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Apologies if already posted..

Just announced his retirement. Always loved his style. Great poise, athleticism and kept a cool head out there. Was a big part of our rebuild and played some great footy for us as recently as late last year. Thought he was stiffed not to get more of a look this year, but that’s how it goes. Thank you for your service, Mr. P.

I've never been open to trading Hogan before, but I didn't know Weideman would be BOG in a final (and he'll become an exceptional key forward) and who knew McDonald would become a 60 goal capable key forward ? I'd still prefer he stays, but if the deal is right it could potentially even improve us. I'll back the club to make the right decision.

I have said it before and I will say it again. HOGAN IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE. Some facts: The FD does not want to trade him even for overs JH does not want to leave JH is a required MFC player JH is contracted Every year we have this conversation, its getting boring. If last weeks loss to the Eagles only taught us one thing, it was how much we need Hogan.

I’m a physio and this worries me immensely. The latarjet procedure is not one to take lightly and can involve multiple setbacks during recovery...and he’s having them on both shoulders. The procedure will have to be a couple of weeks apart so that he can start to regain some minimal function in one shoulder before operating on the next. Hate to say it but it won’t surprise me if clarry doesn’t get much of a preseason. Estimates of early jan are touch and go for me.

Mahoney , Taylor and their crew haven't let us down once yet. In fact they have been absolutely brilliant.

Did I read correctly? Rance got 0 votes. Ha so why did he get an invite? The superstar got donuts

How can you say we got unders for Watts? He proved himself to be nothing more than a fringe player at Port and Fritsch (who we took with the pick we got) played 23 games for us. Do people still not realise Watts is just not that good?

Whatever happens in a trade deal, we better get a bloody good deal. Hogan hasnt even come close to hitting his straps. Hard ball MFC and nothing less.

Statement from the club Here we go...

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If reports are correct and Fremantle are offering Hogan 1.2 million a year, then obviously Hogan has something to think about. Even if he didn't want a trade, those are the type of number that change an individuals life. Lets be fair. Everyone of us in Hogan's position would be looking at those numbers and weighing up our future. He probably takes the deal. I say that because I would take the deal, and everyone I know would take the deal. Throw in a potential to go back home and it becomes an easy decision. So Hogan probably goes. What do we get? I would really hate MFC to waste anything on Steven May. I have watched football for 30 years and if Steven May is worth anything better than a 3rd round selection I will eat my hat. He is an undersized backman, who is slow, an ineffective. I see nothing in May at all. I have watched him closely the past two years because for some reason people mention him as a top class backman. He isn't a top class backman at all, he is really not much chop. I would have him on par with Pederson.

I hope his Helmut wasn’t on display.

We paid picks 3 and 13 to get Hogan to the club. Then developed him from a teen to one of the best forwards in the game. Pick 5 alone won’t go near getting this deal done.

Finally we get a realistic assessment. I would want their first pick and the Neale pick and Brayshaw, with which we might get May for one of those picks. Then the deal would be May, a top rated young player and Brayshaw. That is what a smart club would achieve. Hogan cost us 2 top picks and we have stood by him, as he has developed through a lot of lost games through injury and illness and is now entering his best years and he is contracted. I want a great deal IF he wants to go, or forget it. The Dockers are desperate for a big fish to calm the members and he would be a whale.

Trade.

I used to date a contortionist - but she split on me! ? I’ll be here all week, try the veal! I’ll see myself out

Former German Chancellor's like this.

I think you'll find if you go through every year, almost every team in the top 8 would have lost a game where they "shouldn't" have. And if they had won it, it would have made a difference.

Good summary although a bit harsh on Weid.

This is a rumour file - you have to make it up.

May is coming to Melbourne I have been told.

No, this year’s prize is 2 free shoulder recos.

Topped off by Rischitelli being farwelled in the 2018 retirements montage. (He’s playing next season..)

