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Haven't spoke to pat for a while, however last night I was lucky enough to run into some other mutual friends. Namely Bernie Vince. It's not a dead deal yet. We have offered him a deal to set him up for life and he is mulling over it. Dont expect any news for a week.

I have no idea whether Clark has depression or not. I just wish people who have no concept about how depression affects people would stop assuming because someone looks happy they can't possibly have depression.

Not sure how to say this without being melodramatic, but I would lose interest in AFL as a sport if Nathan Jones left us via free agency next year.

Everyone is different - fair enough. But I've stared the black dog down without a zillion dollar contract and a shiteload of professional support. I beat the bastard on my own, got on with my life and didn't [censored] anyone else over. Not easy but that's my story,

McCartin is being touted as a once in 10 year forward. The Dogs are desperate to get him. Maybe even the Saints. We have 2 and 3 and maybe the best we will get for years to come, we hope. Most clubs rate Petracca as something special. We will get Brayshaw who may be as good as Petracca. As I have said I am warming to to get 2 of the three and Stretch and build our club on them and the improvement on guys we already have. Salem, Toumpas, Hogan, Kent, JKH, Trengove, King, Hunt, McDonald, Harmes and maybe Barry and even Watts and others, have room for improvement. McCartin and Hogan could set us up for the next 10 years like Buddy and Roughy did for the Hawks. A few trades and more draft picks will improve the side with the likes of Frost, Merrett, Lumumba etc. I don't want to throw away this chance, unless we get a top player for the loss of either of these 2 picks. I agreed with the Tyson/Salem deal but I am worried this year that no one is talking a Tyson and we actually rated Salem at 3, don't see that happening this year.

probably recorded that a year ago

So, as apart of working at NAB I was lucky enough to spend the day at Etihad yesterday and got to do all the testing for a bit of fun. Got there early for a look and have to say, love the look of Petracca. No idea if he can play or not but he's that protege big arsed midfielder who walks with a lot of swag. Very excited to see him play for whoever gets him next year. The only thing worth noting was watching the kicking drill, the boy Garlett has fantastic skills both sides. Some of the kids really shanked it on the opposites and he was a star. On other notes, got a solid 15min chat with Kevin Sheehan and I had to ask him a couple quick questions. First one was around Toumpas and what his thoughts were why he might be struggling. He said that some kids just unfortunately hit there ceiling when 18 years old and he mightn't continue to get better like others around him have however its impossible to tell where he is at after his hip issues. He said every team would have taken him at our pick and has faith he will be a really good player. Asked him what we will do with our picks and he thinks similar to last year in the Dom Tyson trade. Said this year there is little difference between picks 4 and 20. The end of the day we spent with Brad Johnson who was an absolute star to talk with. Full of energy, running around having a kick with us country plebs. Asked Brad about free agency and he said it obviously works both ways with the dogs nearly going all the way with Hall and Aker but it was different then as now the players clearly have all the power. Said he is worried for the Saints, Dees and Dogs retaining quality players and thinks there is danger of clubs like ours will be nothing more than teams that attract mercenaries in the near future. Finally, I think the combine results are a bit of a [censored]. I tested in the high quartile in the 20m sprint, agility and the standing jump. Was in the mid/high quartile in skills however as a footballer am a genuine dust buster and rarely ever got a touch and would be playing twos in the bush if I was still playing. Lots of people put to much emphasis on these kind of days and forget about genuine footballers in Priddis, Mitchell and Swan's of the world.

I saw it, and have thoroughly failed to understand why it's got people in to such a spin.

Frawley too. Call it a case of premature evacuation

I think he'll stay.

Confused why he wasn't given a run when Blease and Nicho were. I still think he has something to add to the list. Good luck to him!

To those hand wringers worried about the 'state of the club' - we can only move forward with the best we can do from now. The present. Roos is not going to just [censored] off and leave the club in 2017, he is a Demon now. He will have coached 66 games and hand balled the life consuming job of head coach to Goodwin. Roos may even move up the chain and give our board some appreciated help when it comes to football decisions and AFL industry lobbying. Jackson is doing a fine job from all reports and the board look to be quiet if not impressive, I will take quiet. What you are seeing is the club waking up from the malaise, what we don't need is for, once again, the grudges and anxieties that plague those that follow this club to manifest themselves under Roos and, more importantly, under Goodwin. Building a winning culture, comes before winning, winning will bring out all the dormant Demons, and only with all the desperate groups and factions behind the club will we be strong enough to thrive long term. Thinking of ways to strengthen that is helpful, looking at the avenues to tear it down is, seemingly, the Melbourne way...

