It’s crazy to think a player can still choose one club to be traded to, especially in Vic. I’m sure there wasn’t much separating us with the saints.

The entitlement & power players have over their clubs is sickening.

1 minute ago, DeeNA said:

It’s crazy to think a player can still choose one club to be traded to, especially in Vic. I’m sure there wasn’t much separating us with the saints.

The entitlement & power players have over their clubs is sickening.

more the power the players have over their own careers tho, no?

we better land humphrey

36 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

The signs were always there when he had a fancy Italian restaurant with the saints and only a low-key coffee with us...

36 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

Saints still a 7-12 team even after all the $$$$$$$$$ being thrown around.

crazy how people think adding TDK and Silvagni makes them finals caliber overnight. Didn't seem to help the Blues much.

announcement seems contradictory

1. he's chosen saints

2. he's going to have 2nd meetings with melb and essendon

i'm confused

18 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

I would have thought the King connection would have been to our advantage but obviously not.

Hope we have some other plans in place and this is not all for nothing.

Yeah.. I'm starting to get worried tbh. If Humphrey says no to us, we've lost Trac and probably Clarry, and only been able to convince a 33yr old Mihocek to come in (most likely). The fear of this being another Neeld situation is creeping in. Although I am bullish on what we do have (list wise) and I am intrigued to see how it stacks up to this new game plan he's bringing across. I just really don't want to be sitting bottom 4 next year. Regardless of what others think, I still believe we are better than that.

Just now, daisycutter said:

announcement seems contradictory

1. he's chosen saints

2. he's going to have 2nd meetings with melb and essendon

i'm confused

He already had the second meetings yesterday and day before. Made final decision today.

34 minutes ago, Ted Lasso said:

They're spending over 4 million dollars on a group that collectively has 1 all australian selection and zero best and fairests. that one all australian was Liam Ryan 5 years ago..

It's all hype and it's a huge chunk of their salary cap for hype.

Their young core is promising, but it's not elite, their young kids are no better than ours outside of NAS.

But then we have Kozzie who while different is also supremely talented.

Classic St Kilda bringing in has beens or good but not elite level talent at over inflated prices, been doing it since the 80s .

29 minutes ago, Ted Lasso said:

They're spending over 4 million dollars on a group that collectively has 1 all australian selection and zero best and fairests. that one all australian was Liam Ryan 5 years ago..

It's all hype and it's a huge chunk of their salary cap for hype.

Their young core is promising, but it's not elite, their young kids are no better than ours outside of NAS.

But then we have Kozzie who while different is also supremely talented.

4 million is nothing now days especially as the new TPA goes up significantly next year.

Other then Gold Coast and Brisbane there are not many clubs in the comp that you would say have elite talent coming through. St Kilda is not in that basket but its a solid core at least.

At least they're adding some solid B graders who are in the perfect age bracket still that will contribute well next season and beyond.

As it stands with players coming in, we have Max Heath who is currently a VFL player (handy one mind you) and potentially a 33 year old Mihocek potentially.

They would want to start cooking something fast.

Whether it works or not, re-signing NAS and Windhager... adding TDK, Silvani, Aleer....going for Ryan etc
On the face of it they definitely 'seem' more ambitious than a club who seemingly want to take a step backwards to move forward.
I think its ultimately wont achieve much but at least theyre trying something.

11 minutes ago, Sean Balor said:

Yeah.. I'm starting to get worried tbh. If Humphrey says no to us, we've lost Trac and probably Clarry, and only been able to convince a 33yr old Mihocek to come in (most likely). The fear of this being another Neeld situation is creeping in. Although I am bullish on what we do have (list wise) and I am intrigued to see how it stacks up to this new game plan he's bringing across. I just really don't want to be sitting bottom 4 next year. Regardless of what others think, I still believe we are better than that.

Worried? Is that all? This 'new game plan' of Kings has already taken on mythical proportions. Has the whiff of [censored] about it. And who is going to execute it?

10 minutes ago, praha said:

crazy how people think adding TDK and Silvagni makes them finals caliber overnight. Didn't seem to help the Blues much.

Yeah St Kilda is such a triggering club on here.

They’re going sideways from Marshall to TDK but at double the salary hit.

Silvagni’s played, what, 3 games in 2 years? A great role player but does he move the finals needle?

Ryan’s well past his best (imagine the reaction if we were interested in him!)

Aleer’s a promising defender but promising is all - unproven at AFL level.

Which leaves Flanders. A good get, one I wished we had snared, and confirmation we are a really tough sell to any prospective player.

But contrary to @Bring-Back-Powell ’s pessimistic scaremongering, St Kilda’s true form this year was firmly bottom 6 and worse than us. Again, if we had won 4 of the last 5, all against bottom 6 sides, and all by single digit scores, anyone on here who would dare suggest that was a sign of improvement would be howled down. They had a bad year but with salary cap space they’ve thrown money and it’s stuck.

A reminder to people on here that we’re by and large less attractive to play for than what ought to be considered an irrelevant club not anywhere near a flag.

1 minute ago, dazzledavey36 said:

4 million is nothing now days especially as the new TPA goes up significantly next year.

Other then Gold Coast and Brisbane there are not many clubs in the comp that you would say have elite talent coming through. St Kilda is not in that basket but its a solid core at least.

At least they're adding some solid B graders who are in the perfect age bracket still that will contribute well next season and beyond.

