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26 years old and a restricted free agent. Drafted in 2011 so 8 years on the GWS list by trading time. Approximately half our list isn't up to it (or unproven) and if our only cost is salary cap space then we acquire him if he wants to come to us. We can get 5-6 years of football out of the bloke and we get to add another decent player to the list. Do it times 3 if other restricted free agents are available. Why stop at one? Our list needs an injection of talent. Think of Tomlinson as replacing a player who we're going to delist anyway. It's a no-brainer really.

Agree. Most sides have 2-3 ruckman on the list. We have 2 and a developing 3rd. By the time Bradtke is ready, if he gets there, Max will be in his 30's. Tomlinson is not a ruckman, he is a swingman.

A best on ground against North in round 23 sees Maxy finish with 17 votes for the year. Bloody impressive considering our results this year.

Brandon Ellis comes from a family that battled and had little. His story is well known to Tigers supporters. He has provided for his mum and siblings for years. Not an elite player by any means. Could be a 2 x premiership player. Wouldn't be against him becoming a Dee. Good on him for making the most of his opportunities.

Not sure I agree as you could apply that kind of logic to any scenario. Going to the draft - Goodwin's rebuilding, he's admitted defeat! Going for a superstar - Goodwin's putting all his eggs in one basket, saviour syndrome again! Going for depth - He's gambling with our future! Bit of a no-win situation for him when people adjust the narrative to suit their own bias.

This is what I like about it. If we were to land Tomlinson, Langdon and Elliott during this trade period, then we've improved our best 22 immensely. It will make us a much better side going forward.

I'm glad we didn't trade our first-round pick last year, thinking it might be about pick #15-18. ☺️

A real captains performance.

They left Col out of the memorium segment. Maxy just tweeted it out. That's an oversight.

Wow maxy got the 3 on Queens Birthday. Go Max.

We’ve also got a lot of very average to below average players who are regularly getting a game. Let’s start replacing those ones whilst there are replacements available for free, then snaffle a very good player when one pops up, maybe Whitfield end of next season?

Tomlinson is better than our bottom 6-8 in the best 22 we have at the moment i think, therefor,e if you can make that group stronger you do it.

IF - and it's a big IF - we can land tomlinson, elliott, and langdon for, effectively, our second round pick, then i'm all for holding pick 3 and taking it to the draft when we've got a chance to inject pointy end talent, we should use it

I think I have to turn it off. Dangerfield is annoying the [censored] out of me and he isn't even doing anything.

Tomlinson>ANB, Stretch, Wagners, JKH, OMac, T.Smith, Lewis, KK, vB, Petty and more. It's an improvement for us. That's all that matters. Not every recruit has to be "elite".

Or leave together. Or leave separately. Retention is their problem not picks. Get them senior players or a retention allowance, not more kids.

Rubbish.

Plus from my understanding, he enjoys training with Maxy. I think our press release around him last year was a bit of a faux pas in that we've actually got him to not only be a back up if Maxy goes down but to also eventually take over in a couple of years when Maxy's output may decline and Preuss is in his prime.

Sure. I crave in my "team" the spirit that lot showed yesterday and over a number of years. The "mighty buck" can't buy that. And speaking about the mighty buck, we'd be up that creek without a paddle if we hadn't had significant injections of that commodity from the same place that the Giants get it. They've used it well, better than we have, and have built something that has respect from many. But you stick with your narrative, I'm sure you enjoy it.

A yawnfest, or will Big Max take home Charlie tonight? I suspect only if Charlie Spargo is his plus 1. And should the AFL consider changing the voting, perhaps including the coaches in the voting system?

And get him back into that fluoro green helmet - much more umpire eye catching than the red & blue number.

Who knows. They'll probably keep it all hush hush up until the draft, Jason Taylor will be all set to announce the #2 draft pick, then Gil will butt in with "selection 2.........Gold Coast"

A kid from the housos has the chance to set himself and his family up for life, extend his career in to his 30's and play a significant role rather than end up in the VFL, pretty reasonable choice to me. If the Tigers have been smart they'll have convinced him to look around and never bothered with making a token offer that could just hurt his feelings. They'll get at least a 2nd round draft compensation pick and with the way they've recruited lately they'll probably turn it in to a better player anyway.

Yes it is.. but he is potentially about to be a duel premiership player. He done something that everyone dreams off. Off to the GC to start his retirement fund and a cruisy lifestyle. ???

Im sure he actually meant after he's gone. His kinda dumb though so it wouldn't surprise me.

Listening to Cotchin say that it’s not about lifting the cup up for the 2nd time it’s about creating a culture that will continue long after his gone. Thats leadership!

That is exactly why some clubs separate the List Management function from the Coach. Coach has input but decisions are made by List Management whose job it is to build a premiership winning list. That is especially so when the coach is inexperienced and desperate for quick success. I'm of the impression that Goodwin calls the shots especially on FA's, trades in and out then recruiting do the best they can with the draft picks that are left. I'll very, very interested in who our List Manager is to replace T.Viney. Hope he has the authority from Pert to take the long view.

In 2013 I pined for mediocrity.

Is it just me or is the Brownlow losing its relevance? It’ll just go to the midfielder who had the most amount of disposals.

Trade marked now ET? You'll need a manager soon. #rickynixontoottoot

I’m pretty sure he stole that one from #ETthetradebreaker™️.

It's never too early to encourage a healthy hatred of Collingwood.

Unless we were in with a chance to land someone like Papley we should absolutely take the risk with Elliot. Was at the game on Saturday watching him closely. He reads the play and presents incredibly well. He's slippery and constantly puts himself in dangerous positions. Strong mark for his size and when the ball is turned over he puts pressure on the opposition. He would fit into our best 22 nicely.