3 teams have won the last 8 of 10 premierships. These three teams have all picked up great players in free agency and are odds on to be top 4 again next year with one of the three more likely than the rest of the comp to win again next year. Given that three clubs have 9 of the last 10 championships in the EPL I would say we already have the EPL like farce competition we all feared. Free Agency is not the only reason we have this situation as it has been a slow degradation of the two lone bastions of equalisation in the AFL "competition". The salary cap and the draft. The AFL is already heinously inequitable when it comes to fixturing, blockbusters, match revenue, access to profitable time slots, football department spending, facilities and ability to have access to and affect decisions by chief AFL officials, but all these issues aside player movement is being degraded by 5 key factors: 1. The erosion of player loyalty and media acceptance of the most traitorous behaviour by players. 2. The ability of players to choose their destination in trades and FA. This has ruined the desired impact of the salary cap as low clubs who should be able to offer more lucrative contracts often don't even get to have a discussion with highly desired players. Also it has effected the draft as the system was meant to mean that the lowest finishing clubs either gain the best youngster with their draft pick or have the best pick to offer in a trade. Given that players don't field offers from the entire comp it means lower clubs can't use the low draft pick to bid on the best players, also it means clubs don't get the best available deal for the player, particularly if the player chooses a top team. This plays out in the Clark example where if the MFC could trade him to any club it could field offers from clubs like St Kilda and WB who can offer far better picks than his chosen club the cats where the demons are greatly limited in what deal they can strike due to the cats relatively low picks and advantage given melbourne can't meaningfully threaten not to deal with the cats. At the very least Melbourne could drive up Clarksville value by fielding other offers and force the cats to give up something of real value making it a more even competition, not just for the dees but for everyone, however this isn't an option as players choose their destination! 3. Draft picks ain't what they use to be. The increase in player movement has made high draft picks far less valuable. Given that if you have a player from ages 18-25 you are far less likely to see their best football especially given that the clubs receiving them usually are already vulnerable. Clubs are better off waiting and gaining players in their 25-29 yo prime via free agency or the aforementioned rigged trade system. This is why with both pick 1&2 on the trade table this year neither team will receive a tier 1 player as a trade. 4. Players are taking less lucrative contracts for success. Now that has happened with members of a team taking cuts to stay together (which ultimately negatively effects the salary cap mechanism) I think most footy fans are ok with this. But players are now moving clubs for less money to play in successful teams it is hurting those teams that happened to have the bad luck to be unsuccessful in this era more than ever before and has effectively made the equalisation effect of the salary cap non existent. 5. Finally free agency. Not only can top clubs now have the advantage of a rigged trade system ( one where clubs cannot even threaten to send a player to the draft due to the Luke Ball saga!) but they can grab the best players from any club in their prime for nothing. Mfc has lost one required player to a top 4 team every year that this system has existed and has gained discarded players who were likely to be delisted anyway and devalued draft picks in return. Not only does this make the teams that gain these players stronger making it near impossible for teams like melbourne to beat them given they had most likely lost to them in the year proceeding already but the loss of these players hurts melbourne more than most other clubs due to its already relatively small number of high quality players. Needless to say 3 clubs 8 premierships ten years likely to become 3 clubs 9 premierships 11 years. A competition where only 3-5 clubs can win every year while the other 13 get worse is no competition at all. If Nathan Jones leaves MFC next year, or Dangefield goes to the swans, cats or hawks or any of the other bull@&$) scenarios likely to play out under this rigged system then I, someone who has loved AFL all my life and is a 26 year member of the demons will be turning my back on the sport. I thought Australia was about the fair go, obviously not.

RIP Robbie..... ...........as a mid-forty something lifelong Demons supporter I had pleasure of being spellbound by 'Robbie's' genius as a pre-adult in what were arguably, in my living memory anyway, the most uncompetitive years of the MFC. During this time I had the pleasure, on a dozen or so occasions of seeing the 'maestro' play live, including the entire 1987 finals series.....the other performances were sometimes relayed on the radio (MFC....not very often), or in the papers.....not usually 'Back Page Stuff' though......but the odd bit got in there! But this thread is not about what I witnessed and experienced when it comes to Robbie Flower.......it's about making sure his contribution to the game of Australian Football, the VFL and the Melbourne Football Club (and Melbourne Cricket Club even though I don't think they were affiliated with the MFC at the time) is recognised in perpetuity!! Now........this week we have experience another modern football phenomenon, 'The Draft Combine' and the beginnings of the toing's and froing's of another trade period. But. in a quiet moment this afternoon I pondered how OUR Robbie would have stacked up in such a clinical, regimented, cut-throat, measured and forceful environment? How would he have done in the 20 sprint repeat sprint 3km time trial standing jump agility test Nathan Buckley Kick Test and all the other 'measurements' that are supposed to help separate the 'want-to-be's' from the 'genuine articles'. Personally I think it would have been a monumental achievement for Robbie if he had even been invited to attend in the first place, and that makes me think of the loss to our game if such a genius was overlooked and NEVER had the opportunity to show, or express, his skills and intricate understanding of our great game. Yesterday I listened to many stories and anecdotes on SEN about our lost champion and my mind has 'stuck fast' to the verse of this Ode to Robbie Flower suggesting the 'Member's Wing' take on his name.(http://www.sen.com.au/audio look for the Ode to Robbie Flower). Robbie was more than just a great player, he was a genuine leader of men..........Let's face it anyone who is selected Captain of their state team for the annual 'State of Origin', while their own team is on the bottom of the ladder has something beyond physical ability that others respect and admire greatly. SO, let's make sure his legacy is not just confined to the MFC annuls and is a part of the AFL/MFC forever by SUPPORTING THE IDEA of THE ROBBIE FLOWER MEMBERS WING. I don't know where else to start this 'push' but I am sure many on here have the connections to make it happen. Go Dees.

