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I have watched these boards go into meltdown for the last 4-5 years... "Why do we always draft kids that we have to wait to see the best of" "Why can't we draft anyone thats ready to go". Ï'm sick of being on a development curve" We have been let down by our lack of leadership for many years We have been let down by our mid/older players who have not provided guidance, leadership or backbone for our kids. Moloney gone, Green gone, Rivers probably gone, Davey and Sylvia dropped this year - what does this tell you about our past leaders at the club ? So Neeld comes in and lands us a premiership small forward/mid fielder who is ready to go, a premiership CHF who is ready to go and will straighten us up ( and apparently reeks leadership and work ethic which we have sorely been missing) and is looking to bring in more ready to go players and some posters are upset that we are trading away our draft picks ? I think Hogan could be a beauty but he is 17 - dont expect too much too early ( Jonno Patton - the next big thing - how was his first year ?). Viney looks he will be a man child from day one but that is an exception. Whether this strategy works and falls flat I say - more power to you Mr Neeld - you will not die wondering and have my full support !

Pick 4 Hogan Barry Viney Dawes Byrnes That is a seriously impressive haul. Hard to believe the difference Scully's desertion has made, it has turned out to be a godsend

In your opinion... BTW, not many seem to grasp how the 'war chest' works in a salary cap system like the AFL. We have a ton of cap space that we HAVE TO SPEND every year and because we have no-one to pay we are putting blokes on normal contracts and frontloading the living bejeesus out of those contracts. We will have paid Dawes in the region of $400/500k but that is still a small dent and if frontloaded, we can try and tempt someone next year under FA or trades but we can't attract anyone because we are crap. So Dawes will help us be less crap and help attract this Phantom Star FA that is out there and So Wants To Play For The Dees...

^^^^ complete lunacy^^^^

Mark Neeld is going to win this club a flag. Of that, I'm absolutely convinced.

I think I may Ban myself for 2 weeks , so i don't have to keep reading posts like this.

You know your suggestion is bad when Olisik starts paying out on you.

Half an hour old and already screaming at for, FOR DAMMIT!! the Demons: That was six months ago and Community Services Victoria have still not caught up with me. In you face, CSV!!!

Saw this great post by a Saints supporter on BF. Dawes jumper:

pick 20 might be overs for most clubs, but he is a big key forward, which are hard to get and something we badly need. He has physical presence which is something we also lack. He also has valuable experience which is something we also lack. He is obviously ready to go without years of development, so should help us WIN GAMES NOW which is really important for the club. That is not to say he is a short term solution as he probably has a good 6 years left in him, he is the perfect age for us. The only relevant thing is what we could have got with pick 20, and you know for certain that player would not have ticked ANY of the above boxes. Worth every bit of pick 20 FOR US

Twelve months ago we chased Dawes hard, we didn't get him so we got Clark instead. Now we have both!

how's this tweet from Shannon byrnes?! Classic Shannon Byrnes ‏@ShannonBoourns How do you know when you're a Dee?walk out of a store in pako, and a bucks show of 40 blokes break into the melb theme song #GrandOldFlag

My Dad gave me 2 choices. I gave my kids the same choice. Follow the Dee's or go live in a dumpster. There are times I wish I had have picked the dumpster

I've always been a proud Melbourne man, but the 'proud' bit has been sorely tested over the last few years. My pride has been fully restored in part of one Free Agency / Trade period. Well done Neeldy & Co. I know we are in good hands!!

I'm not used to seeing the MFC get what they want, I nearly shed a man tear. Good work Dees, just made Mitch's job easier, put him down for 80 goals. Then in the 2nd half of the season...

Looking at stats of Dawes: 2012 - 36 shots on goal, 16 goals. 2011 - 42 shots on goal, 27 goals. 2010 - 46 shots on goal, 30 goals. The key stat though is in 2012, he had 89 hitouts compared to 12 and 2. Fair to say, his role in the ruck has had a big impact on his effectiveness and confidence. So in stating the obvious. Give him the role of a forward and thats all. Let him focus, get his confidence and if he has a 30 goal season, its definitely a win.

