Leaderboard

Paul Salmon.

Melbourne Football Club Just now · Some good news for your Friday afternoon, with four young players re-signing! Billy Stretch and Alex Neal-Bullen have extended their contracts until the end of 2017, while Mitch White and Max King have signed on as rookies for 2016. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-09-25/dees-lock-in-four-youngsters

Lol get a load of this bloke.

I'm happy with this re-signing because it's annoyed you Stuie. #Stuieannoyed

The way we play judge, jury, and executioner of a person for their behaviour and character at age 18 is sickening. How would you be seen if deconstructed at that age? Have you changed? Have you matured?

We don't need a $1.5mil a year player. I'd rather save the money for Hoges, Brayshaw, Viney, Petrac etc. He obviously wants to play for and live in Geelong. Let it go.

Ok, so I'm in the underwhelmed camp when it comes to Melksham. That said, he played his best footy in 2013 with Goodwin as midfield coach when he averaged nigh on 20 disposals and kicked 16 goals, which is none too shabby, It was his 4th year and he'd progressed every year in the system. And then comes Essendon's "saga". Supposedly he's been effected by this shambles as badly as any. I've also read where he's been played out of position and it will flourish more as a genuine mid. In other words... While I'm far from excited about this possibility, the people making the decisions know far more than me; and when I consider their decisions last year, besides Lamumba, they nailed the trade/draft period. So I'll back them again.

Same as last year, everyone but eventually: no one.

really liked it up until i read Gawn to Sydney. Wait.........that was the first thing written.

Why the fart are we even looking at an Essendon player with all this ASADA shitz hanging around?? Betta be something in the contract if he gets done we don't pay but that still doesn't negate that we have to hand over a pic and that will be lost (or poss player)

Jake Melksham.. Duh

Macca would know ALL about this bloke.... I'll leave it with him

What is wrong with your patients are they sick? Tell me soon as or you will test my patience.

Damian Barrett's 'sliding doors' piece on AFL.com: MELBOURNE "IF... there's a team we feel is keeping its cards close to its chest as trade period looms ..." "THEN... it is this one. Predicting a massive play from left-field." http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-09-25/sliding-doors-finals-week-three Hurry up and get these finals out of the way and bring on trade week!

To what? Another player you can abandon in a few years? Attributing the failure of the past to every thing you see similar in the future is not the way you get out of a rut - it's how you create a quagmire. We are trying to get out of one.

stuie knows footy #StuieMyths

It is clear that the good players leaving clubs, want to go to the top teams and who can blame them. They want to play finals. We have to get in the finals or close and show the AFL world we are on the rise. To do that we need to improve what we have, hope for a good injury run, which we haven't had in years and get some more talent in now that can play. Therefore despite the risks, we need a Bennell now. We should be chasing him hard. Howe appears to be wanted by GC and so the our foot is in the door. A player who can rack up 38 possies and kick 6 goals in a game won't be found in the draft ready to do that. We should back ourselves in to mentor him and get him moving forward with his footy and his life. If we don't another team will. We have a good batch of youngsters to develop and I would take only a few picks in the draft and go all out for players who could walk into our best 22 now. Bennell and even Melksham would make our best 22. That would be a good start. Add a couple more and we improve our chances of winning more games. It is a catch 22 situation, but in the end we will be judged by our our on field performance not our balance sheet.

Thought I'd start a poll on who people think this rumored 'Big Fish' is. Bit of fun with most of us checking the site every 10 minutes in the hope of an update!

Basil Fawlty esk...

'Trawl'... Oh well.

Adelaide playing hardball and "will accept offers from other Victorian clubs." Essentially, you can't have Motlop on the table at one point, then convince him to stay, take him off the table and expect Adelaide to be content with pick 13 only.

He was reliable once but now in rehab.

Interesting sign that we announced the re signing of 4 young fellas and jimmy is not one of them

Thread needs more riddles.

In other words Barrett has NFI but thinks we must be doing something!

On tippin winners at the races, I give him a big fat zero. On his footy connections, I'd give him a 7

When Talia was 15 he rode his push bike to school without a helmet, if you believe the stories, he also rode at 43kmh in a 40 zone. I'd stay clear.

We have to weigh whether it's worth hanging on to him for another year and seeing how he goes, or whether we trade for a late pick. I think the Toump has more chance of becoming a solid player than, say, pick 60 in a shallow draft. I'd back him in for another year and see how he goes.

I went to the same school as Stevie J. My dad was a teacher at the same school and one of my fathers very good mates was one of the Sports teachers there. At draft time a call came from Collingwood after a reference for Stevie J, who, as you would imagine was a bit of a tearaway at school. The Sports teacher told Collingwood not to touch him with a ten foot pole. This, it must be said, was probably reasonably sound advice at the time. Collingwood passed and the rest is history as they say. I have no idea what knowledge you have on Talia and how it relates to my story, but people forget that not all footy players at a young age are upstanding citizens, hell some are even immature and take a while to grow up, but everyone, everyone deserves a second chance.

It's kinda like Hogan, I just know he will be good.....even Hogan backs him in himself.But also just hoping I guess, as he was rated higher than Gus Brayshaw and he really looks the goods so I'm pretty confident Petracca will be a gun. Also watched him a lot at training and he is a monster big bodied mid with lots of power. I'll back him in any day.

