We need Viney in there as our best defensive mid. Is it just me or is this a signal that Trac stays and Clarry goes?

23 minutes ago, Stiff Arm said:

This is a warning to the club against doing any monster-long contracts with players

Can you imagine how we would melt down if, after two more years on the bottom, Kossie decides he wants to leave? That is not unforseeable

The long term deal helps us in that scenario!

Imagine if Tracc wanted to leave out of contract now and we got peanuts or free agency compo.

Long term deals are a risk not for players leaving but for players regressing with injuries or off field issues. We have to make sure our guys are healthy in mind, body and spirit for long term deals and that's where we've gone wrong.

I hope the AFL do move to limit deals to say 5 years but I'd still happily sign our best guys up that long.

15 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

They may well be

But who would leak negative stories about themselves?

Or what motive would they have to blow up the joint every few weeks?

And we need to start getting ahead of the media. Instead of it being first reported in the press, it should have been on our website. The story landed on the website 40 minutes ago. The leaks occurred straight after the meeting. It needed to go up as soon as Clarry left the room.

As far as leaks go. There’s not a club in the comp that can keep this stuff quiet. He only has to tell his mate, manager, mum or dad and away you go. There’s plenty to beat the club with today but I’m not sure there’s any way you can contain this information.

7 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Tracc apparently up on the GC today, on another beautiful GC day.

The weather alone would be tempting him.

If Tracc is happy to go to GC we might have Crows and Cats looking at Clarry.

Also a Flanders deal and pick 6 could be on the table.

We will see if anything eventuates.

Standby for a couple of surprises if May, Tracc, Clarry and Judd are traded.

We will have some list spots that we don’t want to fill by the draft.

We also have no players interested in coming to play at our club or willing to train at Casey. Complete dumpster fire

11 minutes ago, Outside 50 said:

You are assuming the club is leaking this info. It could well be the player or more likely his manager. If something is on sale you need to advertise!

No, I'm not. I'm assuming that the club isn't capable of pressing a button on the computer to publish a story on the website as soon as Clarry leaves the room with King and list management.

Going by our club's history of social media wizardry, they've got NFI.

3 minutes ago, Bay Riffin said:

Develop beyond the midfield ? Clayton cannot play anywhere but midfield. He was terrible in the backline, and as a forward is a shocking kick.

Maybe they're thinking Melksham's role as a defensive forward?

Does anyone remember this album?

MFC is always at its entertaining best during Trade Time

Compare with Carlton and Essendon who have Curnow and Merrett looking around respectively

At least we've been spared the Judd McVee saga hitting the mainstream media

10 minutes ago, BLWNBA said:

So was I, TBH.

The statement is rational and fair.

The only problem is the media beat us two it by 2 or so hours...

If that'd been published immediately, I'd be going, well done, Melbourne. But alas...

Just now, Adam The God said:

And we need to start getting ahead of the media. Instead of it being first reported in the press, it should have been on our website. The story landed on the website 40 minutes ago. The leaks occurred straight after the meeting. It needed to go up as soon as Clarry left the room.

King was on radio very early this morning.

Could have told the media I am meeting with a few players today including Clarry and we will discuss their roles moving forward.

Whatever you think of Clarry, or any other player for that matter, the way you handle their exists matter.

This makes us look unprofessional, and in a small industry run by a small cohort of player manager, that is not a good thing.

Optics. Optics. Optics

I really hoped Guerra would come in and stop this type of rubbish where the reporters are running the club.

17 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

He did that AFTER all the leaks came out.

Clearly Cleary and him then had a chat.

You think Clarry or his manager is saying to the media the club thinks he's a VFL level footballer?

Packaging Report Jaded!

The clock is ticking

It’s always good to bottom out and go to the draft with a new coach when it’s highly compromised and/or weak. That’s always worked well for us.

9 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

What is their strategy as unless if ur replacing them with ready made talent we are finishing at the bottom!

Rivers and Langford are options but they will of course take time so yes we'll probably be finishing towards the bottom of the ladder for a while

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by lorn

11 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

Wow so our once midfield that went bang bang bang gone! Who’s going to replace Trac & Oliver??? What is their strategy as unless if ur replacing them with ready made talent we are finishing at the bottom!

that was over 4 years ago now unfortunately

43 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Probably one of the worst videos I've ever seen

You'd think a journalist would know that we use the term pleaded in Australia, not pled.

5 minutes ago, At Least I Saw a Flag said:

Does anyone remember this album?

Crisis, what crisis?

3 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

King was on radio very early this morning.

Could have told the media I am meeting with a few players today including Clarry and we will discuss their roles moving forward.

Whatever you think of Clarry, or any other player for that matter, the way you handle their exists matter.

This makes us look unprofessional, and in a small industry run by a small cohort of player manager, that is not a good thing.