Do you know what RB, faith and belief are things that take courage. I agree with you totally. There are plenty on here who take an easy option by picking holes in everything from afar because they base everything on facts...Mark Neeld is giving this club and the players belief and this will take us along way. Never before have players wanted to join our club, Judd, Burgoyne, Matera, Ball to name a few....why has this changed? Because Mark is getting it right and players he talks to can see that. Dawes, Byrnes come from great clubs with high standards - they wouldn't come to us if the club coach didn't show them a vision that has never before been part of our club. We have the right coach and he is surrounding himself with the right team on and off the field.

Last year it was blatently obvious tht we lack key forwards, of course it was exasperated by Clark's injury... but even with him in we clearly need another genuine key target to kick to. There were a number of games last year where we got thumped, despite matching up well in the clearances, disposals and inside 50 stats, and it is clear why. With Clark and Dawes, followed by Watts and Hogan we should not have this problem for a long time. The fact is we needed this role filled and we simply will not get it with pick 20. The midfield should have the cattle to be a fersome unit in 2-3 years, we don't need to use 20 on that either.Well done MFC, this trade period has been a complete slam dunk for me so far.

Apparently they'll give pick 2 + 3 to anyone who will take over HWFUA;s contract

"Hardball" is code for let's dick each other around for two weeks, waste everyone's time and finally arrive at the deal 5 minutes before the deadline and probably miss it because we cut it so fine that we missed the cutoff for the paperwork. It's the Essendon approach and it's why everyone avoids dealing with them. I'm strongly against this approach. Make a sensible offer first up and just get it done ASAP. If Collingwood want to piss about the edges with it and make silly demands like Ricky bloody Petterd then fine, whatever. Humour them in the interests of getting it done quickly so we can focus on our next move.

The reality bus is with us. We cannot have another year at the bottom, It's simple. We will be a basket case if that happens. We need to get competitive and quickly. Neeld has clearly decided the cattle he has contains glaring weaknesses. And there was no senior leadership at the club. He wasn't going to get stuck with someone else's list. Might as well get shot for his own list that he has control over and who will do what he wants. For that I applaud him. Free agency means we have an opportunity to dramatically reshape our list in a way that was not available previously. Its not quite North Melbourne circa 1975 but it has similarities. We wil be a dramatically different team in 2013 and that is a good thing. Whether that means we will pay for it in 4 years time because we lack young talent coming through is something I can live with now. I can't do another year like 2012. I'd give it away I reckon.

Thread becoming unreadable It is not titled " the incohent murmurings in your head" Am I out of beer, have to take the boys to basketball tomorrow, geez I feel like a chokito, they still make them?

I think that's about to change and those that don't want to play the new game can move on.

How can anyone be unhappy about this? We need someone to give Clark a chop out. Dawes was definately best available, and at the age of 24 he could be with us for a good 8 years. Be happy, we got what we needed and still have pick 4 to get a gun mid.

Clarke Dawes and hogan make for a massive headache for the opposition. We have more gorillas then the Melbourne zoo!

I'm convinced you are wrong. Who else are we going to buy? Buddy? Honestly....enlighten us all on the alternatives given your are so close to the club and players I'm sure you know what we should have done with the rest of our cap and picks...

BREAKING: Dawes to the Dees is done. Dees give Pies picks 20 + 45 in exchange for Dawes and pick 58.

Dawes is a contracted player, they want (need) him to move he wants to come to us not the dogs. If he doesn't get what he wants he can stay with the pies because he has a contract then they are up s...creek with their salary cap. Go figure, who has the best bargaining chip on the table?

Orrrrr........ we could give them Jones and Dunn for pick 1, Chip and pick 20 for pick 2, Howe for pick 3 and Silvia for pick 13. Why keep experience when we could have picks 1, 2, 3 and 13!

Brilliant News on Maxy. Improved 30% on 12 months ago. Does that mean he is 2.7m tall and 130 kg. Yes! ...Yes!.... Please tell me Yes!

I think your gonna need a bigger boat

well I would - overs

he announced on Friday he wanted to come to the Dees, today is Tuesday calm down people clam down!

I like scotch. After watching a Melbourne game I like to drink a lot of it.

