Leaderboard

There is a lot of truth in this rumour. I can confirm we are chasing Danger and have been for sometime. I can confirm long term discussions with his manager. However like most on here I agree its going to be a difficult sell to get Danger to the Dees. We are in the running, we can offer Adelaide the best deal, we can probably offer Danger the most money, but we are still a long shot. Much better than 1% as suggested by another poster, but still far from a level of getting excited. Roos needs to weave his magic. If he lands with the Dees we can thank Roosy.

THE BREATH OF LIFE - DRAFT ASSISTANCE by Whispering Jack How poorly does a team have to perform before it qualifies for draft assistance under the current AFL rules? Nobody really knows the answer because the outcome of an application is based on vague guidelines. The AFL Commission is due to draw on these when it determines Melbourne's latest such application at its forthcoming meeting next week. We do know that an application by the club was rejected last year after a number of clubs objected, mainly on the basis of how could the AFL allow such a thing so soon after the so-called "tanking" enquiry (so much for the independence of the AFL Commission)? We shouldn't forget that the two clubs who raged loudest against Melbourne last year were Hawthorn and Collingwood whose presidents joined then AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou on a trip to the United States to study issues surrounding "equalisation" of sporting competitions. Talk about Dracula running the blood bank - the first thing Andrew Newbold and Eddie McGuire did when they stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac at Tullamarine was to complain loud and hard about giving any AFL draft assistance to a team that won only two games in season 2013 and four in the year before. Never mind that their own clubs gratefully accepted priority picks less than a decade earlier which helped land both of them premierships. The Hawks won four games in 2004 and, as a result picked up Jarryd Roughhead at selection 2 (with Buddy Franklin at 4) in that year's national draft while the Magpies snuck in with five wins in 2005. Their priority pick at 2 was Dale Thomas (they got Scott Pendelbury at 5) and nobody made too much noise about the fact that they somehow managed to lose the last eight matches of the season to get their prize. Carlton managed even better when they snared the priority pick three years in a row culminating with the Kreuzer Cup of 2007, completing the "grand slam of tanking" after they lost eleven in a row to finish the season. Yet, Demetriou continued to publicly maintain that there was no such thing as tanking in the AFL. The rules have changed and clubs now need to plead a special case to obtain draft assistance. Melbourne's plight over the best part of an entire decade is well known. The events that led to the "tanking" affair took place in 2009 and the club is under new management making early inroads into its precarious on field situation. To raise that issue again as a bar to assistance five years later would be unconscionable. How many times can a club be punished for doing the same thing, especially after the stronger, more established AFL clubs got away with little more than a cursory look? No, if the AFL is to act responsibly in dealing with Melbourne's application, it must do so on its merits and not pre judge it as Football Operations Manager Mark Evans did recently when he cast doubt the application's chances of succeeding. So while a mere four or five wins was no long ago considered enough to merit a priority pick for the likes of Evans' most recent club Hawthorn, Collingwood and on multiple occasions Carlton, Melbourne has to go begging to the AFL after nine losing seasons and on ten wins in the last three years or an average over that time of just 3⅓ wins per season. The thought is a vulgar to me as the fraction at the end of that number. Melbourne is a club that had no nominees for the 2014 Rising Star, no players in the recently announced AFL Under 22 team, no players on the forty man All-Australian shortlist and not surprisingly, received no mentions at last week's MVP. Melbourne has been one of the hardest hit clubs in terms of recent AFL innovations including the rules relating to the introduction of the new franchise clubs and free agency. Tom Scully was taken when barely out of his teens for compensation that is barely kicking in four years later. The club has lost Jared Rivers, Brent Moloney, Colin Sylvia and most likely now, James Frawley to free agency. Again, it will take time to determine whether the compensation for their loss turns out to be fair and equitable. On top of that, the Demons have been struck blows from unforeseen places to players who under normal circumstances would be close to marquee items, helping to win games and draw crowds to its fixtures. I refer here to Mitch Clark, Liam Jurrah and Austin Wonaeamirri who, but for their extraordinary, sad and well documented circumstances, would be leading a formidable Melbourne forward line capable helping the club to kick winning scores instead of the lows to which we have become accustomed of late. And you can't blame poor administration or coaching on these things. Last year, one of the reasons given for not awarding draft assistance was that the club had the likes of Jesse Hogan in the wings and Clark returning from injury. Look how that turned out! If the AFL is at all serious, it will realise that the Melbourne Football Club is crying out for help and that it must endorse its claim for assistance by giving it an early first round priority pick commensurate to that which was given to Hawthorn, Collingwood and Carlton and the incredible concessions given to the new franchise clubs in the recent past. Such a boost will help the club's efforts to rise beyond just being competitive and save it from the cruel death meted out to the Fitzroy Football Club two decades ago. If the AFL values its integrity, it will deal out a fair and just result to Melbourne's application for draft assistance to give it the breath of life it so sorely needs.