Well done to Angus and Max. Having said all that, if you had to take one player out of any team this season and have the most impact, it would be Max. To some extent, that's the nature of the ruck role, but that's no reason why his influence shouldn't be rewarded! The lack of votes in the St Kilda game in particular is just jaw-dropping. Anyway... congrats to Jetta for the Community Award (he's an even better human than he is a footballer, and that's saying something!)

He's better in our structure. Weideman had a great final and several good games. But Hogan had several better games than even Weed's career best game. We kick higher scores with Hogan in the team. McDonald gets a lesser opponent when Hogan plays. I genuinely don't know what people don't see in him. He's one of the best key forwards in the league, he's a kid still and he's ours. Maybe he's just a bit too 'meat and potatoes' for some fans, rather than doing the spectacular.

A quality coaching group can construct a plan to include a quality young key position player who's only going to get better. The concept that he makes us worse is a nonsense.

This is going to sound like BS from me. ...but I've been meaning to post for a few weeks now that I thought Clayton was not handling the ball as well this year. He's a very clean, one touch player but has not been as clean this season. ... and even though he made AA this season, his ball handling was better last year. That makes sense now, he hasn't been doing contact training for a while. ...the competition better watch out next year. Clarrie will rip it apart.

Roosy reckons we should just refuse to trade him.

There is a lot of talk about us paying two first round picks for Lever, however that is a very narrow snapshot on a small part of the deal. The deal involved other picks (including a second rounder to us). 10 + 16 + 68 out, 37 + 43 + Lever in. If you do the sums with the points then it was effectively a single pick 7 for Lever. Ironically (correct usage) Adelaide knocked back or initial offer of 10 and 29, which would have equated to pick 4. Effectively 'caving into Adelaide's demands' got us 2 second rounders in exchange for dropping our 2019 first rounder 13 spots and bringing it forward a year.

Like most, I would prefer that he stays but if we can’t convince him to do so, then his value should be assessed at least at the equivalent of the two first round picks it cost us to get Jake Lever. Terry Wallace has placed Chad Wingard at that level and Hogan is IMO worth more than that. We are facing an interesting month or so ahead.

Will be absolutely filthy if all we get back for him is Steven May! Don't get me wrong, May is a good player.. but he doesn't hold a candle to Hogan's potential in my view... In addition to the fact May is 3 years older!

He’s been a good servant of the club over the years, and developed himself in to a handy player after an ordinary start under Neeld. He’s probably the type of player that perpetually needed a fire under him to keep him performing, but that’s okay, we’re all different. He was the ultimate spare parts player and would jokingly make reference to it whenever interviewed. His best effort was no doubt in 2017 when he single-handly had to carry us in the ruck when Max was injured through the middle of the season. This was a Herculean effort that shouldn’t be understated. He comes across as a team man - always seemed happy to share in others achievements that didn’t involve him, like grinning from ear to ear in the rooms after a win he didn’t play in, or his embrace of Harrison Petty in the video the club put after the Petty was told of his debut. In the latter case, Petty’s selection was ahead of Pedersen himself. Thanks for your services Cam and all the best.

Thanks for everything Cam! Your stint as an undersized ruckman in 2017 in the absence of Max Gawn rightfully deserves its place in Demon folklore.

Yep, sure. It's behind a paywall which is a really interesting way to present click bait and it comes from a publication not noted for it's AFL coverage in the lead up to a GF which you'd think is much more interesting. It might not be right but it's certainly not click bait. You need to entertain the concept that Hogan may move.

Denham's article in the Oz is a paragon of opinion dressed up as fact. The only part that veers close to a a statement is prefaced with "it is understood" which is an old journalistic trick. Easy to deny - easy to say "told ya so". Appropriately Supernaut's "I Like it Both Ways" is a West Australian song. "It is understood Melbourne are prepared to consider sacrificing Hogan for May after their glaring deficiency in defence against West Coast in last Saturday’s 11-goal preliminary final defeat, even with top backman Jake Lever expected back early next season from a knee reconstruction." No way am I giving Hogan for ONLY Freo's pick 6 from Freo to ontrade for May.

