MFC CONTRACTED PLAYERS LIST

[Scoop Junior 3,435]

I wouldn't scratch CJ off the list yet. I'd definitely like to give him another year.

I'd prefer Ward over Godfrey. We are so slow and Ward is one of the few who can provide line-breaking pace off HB. With guys like McLean, Jones, Moloney, Green and McDonald in the middle, we don't have any pace and playing Godders in there just adds another big-bodied slow type (with poorer skills than the above players). Godders gives his all and has been a great servent, but surely we need to aim higher and look for better.

Desperately need to focus on pace and skills come draft time. I see natural improvement in contested ball - Jones will keep improving at the stoppages, McLean surely could not have a worse year, Sylvia hopefully can have a good pre-season and add bite in the stoppages and I think Bartram could add something here with his clean hands and attack on the footy.

But we are light on for class and pace...Buckley shows something in this area though. No one could break away from the stoppages yesterday and we struggled to chase down the likes of Rodan, Pearce, Burgoyne, etc. And one of our biggest problems this year has been turning the ball over - I don't want blokes in the team who can't kick the ball.

[mauriesy 7,269]

I'd prefer Ward over Godfrey.

And one of our biggest problems this year has been turning the ball over - I don't want blokes in the team who can't kick the ball.

These two statements partly contradict each other. If you were worried about kicking skills, Godfrey and Ward would be top of your de-list agenda.

[IWAP 170]

What I would do if i was in charge of the MFC

This season:

Put Warnock in the senior team for the rest of the year and tell him he is playing for his spot on the list

Put Chris Johnson in the senior team for the rest of the year.

Put Dunn in the senior team for the rest of the year

Give Garland another 1 or 2 taster games

Rest Jeff White.

Play P.Johnson and M.Jamar every week in the seniors

Rest Neita (I don't want to see him limp to his 300th game, in a game that I hope we lose)

Let S.Neaves be the main ruckman for Sandy

Tank round 22

Post season:

Delistings: Pickett, Ward, Neville, Ferguson without any hesitations

Delist Warnock if he doesn't show he can make it as an AFL player, if he shows a glimpse, delist Bizzell

If medical staff thinks that Holland can make it another year, keep him given option to retire depending on how their body is shaping up, but if looking ok, give them one more year

If Holland is being kepy, delist Nathan Brown

In total 6 delistings.

Rookie list:

Upgrade Neaves to the senior list

Retain Hayes for 2008, if he expresses a desire to make it as an AFL player

Delist Hughes

Watch Bode for remainder of the season, to see if he can cut it at AFL. If so, upgrade him to the list.

Trade period:

Offer Miller and Jamar up for trade (recognition of fact that they will most likely be unwanted)

No trading for players 25 or over

No trading away any of our 3 top-20 draft picks (exception if we can lure a superstar type player eg. Judd, Pavlich etc.)

[Nicho 1]

Expires 2007

David Neitz (v) - 1 year

Russell Robertson - 2 years

Byron Pickett - GONE

Jared Rivers - 15 years... whatever

Brock McLean - see Rivers

Brad Miller - trade or one year

Paul Wheatley - trade or one year

Ryan Ferguson- GONE

Nathan Brown - Retirement

Clint Bizzell - GONE (one year if we have to <_< )

Colin Sylvia - 3 years

James McDonald - 2 years

Nathan Carroll - 3 years

Nathan Jones - 3 years

Paul Johnson - 2 years

Ben Holland - Retire

Mark Jamar - trade or one year

Clint Bartram - 3 years

Chris Johnson - trade or one year

Simon Godfrey - 1 year

Daniel Ward - GONE

Matthew Warnock - trade or 1 year

Micheal Newton - 3 years

Simon Buckley - 2 years

Heath Neville- GONE

® Jace Bode - Depending on form in the last 5 weeks plus finals, possibly elevate?

® Shane Neaves - Elevate- 2 years

® Daniel Hughes- GONE

® Daniel Hayes- One more year on rookie list

P.S.- I'm almost certain Rivers and McLean extended their contracts last year?