I thought our season was very promissing up to the Collingwood game. We seemed to drop off after that. All the defensive pressure seemed to have evaporated and bad habits I thought were disappearing from previous seasons returned. Like after we were mathematically out of the finals race we had no more incentive and gave up.That irked me a lot because at the very least I was expecting that we would have had some pride to fight the season out. We finished the season on a significant downer. If we have to rely on only tangible incentives to motivate improvement then that is not a good cultural sign. I hope this is one trait of club culture that is on the agenda to be eradicated for next season.

Jake Stringer and Jackson Macrae were taken with picks four and five at the 2012 AFL National Draft and both have moved way ahead of our choice at pick three (Jimmy Toumpas) which means that it would be madness on the part of the Bulldogs to trade either of them out simply to improve draft position by a few places. However, the success of that pair probably strengthens Redlegs view about not parting with picks two and three unless a very strong trade comes along. If we are to deal with the Bullies, I would like to see a player of much better quality than Tutt and there's also the possibility of them throwing in a draft pick as well, especially now that they look like picking up a compensatory pick for losing Shaun Higgins. Incidentally, they are looking at getting pick 26 for Higgins which may well be the case but it surely demonstrates their hypocrisy in suggesting Frawley wasn't worth pick three. What did they think he was worth? Pick 23 which is the pick after our second round selection?

Mate, seriously, break it up into sentences FFS.

As a past union delegate, and having been involved in two Enterprise Bargaining agreements in coal mines, I must say im surprised at the apparant softness of the AFL, in relation to the free agency farce. In every agreement, there is an "intent" behind every clause. You simply cant put enough words into a document that covers every contingency. Most agreements allow a modification of said agreement, once it is realised that the wording of the document is actually working in a different direction to what was intended. If it was actually put, by the players assocciation, that it was "intended" to facilitate the movement of fringe players from one club to another, it should be a very easy fix for the AFL. That is, at the next periodic review (again, standard practice), both parties should simply agree to scrap it, or modify it to allow the intent, to rule the clause. From experience, a commissioner will pay close attention to "intent", over actual wording. The players are weilding FAR too much power here, and if left unchecked, will certainly turn the comp into an Australian version of the EPL. A effing joke.

Obviously I knew that..... well, um maybe not quite. Er, thanks. Nice weather we are having......

Yes, like he got into the heads of the Collingwood players and tore the club apart. FFS.

Seriously hoping the Club wants this guy. With HL & NM rebounding out of the back half......it's a deelightful prospect.

The main issue is that the AFL hasnt put in a true free agency in the sense that it is restricting the players that become free agents. The only time when it has become close to proper free agency is when Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney came in and they could negotiate with all out of contract players with enormous cap space and we saw players like Davis, Scully, Ablett, Ward move for the reason that should drive free agency, money. The AFL is only allowing players of a certain tenure to become free agents and these players by virtue of their age are (a) not necessarily going to be desirable to rebuilding clubs and (b) are possibly going to be motivated by team success rather than money. A genuine free agency, as an example, would see next year Dylan Shiel and Adam Treloar, two wantaway Giants, be on the market as restricted free agents. That is what would be happening in the NFL. In this scenario, the likelihood is that, for example, St Kilda could offer a 4 year $4 million deal to Treloar and Melbourne could offer something similar for Shiel. GWS probably could only afford one and they are forced into a decision. That is how it should work. The other issue is that is there really enough money to warrant free agency. In the NFL, routinely a good player from a Super Bowl winning team may be on $4 million in his free agent year, have a good season and then be offered a 5 year $40 million contract to sign with a lowly team. The Super Bowl winning team, under cap pressure, can't compete, can theoretically only offer $6 million a year, and the player moves for $10 million more over the life of the contract. Is an extra $600,000 over 4 years or 5 years really enough to drive a player to make a money-driven move in AFL.

