36 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Just don’t mention a price.

In fact, don’t even give a concession that we will trade Pickett. 

‘We love Kossie, as a player and a person, our focus is always on maintaining the best environment for all players to stay as long as possible. The focus now is having Kossie play a great season of brilliant entertaining football just as he always has in the red and blue. Anything else will be dealt with respectfully and confidentially by our fantastic list management team’

I don't disagree with much of that.   But I think Green wasn't actually saying give us 3 picks and a deal will be done. Perhaps he was a bit clumsy, but I think he only meant that there will be a high price to pay. 

44 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Just don’t mention a price.

In fact, don’t even give a concession that we will trade Pickett. 

‘We love Kossie, as a player and a person, our focus is always on maintaining the best environment for all players to stay as long as possible. The focus now is having Kossie play a great season of brilliant entertaining football just as he always has in the red and blue. Anything else will be dealt with respectfully and confidentially by our fantastic list management team’

The more I think about it, I think you’re right. Maybe a bit foolish to put a price on things. 
Freo can now say to Kossie that they are willing to offer 3 first round picks and come trade time offer us their first picks in the next 3 drafts which will probably be late picks in super compromised drafts. I’d imagine they’d also like a second rounder back. 
Would be a terrible deal for us but meets the 3 first round picks we have now set. 

15 minutes ago, sue said:

I don't disagree with much of that.   But I think Green wasn't actually saying give us 3 picks and a deal will be done. Perhaps he was a bit clumsy, but I think he only meant that there will be a high price to pay. 

I agree with what he’s saying but unfortunately the footy media is full of morons and click chasers so the headline is 3 picks. Sadly you can’t really ever say anything interesting in footy. 

3 hours ago, DistrACTION Jackson said:

Can you share the highlights? Paywall and all that jazz...

If you haven't used this before try using the 12 ft io website to bypass the paywall proxy...12ft

Copy the news article link and paste it in. 

Works on this article (disclaimer.... doesn't work on all articles but always a good first try rather than waiting for others) 

Good luck. 

Was someone on here suggesting not long ago that McVee was looking to head west as well?

1 hour ago, Greg Schneider said:

Fair to say it could be another solid year at the draft for the Dees, picks for Pickett and Mcvee + Kalani and Sinemma 

McVee!! McVee! 😭

3 hours ago, KozzyCan said:

Don't love that statement. Not Green's job to weigh in on trades just as it wasn't Pert's job to float Oliver for trade last year. Stay in your lane.

Brad can play Hard Ball any day, he was a Melbourne Football Club Captain 

This Club has been kicked around for too long..

3 hours ago, KozzyCan said:

He hasn't put anything to bed. He's raised a starting bid. The statement show's we're considering the trade internally.

It's absolute fodder for the media.

Which will get a run the next few days and then that’s it 

saying ‘we won’t trade him’ will do nothing to reduce the noise, this removes any conjecture about whether they will or won’t & entirely changes the narrative around the story - we won’t keep getting asked questions about it as this statement is out

Couldn’t disagree more on your position 👍🏼

58 minutes ago, sue said:

I don't disagree with much of that.   But I think Green wasn't actually saying give us 3 picks and a deal will be done. Perhaps he was a bit clumsy, but I think he only meant that there will be a high price to pay. 

I think the other thing he was putting forward is that if he's homesick, there are 2 clubs in Perth. 

2 hours ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Very strong leadership from Green which is so much more than Pickett.  Typical media who create a title that leads to click bait.

 

For those that can't read the Age article, here are some extracts:

“People ask ‘has it been challenging?’ I said, ‘no, what was challenging was when I lost my wife six years ago’. And after that period, we had the funeral, and I reckon it was four or five days post that that I really struggled to get out of bed and get on with my life.

“But then I thought ‘Well, I’ve got an eight-year-old, I’ve got a six-year-old’. And you sit down and go, ‘in the end you’ve got to get out of bed for them’.

Green on Simon Goodwin

Green said Goodwin had been “weighed down” by media attention until the club reached a legal settlement in November last year.

“He’s a premiership coach. He is Melbourne’s only living [premiership] coach and probably from our members and supporters to the wider football world, we need to give respect and kudos to this guy,” Green said.

“We had to do something as a board to help lighten that load because we see a coach just getting buried and buried…

On Christian Petracca

Amid reports that Petracca was unhappy with aspects of the club culture, Green wanted to hear from the player himself.

“I caught up with him when it all was all hitting the fan and said ‘mate, what’s going on here?’ And not once through that was he talking about anything other than Melbourne Football Club and where we can improve,” Green said.