This whole fiasco fills me with disgust. Depression is no excuse for manipulation, lack of integrity and plain bad behaviour. Collingwood are no better for being a party to it.

FA can FO

All the best coaches were new coaches once. I'd rather take a shot at the next great coach - with all the risks that includes - than take on proven middle of the road coaches like Voss or Ratten. These names are the only really viable alternative to the new coaches; the best in the business don't tend to move around a lot. I know you're afraid of getting another Neeld. We all are. We could get another Neeld, but we could also get another Ken Hinkley, or another Neale Daniher. I'm pretty comfortable with that. Unless we get really lucky and Alastair Clarkson feels like a change of scenery, it's a new coach for me.

Dogs are loyal

I'd rather let him go to the draft then swap him for Labamba

Definitely the most unrealistic post I have read on this forum

I'd take it one step further, saints would only nominate pick 19 if they had him ranked well higher than. Otherwise they risk missing out on an even better player as you never know who might slip out of the 1st round. So if they or anyone else don't really rate him as a top 15 certainty in this draft then we'll get him with our 3rd rounder imo.

Presenting The Ollie Whines Lounge. A place where all the ollie whiners can come to mingle. What's that? Ollie Wines had 46 disposals, 18 clearances, 14 tackles and kicked 7 goals? Need to cry into someone's shoulder? This is the place for you. Forget creating new threads to tell the world how angry you are. Forget "gee that Wines kid goes alright, thanks Mark" in every second thread. This is your one stop shop for the great big sook. In The Ollie Whines Lounge, you can bleat and moan to your heart's content, free from the judgement of others. Never again will your insistence that you "knew Wines would be a star" fall on deaf, uninterested ears. Enjoy our unrivalled selection of tissues and hard liquor. Relax on our vinyl couches where the tears just roll right off. For the dead eye dicks, you will find our dart boards, each with a bullseye featuring either Mark Neeld or that awful Jimmy Toumpas. Show your friends who really wanted Wines more. After hours and feeling that impending mix of sadness and anger? Retreat to our Self Flagellation Room (proudly sponsored by BBO). Whine in comfort and style in The Ollie Whines Lounge. And when you leave, please, for the love of god, shut the [censored] up about Ollie Wines.

Mate, land me Petracca and a decent name like Tex or a 2 for 1 in the mould of Tyson/Salem and i'll be like this all pre-season/season:

Then you have Nate Fyfe. The problem with sweeping statements with the draft is that they fall apart very easily. People saying they'd listen to the 10% in future after the Wines pick are ignoring that they'd then be barracking for a Strauss/Cook type pick up. How about we do something as outrageous as support our young player who loves the place and has got to be EASILY the most mis-managed player at this club… since Jack Watts came to the MFC. He was handled so poorly through his first few games that that, combined with the rubbish side he has to play in and consistent injury interruptions means there's no wonder he's had a slow start to his career. Has things to work on in his game but certainly not one to rule a line through. Hoping for big things from JT next season.

Wasn't Mitch Clark Jesse Hogan's mentor? Just thought I'd post that in case any of you are running out of things to worry about.

I love it. Its like walking yourself to the electric chair... So apt and honest. Great work.

So happy to see this insufferable [censored] receive a one match suspension for yet another moronic, selfish act of stupidity on field. Right after coming out the week before lamenting his poor decision making and accompanying ban a fortnight prior. Downright dhead.

you raised me.

God I love trade period. So many rumours and so much BS. Will be glad when its over and we know who the hell is coming to us.

Mitch Clark booed as the crowd sees a big screen shot of him sitting in the stands.