Optics. Optics. Optics

I really hoped Guerra would come in and stop this type of rubbish where the reporters are running the club.

I agree. Completely. But Collingwood didn't cover themselves in glory when they did similar to Grundy and Treloar. That is the most striking similarity. Let's hope King can coach as well as McRae. And if he can, we'll be able to attract players.

We are hopeless at getting the best out of our playing group. How will this help Oliver or Tracc be better if they stay. The others will be watching the way we treat their mates. Disrespect and easy to throw them when they don't fit the MFC brand. No loyalty, and no ability to create it within our club.

They can both be guns, and we don't want them!

Ruthless off field organisation.

On 30/09/2025 at 09:32, Jaded No More said:

Look I'm not here to argue that our club hasn't had multiple challenges or poorly handled issues since 2021, and I am certainly not here to take away from Trac's trauma or the severity of his injury.

But lets be for real, we are one of a small handful of clubs to have won a flag this past decade. Not only that, we are one of only two 'small' clubs to have won one, without the benefits of academy picks, bottomless salary caps, home ground advantages, the love and support of the AFL with fixturing or the MRO etc etc.

There are star players at other clubs who would give up their spleen to win one. Merrett, Cripps, the list goes on. Trac has not only achieved team success, he also achieved individual success with the support of the club.

He is also not the first player to deal with serious injuries, or worse terrible off field issues relating to mental health, the loss of a child, a terminally ill parent or partner, cancer, the list goes on.

At the end of the day, if you are a real leader, you stick it out through bad times and good. If you have no extenuating family circumstances, and you are still choosing to jump ship when the going gets tough, then it says as much about you as the club you are departing. See also Merrett, except Merrett hasn't won a flag.

The reason why we all raised an eyebrow when Trac made the comment about this being 'his job', is because we all understand that being an AFL player, let alone a star player, is not a regular job that the average joe has.

Not only has Trac achieved the ultimate success, he was also able to set up his brand, and his and his wife's future beyond footy while wearing red and blue. I don't think we have done so badly by him, and in fact many of the changes that have taken place in the last 12 months were things he expressed he wanted to see happen.

So let's not pretend like Trac wanting out for the second year in a row, is all about the club, and not in fact, mostly about him.

This is a very balanced and succinct summary.

Through thick and thin. Real character is made by seeing out the bad times and sticking fat.

We only need to go back to chunk for one amazing example of what this looks like in reality and a career sense.

While i'm not suggesting every player in this league needs to stay loyal to his club and be a one club player regardless of circumstances, i also feel the general narrative from the AFL loyal media on this is pretty biased towards almost always painting this as an MFC culture problem.

No doubt that's been a contributing factor and to what extent most of us looking from the outside in will most likely never truly know. But is any club devoid of its pitfalls and faults? Highly unlikely.

But with the exception of poor culture being demonstrated over many decades from a few such as the Bombers and the Saints, and unsuccessful ones at that, we don't see to many other 'required' players that have generally been looked after, wanting to exit such as we see with Tracc.

I personally feel this says more about Tracc than it does about the MFC but that's just my opinion looking on as an observer.

Regardless he helped us to win our first silverware in 57 years. Something i will be forever grateful for regardless of his reasoning for looking at an exit door.

I hope he finds his new calling and wish him all the success in the world.

I also hope we don't cave on any sub-par deal and hold our nerve if that's all that's being offered. And if necessary / required, hold Tracc to his contract.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Demon Dynasty

not liking the look of this, potentially May, Trac, Clarry and Mcvee all out in the same trade period, no players really tied to us (only kind of Mihocek now...), and a very compromised draft... what are we doing??

9 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

Will always be a champion of this club. Publicly humiliating him reflects poorly on the club. It feels like we've sunk back to the days when we turfed Junior McDonald and other loyal senior players and destroyed the culture of the club for a a decade.

I couldn't be more disappointed with our club today. I'm excited that we'll have a completely new look on field next year, but really poor how the clubs been managed the last few years. Completely burnt our only successful period in decades. I'm expecting a bottom four finish next year and years of pain ahead when Tassie enter the league.

Unfortunately we had no idea how to handle success. When Alex Ferguson took over united they were a basket case. He cleaned house (took a few years) and turned them into a powerhouse. He used to say he always made sure no player thought they they were bigger than the club. As soon as they got ideas above their station they were out.

He also made a point of adding new players every year. Kept everyone on their toes.

They are a number of reasons why we have stagnated but a big factor is tolerating clarrys poor behaviour. Wouldn’t happen at a strong club. And players wouldn’t be allowed to run the joint. Recipe for disaster.

Goody is a legend of the club but this took hold and was allowed to fester under his watch.

Anyways, we’re back to where we’ve always been. Hopefully king knows what he is doing. On the bright side we have an excellent talent picker in JT. If he has some good picks he’ll turn them into quality prospects for us.