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Exactly. Best 22s are fluid. Love the player or not, I see no upside to an AFL capable player on our list being in this position, and that's not to mention the human side of this. The grave-dancing that goes on on this site is nauseating sometimes.

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Stockholm Syndrome is strong at Windy Hill.

A premiership side is made up of at least 30 players all of whom can play their role when required. Fortunalty our injuries have been minimal this year however just like north and the pies we could see up to 8 players out at once next year. If H is healthy and wants to continue football next season then he will be a valuable asset.

It'll be refreshing hearing the commentators talk about his basketball background.

Tom McDonald re-signs with MFC, MFC offer off the table to Hurley, Hurley resigns at EFC - simps really.

Here's his old man from back in the day, knew I had one in my collection of him!

So twice in a generation talent?

The AFL needs a strong Essendon apparently. Funny that it didn't need a strong South Melbourne or Fitzroy.

Good interview with our skipper in waiting.

The brother is starting to look like a player. We would have to have the best basketball team in the AFL by now for sure.

It's like Pokemon as far as I'm concerned - gotta collect em all.

What!?? Why has no one mentioned this before!

A huge, clumsy, top-down solution to an issue that has surfaced once or twice in 150 years of footy. So, a signature AFL move really.

If youre in a position to rest players then good on you. Dont like the week off. Especially dont understand having the last round as a floating round if youre gonna have a week off before finals

No big deal in the scheme of trading, but it's probably a big deal for H and his health. Hope it improves for him.

Just keep him away from Trac and the basketball hoop in the off season...

Richmond being his nominated club says to me that Melbourne went cold on him straight after he said no last year after several attempts. He struggled with his knee this year and was surprised to see him butcher it so badly during games. I do have to LOL though that he has picked Richmond considering he turned us down in 2013 due to wanting success at the GC.. Richmond are an absolute mess Dion and i hope you enjoy every bit of that 'success' you want.

Think 1987. No-one gave us any chance of beating anyone in those finals. Momentum is a wonderful thing and we will have heaps of it if the results go our way over the next fortnight.

Yuck. This is a yucky post.

What a great few years for the Bombers. Tank at the end of last year to secure Parish and Francis, don't even try this year to guarantee themselves the spoon, probably end up with two picks inside 10 by colluding with Academy bidding loopholes, pay overs to all their banned players with luxurious compensation payments outside their salary cap, then it's just business as usual from next year onwards. The AFL will of course do nothing about it, can't have the Bombers staying unsuccessful for long, can we?

I assume it's pay related. Either to make him eligible for something (ie a player welfare decision) or to jump through some loophole in the salary cap. I don't think it has any practical implication for the team. I am entirely speculating through.

Amazing footage. The commentary is priceless. The days when commentators called the game and did not fill up the airwaves with analysis, anecdote, and stories of their own greatness. Think of Dermot Brereton's drivel last week. Three classic lines from Jack Edwards, its gone through for a "major" Barassi takes an "easy mark" (when he was backing back into the pack and just about to be poleaxed by John Peck) Barassi's handpass to Massey who then handpasses to Crompton...."this is stupid". (50 years later, I still despair at stupid handball) And how tough was Barassi? He runs over the mark straight at Alan Joyce and cops a boot in the face....and does not flinch or react. Glenferrie Oval always had a glue pot in the centre that the Hawks used to great advantage. Coaches and ground staff colluded to keep it that way. Shows that despite atrocious conditions by today's standards. matches could still produce exciting and gripping footy.

Shocking, yet somehow none of us are shocked.

Fingers crossed we never have any injuries again and are able to run our best 22 out every week. Why even have 38 on the list?

Had heard whispers through this year we were chasing Maynard. Now either the message I heard was crossed and it was this Maynard, or we are keeping a close eye on his Collingwood brother also.

Strengths: clean hands in tight. Knowledge of structures (basic basketball structures are implemented in AFL), temperament (basketballers play in a phone box - players that transition aren't as easily flustered in close). Refusal to turn the football over (in basketball turnovers will kill you, players that transition will hold the footy until an option presents - especially if they played point guard in basketball). Former point guards should have broader vision, and will see things others won't (Petracca, Watts). I think a massive strength is also that basketballers have been training for a shorter format (more repeat sprints, short and sharp cardio), I think basketballers are ready made for AFL. I don't see many weaknesses. One weakness I used to see is that sometimes basketballers didn't commit 100% to a contest - especially contested footballs. But those that did were clean. But the way that AFL has shifted, now players can't commit 100% to a footy (because they can't dive in), it is nearly advantageous now to not fully commit.