As it stands with players coming in, we have Max Heath who is currently a VFL player (handy one mind you) and potentially a 33 year old Mihocek potentially.

They would want to start cooking something fast.

The total Salary Cap is 18.2 million in 2026

the combined reported Salaries of the players they're bringing in = 5.1 Million dollars.

So when you say "It's nothing these days" the Salary cap only goes up about 400 k between this year and next year and the spending spree accounts for 28% of their total salary cap tied to 5 players that have 1 all australian combined and no best and fairests.

I agree it looks good, and it's good for the members and it's exciting but they've done this sort of thing before and it's gone really really badly, and i'd argue last time the players at least had some runs on the board, this time it's essentially all hype and potential rather than anything tangible.

I mean TDK getting 1.7 million a year when he's not even top 5 in the league for his specific position is a real show of faith in his potential. he'd need a Max Gawn like career to justify the contract. I am talking 6 All Australians through that contract, being widely regarded as the best ruckman of his generation and potentially even being a captain as well.

10 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Yeah St Kilda is such a triggering club on here.

They’re going sideways from Marshall to TDK but at double the salary hit.

Silvagni’s played, what, 3 games in 2 years? A great role player but does he move the finals needle?

Ryan’s well past his best (imagine the reaction if we were interested in him!)

Aleer’s a promising defender but promising is all - unproven at AFL level.

Which leaves Flanders. A good get, one I wished we had snared, and confirmation we are a really tough sell to any prospective player.

But contrary to @Bring-Back-Powell ’s pessimistic scaremongering, St Kilda’s true form this year was firmly bottom 6 and worse than us. Again, if we had won 4 of the last 5, all against bottom 6 sides, and all by single digit scores, anyone on here who would dare suggest that was a sign of improvement would be howled down. They had a bad year but with salary cap space they’ve thrown money and it’s stuck.

A reminder to people on here that we’re by and large less attractive to play for than what ought to be considered an irrelevant club not anywhere near a flag.

They must be doing something right to attract all these players. How does a team with one finals win in 15 years attract a potential A Grader over a club that has tasted multiple finals campaigns over the last decade.

And at least they held onto win those close games you’re bagging them for. How many close games did we win this year?

They are in far better shape to attack next year than us and I can see them doubling their win tally over ours.

Very disappointing that flanders chose saints over us but i guess thats where we are at the moment. good luck to him.

ultimately out ability to rise up the ladder again will depend on our ability to draft in A grade talent. In all likelihood we won't be able to prise Humphreys from the suns so we should push for picks 6 and 7 for Trac and see what JT can find in the draft. they say its a weak draft but there have to be some quality kids with potential.

Melbourne has a new club song now. Am I not pretty enough .

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by YearOfTheDees

Him selecting Saints is a bummer. If we lose Trac and Clarry, he would have been a very good get. Flanders and 6 for Trac was perfect (with some other later picks)

I think we may of back-ended contacts as much as possible to fit everyone in as we were all in on a premiership. I'm sure, especially with those departing, we have enough for a couple of good players. The Saints must of contracted wisely to allow this flurry. I expect it may take a few years for us to get on par salary (Paying players less than the average of their contact per year), except for Kozzie who is rumoured to be massively back-ended.

1 hour ago, DeeZee said:

Everyone that meets with King either wants to leave or doesn’t want to come Hmmm

Yeah, he’s been with the club for 6 days and he hasn’t even got us a flag yet!!

1 hour ago, DeeNA said:

It’s crazy to think a player can still choose one club to be traded to, especially in Vic. I’m sure there wasn’t much separating us with the saints.

The entitlement & power players have over their clubs is sickening.

I think you’re a bit disillusioned on what we have to offer.

We are removing all our key players.

We probably will still retain some others that are considered toxic.

We have no training facility.

We have no assistant coaches.

We really have sweet FA to offer players other than the MCG being home ground, the oldest club there is, and probably a good coach who is untested.

St Kilda just brought in a stack of new players, albeit I don’t rate most of, and have the other thins above that we don’t.

I think this is a good thing. Either the Suns have to give up some serious value or Petracca is staying. Flanders and a mid pick would have felt very disappointing.

I don’t think Flanders turns the dial for any club. There isn’t enough X factor about him.

Good luck Gold Coast.

I wanted Flanders but would be interested how much we did offer him. If it was less or equal than Saints then I guess either King didn't think he was worth that and/or Tim Lamb finally being conservative on the contracts.

Did he get the [censored] because nobody invited him for a walk around the tan?

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

4 million is nothing now days especially as the new TPA goes up significantly next year.

Other then Gold Coast and Brisbane there are not many clubs in the comp that you would say have elite talent coming through. St Kilda is not in that basket but its a solid core at least.

At least they're adding some solid B graders who are in the perfect age bracket still that will contribute well next season and beyond.

As it stands with players coming in, we have Max Heath who is currently a VFL player (handy one mind you) and potentially a 33 year old Mihocek potentially.

They would want to start cooking something fast.

Each year there are usually in 2-3 good players traded which means 15 teams don’t land anyone significant. 95% of your group still come from the draft.

16 minutes ago, kurtneverdied said:

I wanted Flanders but would be interested how much we did offer him. If it was less or equal than Saints then I guess either King didn't think he was worth that and/or Tim Lamb finally being conservative on the contracts.

You don't acquire players from other clubs by being conservative with contracts. Especially when the Saints immediate future seems more promising.

King's role would be to sell the club. He wouldn't have any input on contracts.