I don't think the PP is an issue. What is an issue is who we've picked. Hawks and Collingwood, as you point out, got it right but sadly we got it so very very wrong. The PP concept was wrong and that's why they changed it. I've been told the PP is there for "extraordinary" circumstances. It will be interesting to see if Clark fits that catagory. I doubt it unless he gets to another club for nothing and even then it's hard to see. He's just had a significant injury but not nearly as bad as Alex Johnson or Moribito. Time to stand on our own two feet and get some of our picks right. We've had about 13 top 20 picks since 2007 and I reckon we've got about 3 or 4 that can play, none of them anywhere near A grade. One pick after the first round is hardly going to make a significant difference and I'm sick of getting handouts.

As strange as this sounds coming from a FB page, I can confirm this rumour. I was informed a number of weeks ago by someone associated with the inner sanctum of the club that we were going hard after Jeremy Cameron and that it was sounding promising. This was prior to/ around the time of the Dogs targeting Patton and then him going down with an ACL, so I'm not exactly sure where their intentions now lay or if that effects our chances of securing the in contract Cameron as the Dogs may now also be chasing him. With regards to picks and what's involved I didn't and still don't know but it's blatantly obvious that if this was to eventuate our first pick would certainly be involved. As for Frost I have heard nothing other than the associated newspaper article that we were looking at him to replace Frawley, so the trade proposed above makes sense and fits well with the murmurous I've heard. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more along the lines of our picks 2, 3 (if we get it), and 3rd rounder to GWS for Cameron, pick 4, and Frost. An exchange of later picks may also be involved - hopefully to our advantage.

Does the missus ever read any of your posts BBO?

Club culture made him lie to a dying Stynes? Pretty sure it was his own personality culture that did that. Time to stop blaming the club for players who are [censored].

The draft assistance rule isn't the only one on the AFL's books that have the effect of giving some assistance or advantages to clubs which are adding to the participants in their very own swimming classes. We're already seeing the effect of the rules that are giving the new franchise clubs a leg up but did you know that both GWS and GC Suns will benefit this year with compensatory draft picks in the top 20 in the November National Draft? Sydney is set to pick up Isaac Heeney, a NSW scholarship squad member, with their pick which will be a late first round selection. Heeney is considered a probable top five pick but for the special rule in place for the Swans (and it's not even clear why the rule's there). Next year, the rule will most likely give them another top five midfield prospect even if they finish near the top again. Is there any chance they might abdicate their entitlement to take advantage of the rule? On Saturday, I saw Darcy Moore plying his trade for the Oakleigh Chargers in the TAC Cup Preliminary Final. Like Heeney, he would almost certainly be picked in the top 5 in the draft. The Magpies will take him with pick number 8. Thanks to the father/son rule they will get an advantage over clubs like St. Kilda and Melbourne which finished bottom two but thanks to an AFL rule they can't take him. I don't hear GWS, GC Suns, Sydney and Collingwood knocking back the benefit of those rules any time soon.

What Clark is doing is far worse than what Scully did - and that's saying something.

How Melbourne are you, Chip and Mitch?

My hate will know no bounds. No remark I will sling his way will be out of bounds. Any one know where he lives? Joking! I already know... Joking...

Cats, Hawks, Dockers all had a go at him. All top 4 clubs. Yes FA is working a dream, bottom clubs lose their players and top clubs get them.

if they couldn't put players in it they could have at least added some witches hats

I think history shows that there's a reasonable chance that you can risk getting a modest player at 2 or 3 and that it's not that much bigger a risk at 9. As supporters we greatly overestimate the value of draft picks IMO.

Is it massive overs? It's two maybe guns (2 and 3) for a known gun and a maybe gun (Dangerfield and 9). Toumpas is an unknown quantity - call him another maybe gun, to help balance out the risk on Adelaide's part. Not sure if I'd do the trade, but I think I would. I'd at least give pause if I was on either side of the trade. Edit: beaten to it by sweet Dee!

That is appalling. Someone was given way too much creative licence. I guess its hard to put players actually playing in it when everyone is tradeable

I agree. Toumpas looks okay to me. His greatest crime appears to have been in being selected ahead of Ollie Wines. Hardly his fault, and not the only player in that draft to be selected above him. In fact, it'd be interesting to know who Port would've selected with pick 4 if they were in our position. As we all know, all the clubs had Toumpas going ahead of Wines on draft day. That Wines would now be selected ahead of most in the league is a completely different issue. Edit. Typo

The other difference is attitude. We were drafting kids with x-factor, but no drive to get the best out of themselves. Toumpas will be a great player because he won't let himself not be. I remember hearing Viney say he was hoping we'd pick up Toumpas as well, which is why I was stoked when we were a chance. Jack certainly won't have hard feelings about not selecting Ollie, dunno why you guys do. Edit: spelling.