GOOD WORK JADED, I DISAGREE ON A COUPLE.

Expires 2007

David Neitz (v) - 1 year

Russell Robertson - 2 years

Byron Pickett - GONE

Jared Rivers - 3 years

Brock McLean - 3 years and captincy

Brad Miller - trade or one year

Paul Wheatley - 1 year

Ryan Ferguson- GONE

Nathan Brown - Retirement

Clint Bizzell - 1 year

Colin Sylvia - 3 years

James McDonald - 1 year

Nathan Carroll - 2 years

Nathan Jones - 3 years

Paul Johnson - 2 years

Ben Holland - Retire

Mark Jamar - trade or delist

Clint Bartram - 2 years

Chris Johnson - trade or delist

Simon Godfrey - 1 year

Daniel Ward - 1 year

Matthew Warnock - trade or delist

Micheal Newton - 2 years

Simon Buckley - 2 years

Heath Neville- GONE

® Jace Bode - elevate 2 years

® Shane Neaves - Elevate- 2 years

® Daniel Hughes- GONE

® Daniel Hayes- GONE

[Nicho 1]

Offer up TJ or Bruce see if we can get a top 10 pick for them

No chance in hell for getting a top 10 pick for Bruce and he is contracted for a few years, We are not in a position to be paying players contracts at other clubs

(i.e Woewodin)

And again no one would offer a top 10 for TJ.

You would have to an idiot to give us a top 10 draft pick for either of these too.

[mauriesy 7,269]

Trade

Green

Offer up TJ or Bruce see if we can get a top 10 pick for them

I reckon the last thing we should be doing is trading noted skilled players (with the exception maybe of Bruce's kicking) just for the heck of it. We've got far bigger problems on our list to get rid of than those three.

[Nasher 33,613]

The idea of trading Green in particular is ludicrous. He's one of the few in our side at the moment that are able to hit a target by foot.

[jiska78 3]

Paul Wheatley

Ryan Ferguson

Clint Bizzell

Simon Godfrey

Most people are saying to get rid of these four players. I would like to stand here and stick up for them.

Wheatley - Very under-rated player running off half-back. Has struggled this year because of injury, but the past two years have shown the value he brings to the club.

Ryan Ferguson - Along with Rivers, one of the most exciting back line prospects Melbourne has had for a decade. Ferguson was awesome in 2004-2005 before suffering a string of injuries both last year and most of this year. He's back in the team and I expect him to be a great player next year. You can't say delist someone who hasn't played for two years due to injuries. He's a young player and still has plenty to give. When he last played for Melbourne he was 19, give him a break.

Bizzell - I just love the way he plays. He was awesome against Collingwood earlier in the year and once again has struggled with injuries early this year and had OP last year.

Godfrey - Get serious. This bloke is one of the best tagger's going around. So his foot skills are brilliant - who cares - his role is to tag, not to get possessions. His work in shutting down the likes of Chris Judd, Scott West, Tarkyn Lockyer, Shannon Grant etc etc this year has been supurb. Under-rate this mans stopping/tagging prowess at your own perile

[Jaded No More 68,876]

Ryan Ferguson - Along with Rivers, one of the most exciting back line prospects Melbourne has had for a decade. Ferguson was awesome in 2004-2005 before suffering a string of injuries both last year and most of this year. He's back in the team and I expect him to be a great player next year. You can't say delist someone who hasn't played for two years due to injuries. He's a young player and still has plenty to give. When he last played for Melbourne he was 19, give him a break.

Age: 25

Games: 42

Born: September 29, 1981

[mauriesy 7,269]

Most people are saying to get rid of these four players. I would like to stand here and stick up for them.

Wheatley - Very under-rated player running off half-back. Has struggled this year because of injury, but the past two years have shown the value he brings to the club.

Ryan Ferguson - Along with Rivers, one of the most exciting back line prospects Melbourne has had for a decade. Ferguson was awesome in 2004-2005 before suffering a string of injuries both last year and most of this year. He's back in the team and I expect him to be a great player next year. You can't say delist someone who hasn't played for two years due to injuries. He's a young player and still has plenty to give. When he last played for Melbourne he was 19, give him a break.