From the MFC web site article " Maynard, 24, has not played football since he was 16 and can go straight on to the Demons' list under the AFL's category B rules."

Sunday game, so I'm guessing the initial squad will read: IN: Jones M, Kennedy, Salem OUT: - Jones, because Plapp said in his review that he played like an AFL player in the VFL - as ringing an endorsement as I've seen; Kennedy as the obvious replacement for Garlett if he doesn't get up Salem because he's class I've gone cold on the idea of Weideman for this week.

Just about the best thing about this signing is, multiple other clubs were chasing him hard - the Crows flew out to the States when he was playing college ball over there - but he chose the Dees. #destinationclub

I swear Jay Clark is a hidden employee of the club, he breaks every piece of MFC-related news first. Never heard of Corey Maynard, but his brother goes alright and I have great faith in Jason Taylor.

As we move towards round 23 it is obvious that almost all if not everyone of the positions for the top 8 will be up for grabs in some way or another. No need to worry about teams not turning up. So we have a bye and lose the momentum of the season. Not a good decision. I am sure there could have been some other solution to the "game playing" of 2015 other than a bye.

OVER THE RAINBOW by Whispering Jack There is a theory that the story behind "The Wizard of Oz" was inspired by Australia. After all, we know the country is often colloquially referred to as "Oz" and in the book upon which film was based, Oz is an island continent somewhere to the west of California with inhabited regions bordering on a great desert. That iconic movie was the inspiration that moved young people of a generation or two to dare to dream, to overcome adversity and to triumph in hard times. The theme of dreaming for better times must have a familiar ring for Demon fans after experiencing a decade of despair but in recent weeks, the skies seem to have cleared, turned to blue and produced rainbows all around. Suddenly, their team's season has come alive. The road map to the finals is very much a straight line. They need to beat Carlton this Sunday at the MCG, prevail at the Cattery a week later and hope that the two New South Wales teams beat the currently eighth-placed North Melbourne by enough to turn around the Kangaroos' narrow percentage advantage of 3.7 per cent. That's all. It sounds so simple and by no means a fantasy, but this is real life and dreams don't always come true. Standing between the Melbourne Football Club and the dreams of its fans this week is Carlton. Since that groundbreaking end of season contest in late 2007 that came to be known as the Kreuzer Cup, the Demons have struggled against the Blues and there have been some disastrous results for them over those years. Carlton has emerged victorious in eight of the last nine matches between the clubs and four of those wins have been by more than 50 points. Despite their poor record, Melbourne came into their last encounter at around the this time last year as firm favourites but they couldn't raise a gallop. They were terrible. This time around, Carlton is struggling, having lost nine on the trot, while Melbourne's season is just gathering momentum. They have the competition's dominant ruckman, an emerging midfield with Dom Tyson striking a rare vein of great form and the team is chockfull of young running footballers who don't stop. And things can only get better if Jesse Hogan, who has been battling for the past month, hits his straps. This is the moment for the Demons. There are no happy little bluebirds around to spoil their dreams - it's their turn to fly. Melbourne by 23 points THE GAME Carlton v Melbourne at MCG Sunday 21st August, 2016 at 1.10pm. HEAD TO HEAD Overall Carlton 116 wins Melbourne 89 wins Drawn 2 At MCG Carlton 49 wins Melbourne 49 wins Past five meetings Carlton 4 wins Melbourne 1 win The Coaches Bolton 0 wins Roos 0 wins MEDIA TV - Fox Footy Channel Live at 1.00pm RADIO - Triple M 3AW THE BETTING Carlton to win - $4.10 Melbourne to win - $1.24 THE LAST TIME THEY MET Carlton 12.6.78 defeated Melbourne 7.13.55 at the MCG Round 21, 2015 At one stage late in the second quarter, Carlton held a 53 point lead and had kicked 10 goals to a single Demon goal. Some might have found consolation in the comeback that saw the team score five goals to Carlton's two in the second half and to finish with a slender advantage in scoring shots over the Blues but in truth, their performance was rubbish. THE TEAMS CARLTON B: Zach Tuohy, Sam Rowe, Jacob Weitering HB: Dylan Buckley, Lachie Plowman, Sam Docherty C: Kade Simpson, Sam Kerridge, Ed Curnow HF: Jack Silvagni, Liam Jones, David Cuningham F: Matthew Kreuzer, Levi Casboult, Matthew Wright FOLL: Andrew Phillips, Patrick Cripps, Bryce Gibbs I/C: Dennis Armfield, Liam Sumner, Dale Thomas, Simon White EMG: Blaine Boekhorst, Nick Graham, Andrejs Everitt IN: Liam Sumner OUT: Blaine Boekhorst (Omitted) MELBOURNE B: Sam Frost, Tom McDonald, Neville Jetta HB: Jayden Hunt, Oscar McDonald, Tomas Bugg C: Billy Stretch, Bernie Vince, Dom Tyson HF: Angus Brayshaw, Jack Watts, Aaron vandenBerg F: Christian Petracca, Jesse Hogan, Dean Kent FOLL: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Jack Viney I/C: Viv Michie, Alex Neal-Bullen, Clayton Oliver, Sam Weideman EMG: Colin Garland, James Harmes, Cameron Pedersen IN: Viv Michie, Alex Neal-Bullen, Sam Weideman OUT: Jeff Garlett (illness), James Harmes (omitted), Cameron Pedersen (omitted)

