That is top shelf self deprecation from Clayton

1 minute ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

Straight from the horse's mouth!

Saw that. Pretty intense situation now if I am reading that strange post right.

He is contracted after all, so he could just say nah and live the rest of his footy days at Casey??

16 minutes ago, demoniac said:

Clarry's challenge is reach the brutal running levels required of an AFL mid. Possible Dees don't think he can check that box at the level required.

He can’t play midfield anymore as he simply lets opposition walk the ball out the front of the square. Tough call, but having seen our midfield obliterated by GC and North this year, change is needed.

2 minutes ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

Straight from the horse's mouth!

Brilliant. Wonder if he’s being a smart [censored] or embracing.

Either way, good on him.

If there was a premiership for trade week, we have just about sewn up a 3-peat.

5 minutes ago, GS_1905 said:

This is unexpected but I hope pre-planned. If the plan is to get Clarry out of the middle, then one has to assume next year is a staring midfield of Langford, Windsor, Lindsay, Viney, Rivers. It’s very very young but the balance is better than what we have had.

Gawn Viney Kozzi Langford is a good mix

+Rivers Windsor Lindsay

Not a bad set of mids

2 minutes ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

Straight from the horse's mouth!

well.. here we go

Will there be any takers at a $700k subsidy

Perhaps the Eagles

Just now, DubDee said:

Gawn Viney Kozzi Langford is a good mix

+Rivers Windsor Lindsay

Not a bad set of mids

Wait until they are told to explore their options as well...

1 minute ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

Straight from the horse's mouth!

So no panic merchant is going to say the fact that he posted that indicates he plans to stay with MFC no matter what.

1 hour ago, JJJ said:

Whomever is still leaking this information needs to be found and silenced.

Again, we are walking into trade week with rumours and innuendo swirling about our club. Some are true and others are not but the optics of it are not helpful in us recruiting players as potential swaps for Trac etc.

We don’t help ourselves in this space and allow the media free rein to stick as many pins in us as they want.

FWIW, my understanding is that the meeting between King and Oliver is a scheduled meeting like other players. The outcome is not predetermined.

The snitch is still lurking within the MFC.

3 minutes ago, DeelightfulPlay said:

Straight from the horse's mouth!

Say what you will. But i rate that. well done Clarry

Just now, Diamond_Jim said:

well.. here we go

Will there be any takers at a $700k subsidy

Perhaps the Eagles

I read it as Clarry putting to bed (by poking fun) the idea floated in the media that he was told to play VFL and was unhappy with that and so a trad was on the cards...

1 minute ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

Brilliant. Wonder if he’s being a smart [censored] or embracing.

Either way, good on him.

The fact that he is tagging Mitch Cleary.... is a bit worrisome.

They must be confident about getting Flanders 🤷‍♂️

12 minutes ago, Red But Mostly Blue said:

Let's just say we lose both Trac and Oliver, which now looks to be the most likely outcome.

Fine - I imagine the decision (at least insofar as it applies to Oliver, as Trac has told us he wants to go...) is for our own good.

But, wow, I mean if we just pause for a second. We lose our two pillars of generational talent. Still in good years. Plus May and McVee (not our doing, fine). In one year.

That's really... umm, bad. We don't have to cattle to replace those 2 guys. One, we'll make do. Both?? We don't have anyone special screaming out to come to us. St Kilda are getting everyone with their bottomless money pit. It's not as if we lose those guys and we're linked with a KPF, key back and a mid, for example. Just Flanders (maybe) and Mihochek (he's ok but what's the point if in full rebuild?).

And that's fine, again, you say we have some good kids, and we play them. Yeah, we do, but NOT THAT MANY. And (worse, yet) then you have the cyclical effect of these kids, say Langford for example, who will want to win games, rather than just be stuck rebuilding in a rabble of a club notorious for endless rebuilds and doldrums. How do you think they will feel about it?? Max does not have many years left. Ditto Viney at top level (despite his contract, sigh). They won't want to lose every week. I can see one of the current (and seemingly evergreen) crop of contenders grabbing them from us.

If we lose Langford and/or X in 2 years. How do we all feel about the 'burn it down' sentiment? Still raw and exciting?

Dunno about you, but I don't want to revisit the doldrum days getting pantsed by everyone every week.

It took FOREVER to turn it around in 2021, and just 4 SHORT years later, it's fire sales and 'play the kids'??

WTH???!!!

Nobody does implosion like the Dees, I will give us that.

Sigh.

Playing group and former coach have a lot of blame for the current situation.

The club wanted to keep this premiership core together but they have underperformed.

Just now, Stiff Arm said:

They must be confident about getting Flanders 🤷‍♂️

I don't think we are. All reports are the saints.
I think they just want a fresh start, but it means we will be well behind the 8 ball in terms of talent on the field.

I wanted a full rebuild after this year and it looks like we're getting one.

I wanted us to become a ruthless organization and it looks like we're becoming one.

I wanted the new coach to come in and fundamentally put his mark on what we're looking like moving forward and it looks like that's happening.

Nice!!

25 minutes ago, Random Task said:

Laurie to start in the centre

I have our over/unders win line at 3.5 next year if Laurie is our premier midfielder next year.

I’d be relaxed too if I was Clarry.

Gets paid 1.4m a year for 5 years regardless of where he plays. even at Casey

That's genuinely funny from clarry

King has clearly been watching Casey all year, and he knows we have Lachie Neale 2.0 just waiting in the wings

4 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Gawn Viney Kozzi Langford is a good mix

+Rivers Windsor Lindsay

Not a bad set of mids

We can scrape together our midfield but any injuries and our wings, half backs and especially half forwards will be diabolical.

Just now, Smokey said:

I wanted a full rebuild after this year and it looks like we're getting one.

I wanted us to become a ruthless organization and it looks like we're becoming one.

I wanted the new coach to come in and fundamentally put his mark on what we're looking like moving forward and it looks like that's happening.

Nice!!

Not much has happened aside from Trac telling us he wants to leave. I would guess King would have wanted to keep him.

Us telling Clarry to explore options

And McVee bailing on us

On 05/09/2025 at 07:35, Whispering_Jack said:

I don’t know if this has been mentioned previously but this from the Herald Sun, is particularly damning about our midfield and is something that the new coach will have to address immediately.

What makes it worse is this comment re one of our young guns who is being groomed for a future place in the middle:

“Caleb Windsor got some midfield time but the top 10 draft pick was also officially categorised as a poor kick by Champion Data”.

When recruited, Windsor was regarded as a good disposer of the football.

Seemingly moving on from this

6 minutes ago, sue said:

So no panic merchant is going to say the fact that he posted that indicates he plans to stay with MFC no matter what.

No, because Cleary re-posted and said “thanks for the chat this morning, see all on 7News tonight” - this indicates that the story is true and Oliver is off.