Gee it's getting to be a tough sell to the supporters with how we're subsidising other teams' payrolls. Ironic that the guy in charge of overseeing these types of deals in the first place is now heavily involved in negotiating our next 5 years away.

Understand the club want him gone for a variety of reasons, but given the ridiculous expectation on the salary subsidy I'd be telling him he's coming back, and re-iterate that if it isn't happening in the manner we'd expect of our highest paid player then yeah it will likely be at Casey. I honestly believe now that he'd prefer to tear up his contract and just sign a new one with GWS. That would be win/win. If he chooses to come back and play at Casey then surely any of our other players who think we've been too soft on him will see it as some kind of step forward.

I also believe that he is going to get back to being a genuine gun in this league and our handling of him from just about every aspect over recent times is going to come out looking even worse than it does now. I am not absolving him of the responsibility he had to drive the MFC forward during his time, but we apparently knew who he was but still ended up in this position.

If we do end up eating this poop sandwich then I can see us taking the stance with Petracca that it is Humphrey or you're coming back. It'll be a PR/membership nightmare if we swap Petracca and Oliver for picks 7&8 and are still paying them $700K per year to go play finals somewhere else.

Markets are markets.

People often fall for the trap of mistaking a 'perceived' value for 'actual' value.

Such things can be a distasteful realisation for many when their pockets get hit for six.

This is not about football ability but very much about causes and effects.

Many seemingly wanting to acuse the club of hitting the 'bang' button. The more probable reality is for whatever reasons Clarry failed to observe the warning signs .

Though it takes two to tango only one leads and Oliver has been leading us a merry dance.

The band's had enough.

Yesterday's top 40 hit is now in the bargain bin, a bit scratched and warped.

We all will move on. As he will.

3 minutes ago, rufus said:

and are still paying them $700K per year to go play finals somewhere else.

I don't believe that there's any confirmation anywhere that this is the amount (i.e., Clarry on $1.4 million).

As I posted above, the AFL site gave his contract as 7 million over 7 years.

A future 3rd and paying half his salary. This must be the worst deal in AFL history.

The only way we can polish this [censored] is if we look at it as a rebuild- or at least that our top draft pick this year is replacing Clarry.

Top ten picks earn around $200k that added to the $700k we will be paying Clarry still gives us a net saving of around $500k a year for first couple of years and hopefully after that we aren’t paying as much so we break even.

That’s how I’m choosing to look at it from here on in, only may that doesn’t make me furious with how we have handled this.

12 minutes ago, bing181 said:

I don't believe that there's any confirmation anywhere that this is the amount (i.e., Clarry on $1.4 million).

As I posted above, the AFL site gave his contract as 7 million over 7 years.

His contract of $1m in 2022 is as a % of TPP. In the latest 2023 CBA it will go up by about 35% by 2027. So next year his contract will be in the region of $1.3m - $1.4m.

His contract is until 2030 by which time there will be another CBA and presumably another TPP increase. It is reported he will then be on around $1.7m. That may be a bit on the high side but still significant especially for a player who has been under performing and will be in his 30's in the latter years of the contract.

If it was backended it will be even higher in the coming years.

Hopefully, we negotiate a $ figure with GWS eg $700k rather than % because the latter could get rather ugly by 2030.

My gut feel is Clarry stays, Trac will be traded for picks

6 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

I didn’t make my comment lightly because I’ve always been a supporter of Clarrie, he’s been a much loved and highly decorated player at the club and, by it’s implications, the Giants’ offer demeans him and his character more than anything else. In the long run, it might be better to show some strength, for both him and the club to sit back, take our time and find a way to help an individual who has lost his way.

I reckon we've already done that for two years. We helped Clarrie to a better place now it's time for both to move on.

10 hours ago, praha said:

It tells you that we showed our entire hand to the poker table and still went all in despite having a 72 off, expecting others at the table to tap out.

The problem you are struggling to understand is that we wouldn't have even been playing poker if we hadn't "blown" it up. We knew we were going to lose the hand but we're playing a longer game.

9 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie 2 said:

Absolutely spot on Norm. This club administration is beyond belief. A player as good as Clarry being virtually given away free. I can hear the Giants laughing so loudly at our incompetence. After 65 years of membership I am joining with a few of my mates in refusing to renew my membership next season. Sad, I know, but that's how we feel. Of course, we will always be demons but now we can't see much hope of improvement for a long long time.

5 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

My gut feel is Clarry stays, Trac will be traded for picks

There is no way Clarry stays.

Riccardi being linked to this deal 🤔

For those worried about paying Oliver approx $700k it will not impact us much if at all.

• Trac's contract of about $1.3 gone in 2025

• Part of Oliver's contract of about $1.3m gone in 2025

• May's contract of about $900 will be gone in 2026 at the latest.