An attitude like yours is why you would get sucked into avoiding drafting blokes like Darling..My friends Dad who is a teacher at Haileybury has said he has taught an abundance of absolute trouble makers and complete and utter toxic kids who have been drafted and nothing has ever happened that had any resemblance to what they were like at school..You act as if no one changes or matured from high school.

I did the other day, I had Ablett Jnr coming to the Demons Still could happen btw

Under-performing according to whose metric? What is your alternative to keeping him? Delist him? Trade him for a 4th round pick? These options do not improve the list. I don't think you've considered the implications, or you don't understand them. You don't get better by getting rid of every player that isn't a superstar. Right now he's in our 22. If we can't use him to improve our list, the aim is to persevere until he either develops into an even better player, or other players go past him and push him out of our best 22 or 25, then if his value is that low, you might move him on for little to no return.

Brett Anderson is known for very little other than being a self-proclaimed draft expert. He doesn't have ANY runs on the board in regards to inside knowledge with trades as far as I know. Fwiw I've been told Watts will stay, mostly because we're unlikely to get better value by moving him on.

Absolutely. Giving him away for chump change now would be essentially giving up on him, which would run contrary to everything Roos was saying prior to this season. Toump can still become a decent player. We've seen the talent he has in glimpses. It's just going to take patience. I'll be disappointed if we basically chuck in the towel and give him away for nothing.

Pedersen signs on for 2016 Just a one year contract but am absolutely delighted to see Cam available to help Jesse for one more year! Go Dees!

This thread is a red herring

Cameron Ling? Whale Roberts? Hope we won't be left floundering

Most likely is.

They are big birds!

Good news regarding King. Have watched him since his under 18s days and you just know there is something definitely there yet to be untapped. His last game against Essendon in the VFL was really exciting. Don't afraid to fly over and crash into packs considering he is still slight. Hoping he has a big summer in the weights room.

Typical dazzle, all opinions are bad except his.

We have signed up a back up role player for another year - the good clubs do this too. And I don't see a great many 'Very Excited' people in this thread - just people acknowledging a solid decision by the club and the continuation of a fledgling career.

Can't be sure on that one LH, but I would think sometime after the Granny is done and dusted.

I really want Bennell. Worth the risk in my opinion. We beat Gold Coast in a game a couple of years ago at a the G. I can't remember exactly but Ablett got something like 35 and Bennell got 38? I predicted at the time that he would soon be a Brownlow medalist. Well things haven't quite panned out that way but he still has the potential. He is a Ferrari in the same way as Judd is. He's possibly going to be very high maintenance but it's worth the risk to get our hands on this quality of talent. Every player carries risk. Dangerfield or Fyfe could have career-ending injuries but it wouldn't put you off getting them if you could.

Here are the Dawes/Pederson stats for people. As i have said in other threads, it is unfortunate/ridiculous Dawes is on the money he is on. The Pedo is great for what we have got, but isn't the long term fix. But he is a great stop-gap until we draft/trade/develop another. The year deal is great, pending what happens this trade period/next year. Pederson Dawes Age: 28 Age: 27 Salary: 250-300k (?) Salary: 500k+ Av. kick: 6.6 Av. kick 7.1 Av. hb: 6.0 Av. hb: 4.8 Av. Disp: 12.6 Av. Disp: 11.9 Av. Mark: 5.3 Av. Mark: 4.3 Av. goals: 0.9 Av. goals: 0.8 Av. Tackles: 2.6 Av. 1.5 Av. Hit Outs: 3.3 Av. Hit out: 3.1 Frees for: 1.0 Frees for: 1.5 Frees against: 0.7 Frees against: 1.1 For anyone playing at home, which one is worth the money?! Silly question. For people like Stuie to write The Pedo off is laughable. He isn't amazing in terms of AFL standards but he is bloody cheap and far better than what we have got in terms of supporting Hogan, until we draft/trade/develop someone else.

Unless the AFL fixes the many flaws in the system then smaller clubs don't stand a chance. First priority should be enforcing a hard salary cap with strict penalties for any breaches. No third party deals to entice players to a new club. Second should be allowing clubs to nominate franchise players who are exempt from FA. Remember FA was about ensuring mid-range players can easily move to a new club for better opportunities not to allow A-graders to move to top clubs for easy premierships. This is about money and opportunities to play senior footy not about top range players all moving to the same 3 or 4 clubs to build all-star teams. Third should be removing players right to veto trades. If they have FA after a period of time then anything before that should be controlled by the club. The offset could be reducing the qualifying period for FA from 8 to 6 years. Rookie contracts should also have options up to 4 years (probably even 6 for 1st round picks). 2 years for an 18 year old kid isn't enough. That's just for a start.

I wouldn't just get rid of this kid just to get a space on the list. There is plenty of those. I think they will have erred if they do a 'Morton' in this instance and just trade for a low value pick...

You've made my day Bub. Heard from the axiomatic 'reliable source' that Roosy is currently walking around with a smile he just can't wipe of his face. Apparently he is pretty chuffed at landing another 'big fish', which will be announced when the time is right. I just hope my 'reliable source' is correct.