Going early was funny. But ripping down the post to admit you'd made a boo boo was even funnier. When will the world realise that once something is out it is out? How often do people remove stuff off the Internet to try to conceal something? Don't they know about screen capture? Pulling them just makes you look sneaky / dishonest / guilty / stupid / take your pick.

Probably with the boys on the end of season trip lol

Just like Australia!

I am warming to keeping 2 and 3 and taking Brayshaw and Petracca or McCartin. If they are as good as most think, we can set ourselves up for the future. Either 2 quality mids or a mid and key forward. Still plenty of room for more trades and picks after that.

After a lengthy hiatus from Demonland, I felt the need to contribute to this post as it was also the greatest goal I've ever seen. I actually raised this exact goal on another forum.It was incredible. It was along the members' wing and Robbie also baulked past a few Bombers' players, then kicked it from around 45m to the Napier St. end. Having grown up not far from Windy Hill, it's fair to say that the Bombers' members weren't known for their salutations for opposition players. But even they applauded en masse. I can also recall the goal being shown on WOS. It was almost in sepia with fake audio. As an aside, Robbie also took the best mark I've seen live. It was against Fitzroy at G, and there is footage of it in a highlights package of Robbie. But the footage doesn't do it justice. Robbie ran with the flight of the ball, then twisted and jumped onto the shoulder of the Fitzroy player, and plucked a one-hander. For degree of difficulty, it was better than Jeff Farmer's mark against Richmond in '98.

I'd be wary of Jizza's cheese

The main reason they can't sack Hird for appealing the dismissal of their case - is that he will make sure they pay him out in full!! Nobody seems to remember that before an abnormal number of soft tissue injuries swept through the club, Essendon played surprisingly brilliant footy in 2013. Something did enhance their performance in early 2013 ............... it was supposed to be the Weapon's brutal pre-season training regime as I recall

Some of us take exception to bald face liars ,particularly if they have let down the Late Jimmy Stynes. He enters the ranks of the new breed of mercenary moron.

You want Petracca and Brayshaw, just tell Saints we will take McCartin.

Looks like a fuckin drop kick in that top

If Dangerfield doesn't move this year, I bet you will see him in a Geelong guernsey next year under FA.

Roos has already said that he admires Freos big tall mids. He won't go for a 174cm mediocre midfielder.

Only the players would know. Can't blame supporters however for feeling betrayed by the disingenuous drivel he frequently posted on twitter like 'can't wait to get out there again with the boys'. WAP Mitch, hope you have about as much success with the Cats as McIntosh.

I think Lumumba will be a good fit for us. What i like about him is.. He backs himself into run and run hard and will take the game on, but also has the smarts to do so.. When we only win 4 games in a year, we cant knock back players of his talent..

It's not part of the formula or the rules that we or anyone would get a mid round pick but as we know they are made up on the run so anything is possible. I do think it will and should be pick 3 though.

A good laugh from that comment...is anyone coherent at 3.20am... He might get up today and edit it!

Great idea, but why as a society do we always wait till someone dies before we decide to honour them in this kind of way. I'd love this to happen but it would've been great for him to be honored with his name on that piece of hallowed turf while he was still living

Don't think he's posted since he made that creepy paedo apologist post. I wouldn't either.

in addition - if they dont look after those players/clubs, in the long term the clubs will die off. If they cant sell hope (which is what all footy clubs sell) then they wont have clubs for their players to earn money at!

It's irresponsible of the AFLPA not to be interested in the equalisation of the competition. If 5% of elite players get to go to premiership-winning teams because of free agency, at least 50% of players will never be able to win a flag as a result. Not looking out for the bottom clubs means you're not looking out for a tremendous subsection of players who play for those clubs.

Sarcasm detector needs a tune-up, Mono.

Maybe MFC should add a story to our website celebrating pick 3?

Go home Hawthorn, you're drunk.

Based off Roos comments regards FA I wouldn't doubt it but I reckon Chunk is a different breed when it comes to digging in and knowing what the meaning of true honour in the pursuit of success is.

Greenwood has had one good season, was nearly on the scrapheap a year ago. He's saved his career but is he really worth pick 3? I wouldn't have thought so.

Jeez, imagine smoking a cone with this bloke

Or - Sorry Mitch, it didn't work as planned - you're off to GWS. Thanks anyway.

"If you are not a communist at 20 then you have no heart. If you are still a communist at 40, then you have no brains." (W. Churchill) FFS he 27, which may not be young in AFL terms, but is still just youthful. He's learning, has a lot to learn and knows it. This guy is an individual with strong ethical values and the balls to speak up for what he believes in. Who didn't at that age? Those who base their views on his so-called self righteousness are missing the real point: he can play footy, and does so well. If you honestly think he won't add to our list, you are delusional.