On Culture

“I think what we found is issues get put into the one big basket, and they become [conflated] into a big pile of [censored], really, and that creates different instances of what they say is culture. But what I believe, and what I know, is this is a very driven, strong, talented group that can can achieve anything they want to.

Are the Demons a destination club?

Green says Jake Lever and Stephen May are proof that Melbourne remains a place players want to come to.

“I would think we are always a potential destination club,”

Pickett’s future

Discussed in a post above

Oliver’s tears

He revealed the conversation that kept Oliver in red and blue.

“I rang Clarry around the time of the B[est] and F[airest night] and said, ‘This is the situation; you’re not going anywhere. Tonight I’m going up to give a speech and say to our members that our starting midfield for 2025 is going to be Petracca, Viney, Oliver and Gawn. OK?’ And he started getting all teary on me.

“He said to me, ‘Please, don’t do that because the B and F night, it’s not about me, it’s about the guys that are going to get awarded for their individual seasons’. I said ‘No, Clarry, it’s not about you, but our members and supporters want to know we are committed in this place and this environment. And I’m just ringing you to say, ‘I love you. We love you and we’re going to move forward with that’.’ And he got off the phone and just said, ‘Love you, Greeny ’.”

Friendship, love and strength

At a pre-season Kumbaya session in Bright, the players came up with a mantra for the year:

“There’s nothing wrong with tough, hard conversations between each other.”

A new game plan

“He [Goodwin] wasn’t happy with any phase of the game: the way we defend, the way we move the ball, the way we attacked and the contest. People think we’re a contest team, but I think we went from first to eighth or ninth last year,” Green said.

Proposed changes to the illicit drugs policy

“Let’s look at it, let’s review it. But is being hard and fast the answer? I think the model that we have does catch and help players. Is it a deterrent? People are always going to challenge those things. Can we be harder on it? Maybe. But can we help and save players? Yes, in this model. I reckon if you go too far the other way, I reckon you’ll get less vulnerability in emotion and people being able to help.”

Caulfield development

Green is adamant a new home uniting administration and football at Caulfield racecourse will happen, despite the Demons needing to raise a further $70 million in funding.

“We’ve never had our administration, our football department, in one area. Never, and it’s a disaster. We need all those parties to be in one room because until you do that, you’re not one club.

Handing over the reins

“I’ve got a young family of a 14-year-old, 12-year-old and a 14-month-old. And I run my own business on top of it, so it’s fair workload,” Green said.

“I want stability and succession planning for Steve to take over and, potentially, once my boys finish school after three or four years, I take the presidency back over from him.”

 

For me, the parallels with out 2020/2021 preseason are uncanny when:

• players met on the peninsular and AdV higlighted the lack of professionalism in how players spoke and dealt with each other.  Many then committed to each other and resolved to be 'the best teammate I can be'.
• Goodwin was stressed and under the pump by former admins and others until Roffey and Pert stood by him.
• Serious review of game plan.

And we know what happened in 2021.  🏆 

It is a real shame we lost our way in the intervening three years but I'm rapt we have the ship back on and even keel. 

Now it is time to 'walk the talk' and I am very optimistic of our year.  We let 2023 slip.  Don't think that will happen this year!

Excellent article. Greeny comes across as a bit of a softy, but he isn’t 

He has done a heap of work inside the Club since September 

1 hour ago, Colm said:

The more I think about it, I think you’re right. Maybe a bit foolish to put a price on things. 
Freo can now say to Kossie that they are willing to offer 3 first round picks and come trade time offer us their first picks in the next 3 drafts which will probably be late picks in super compromised drafts. I’d imagine they’d also like a second rounder back. 
Would be a terrible deal for us but meets the 3 first round picks we have now set. 

True, and last year's first round extended to pick 25 after academy picks.

Imagine having 3 pick 25's spread over 3 years while watching Kozzie star at Freo next year, and throwing a second rounder back their way.

 

Like Green haven’t read the article but why is he getting into hypotheticals about a contracted player has he been misquoted??

12 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

True, and last year's first round extended to pick 25 after academy picks.

Imagine having 3 pick 25's spread over 3 years while watching Kozzie star at Freo next year, and throwing a second rounder back their way.

 

Stop it you’re killing me ✋. Let’s fret when or if it happens. Freo and Weagles aren’t the Godfathers of AFL.

I absolutely want Kozzie to stay but I have come to terms internally that I don’t think he will be a one club player. Love that Greeny mentioned that there are 2 teams in Perth. If it comes to be then we must get maximum value and if that means a deal or player swap with West Coast then so be it. Not a massive fan of homesick players nominating a specific club. 