If, by some miracle, Gold Coast don't get Pick 2 PP, than I'm dead set of the opinion that we keep it. Anderson is a player we need. And while I was more inclined to trade our pick earlier, with GWS now into the Grand Final, unless they can offer us Pick 12 and Hawks First Pick via Trade, I'm less inclined to Trade Pick 3 now.

I wish they'd hurry up and get that rubbish over and done with.

Can you envisage the Pies or Toiges blog using the word calumny - very much doubt it.

thankyou AF and Macca for some very good reading and a very good debate and no personal attacks mark

Just to buck the trend I chose Melbourne because we were bottom and nobody at my school supported us. Whenever our team starts to eat me up emotionally I just look for a circuit breaker. A long swim or bike ride usually works or failing that just good coffee and conversation. If we're going to live long enough to see a flag people them we have to learn how to look after ourselves.

Are you a dill or just uninformed ? We have a VFL side - its called the Casey Demons & we completely control every aspect of it including player development. Get with the program.

The thing about the Tigers is they now have a very mature core group and younger guys around the fringes. They are right in the sweet spot and we are still 3-4 years from being in a similar position. Cotchin - 29 Martin - 28 Reiwoldt - 30 Houli - 31 Astbury - 28 Edwards - 30 Lynch - 26 Lambert - 27 Prestia - 26 Grimes - 28 Caddy - 26 Broad - 26 That is 12 of the 22 that played in the prelim who are 26 or over.

Defensively I think we need some speed in the front half - and coordinated, well coached, well drilled pressure - and then a fit midfield group which includes clearly an upgrade on the wings in terms of fitness and smart positioning and then a proper two way midfield effort. I look at the way the Giants are defending this finals campaign and think that's the blueprint for what we can do which. And the way we've defended last year even without the ideal defensive personnel has shown we were on the right path there. Lever in the Haynes role, May in the Phil Davis (or Lachie Keeffe) role and off we go. In terms of the plan with the ball I think we need to train a style that allows us to do 3 things. Plan B: Slow down the line plays that use Gawn and hopefully a pair of competent tall forwards. Plan C: A fitter midfield group particularly on the wings that works hard for switches and uncontested steady build up play Plan A: Maximise what I see as the strength of our team for ball movement which is that we've got Oliver, Harmes, Gus as mids, Petracca mid/fwd, Melksham and Fritsch forward. We've got a lot of 188cm guys who can either take a grab or win the ball if it spills. We don't need to out sprint teams if we can get the ball moving our way and spread through the corridor and to the fat side at half forward we've got a lot of guys who can get the ball on the lead. The Eagles are excellent at taking riskier kicks to Yeo in the middle or Ryan, Waterman, a 3rd tall etc at half forward. Then it's one on ones deep which is why the Eagles talls are so potent. Pretty much I just want to see us add width and variety to the style we played in 2018. The play on and quick kicking game can be extremely damaging it just needs to be balanced with some safer play and a little more creative and less running in to a brick wall. Then we also need a big improvement in the way we link with handballs from contested situations. The Tigers are the forward handball masters and that's where I'm not sure we could ever match them - no one can when the game opens up - but we have to at least become competent at stoppages and from long kicks down the line in getting runners free in to space. Again, fitter runners and more speed but apart from that just train the right set ups.

Didn't we also play in 2 of the 4 GF's in the VFL?

Pies thought that, until they did.

Thanks Nostradamus

I believe that should be seventheenthbourne

I’m sick to death of overlooking the Dustin Martins, Jack Darlings and Sydney Stacks of the AFL because they aren’t cleanskin choirboys. He’s one player who’ll take up one spot on the list. He’s not going to bring down a club’s “culture”. Ridiculous. The only real consideration is his calf. If the club (Burgess) trusts the information that his latest surgery is a turning point, which it supposedly is, then this is a no brainer. If he fires next season it will be to the regret of every other club who didn’t have a crack at him. I hope we’re not one of them.

And what do you expect. The club has largely been a shambles since 1964 and probably a little before that. Melbourne were the first semi professional club who gained success on this basis and then rested on the laurels or should I say Caldwells until, inevitably, other clubs like Hawthorn and Carlton became thoroughly professional and we remained in a limbo between a Saturday afternoon outing and a fair dinkum battle both on and off the field . I'd refer anyone who doesn't believe this to read Brent Croswell's brilliant accounts of his time at Melbourne. Whatever Melbourne did to overcome their pathetic status was always five years behind the AFL leaders' benchmark. WE often improved but it was always not enough. In fact we have always been the NQRs. Many, like myself thought we had finally started to get our act together until the 2019 crash. Of course we are angry. Naturally football clubs, particularly professional clubs, and for this purpose I reluctantly include Melbourne in that category, don't like criticism especially a "crie de couer" from a long standing loyal supporter such as WYL. They would prefer us to yell loudly on the day and if beaten go home with a few consoling platitudes, such as better team won on the day or we would have won if Fred hadn't ruptured his heart muscle. I remember going to an after game wrap up at the SCG in the 1990s and the club members being told by an official that we did pretty well until we were overrun in the last quarter We were expected to swallow that.The fact is we dropped our bundle. I don't agree with everything WYL says but if it causes a few rankles among our more trusting and complacent supporters and even perhaps among the paid officials, who all should bear some scrutiny for the 2019 debacle, so much the better. More power to WYL's arm I say!

They weren't supposed to win last night either. Once you're there, anything can happen

The good news you don't have to wait long for a sixth.