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Update: I spoke to my contact again this morning and he has re-affirmed what i've already shared Issac Smith will join the Dees on a 3 year deal - said announcement coming, not sure of the delay but not worried. Ben Brown will join the Dees on a 4 year deal. The Saints are looking at Oscar to re-enforce their Key defensive stocks. expect a straight swap for Hind should Oscar decide to nominate the Saints, otherwise it'll be a separate deal we look at. I expect Tom McDonald will head to Essendon and fill a key defensive post in exchange for a token pick. although we have some interest in Brayden Ham. i think it'll be a 3rd round pick or something around there. and they'll take on most or all of his salary. The Giants are actively looking for ready to go players. we're keen on their compo pick. don't rule out a surprise player being involved there. they have some interest in Vanders. but obviously Preuss also. and our future pick. There is persistent interest from Fremantle (and others) in Angus Brayshaw that he's currently aware of, there is no expectation of a trade request, and no guarantee he'd be traded even if one came. Plans are in place to get a long term extension in front of Oliver before round 1. all indications are they're willing to talk. Some calls have been made re Christian Salem, MFC has said no. James Harmes is not going anywhere, he's Melbourne through and through. I can confirm now that one of the 2 players is Brodie Smith. Goody has connections with him, Crows looking to rebuild and Goody feels he'd give us some speed and bounce off half back that we're lacking. we tried to fill that same role with Saad but it didn't pan out. he's contracted until 2021 but the crows aren't against moving him on if he'd like to chase success in the back end of his career.

I'm not sure it's mental fragility. i am in the minority that thinks it has much more to do with the huge gap between the best and worst of our bottom 10 players that causes the team overall to fluctuate in game and in quarter. adding more quality and improving that bottom 10 players enables us to be more consistent overall.

Adam Treloar shouldn't have to pay the price for the Pies irresponsible recruitment of Dayne Beams on big $$ the Pies knew about Beams challenges when they recruited him. now pushing this guy out the door because of the cap squeeze that's created is a horrible look. hard to imagine any decent young player thinking their contract would be respected by the Pies after this

i think you're reading into something that maybe isn't there. Richmonds bottom 10 are all consistent role players. right now that's the biggest difference between Richmond and Melbourne. it's why when everyone is on, we can beat anyone, when they're not we can lose to anyone. because 12 can't beat 22 in a league this even. i think also it's worth remembering that no player in the AFL is "on" 100% of the time. including the guys you mentioned. there are definitely some technical/game plan parts of our game that we can improve. but the biggest area is the bottom 6-10 players, which just need much more clearly defined roles, or to be replaced with guys who can play a role.

That's a "sign" alright. AND it's in the City of Casey. Double sign.

"Essendon now thinking about targeting brown according to jon Ralph"

I thought he was very solid this year. His physicality in the back half is so important. If my brother passed away suddenly I would just fall apart. Amazing he was able to perform the way he did with everything else on top of that.

Considering we missed finals by a sneeze and look like adding 3-5 upgraded best 22 players to the side there are definitely no excuses for us to not think we can not only make finals, but push deep into them.

With his being lured from GWS, his wife playing Netball in Queensland and his mental health issues, this is a big call actively pushing him out the door. Not sure his team mates will like the optics, nor some Player Managers who will be wary of the Pies promises to their players. This type of action can be a culture killer.

It’s not a delay. It’s a cautious pause. It’s all the rage in Victoria.

Hahaha i'm confident mate, i trust my sources for the information i post on here and the only thing that has changed is the way a couple of journo's are reading the delay. it's their job to appear ahead of the news and provide content, i get it. I am 100% confident Issac Smith is coming to the demons and the delay in announcing has nothing to do with the cats. it's not even really a delay. but lets call it that haha.

Feel for the guy. Very loyal. Reportedly helped the club with sal cap in recent years by agreeing to re-time his contract to the back end and now that they have to pay up they want him out. The kid has/had self declared mental health issues. Very callous of Coll if they don't consider that. If he has to go fine but it behoves them to ensure the way they handle the exit they don't do more damage.