You'll be thrilled to know the truth is the total opposite! In both membership and attendance, Melbourne has the BEST conversion of supporters to action. Estimates based on Roy Morgan surveys over the 2000's have or 'supporter' population at around 200,000, creating 35,000+ memberships in 2012, and most notably, growing consistently over the past five years of horror. Here's one relevant article - http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2012/1807/ It is very obvious from these tables that 'saying you are a supporter' is very different from 'actually doing anything'. If you think through the implications, the idea that Melbourne's games can draw crowds even vaguely comparable to those of St Kilda or Richmond is a tribute to our devotion as a supporter group. To put it another way, if those 'passionate and devoted' Collingwood fans turned up to games at the rate Melbourne supporters do, then in the middle of rubbish years there'd be 80,000 of them turning up to games against Fremantle. Most recent comparison would be round 18 2005, when they got 26,000. Now that's fickle, two years after a couple of Grand Finals. Burn it into your brain - Melbourne supporters are THE MOST ACTIVE AND RESILIENT supporters in the AFL. Never let anyone say otherwise. You don't support Melbourne because it's the easy option, do you?

I come from Hawthorn supporting parents. My Father thought he did the right thing by encouraging his children, who were going to be MCC members, to support Melbourne, the powerhouse club at the time. I've seen no success and missed out on 9 flags. It's a touchy subject.

So you can't judge a kid after 4 years but you can judge the development at the Demons under Neeld after 1 season? Development of players is important and one area that we are finally getting finances into (Misson) but don't tell me Neeld is to blame for Gysberts' lack of development.

Yes at 28 he ought to get the walking stick out. He's less than a year older than the current Brownlow medalist. He hardly missed any games this year through injury apparently, and is about to do Kokoda so I'm assuming he'll do a full pre-season. Regulation injuries pending, he won't touch a Casey jumper next year.

500 large for a proven entity , albeit form up and down but theres reasons possibly for that. A player that would fit directly into the new game plan and provide not only on ground options but off -field benefits to a growing culture.weigh this up against...oh I dont know.. A million for an over hyped mid or even some of our own wonderful bargains in contracting. Collingwood know they arent paying him enough in the current market. 500 ?? as is often mooted here or abouts some one has to get it. whats the average fee for a goal in the AFL these days ? ka ching !

No.

I wonder what is taking so long. I would of thought it would go something like this. Melb: 'We will give you pick 20 for Dawes' Coll: 'Sweeten the deal' Melb: 'We will throw in Morton' Coll: 'I SAID SWEET NOT POISON!' Melb: 'Apologies, how about Petterd' Coll: 'Ok done'

The Pies already have a reputation Red !! B)

Ooh, I like a good clam chowder.

Petterd is probably a delist so throwing him into the deal costs us ...ummm...nothing. $500K contract - sounds about right. Petterd a star at Collingwood- if he is a star at Collingwood good luck to him and damn his eyes for being a pretender at Melbourne.

Still unsure about pick 20. Reported today that we will be paying him 500k. Is he really worth this much. As much as I think he will be good, I am starting to think, keep 20 and getting Pederson is a better option.

Macdonald isn't a player blessed with great skills or ability to read the play, but he gives everything he's got and more whenever he's on the field. He's the type of player that we need to set an example for the younger ones coming through. I don't think he'll be part of our next premiership team, but I think that at the moment he's an important player for us.

Was brought up in a Collingwood recruiting zone, just next to the Essendon zone. All things considered, I think I made the correct choice.

He would have earned more respect from me if he just came out and said he did it... instead of guilt tripping and hiding behind his achievements, cancer and charity work. Just because everyone else did it doesnt make it right. Im surprised he could go along with it for so long - the guilt would have killed me

Hi Guys, for my first ever post I will pass on some inside information. Chris Dawes has no long term medical issues. When injured, he is the most dedicated, determined and professional player in terms of his rehab and the way he deals with it. None of the injuries he has had in the past couple of years, (ankle, knee, hand) will stop him from being an excellent player in the future for Melbourne. Melbourne are well aware of this because the Melbourne Physio was previously a Collingwood Physio and approached the Collingwood Medical Team at the Draft Camp making enquiries about Dawes' injuries. Around the club, Dawes is regarded as a true professional, intelligent, articulate, a strong leader and excellent role model for the younger players. When quizzed by me, my source said he knew of no reason why Collingwood would want to trade him. My source is high up within the Collingwood inner sanctum, a great bloke, and has never lied to me in the past. He could only suppose that salary cap issues were the reason why Collingwood were happy to trade him. His info has always been spot on. Hope this helps put the naysayers away. I would trade Pick 20 and Martin for Dawes in a heartbeat.