Leaderboard

Updated: Demon Trade Bait/FA: Rivers (Cats, Saints, Hawks very keen, Lions now also upping the ante) Petterd - (interest from 4 clubs blvd to be Pies, GC, PA & Bulldogs) Martin - (interest from Pies, & Saints) Cook - Seems likely to stay but Roos & Blues have interest Bate - Seems certain to move North most likely to Lions potential swap for Karnezis or to GC for Toy Bail - 2 Clubs making enquiries, Lions blvd to be very keen Garland - Fate will depend on Rivers but Dees keen to use as bait for a speedy mid such as Pearce Morton - Small interest from Swans & Cats, most likely to stay a Demon Moloney - Seems Brisabe or Bomber bound with PA trying hard still. Gysberts - Cats keen but Demons playing hardball & asking for Brown plus a mid pick or an established player w/pace, Motlop mentioned. Demon Targets: Shannon Byrnes - Good as signed - may be announced today/tomorrow Sharrod Wellingham - In talks this week with pies but potential Martin trade appears a long way off, will either be a Demon or a WCE. Angus Monfries - Had talks with Management, waiting on PA to finalize offer & Demons may match depending on other pieces - most likely ends up @ PA Patrick Karnezis - One of many clubs with medium interest, potential trade for Bate or Bail Danyle Pearce - Not far off if mail is right, she blv he will be in red & blue by next week,firming by the day! Chris Knights - Demons very confident, blv they are ahead of Tigers offer - Tigers win out & will announce probably today he has signed! John Butcher - Hearing more today, Demons going HARD. Could be part of Caddy monster deal. Gaining momentum in many circles =, that demons may be his home if a deal can be agreed on with PA Levi Casboult - Inquiries made & may be an easy get if others don't fall Dees way - Now looks close to re-signing with Blues. Tom Swift - Early days but discussion has occured Ben Warren - Most certain Demon among the lot, could even be PSD Christian Howard - Potential trade for Petterd Steven Salopek - Dees fighting it out with Dogs & Bombers. Aaron Cornelius - Seems to be available & Demons watching closely Cam Pederson - Now appears to be a Done deal according to many. David Myers - Seen as a key target with much more to come on this one, hearing it more & more! David Rodan - One of 6 clubs thinking about signing him, some feel Demons may even announce him today also, Dees see his pace a real plus for them! Quinton Lynch - Dees & Pies now in box seat, Demons offer far better will depend on how much Q wants immediate success. Nathan Lovett-Murray - Demons again like his pace, seems to be a back up plan but interest is noted. I'll update if I can be bothered later as I have a few more from this arvo.. For those who enjoy just knowing & understanding its all just talk & to make even simple trades happen can be tough.. ENJOY!!!

How many ways and how many times do we have to go over this.

I have a lot of time for the opinions of Colin Wisbey from the Collingwood supporters Bulletin Board and this is what he says about Jack Watts:- He makes two interesting points:- 1. We still need to give Watts more time and 2. The MFC's development of its young players has been nothing short of appalling. I agree with both points and hope that the football department under Neeld/Craig/Misson manage to get things in order from hereon in. I'm hopeful and I certainly wouldn't be bagging our young players at this stage. I want to see how they get through the coming pre season which the FD promises to be the one that drills them up to close to the same levels that the leading clubs reach every pre season and not the far inferior levels comparatively of the fitness, conditioning and skills work we are told have applied for the past decade.

This isn't an either/or proposition. When we talk about Byrnes or Stevens we are not giving up high draft picks - we are just looking at players that can make an immediate impact that won't cost the earth. I wish people would stop thinking like this is a zero-sum game - you can improve your fortunes in 2013 without sacrificing the future desire for a flag.