• Gawn's contract of about $1.0++. will end when he retires, probably end of 2027

• Gus subsidy (guessing $300k-$500k) will end about 2027-2028

• Viney contract of around $1.0m will end around 2028

• Lever may retire so his contract of approx $800k will end in 2028

That is about $6.0m-$7.0m reduction in player payments over the next 3 years. So, we will have a 'war chest' to reward our talent and attract players while covering the Oliver payment particularly if it is fixed $.

It may hurt to see Oliver being undervalued in a trade but it won't hurt our list management forward.

Clarry for …

20 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

• Gus subsidy (guessing $300k-$500k) will end about 2027-2028

Miles off - 100% of his very heavily back ended contract is applied against our cap for the last two years of his contract due to his being a concussion related medical retirement

I don't think enough has been spoken about the enormous effort of Tim Lamb and Steven King to get us into the mix as seriously as we have been for Bailey Humphrey.

IF the Suns were open to trading him there is a very real possibility he'd be a demon in 2026, despite all our off field drama and changes.

Everyone on here is very quick to pot Tim Lamb, but seemingly not so willing to acknowledge the really good things he does.

He's been dealt a terrible hand this off season, trying to trade Trac with horrible leverage, trying to trade Clarry with zero leverage, trying to trade Steven May who's 34? on a huge contract and off field question marks, losing Judd McVee and he's still managed to come out with what will likely end up as

2 X top 10 picks

2m plus in freed up salary cap space.

CJ, Mihocek, Heath

Predict Oliver and Trac deals are announced close together so Dees can bundle the message and minimise isolated criticism. Lamb has form of talking about the ‘sum of all parts’ as opposed to the return from individual deals

3 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

Predict Oliver and Trac deals are announced close together so Dees can bundle the message and minimise isolated criticism. Lamb has form of talking about the ‘sum of all parts’ as opposed to the return from individual deals

And in truth that IS the best way of looking at it ( imho )

It appears to me that the club have completely mishandled Trac and Oliver over the past two years

We are here due to the same incompetence that allowed Goodwin to remain with a flawed game plan and extremely poor player management due to his fear of failure

We are such a poorly managed club in my view that I doubt our ability to get to final in the next 5 to 10 years

I guess time will tell but I cannot see at the moment where our improvement will come from

8 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

Miles off - 100% of his very heavily back ended contract is applied against our cap for the last two years of his contract due to his being a concussion related medical retirement

I said it was a guess for Gus!

If it is out by $300-$400k doesn't detract from the point that subsiding Clarrie at GWS won't affect our list management plans.

13 minutes ago, The Jackson FIX said:

Predict Oliver and Trac deals are announced close together so Dees can bundle the message and minimise isolated criticism. Lamb has form of talking about the ‘sum of all parts’ as opposed to the return from individual deals

They'll be announced close together because rhe aFL dictate when deals can be announced on the last day to drive up ratings

37 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

For those worried about paying Oliver approx $700k it will not impact us much if at all.

• Trac's contract of about $1.3 gone in 2025

• Part of Oliver's contract of about $1.3m gone in 2025

• May's contract of about $900 will be gone in 2026 at the latest.

• Gawn's contract of about $1.0++. will end when he retires, probably end of 2027

• Gus subsidy (guessing $300k-$500k) will end about 2027-2028

• Viney contract of around $1.0m will end around 2028

• Lever may retire so his contract of approx $800k will end in 2028

That is about $6.0m-$7.0m reduction in player payments over the next 3 years. So, we will have a 'war chest' to reward our talent and attract players while covering the Oliver payment particularly if it is fixed $.

It may hurt to see Oliver being undervalued in a trade but it won't hurt our list management forward.

That's all well and good if we had a recent history of attracting elite talent from other clubs. We'll be losing 5 legitimate A graders over this time, which is not easy to replace.

We basically need to hit on all our recent/upcoming draft picks to be a finals contender, let alone be the premiership contender that we currently should be.

We're all different. I don't get emotional about footballers. During trade time they become a commodity. So, naturally, I want that commodity maximised.

Oliver is the best pure mid I've seen at Melbourne and when his playing days are over I'll laud his contributions to that elusive premiership.

In the meantime, I'm ok losing an overweight 28 year old man with Mummy issues.

Who is the longest serving and most broadly respected and influential leader at the club?

Many important calls made by King and the club would and should be informed by his input.

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by Robbie On Skates

3 minutes ago, Robbie On Skates said:

Who is the longest serving and most broadly respected influential leader at the club?

Many important calls made my King and the club would and should be informed by his input.

They were

23 minutes ago, mo64 said:

That's all well and good if we had a recent history of attracting elite talent from other clubs. We'll be losing 5 legitimate A graders over this time, which is not easy to replace.

We basically need to hit on all our recent/upcoming draft picks to be a finals contender, let alone be the premiership contender that we currently should be.

True we don't.

But we need to do everything we can to change that and having a 'war chest' will help especially Vic players in other states.

If we get our act as a club and on field performance that will be so much easier.

Otherwise, yes we remain a middling club.

I'd rather have the 'war chest' than not.