Choose us to barrack for when he retires, gotta read between the lines with GNF.

I think anyone doing their due diligence in the football department would laugh at paying $700K for Prestia. I'm sure everyone here wishes he'd chosen the Dees, but holy crap, that is an outrageous amount of money for a player with injury concerns. Gold Coast will just point to that salary offer and extend their hand for pick 6, and Richmond will have no foot to stand on saying he isn't worth that much. Clearly he's worth that much to them with a salary offer like that. Consider that Michael Hurley just re-signed for only $100K more and it hits you how insane this is from Richmond. They are a basket case making recruitment decisions due to pressure from their struggling marketing department and wounded pride over Treloar embarrassing them. The longer they delay the inevitable rebuild, the longer they will wallow in the dregs of mediocrity. It is legitimately hilarious how Tigers supporters seem to think the likes of Cotchin, Martin and Riewoldt will take them to premiership glory. They are utterly delusional and this recruitment reeks of stupidity (frankly, from both parties -- Sorry Dion, but you've gone from one basket case straight into another, and Gold Coast will soon overtake the Tigers).

I reckon Tracc's dog would have to be in the team as well. He's merciless at blocking lay-ups.

Interesting point. If Essendon players are to sue the club, should the damages awarded be included under the salary cap? If not, isn't that providing the bombers with a mechanism to circumvent the salary cap?

Jeremy Howe went to the Pies because he wanted to play with the club he barracked for as a kid. Maybe Brayden will as well in a year or two.

Hopefully he retires, his health is more important.

They want to replace Ty Vickery who won't run, ruck or chase with Travis who can't run, ruck or chase.....

Great points, all well made. The last one is really interesting. I was reflecting on the weekend watching our game how that players have by in large adapted to this shift and are better now at approaching a contest and staying upright. I often thought that instinct was an issue for Watts as basketballers, particularly points, have to keep their feet and generally don't dive in head first (with delly being an exception!). He has found a good balance with his now where he'll go low when he has to but also stands up in contests and is able to feed the ball out to teammate (a fundamental basketball skill). I never had much to do with basketball until the last few years with my kids starting to play. I really like it as a game now and have a much greater appreciation for the skill and physical toughness required to play. I watched the Boomers last night and they were awesome - really tough and hard at it with a swarming defense. In fact their style of play reminds me a lot of how AFL is currently played.

If we're serious about making the finals this game will be over by halfway through the second quarter.

They really over rate their list...amazing decision if true. Richmond - The Gift that Keeps on Giving.

Sadly I have lost interest in the Olympics. The drugs, corruption and politics of the event have led me to switch off. (I did watch some of the swimming.) I hope that the evils that exist at Olympic level sport do not expand in the AFL beyond the EFC or I may be lost to the AFL as well. Thankfully there is netball, perhaps one of few untainted sports.

I am not interested in analysing all the different permutations and combinations. All I wish is to see the boys go out and win their next six matches on the trot!

Maynard joins Melbourne as rookie I like this quote: "Described as a highly competitive and physical type of player, Maynard has a strong family connection to the AFL/VFL."

Corey Maynard obviously has some excellent AFL attributes, having been chased by at least four other clubs. His preferred destination is the Dees, which is testament to our Club and where we are now seen to be heading. I doubt he would have chosen us 3 or 4 years ago, despite the family connection. Seems like very astute use of the Category B rookie arrangement to me. Love you Dees!

Tracc, Watts and Maynard would've got us gold in Rio.

Its mentioned in the Jay Clark article that in his last game he kicked 14 goals playing forward and midfield for Sacred Heart year 10 in South Australia. The dees plan on developing him into a 191cm powerful midfielder. Very highly competitive player who was sought out by 4 other clubs but chose the Dees because of the direction and positive future ahead of us.