8 hours ago, No. 31 said:

Warner to Freo

Curnow to Swans

LJ to Carlton

Does tick a lot of boxes ...

🤔

Ouch. That’s a win for all three. Hope that’s not on the radar … didn’t Warner recommit to Swans on long term contract

13 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Ouch. That’s a win for all three. Hope that’s not on the radar … didn’t Warner recommit to Swans on long term contract

Only 2 years. But not likely to re-sign and then ask for a trade the same year

The problems he's having away from the filed don't appear to be impacting his on field performances too much

when is his exit interview?

20 minutes ago, BDA said:

The problems he's having away from the filed don't appear to be impacting his on field performances too much

when is his exit interview?

Probably this week now.

57 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Ouch. That’s a win for all three. Hope that’s not on the radar … didn’t Warner recommit to Swans on long term contract

Warner signed a 2 year extension earlier this year (so contracted to the end of 2027).

2 hours ago, BDA said:

when is his exit interview?

They’re just trying to find a time that suits his, his mum’s and the club’s diaries.

2 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

This is not a coincidence on the AFL’s part. The profitability and engagement of European football doesn’t waver, even though they have massive inequality. In fact successful clubs being constantly successful is more profitable.

The AFL took note. Big clubs playing in big games makes the game look huge. They no longer have any interest in seeing small clubs succeed. It’s not as profitable, and doesn’t drive engagement with the sport.

What's the governance structure of the AFL compared to European football though? I would have thought that the less well off AFL clubs would have enough voting power to curb the worst excesses of the pure wealth generation aspects (I think Ross's criticism of the FS and academies is evidence of this balancing force). That some of the previous power clubs of Essendon, Carlton and even West Coast and Adelaide have undergone some fairly long periods without sucess suggests to me the AFL isn't totally rigged in favour of the wealthy elite of the competition.

Still I also totally get where you are comming from with the way the AFL executive operates, splurging millons on a single performance of American rappers etc, while making the game increasingly inaccessible for the average punter. And that Geelong have been able to stay up for so long through being able to repeatedly skim FA away from everyone else without loosing any themselves suggests to me there is something quite rotten going on.

Edited September 7Sep 7 by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

On 06/09/2025 at 15:16, GS_1905 said:

Why would you bother supporting a mid-tier club when your chances of winning are next to zero.

At least a quarter of a million people in Australia have supported Melbourne for 60 years, regardless of the above situation.

3 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Seemed incredibly unlikely to happen anyway but still sad to get confirmation

May you make your way back to the MFC some day soon Dogga

So atm we are back to a couple of reserves players.

That is very familiar territory for us.

We can leave the big names for Cats, Pies, Lions and Hawks.

Edited Wednesday at 03:243 days by Redleg

Always came down to his missus and if she wanted to come home

Luke Jackson is adamant he is staying at Fremantle but is keen to train across summer in the position where he will be played in 2026.

He had his exit interview on Wednesday and has no intention of looking around at another club, comfortable staying at the Dockers.

Jackson was continually linked to a return to Melbourne this season with his partner Kelsey Browne from Geelong.

Jackson had spent most of last off-season in Victoria, with the Demons keen to drag him home.

But he has no intention of pursuing a trade and his contract through to 2029 has incentives and games-based triggers to make it extremely lucrative while extending it past that date.

Jackson trained as a forward all of last summer but the emergence of Patrick Voss as a forward and Sean Darcy’s early injury concerns meant he played mostly ruck early.

The club then took a horses for courses approach to the ruck setup depending upon the opponent.

But if Jackson is to play as a ruckman and onballer he will be keen to train in that position across summer and continue his rate of improvement.

The club has lost the retiring Nat Fyfe and veteran Michael Walters but kept inside mid Neil Erasmus for the next three years.

It is understood at one stage he was leaning towards moving to the Dogs to get more inside midfielder opportunities and had made up his mind to explore a new home.

But he woke up on the Sunday morning of the pre-finals bye after a solid month-long stretch of football and made it clear he was staying.

A deal was quickly brokered by the Dockers.

8 hours ago, Redleg said:

So atm we are back to a couple of reserves players.

That is very familiar territory for us.

We can leave the big names for Cats, Pies, Lions and Hawks.

He is staying at the Dockers??

I’m all for whining and hand wringing but can we be pedantic about it?

But will he get more ruck time? That's the big question.

That town aint big enough for Darcy and Jackson.

3 hours ago, layzie said:

But will he get more ruck time? That's the big question.

That town aint big enough for Darcy and Jackson.

Apparently seems happy enough working on the midfielder role