Did I hear someone say Brock McLean left the club because of its poor culture? Is that the bloke who was arrested twice on drink related charges while overseas, who did wheelies on the Trinity car park damaging its asphalt cover, who attended funerals of gangland killers and who jumped ship to a club that tanked three years in a row and told three incredulous interviewers on a football panel show what the blind miner couldn't see? Had nothing to do with the fact that Carlton offered him lots more money and were prepared to give away a first round draft pick to make it happen, did it?

That's right it was our poor culture, not $7.2m, that made him leave. I feel so sorry for him. Please never, ever blame the MFC again, for that dishonest individual dumping us.

Higgins seems destined for someone like Carlton or Richmond anyway. He suits their profile - soft, injury prone outside runner with decent skills.

Blease release me , let you go .......

I love the way this kid backs in his ability and pace.. Has a classy left foot like green.. And with abit more education could be our version of Parker from Sydney!!! Definite favourite!

I remember Eddie being FURIOUS when we were circling Cloak in his UFA year. This IMHO is much, much worse. I doubt he'll see it that way.

I've been doing some more thinking on this and I think I have the answer to our membership woes: Hipsters. Think about it. Market MFC memberships to all those hipsters so they can support us ironically. Then if we actually become good, they can show off to all their friends and say they were MFC members "before it was cool." Just think about the hipster-centric slogans! "I have an MFC membership, you probably don't even know what that is." "I was an MFC member before the posers signed up." "My favourite player is Neville Jetta. You probably never heard of him." "Nathan Jones should be AA, but we're the only ones smart enough to notice."

What would you offer to Adelaide? Conversely, what would you accept if the situation were reversed? Say it was Nathan Jones on the table (and look past "nup, not on the table" for the sake of interesting hypotheticals). During the Bailey years I knew someone who worked at a club and participated in trade week. He said that all the clubs had a different approach to trading: some like Essendon would do its best to offer ridiculous trades to try and screw you and ultimately do very few trades because other clubs would stop wasting their time. Other clubs like Sydney under Roos would work out what they wanted and offer up a fair price straight away and the deals would get done quickly with no fuss. They had a model of being easy to do business with, and had a lot of success at the trade table a result. I want us to focus less on being tight and focus on getting the job done. Don't try and get Dangerfield cheaply, acknowledge that he is an asset and will be expensive, offer accordingly and get the job done. Don't forget that in this trade it is Adelaide taking all the risk, given they are loading up on draft picks. We of all clubs should be aware of how horribly that can go wrong.

his little toe would be in our top 22.

I thought he'd signed with the cats, Picket? Like I said, they were confident, but it was far from over the line. I personally think he's probably posturing for a larger contract, and will still go to Geelong. But you don't make these trips if anything has been shook on.

Yet at the same time Todd Viney, better than anyone else, was familiar with both Toumpas and Wines respective pedigrees and we picked him. We had the inside running on information against the other Clubs yet we made the choice that every other recruiting officer would have made at the time.

I liked it and agree it's hard to put players in it when we don't know who Have be on the list come round 1. I'm sure there will be more promo videos come out once the list is final. Living In the bush and already being a MCC member I admit I was a bit tight the last two years but just paid the MCC last week and ticked the extra $$ box to sign up as a Dees member as well. #myheartbeatstrue

Keep the rumors coming. You're not going to squeeze a contracted superstar from another club to our on-field mess without firstly offering the player a huge wad of cash, and secondly, giving the other club something to seriously consider. In this case, it would be a plump return and the knowledge that we will be knocking with the same offer to Dangerfield in 12 months time, with only one first rounder coming back to Adelaide as compensation. I'd rate it about a 1% on the probability scale, but I like to imagine we are being active like this.

David Tomato... What's your source Twins?

Saints will only bid their 2nd rounder if they genuinely believe he is the ~19th best player in the draft. I think we'll get him for a 3rd rounder.

It was reported on SEN that Melbourne had made Dangerfield a "Godfather" offer: Pick 2 and two players. Adelaide knocked it back, which self-evidently means the offer cannot be termed "Godfather" since it was an offer that Adelaide COULD refuse.