Well done to Gus, Max & Clarrie but especially Brayshaw. A great comeback story. Max should have received more votes given his stellar season but it is a midfielders medal because it is a midfielders game. But a lot of the midfielders don't really have a direct opponent more so an opposite number where as Max needs to beat a direct opponent. And he does so to great effect and has great influence especially with his taps to advantage (at least 15 taps to advantage in 17 games ... comparable to clearance numbers) The coaches award has more lustre in my opinion mainly because the coaches are probably the best people to judge who the best players are.

Thats classic. The AFL really is run by fools.

One for the trade thread. How good was Whitfield this year? I could see him owning one side of the G running from halfback or wingplaying only on the members side in red & blue.

In a way, it is a little early to start this thread but 2019 memberships will open soon. I thought while our finals success and ticketing experience is fresh in our minds it is a good time for folks to think about their membership. Certainly, for me it was quite enlightening to learn what different membership categories mean for access to Finals tickets. (And amusing to watch us all staggering around in the dark not knowing what to do to negotiate the process or Ticketek. It was fun sharing it with everyone on here). The main things I learnt: Three game or better membership had the same priority eligibility to Finals weeks 1 - 3. For the Grand Final it all changes. Broadly the categories were: Ballot: Priority 1 - Memberships with the Grand Final Guarantee (GFG) included or added on (plus some other categories) Ballot: Priority 2 - 11 Home Game or better memberships without GFG (plus some other categories) Ballot: Priority 3 - All other memberships The odds of Priority 3 being allocated GF tickets seemed quite low. I think, the AFL sets the broad eligibility rules so the above may change for 2019. For 2019, I assume the memberships with the GFG will sell out fast as the number sold is capped and people that already have it get first choice to keep it. At the risk of the membership team being inundated with early calls, I was able to upgrade my niece's 3 game membership to a Redlegs membership late last week (same row but not to sit together; wait listed for that). I will post the link to Memberships when I see it on the club website. A couple of other thoughts: This isn't the thread for posters to criticise supporters asking for barcodes etc - 2018 caught us all by surprise so cut them some slack, especially the country and interstate folk This isn't the thread to complain about Ticketek or the AFL ticketing policies. Maybe the mods could pin this for a while so that new info can easily be found. One final thing: What an outstanding job the Membership Team did. It all went without a hitch which is no easy task the first time a new project is undertaken by a team in any organisation. Kudos to Tracey and her team for the work, time and energy they put in to making our lives as straight forward as possible.

How are umpires like panell and Nichols supposed to know who played well? They’re still struggling to get the rules right.

Took Gus during the year to win at $501. Didn't go each way and just saw he was $251 for top 3. I feel ill!

Gawn v St Kilda 25 possessions, 11 marks, 39 hitouts, 10 votes by the coaches. No Brownlow votes.

If Oliver wore a helmet he would have acquired 57 votes.

Crows Giants Swans Port Geelong and Essendon all trained prepared and expected to make top 4 and they all failed. We missed finals last season and set the goal of making finals and from there consider trying to make top 4. Well we finished 5th and but for some moments against the Cats where we blew chances we could have actually finished top 3 in the home and away. At seasons end we finished top 4 and at some stage you will realise this is a new Melbourne. All the experts and list builders who talk about the need to get 100games into players aren't plucking numbers from the sky or without experience it is genuinely what it takes players to get used to playing at this level and expose them to a variety of scenarios the AFL throws at you. You can't actually prepare for what is thrown at you in a Preliminary final at Optus. You can plan and prepare for what to expect but real exposure to it helps you prepare for the next opportunity. IMO that is what Gawny was referring to.

I've been told that a Melbourne player who lined up in the prelim will be at the Saints next year, but I don't know the name. I can only guess Tyson, even though I doubt he's what they need.