20 per hole it would be in better shape than the MFC.

The club is the only one I've ever seen that can turn triumph in to disaster, we self sabotage every time.

30 minutes ago, Mickey said:

My issue with the Clarry situation:

Geelong aren't courting him if they think he's cooked. They clearly believe, with the right support around him, he can return to at least 90-95% of the player he was, which is still one of the best in the comp.

Which means either a) we don't or b) we won't or can't put that same support around him. If it's a, fair enough. But it sounds more like b. And I have no interest in watching him get back to his best anywhere but Melbourne, simply because we won't put any more time or effort into it.

We don't go close to winning the flag without a fit and firing midfield, and a fit Clarry is still a key part of that. No draftee, short of a Daicos or Reid type (of which Ashcroft is the only one this year), will help fill that void. If we trade Clarry, we might as well admit we've given up on the next 2-3 years, which means on May, Gawn, Viney and probably Trac's time, and get started on a full rebuild.

It's time for the club to shut up, get its [censored] together (including at board and executive level) and knuckle down for a huge preseason.

This is exactly how I feel about the situation. If Geelong think he is worth pursuing, Why don’t we want to keep him ? Particularly when we will get severe unders and still probably have to pay some of his wage. You need an elite midfield to win a flag , without Oliver we don’t have that.

We don’t seem to be attracting anyone else of note to fill the void this post season. So where are we at then ? Are we saying we are rebuilding ? 
 

We all know that can take a lot of time and that’s if we get it right with recruiting the right kids. It’s a real concern if we can’t land anyone of note in this trade period, Its really hard to see how we are in a better list position next year compared to this year at the moment unfortunately. 
 

 

3 minutes ago, praha said:

We would have to be properly dumb in the head to send him to Geelong of all places. 

Can't help but feel like we'd be handing them their next premiership. 

16 minutes ago, layzie said:

There's no doubt Clarry would love to give up the silver service from Max for the might of Rhys Stanley. 

Clarry should’ve asked Rhys why he only took 1 mark and had 3 kicks in the second half of the Prelim after Big O’s arm fell off and if the Cats are gonna try playing a ruckman next year.. 

Long way to go before any trades happen, bit early for the panic merchants to have everyone sacked already, there won’t be anyone left to sign the paperwork in trade week

1 hour ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Yeah but it appears that the cats are also looking to sell him a farm. 😝

The meeting zi believe was held on a farm. Rhys Stanley’s farm.

That doesn’t mean they ( Cats) are going to get him a farm !!!

Really  no wonder stories get told and are unbelievable!!! 

1 hour ago, Demon17 said:

 

The Age has just dropped that Clarry met Rhys Stanley and Tom Stewart at Stanley's farm yesrterday arvo after meeting Hocking etc.

 

Maybe they were showing him his future farms and how to use a tractor.

If Clarry goes, there is a reason and it would be fair to assume, most if not all on DL probably are unaware of it, so let’s hope if he goes we get fair compensation and take a breath.

I am not happy either as he is my favourite Dees player but it will be what it will be.

I just don’t see a trade to Geelong happening.

A. Geelong don’t have the currency, their first round pick is too low and with Smith and Clarry a future first is likely to be the same or worse.

B. What currency they do have is going into Smith first. 

C. We are low on quality mids and Clayton’s value is at an all time low. 
 

D. He has a huge, multi million dollar contract and if we want him to stay he stays.
 

E. If there’s any credence to the idea we’re pushing him out it’s idiotic. It would be a colossally stupid decision and the fact the club made a statement within a day of it coming out saying he’s staying tells me they know this. 
 

I’m taking a break from footy media until the end of trade week. They’ll probably throw up five more of my favourite MFC players who are disgruntled and leaving in the next two weeks as they clearly hate Pert, Goody and the club and are sticking the boots in. They’ve been waiting three years for our on field performance to drop so they could. The media is so Geelong friendly there is no doubt some of this is Geelong sensing weakness and trying to make it happen through their media mates. 

The sad thing is this has been the most successful period of my lifetime and yet the footy media coverage has been so negative since 2022 it’s been so difficult to fully enjoy it. What the AFL media is doing to us MFC fans through this period can never be forgiven. All clubs have issues, maybe we’re a basket case, only time will tell but these media [censored] have done everything in their power to make the last three years totally unenjoyable for us and it’s a disgrace. The treatment of Essendon through the drug scandal was more friendly in the media than this!! I have no doubt the back end of this year crowd numbers and this years memberships were badly tarnished by the constant negative critique of our club. Shameful, clearly some people just hate having a successful MFC or MFC supporters enjoying football. 

21 minutes ago, DemonJack 14 said:

This is exactly how I feel about the situation. If Geelong think he is worth pursuing, Why don’t we want to keep him ? Particularly when we will get severe unders and still probably have to pay some of his wage. You need an elite midfield to win a flag , without Oliver we don’t have that.

We don’t seem to be attracting anyone else of note to fill the void this post season. So where are we at then ? Are we saying we are rebuilding ? 
 

We all know that can take a lot of time and that’s if we get it right with recruiting the right kids. It’s a real concern if we can’t land anyone of note in this trade period, Its really hard to see how we are in a better list position next year compared to this year at the moment unfortunately. 
 

 

Absolutely agree with you. But how does clarry walk back from yesterday's cats meeting.

Just waiting for the spin that"... I was never really going to leave etc etc..."

Geelong must think they can get Smith and Oliver for one first rounder each

2 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

Absolutely agree with you. But how does clarry walk back from yesterday's cats meeting.

Just waiting for the spin that"... I was never really going to leave etc etc..."

I think you answered your own question. He explores the idea then decides to stay at the dees like many players have done before. That's how I imagine that would go as it has often been in recent times.

2 minutes ago, greenwaves said:

Geelong must think they can get Smith and Oliver for one first rounder each

Not at all. It will have to be a multi-club deal in both situations I would imagine that will involve other clubs' first round picks and swaps of all kinds. Let the circus begin.

1 hour ago, Mickey said:

My issue with the Clarry situation:

Geelong aren't courting him if they think he's cooked. They clearly believe, with the right support around him, he can return to at least 90-95% of the player he was, which is still one of the best in the comp.

Which means either a) we don't or b) we won't or can't put that same support around him. If it's a, fair enough. But it sounds more like b. And I have no interest in watching him get back to his best anywhere but Melbourne, simply because we won't put any more time or effort into it.

We don't go close to winning the flag without a fit and firing midfield, and a fit Clarry is still a key part of that. No draftee, short of a Daicos or Reid type (of which Ashcroft is the only one this year), will help fill that void. If we trade Clarry, we might as well admit we've given up on the next 2-3 years, which means on May, Gawn, Viney and probably Trac's time, and get started on a full rebuild.

It's time for the club to shut up, get its [censored] together (including at board and executive level) and knuckle down for a huge preseason.

Its fairly obvious that the Melbourne Football Club has devoted substantial resources in assisting Oliver with his non football issues in 2023 and likely before. Sometimes patience runs out and a clean start with a clean slate may be best option. Will the clean start work? Time will tell.

1 hour ago, The Lobster Effect said:

Rhys Stanley's farm?

It was just an observation that whilst we're supposedly looking to sell a metaphorical farm the Cats might be trying to entice Clarry with an actual farm. The fact that I have to explain it shows that it wasn't a very good joke.

Edited October 2, 2024Oct 2 by Rab D Nesbitt

During the 57 years we were non-flag winners, I always thought that what we lacked were about 4 absolute star players.

Finally, by 2021, we had them!

Let's get rid of the lot! That seems like a pretty good idea!