West Coast has 12 'first 22' players aged 25 or over, and that is not counting injured guys like LeCras. 12 experienced players who played at least most of the season, quite a few of whom were there for the last premiership and it includes a sixth-time and a fourth-time All-Australian. Adelaide's count of 25-and-over players who played all or close to all of the season is 11, and included gun mids, key forwards, Melbourne had ONE guy over 25 play all games, thank you Jared Rivers, and only a few get close to a full season, like Syliva (17), Dunn (18), Magner (17) and MacDonald (19). None of those were exactly tearing the field apart. So alas, any comparison with the Eagles or the Crows is not really going to work. Their story is of a season or two wih injuries, disruption and poor form, and then regaining the mature players and refreshing their form for another crack, backed by a few good draft selections to fill out the team. Those clubs have not been through a rebuild. Imagine a scenario where, for Melbourne in about 2009, each of Yze, Robertson, Neitz, Brown, White, McDonald, Green, Bruce, Johnstone and Whelan had all had a completely uninjured season and had a solid run of good form. I guess there's two points I'm making - First, we are rebuilding from as 'scratch' as it gets and there is no real comparison with clubs like West Coast or Adelaide, or even Hawthorn, I would say. Second, once you get a solid core of high-quality mature players into your team, you can stay competitive for a long, long time, and a good run with injury and one 'bonus' year of good drafting (picking up a star like Hawthorn did with Rioli or Geelong did with Selwood) and you can push up to the next level and be a true champion team.

Why don't you try think about list management from a more wholistic viewpoint. It's not just about drafting kids or stars, if it were that simple everyone would be doing it. The list needs to be built from every way possible meaning: mature age, trades, FA & the draft, and any other vantage point the club can think of. Our list has holes in it whichever way you look at it & I want the club to improve in any way they can by using the system in every way.

The reviews are useful and interesting if you don't mind reading between the lines. If you need to be spoon fed then it won't be much use. I suggest trying religion.

Disagree. I think we should get every player that has been mentioned on Demonland, all 73 of them.

Should update the thread tite to Jared Rivers - SFA latest.....

I know this is going to sound like weasle words, but my point was less about the actual numbers and more about the point that we would need to, and would be in a position to significantly overpay. I was really just trying to make a point about the scale rather than the absolute numbers (as it's all just guesswork when I don't know how much we're paying our other players), and I still maintain that if we've got the cap room now and in to the future, there's no drawback in doing that if we want the player. I never "wanted" to pay $750k to Wellingham. I don't even particularly "want" Wellingham personally, I was just writing my posts on the assumption that the club did.

please no

Needs more Watts-bashing.

Ah, Nudge. I thought you'd been lost forever. I'll put my hand up as one who has given you a hard time in the past, but I've matured and seen the light. Keep them coming.

And that's just us supporters celebrating the win. Don't even get us started on the players and that Cookie Monster costume they found in the hotel room...

They'll win the flag then get banned from the comp in a conspiracy involving a cadre of spanish hookers and 3 kilos of cocaine.

But I'll claim the sh! t out of it if it do be troo!

It's funny, I spend my time reading idiotic posts and usually don't bother commenting. I read an idiotic post with an idiotic dollar amount that I commented on. But now it was simply "algebraic" to make a point that I'm supposedly missing. How convenient. Maybe the next time a poster makes a silly comment perhaps they're afforded the same 'latitude'. Sydney overpaid for Mumford, but did they overpay McGlynn, Mattner, Shaw, Kennedy, and Richards, or did they just identify the role they could play and give them an opportunity ? The Saints didn't win a flag, but they played in 3 GF's. Did they overpay Dempster, Schneider, Gram, Ray, and before them King and Gardner ? They didn't overpay one of them. They looked for opportunities and picked most of them up for late draft picks. As I said, I'm all for trading, but do it smartly and if there's a big prize by all means "overpay", but don't pay silly dollars as was argued in this thread because we have to fill the cap anyway. Be smart about it. Become a good club that sets standards and makes smart decisions. Mooney and Schwarz reiterated this point on SEN today when they both agreed that "big contracts" creates "discontent" among the playing group. There's a lot more thought needed than simply "we need mature players, let's get them". Don't be shallow thinkers.

Goddard - Wellingham - Caddy - Monfries - Lynch - Jacobs - etc these are the players im talking about

No offence taken bub but there are plenty who don't appreciate the obvious preferring to blame a 21 year old kid for their frustrations about the team's overall performance.

Lolz... Yeah BIG FISH! Who exactly do you propose? What "big fish" are available? How many of them want to come to MFC? You claim others are living in fantasy land and then you say something totally unrealistic... Sheeeesh We're on a slow build. At this stage none of the "big fish" or "A graders" want to come to MFC, so we go after some medium fish and some B graders so we can improve enough to start to attract the big fish.

