3 hours ago, Random Task said:

Not a dees rumour but found it amusing that the dons have allegedly made a "massive" offer for Weddle who comes out of contract next year. Supposedly around $10mil over 7 years.

Retaliation for the Hawks attempt to lure Merrett perhaps?

Weddle will suit Essendon as they won’t be playing finals. Weddle in his 5 finals has been underwhelming for the most part. Plays his best during the regular season.

Edited October 22Oct 22 by John Crow Batty

4 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

Weddle will suit Essendon as they won’t be playing finals. Weddle in his 5 finals has been underwhelming for the most part. Plays his best during the regular season.

this!

6 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

Weddle will suit Essendon as they won’t be playing finals. Weddle in his 5 finals has been underwhelming for the most part. Plays his best during the regular season.

I only saw the Adelaide game but I thought he was one of their best? To be fair I did keep noticing him as 6’4’ winger that looked way quicker than he should so maybe he didn’t play that well, haha

19 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

Weddle will suit Essendon as they won’t be playing finals. Weddle in his 5 finals has been underwhelming for the most part. Plays his best during the regular season.

He's 21.

Weddle went to town on us in the first Dees V Hawks game this year.

Will be an absolute gun of the near future.

8 hours ago, DeeZone said:

Heath and that’s it.

I included him (max)

3 hours ago, BoBo said:

I only saw the Adelaide game but I thought he was one of their best? To be fair I did keep noticing him as 6’4’ winger that looked way quicker than he should so maybe he didn’t play that well, haha

I thought he was great in 24 but had a shocker finals campaign. Somewhat better this finals campaign but he’s a better defender than winger. He doesn’t get the ball enough though like NikNat he looks awesome in highlight reels.

Edited October 22Oct 22 by John Crow Batty

15 hours ago, Davos said:

He's 21.

So same age as Essendon's last finals win!

Edited October 22Oct 22 by Little Goffy

22 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

So same age as Essendon's last finals win!

Well that’s fun!

And I am still bitter about that. Top of the ladder rd18 and out in first week… sigh.

Feels like there is next to no chance we don't throw the kitchen sink at Zak Butters is there?

surely we put up mega dollars and try and lure one of Butters, Bailey, Humphrey or Reid in the next 12-24 months?

5 minutes ago, rpfc said:

Well that’s fun!

And I am still bitter about that. Top of the ladder rd18 and out in first week… sigh.

Meh, it's such ancient history I'd forgotten all about it. Was probably also in a period that my interest in footy had been sidelined by other life priorities, like moving interstate, buying a house and getting married.

That all said, I still regard 1998 as the premiership that got away from us. We finished 4th and smashed Adelaide (5th) and St Kilda only to loose to North in the prelim who then lost to Adelaide in the grand final. It was under the previous top 8 finals series system which allowed Adelaide to stay in as the 2nd lowest looser or something - in today's superior top 8 finals series they would have been out in the first week.

Edited October 22Oct 22 by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

59 minutes ago, Ted Lasso said:

Feels like there is next to no chance we don't throw the kitchen sink at Zak Butters is there?

surely we put up mega dollars and try and lure one of Butters, Bailey, Humphrey or Reid in the next 12-24 months?

I’m sure we will but it’s hard to see us landing anyone of note if we’re miles off finals at the end of 2026.

The end of 2021 was our massive chance to land a big fish but we were unable to. Unsure how and why we missed out on Cerra at the time.

8 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I’m sure we will but it’s hard to see us landing anyone of note if we’re miles off finals at the end of 2026.

The end of 2021 was our massive chance to land a big fish but we were unable to. Unsure how and why we missed out on Cerra at the time.

Lucky that we did...

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I’m sure we will but it’s hard to see us landing anyone of note if we’re miles off finals at the end of 2026.

The end of 2021 was our massive chance to land a big fish but we were unable to. Unsure how and why we missed out on Cerra at the time.

Big fish and Cerra are not the same thing.

I’d say our failed attempts with a lot of our targets have been a blessing influence disguise.

Cerra and Houston being two glaring examples

Edited October 23Oct 23 by BW511

8 minutes ago, BW511 said:

Big fish and Cerra are not the same thing.

I’d say our failed attempts with a lot of our targets have been a blessing influence disguise.

Cerra and Houston being two glaring examples

It's forced us to go to the draft which has accelerated our rebuild thankfully.

We'll go hard after Humphrey again next year

10 minutes ago, biggestred said:

We'll go hard after Humphrey again next year

I’m already making a Pinterest board called ‘BBQ Trends 2026’ in preparation.

2 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

That all said, I still regard 1998 as the premiership that got away from us. We finished 4th and smashed Adelaide (5th) and St Kilda only to loose to North in the prelim who then lost to Adelaide in the grand final. It was under the previous top 8 finals series system which allowed Adelaide to stay in as the 2nd lowest looser or something - in today's superior top 8 finals series they would have been out in the first week.

1998 is the most exciting Melbourne time I've seen up until 2018. I do remember going to the North prelim, though, and thinking we played well but they were genuinely too good.

Agree that the system then was bizarre. We trounced Adelaide.

2 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

It was under the previous top 8 finals series system which allowed Adelaide to stay in as the 2nd lowest looser or something - in today's superior top 8 finals series they would have been out in the first week.

In today's Top 8 system Adelaide (13 wins) would have played Essendon (12 wins), who finished 8th, in Adelaide.

17 minutes ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

1998 is the most exciting Melbourne time I've seen up until 2018. I do remember going to the North prelim, though, and thinking we played well but they were genuinely too good.

Agree that the system then was bizarre. We trounced Adelaide.

Worst game we played for the year.

4 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I’m sure we will but it’s hard to see us landing anyone of note if we’re miles off finals at the end of 2026.

The end of 2021 was our massive chance to land a big fish but we were unable to. Unsure how and why we missed out on Cerra at the time.

Cerra would have been a Melbourne player if we had the assets to trade for him, he was reportedly really keen on us but just had nothing to trade, and thank god because he’s stagnated or gone backwards as a player

Just saw Bailey Smith in Coles Malvern which is only 10 minutes away from our future training facility at Caulfield race course😳

8 minutes ago, joeboy said:

Just saw Bailey Smith in Coles Malvern which is only 10 minutes away from our future training facility at Caulfield race course😳

Was he buying meat for the bbq?

3 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

1998 is the most exciting Melbourne time I've seen up until 2018. I do remember going to the North prelim, though, and thinking we played well but they were genuinely too good.

Agree that the system then was bizarre. We trounced Adelaide.

We almost did it - from 16th and last to premiers would have been miraculous!

22 hours ago, John Crow Batty said:

Weddle will suit Essendon as they won’t be playing finals. Weddle in his 5 finals has been underwhelming for the most part. Plays his best during the regular season.

It's interesting how we look at a player's finals performances. Obviously a team must play well in finals and each player having an off day makes that so much harder. But the opposite would also be annoying. Just imagine a player whose H&A mediocrity 'helped' keep his team out if finals for years who ironically would have improved lengths in finals but never got to prove this. That's extreme but certainly a consistent player all year long is usually better. Was it Gary Rohan who finally came good in finals. I'm sure some players are so naturally nervous theyd never cope with finals. But no guarantees Weddell is one of 'em.