Bizzell - I just love the way he plays. He was awesome against Collingwood earlier in the year and once again has struggled with injuries early this year and had OP last year.

Godfrey - Get serious. This bloke is one of the best tagger's going around. So his foot skills are brilliant - who cares - his role is to tag, not to get possessions. His work in shutting down the likes of Chris Judd, Scott West, Tarkyn Lockyer, Shannon Grant etc etc this year has been supurb. Under-rate this mans stopping/tagging prowess at your own perile

I agree with Wheatley. I don't agree with the other three.

To say Ferguson is an "exciting prospect" is ludicrous. He's had years to impress, is a VFL footballer at best, lacks strength and has only modest skills. Can't take anyone except a lightweight third tall, of which there aren't many. I'd have Warnock and even Holland over him.

Bizzell is too old to survive a "rejuvenation" process. If his contract is up, it's up.

Godfrey has had some good days, but was thrashed by Harvey last week who worked harder and outran him, and was ineffective yesterday. Poor skills, especially by foot and is not quick enough. He might have one more year, simply because there are worse players than him to clean out.

[IWAP 170]

Jiska - i agree with you that all those players have some redeemable qualities. If we had a list of 50, they'd all stay. But the fact remains, in order to improve our list, we need to delist a minimum of 5 players. If you kept those 4, who would you delist instead?

[jiska78 3]

Jiska - i agree with you that all those players have some redeemable qualities. If we had a list of 50, they'd all stay. But the fact remains, in order to improve our list, we need to delist a minimum of 5 players. If you kept those 4, who would you delist instead?

I'll give you 7 players to delist:

Byron Pickett

Brad Miller

Nathan Brown

Chris Johnson

Daniel Ward

Matthew Warnock

Adem Yze

[Jarka 767]

Pickett, Miller, Ferguson, Brown, Bizzell, Holland, Jamar, Chris Johnson, Godfrey, Ward, Warnock, Neville

Excluding the rookies, these are the candidates for delisting at year's end. Some (Neville) are monties, while others (Godfrey) will almost certainly be offered new contracts. There's 12 names on that list. Given our year I wouldn't be surprised to see 8 gone.

Fair post Nasher, almost agree with everything. I've highlighted the 8 I think should go. Bizzell gets another year to help develop the kids. Miller, CJ and Godfrey help with depth to cover injuries.

Trade wise - Consider trading 1 or 2 of:

Jeff White

Russell Robertson

Cameron Bruce

Travis Johnstone

You have to offer quality to get quality but I would only part with these guys for something special.

Also promote Neaves and Bode off the rookie list

[Jarka 767]

Thinking about the season we've had it's probably been the best possible timing with so many coming out of contract because hardly anyone has had great seasons so their bargaining power for bigger contracts is serverley weakened.

[Whispering_Jack 29,858]

This is based on a list that was floating around at the end of last season. Thanks to 9. David Neitz for helping update it.

I'd expect about six delistings to come out of the Expires 2007 group. Brown, Ward, Warnock, Neville, Holland & Ferguson for mine.

Expires 2007

Micheal Newton

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Juice was contracted till the end of 2008.

[Kit Walker 225]

Great list Maurie. 10 is too many to go at a time but 7-8 is certainly in the ballpark.

My list to go is:

1. Heath Neville - Never been close to selection

2. Byron Pickett - New start. Can't take passengers

3. Nathan Brown - Age and quality of disposals. High number of flanker types coming through

4. Daniel Ward - Same as for Nathan Brown

5. Ben Holland - Age and a 3 game per year specialist.

6. Ryan Ferguson - Played his best game in a pre-season game against Richmond and never came close to it again.

Attempt to trade one or two of Miller, Chris Johnson and Jamar for an upgraded pick.