I have a fantastic idea. If we get young Casboult to the club then we should book the team on a Yarra River cruise and get the whole lot of them totally shickered. Then we chain Levi to the two captains and fill him up with more grog as part of an initiation ceremony, and then ... What's that you say? It's been done before? Oh ...

And people have said his father is a poor manager. Dug in with the deal he wanted.

You don't know what we will give up for him if we get him. We need some experienced bodies. If Neeld thinks he is worth it, then he might just be worth it.

The numbers were meaningless to Nasher's point. We have the capacity, and until we are a better prospect to come to, the need - to overpay for decent talent. Doesn't mean we have to - we can go through the draft and Delisted FA and Rookies and the PSD and low end FAs but if you want decent talent we will have to overpay and our TPP situation is weighted to do that. We have frontended contracts to pay someone this season and if we cannot lure some talent this year we will front end to meet the 95% threshold and do it again next year. Good teams offer the right fringe players more money then they are worth in the educated knowledge they will be worthy of that contract. Sydney did that with Mumford. We did it with Clark. Maybe there is your answer BH - to 'when do we start making the decisions good teams make?' Maybe that was Clark.

Could this be the 2012 version of the Mitch Clark coup? Gone for all money to Freo & then BAM we swoop! [/dream]

Just thought id report now that we are chasing Levi Casboult from carlton. Have made inqiuries to his manager. The John Butcher debate is starting to warm up which could involve a massive super trade that could land john butcher at the dees. And Tom Young of collingwood has apperently been delisted. Not a bad player either just couldn't break into the strong collingwood lineup.

Think he has had 3 recos (2 LARS). Struggled to get a game at Port this year even when fit. About to turn 29. I'd pass.

I wanted to revisit your post. I said that I thought Wellingham would be on about $350K, but even then I wondered if I was being a little generous. It's been reported in today's paper that he's been offered $300K and is having a few days break in WA to assess his options. It's believed he'd prefer to stay at Collingwood, but is going to weigh up the option of returning to Perth. Do you still want to pay $750K to a player that is B grade and one that's been offered $300K by his own club ? I suspect if Melbourne really wanted him they'd offer $450K at best. I'd pass.

Absolutely. Had a laugh at Bartel and Duncan dressing up as S.Rice & K.Bryant. This following last years effort of Ricky Nixon and Duthie. Have to laugh.

Need more people quoting the whole post ...

Quietly astounded that anyone here would expect the club to go putting up in-depth, warts-and-all assessments of the players on a public web site. Heck, I bet even the players don't get to see other player's assessments, yet alone the general public. That kind of info is between each player and Neeld, Craig and perhaps their line coaches, presumably given in a closed meeting.

Interesting thread this. The OP contains an amalgam of trade/FA/draft rumours and innuendo from a number of similar threads on the 'net including our own one about these rumours. Why should it not be merged with that one since the discussion is almost the same?

why bother posting then? Spoils the interest for others.

You have said, repeatedly, that you've put B-H on ignore yet you keep replying to him. It's also funny because he has put you on ignore, so he won't see it. Please stop posting. You make this forum a worse place.

Hooray! Nudge is back! ha ha! this has made my day! All we need now is yze magic and the band is back together!

I seriously hate the Hawks, but I then again I hate all the other sides. I hope the Swans win just to wipe the arrogant look of the Hawks supporters' faces.

And neither playing group permitted a loss of 186. The playing group which you so support produced one of the wretched performances in AFL/VFL history. BEFORE neeld, not after. They played weak, unacountable footy all that year and only beat teams when the opposition was at a low ebb. I'm glad you embraced such a shameful set of performances produced by that group. I'm rapt that you 'back' the playing group - a group that is rumoured to have had half of its members not complete Dave Misson's fitness program before pre-season commenced. A group whose members have spoken alomst openly about not buying in to the new coach's plans for part if not all of the season. Be proud Hardnut. The group has done a wonderful job under adversity.

He´s a phantom, an apparition. Second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit.

That will be messy... I'm guessing 'revealed?' He's already reviled.