This is a really terrible by Collingwood and it will affect them in the future. They chased him from GWS, asked him to re-extend his contract to help the club out, and now they're trying to move him on. Why would a player from another club choose to go to Collingwood if they can't trust the club to honour their commitment to them? Why would a current player help out the club with a contract when the club won't honour the term of that commitment? It stinks and the AFL industry isn't that big. This has the ability to turn really, really ugly.

Gives off to Brown who kicks to Brown and scores. Oh look there is Wagner and Wagner in the crowd.

I'd love for Treloar to stay at the filth and hold them to his contract, stuffing up their salary cap.

What i've heard RE: Hunt is they're really happy with his offensive game and what he brings but they think he needs to seriously lift his defensive side, especially tackles if he wants to play that forward role. and also staying involved in games a bit longer.

They want him to ask for a trade. Then they can 'sell it to members' and the public as his choice and take the moral high ground. But Treloar isn't playing their game. On the public front Matt Randell (ex but recent Recruiting Manager) outed the meeting of Buckley and Treloar where he was told Coll 'don't want him'. Eddy hasn't denied that meeting and has been remarkably silent, which speaks volumes. Probably in damage control. Coll is rapidly losing control of the narrative and it is getting horribly messy. Treloar is showing great courage to take on the Coll establishment. I just hope he comes out of this ok on the personal front.

This is well supported when you look at the Richmond BnF - role players ... Jayden Short, taken as a rookie six years ago, edged out superstar Dustin Martin to win the Jack Dyer Medal. Nick Vlastuin, Shai Bolton and Kamdyn McIntosh rounded out the top-five in another Tigers premiership season.

I'm not sure they do that any more than the top 10 do at other clubs, it just becomes much more obvious when the bottom 10 players aren't contributing much to the team.

We're interested in Higgins but the expectation is other clubs are willing to offer more than we are for him. we think he's a little bit of a risk in terms of getting back to his best and probably need more of a sure thing. we're definitely interested though, and interested in a small pressure forward. but i think Carlton for example might make him a better offer in terms of $$

Great thanks for the update. Fingers crossed we can get Oliver re-signed ASAP. I would have zero issues with giving him a long term contract if we were happy to give Viney one, given his age and relatively good history of injuries.

Another case for Ben Brown being a good match for the Dees (apologies if this has been posted elsewhere in the thread): https://www.statsinsider.com.au/afl/ben-brown-to-melbourne-is-a-devilishly-good-match

Issac Smith will be a demon in 2021. I don't know 100% what the delay is about, but the dees do tend to wait for the window to make things public. I suspect before Sunday Issac will be rolled out in a red and blue polo.

Thanks Dr Evil, love what you're bringing to this off-season. Seems we're aggressively targeting mature age players to have a genuine tilt at a premiership. I am absolutely on board with this as I believe our core "elite" talent is there and acquiring experienced role players will make us a far more consistent side. Also love the fact that it seems we've kept one eye to the future by bringing in 3 quality players in Jackson, Kozzie and Rivers last year and allegedly targeting a quality ball user in McRae this year. Hopefully we can pull this off. Looking forward to finding out who our 2nd target is and hopefully it comes to fruition.

I think i've been very clear that ET is my source.

They signed him up to a 4-year extension in July last year, at a time when he was already contracted through to the end of 2021. Neither the hamstrings nor the poor kicking are new developments, both were well-known in July 2019. Whether it's bad salary cap management (no excuse for that either, it's not like in July 2019 they didn't know that Moore, De Goey, Mihocek, Cox etc. were all out of contract this year) or something else, this is a remarkable situation for the Pies to be in. As I've said before, I highly rate Treloar, his dodgy kicking notwithstanding. He'll find a home if he ultimately has to leave, even with the money he's owed under his current contract.