From that, one of Neaves and Bode to be upgraded with the other to be our one allowed 3rd year rookie. One selection in the PSD and probably (assuming we win less than 5 and Carlton don't) pick 2, 18, 20, 36, and 52 (possibly 68 as well). Also depends if you can upgrade a pick with a trade.

Purely due to their physical attributes, and in CJ's case possibly a skill level potential, other coaches may very well be inclined to take them and sacrifice some positioning in the draft. If no trade was forthcoming, I'd delist one of those three - probably Jamar with Neaves to be promoted or a high draft pick to be used for a ruckman.

[Demon Disciple 12,073]

Great list Maurie. 10 is too many to go at a time but 7-8 is certainly in the ballpark.

My list to go is:

1. Heath Neville - Never been close to selection

2. Byron Pickett - New start. Can't take passengers

3. Nathan Brown - Age and quality of disposals. High number of flanker types coming through

4. Daniel Ward - Same as for Nathan Brown

5. Ben Holland - Age and a 3 game per year specialist.

6. Ryan Ferguson - Played his best game in a pre-season game against Richmond and never came close to it again.

Attempt to trade one or two of Miller, Chris Johnson and Jamar for an upgraded pick.

From that, one of Neaves and Bode to be upgraded with the other to be our one allowed 3rd year rookie. One selection in the PSD and probably (assuming we win less than 5 and Carlton don't) pick 2, 18, 20, 36, and 52 (possibly 68 as well). Also depends if you can upgrade a pick with a trade.

Purely due to their physical attributes, and in CJ's case possibly a skill level potential, other coaches may very well be inclined to take them and sacrifice some positioning in the draft. If no trade was forthcoming, I'd delist one of those three - probably Jamar with Neaves to be promoted or a high draft pick to be used for a ruckman.

You forgot our other first round pick we'll get for one of Bruce, Green and TJ. One, if not two of them need to be traded, if we are serious about re-building.

[dee-luded 2,959]

This is based on a list that was floating around at the end of last season. Thanks to 9. David Neitz for helping update it.

I'd expect about six delistings to come out of the Expires 2007 group. Brown, Ward, Warnock, Neville, Holland & Ferguson for mine.

Expires 2007

David Neitz (v)

Russell Robertson

Byron Pickett

Jared Rivers

Brock McLean

Brad Miller

Paul Wheatley

Ryan Ferguson

Nathan Brown Retire with dignity.

Clint Bizzell --------1 Yr

Colin Sylvia

James McDonald

Nathan Carroll

Nathan Jones

Paul Johnson

Ben Holland

Mark Jamar

Clint Bartram

Chris Johnson

Simon Godfrey

Daniel Ward

Matthew Warnock

Micheal Newton

Simon Buckley

Heath Neville

® Jace Bode?

® Shane Neaves - rerookie

® Daniel Hughes?

® Daniel Hayes?

Expires 2008

Travis Johnstone TRADE - too slow by foot.

Jeff White TRADE

Adem Yze '08 finish.

Brad Green - needs to continue to improve @ hard ball gets.

Matthew Whelan

Lynden Dunn - needs to improve @ hard ball gets.

Brent Moloney

Matthew Bate

Daniel Bell

James Frawley

Ricky Petterd

Colin Garland

Isack Weetra

Expires 2009

Aaron Davey

Expires 2010

Cameron Bruce TRADE

[Scoop Junior 3,435]

These two statements partly contradict each other. If you were worried about kicking skills, Godfrey and Ward would be top of your de-list agenda.

I don't think they do. I reckon Ward gets a harsh deal with foot skills...I don't think he's too bad a kick. His execution is far better than Godfrey's, he can kick longer, better non-preferred side and his awareness is fairly good in traffic. I think a bigger problem of Ward's is his lack of accountability rather than his disposal.

In an ideal world, you want a better flanker. But with our lack of speed, I wouldn't have Ward at the top of my list to go. He is clearly on thin ice, given his age, but there are others I'd flick before him.

Put it this way, I see Ward contributing more to a winning side than Godfrey.