Now that my tears have dried, I really wish I hadn't read this thread but the title sucked me in. 2SJ was wonderfully brave and honest and my belated condolences to his family. I lost one of my children, Amy, to cancer on 25Oct06, 3 days shy of her 15th birthday. The memory of her bravery prior to her death is one of the things that keep me breathing. No responses to this PLEASE.

I heard from a very reliable source that two clubs are rumoured to be exchanging players in a deal that will send forums into meltdown.

A lot of Carlton people think Ratten is a lemon. So I guess he would be quite bitter. *groan*

Wellingham is a premiership player, knows the work ethic and game-plan compliance to play in a team that has made the prelim/grand final in every season he has played with them. He would be well known to our coach and has all the skills we currently need for our midfield balance. He is quick, a good overhead mark, has great skills, gets outside possessions, breaks lines and can get his own ball. If Jones, Grimes, Trengove, Magner, Mckensie all have years like this one or improve Wellingham would be the ideal component to make up for the deficiencies of this group. For those discussing his low possession average it is very difficult to get high posessions in a midfield with 3 or 4 other guys getting 30+ possies. Often Wellingham plays roles, on a half forward flank, or on occasion has tagged, these skills make him a more balanced player, but in our midfield I have no doubt he would be getting more possies than our current midfield. Also, in games where Pendelbury, Swan and Ball have been absent Wellingham has stepped up his possession and relished the new role. Anyone remember QB 2011? "He put himself in the spotlight with a career-best 37 possessions in the 2011 Queen's Birthday game against Melbourne, where he stood up in the absence of a number of star team-mates to lead Collingwood to a dominant 88 point win". He hasn't had many chances to be the main man, but this was one and he killed it. Wellingham is a street ahead of our current mids and fills the deficiencies our mid balance currently has, get him!

I totally get what you're saying Ben. It's kinda a scary time in a way. The way I look at it is this: There are teams that are enticing as far as their performance, culture, support, and finals chances go, and we want to become one of those teams. However, in order to get there we need to improve, so we need better players, players that want success but can be persuaded by money, as that's the only weapon we have right now. Once we have used that strategy to build a better team players will start wanting to come to us as we are a successful club and can offer them finals and maybe even a premiership shot, and life will be so much better.

Definately an interesting read El Nudgo. So Morton will be a dee in 2013 because no one else wants him? Ive heard a few of those whispers online from various sources as well which is interesting. A couple Id heard differently were Bate - free agent; Salopek - very little interest anywhere, is planning on SAFL; Knights - wants to be a Tiger. As for Viney - he is as red and blue as you can be. We will take him no matter what no matter where. And you can take that one comment as gospel!

Butcher re-signed at the end of last year for 2 or 3 years with Port. Could not imagine Port would entertain even looking at a trade.

If Norm Smith saw that piece on the MFC website he would probably say: "What is this magic box in front of me? A computer you say? But they are the size of a large, and yet affordable, house in Burwood! A house in Burwood is how much?!" There is no point slagging blokes off on the effing website. Leave the bloke alone - he has heard it all and he is trying to turn it around. He doesn't need a public bake in September when he cannot do anything to respond.

agree he's no better than a Sylvia or Jones. If he's as good that's good enough..get him!

You really think these puff pieces are regarded as gospel within the club? These are more about giving the casual fan (i.e. those who don't read Demonland daily) an overall view of the player, in an obviously optimistic view, knowing the Club needs members to sign up next year. Yeah, I can see it now. Greaves - "Yeah, I've got the report on Cale Morton's season. Runs into 50 pages." Burgan - "I'll just whack that up on the website, then. Cheers. Anything we can to give out information about the club to all and sundry." Neeld - "Yep, that'll be just the thing he needs. And if we want to trade him, well, I'm sure other clubs will be just as forthcoming with their information about their players." Viney - "That Pedersen kid looks alright, I'll check the North website to see what they think of him. Holy [censored], the report's glowing! Why wouldn't we trade for him?" FMD.

The guy will be 26 before next season starts, has played 16 career games, and can't get a game in a middle of the road side behind such luminaries as Robbie Tarrant. Why would anyone think this would be a good deal, particularly as compensation for Gysberts or Martin, both of whom should be clearly inside our best 22 next year?