Higgins had major brain surgery in 2019. Great credit to him to come back and play 13 games in 2020. But those games weren't at the level of 2018/2019. Understandable given the time out of the game and lack of a VFL comp. His goal scoring isn't high about 20 p.a so while he is a live wire with pressure he doesn't do a lot of damage for a small fwd. It looks like he is surplus but he was a first round pick 3 years ago and a premiership player. A club would have to be very sure things like touch, vision, reaction time etc are still 100%. Don't like mentioning that but it is important to go into trades with eyes wide open.

Hibbo has just signed a 1 yr extension. Well done and good luck next season.

His contract is $900k per annum for the next 5 years. The $200 k subsidy Coll are offering is only for year 1. Then we have a $900k burden on our sal cap for a player who might struggle to get a game in a few years. I admire Treloar's courage and his outlook on life but I don't think he is an option for us. As you say let Coll sort out their own mess.

Thanks Doc. I think it would be a mistake to let Hunt go, particularly given Hannan will depart. I often wonder if he scratched Goody's car or something, because he averages more goals than just about anyone in the side.

1 goal in 10 games this year. Hamstring injuries in a speed player. Makes me concerned about Aaron Davey like decline. He’d cost our future first which bans us from trading future 2nd and 3rds for Ben Brown et al But most of all I think we might have only 1 more big ticket recruit in our cap if we want to keep our core. If a players not perfect and will cost upwards of 700k that’s a lot of opportunity cost. I want a ticket in the Merrett and Kelly free agency sweep stakes

Smith passes to Smith, who goes long to Smith. I hope I pronounced that correctly.

Relax guys, he's coming. Issac Smith will be a demon in 2021 and a seriously good inclusion for us.

Can Geelong leave some over 30's for the rest of us?

Another lifestyle move? Don’t these guys know that it’s only a 10 minute drive to the Collingwood children’s farm from AAMI park?

How much does he regret not choosing Richmond! Talk about a sliding doors moment.

Definitely looking like a pretty big shake up, which is needed. I've felt this year our top 15 players match up pretty well against the top 4, but we desperately needed a key forward and some role players. The additions of Brown and Smith immediately make us look a much better side. surrounding them with 2-3 more handy role players greatly improves our bottom 6 and i'm confident that'll also improve our consistency. The thing is every week you know Gawn, Petracca, Oliver are gunna be pretty good and the same could be said for a few blokes but we've always got a group of 6-7 players who are in and out of the side who regularly don't contribute anything and it costs the side. The biggest need i see for our team is to make sure our bottom 6 are consistent role players, they know what they're in the side to do, and they do it every week.

Tom Phillips should see an easier pathway at the Demons than Freo. ✅ still in Melbourne ✅ not on a 4 hour flight every fortnight ✅ plays on the MCG* ✅ Dees have left side wing ready and available Surely we can sell the MFC

At this rate we are going to break an AFL record for the number of Smiths on a playing list. Norm must be up there in heaven beaming at the prospect.

Hibberd can hold his own I don't doubt his ability however one year deal is a good one and he can easily play a further year after that. Tough as nails

Well done and good luck next season.

Even if the Pies pay $200k that still leaves $700K for a club to find to pay him. If you pick up a player with that sort of financial poison pill attached, how to we find the money to pay Gawn, Oliver and Jackson next year to extend their contracts?

Thanks. I tried to stay away from rumours as I felt facts would be more convincing to cover 'Sydees'' concerns. re the rumours you mention. Good on him for putting his family first. If I was his wife and went thru what she did I wouldn't be too happy with the club either.

lol u guys not putting Oliver as A grade. lol! what is he, AA, 2x bnf, and AA squad member and 9th in the brownlow this year? lol. no wonder he isn't happy, club doesnt appreciate him.

Well that confuses things. You’re the source of mine.

He's hopeless, never wanted him (now he's going to Geelong) * *Dr Evil swears he is coming to Dees, so if this happens I reserve the right to, ex post, change my opinion to how much of a legend he is