[Rogue 585]

I'd probably delist the following -

Neville

Ferguson

Pickett

Holland

Brown

Godfrey

Hayes (?) //rookie

Hughes (?) //rookie

Take five draft picks + upgrade Bode to the senior list, and 3rd year rookie Neaves.

As for trading, anyone's trade-able if the price is right.

[deefuture06 0]

Should we draft the best 24-27y.o player in the PSD? The lack of experience needs to be addressed in the 24-27 age group. Thoughts?

[sylvinator 96]

my best case/ realistic scenario would be this.

delist: Pickett, Brown, Bizzel, Warnock, Neville, Ferguson (keep ward because he is good depth and holland as depth in case on key positions being injured and for the gorilla forwards)...that's 6 players.

we have pick 2,18,20,36,52,68

At trade period: 1) trade Miller(Qlder)+ pick 20 to Brisbaine for Cameron Wood... a future number 1 ruckman sown up. Brisbane would be willing to let him go because they have charman, leunberger and Mcdonald.

2) Trade pick 18 to Freo for Ryan Murphey...a future fullforward to replace neitz. a key position of genuine height (196cm) and marking ability. a former number 12 draft pik just 3 years ago and freo will be willing to let him go because they have pavlich, tarrand, longmire and Cambell for key forwards.

3) Trade either Bruce or Green (my preference is bruce bc he has higher market value bc for some reason most teams really really rate him) for pick 6-12 and no worse. If we are serious about building a premiership team based around the last 4-5 years of drafting then we must make the big decisions.

4) attempt to trade Jamer for anything, hopefully get a 3rd rounder for him.

5) Maybe look to try to get one of geelongs fringe midfielders by Byrnes, Tenace or Prismall. they have the pace we need. Try to weave that into a Jamar deal maybe with a 3 way swap.

On draft day we end up with pick 2, 10, 38,52,68.

That's 5 draftees including Cotchin who will be an absolute 100% certain star gun fast midfielder to add to Mclean, Sylvia, Moloney, Jones, Johnstone, Bartram, Green and Mcdonald next season. Pick 10 hopefully get Ryce Palmer who wil also be a star fast midfielder. Pick38 get to best available ruckman (there are a few good ones this draft).

Then pick up the best available player in the PSD. Promote Jason Bode and try to extend Neaves as a 3rd year rookie.

That means at the end up to day we have 9 dead wood players gawn who im happy to see the back of: Pickett, Brown, Bizzel, Warnock, Neville, Ferguson, Jamer, Miller, Bruce (i love him but gotta make the hard call).

We add 9 players: Ryan Murphey, Wood,Prissmal, pick 2(cotchin), 10,36,52,68, PSD2, Bode.

That's something to get excited about. Plust with Wood as a ruckman we wont have to waste 3-4 draft picks of ruckman hoping that one comes good. Same goes for Murphey, because one of him and Newton means that fullforward is gonna be fine post neitz and robbo.

btw, the 'getting rid of dead wood' process will take 2-3 years to complete. end of 2008 we will get rid of Holland, Ward, Godfrey, Mcdonald (retire), Yze (retire) and 2009 will see Neitz and White retire but by that time we will have replacements for them.

RATTEN FOR COACH

[Roger Mellie 4,000]

I also thought Warnock had another year?

[Nasher 33,613]

I also thought Warnock had another year?

You might be right. RRE on Demonology insists that when you promote a rookie you are required to put them on a 2 year contract. If that's true then Warnock is contracted for 2008.

[demoniac 1,331]

I reckon the last thing we should be doing is trading noted skilled players (with the exception maybe of Bruce's kicking) just for the heck of it. We've got far bigger problems on our list to get rid of than those three.

We are the Yo Yo Dees becasue our senior players cannot play consistently good footy. Yes they have talent but they simply don't display it consistently and can't work their way back into games when they start poorly. The likes of Yze, White, Bruce, Green and Johnstone are the guilty parties for mine when it comes to our inconsistency.

The next generation looks harder, tougher and just as skilled as as the names I have mentioned.

We must no longer tolerate softness and inconsistency.