2 hours ago, Colm said:

The more I think about it, I think you’re right. Maybe a bit foolish to put a price on things. 
Freo can now say to Kossie that they are willing to offer 3 first round picks and come trade time offer us their first picks in the next 3 drafts which will probably be late picks in super compromised drafts. I’d imagine they’d also like a second rounder back. 
Would be a terrible deal for us but meets the 3 first round picks we have now set. 

And we can laugh at them and say no. Do you seriously think because Brad Green said what he said they can now offer us 3 ordinary first round picks and we have to say yes??

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

True, and last year's first round extended to pick 25 after academy picks.

Imagine having 3 pick 25's spread over 3 years while watching Kozzie star at Freo next year, and throwing a second rounder back their way.

 

Why would anyone accept that deal? That is not the situation Brad was referring to at all…

I’m rapt with the way Green is making this call. He means business which is what we have been lacking. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

It was also good to see Brad express interest for a future return to the presidency. Augurs well for club stability.

6 hours ago, KozzyCan said:

Don't love that statement. Not Green's job to weigh in on trades just as it wasn't Pert's job to float Oliver for trade last year. Stay in your lane.

Chin up Belly

6 hours ago, KozzyCan said:

Don't love that statement. Not Green's job to weigh in on trades just as it wasn't Pert's job to float Oliver for trade last year. Stay in your lane.

Big difference.

Green weighed in on Oliver and said round 1 Melbourne will have Petracca, Oliver, Viney and Gawn in the centre bounce. 

Pert was shopping one of our greatest players ever.

Pert gone, Oliver where he belongs a great result for the club.

Now Green says Kozzie worth 3 first round draft picks and effectively puts him off the table while at the same time putting pressure on Fremantle to come up with the picks and prevent our season being de-railed by speculation.

Green is not meddling with the trading just protecting our talent.

11 minutes ago, Wrecker46 said:

Big difference.

Green weighed in on Oliver and said round 1 Melbourne will have Petracca, Oliver, Viney and Gawn in the centre bounce. 

Pert was shopping one of our greatest players ever.

Pert gone, Oliver where he belongs a great result for the club.

Now Green says Kozzie worth 3 first round draft picks and effectively puts him off the table while at the same time putting pressure on Fremantle to come up with the picks and prevent our season being de-railed by speculation.

Green is not meddling with the trading just protecting our talent.

Personally think as a general rule it's improper for a president, CEO, or anyone on the board to talk about a players trade value with any level of specificity.

In general, I think they should be keeping an arms length from footy dept matters, especially publicly. Green could have easily said something of the same effect without bringing up picks and creating a headline. Don't think it helps us going into the season.

Kozzy is going to be a talking point throughout the year so we should be doing anything we can do to limit that distraction, not adding fuel to the fire.

1 hour ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Why would anyone accept that deal? That is not the situation Brad was referring to at all…

Yeah it’s a [censored] deal but it’s technically three first round picks as Brad enunciated and you can trade two years in advance.

6 minutes ago, KozzyCan said:

Personally think as a general rule it's improper for a president, CEO, or anyone on the board to talk about a players trade value with any level of specificity.

In general, I think they should be keeping an arms length from footy dept matters, especially publicly. Green could have easily said something of the same effect without bringing up picks and creating a headline. Don't think it helps us going into the season.

Kozzy is going to be a talking point throughout the year so we should be doing anything we can do to limit that distraction, not adding fuel to the fire.

I agree with that to an extent.

Eddie got involved in the Grundy contract at Collingwood and it was a disater for them.

What Green has done is steady the ship with Oliver and Petracca. Laid bare a price for Kozzie that is unlikely to be achievable and put heat on Freo while taking it off us.

Green has done alot right as President. I think he has got this one right as well.

36 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Yeah it’s a [censored] deal but it’s technically three first round picks as Brad enunciated and you can trade two years in advance.

But you would be an [censored] to accept it

We would never enter a deal over 3 years…

1 hour ago, KozzyCan said:

Personally think as a general rule it's improper for a president, CEO, or anyone on the board to talk about a players trade value with any level of specificity.

In general, I think they should be keeping an arms length from footy dept matters, especially publicly. Green could have easily said something of the same effect without bringing up picks and creating a headline. Don't think it helps us going into the season.

Kozzy is going to be a talking point throughout the year so we should be doing anything we can do to limit that distraction, not adding fuel to the fire.

There’s been heaps of support on different radio shows with Melbourne’s stand. The general consensus is the players “have too much power “.