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Ben is 29 not 35 and has been made to play in a way that completely disadvantages him. He is a lead up FF, who has been made to go to the pocket and sit under a long bomb, while 3 opposition defenders hang off him, jump all over him, push him, grab him, chop his arms and spoil him, with his resting ruckman also coming into the contest and making an even bigger mess of it. This is all designed to create a contest, where the assumption is that our brilliant small forwards will crumb and goal in the chaos and if not, then apply enough pressure to maintain the ball in our F50. How could any key forward succeed in that predictable mess? Get him back to playing his game, have the other forwards also make space and create options and commit to relentless pressure. Oh and play a second key forward, so that not all the tall defenders are all over Ben and we have other marking options.

We have targets outside of Grundy?!

Cadman is a 196cm mobile, competitive type. The Jeremy Cameron comps come from his capacity to work higher up the ground and get touches. Regularly picked up 18 to 20 touches in the back end of the NAB League season and popped up with big marks and goals in important moments. Improving below his knees (not a giraffe) could be cleaner. His inside 50 play is similar to Harry McKay (including some technical issues with kicking). Good distance on his kicks, can spray them. Seems a really good kid, willing to learn. Has improved a lot this year, particularly with reading the ball in flight. Think he’s well and truly the best kpf in the draft pool.

Really disappointing to hear that we're set to recontract Jake Melksham. Michael Hibberd I can understand because he has been consistent with his form all year, but Melksham..? He's last couple of games showed that he's just past it. Other then the Carlton game he didn't much in any other games and he was incredibly poor against Sydney. Played as the 2nd tall forward forward so that alone has chewed games off Jacob Van Rooyen who once again justified on the weekend that he was physically ready to go. He's going to be 32 next year and our focus needs to be on the next wave of talent coming through like Laurie, Chandler, Bedford and Moniz-Wakefield. If we can get an extra list spot to bring in another developing tall forward/ruckman then surely that makes more sense then keeping washed up 32 year old forward flanker.

Confirming some news and giving the snowflakes enough opportunity to block me. I am hearing a bit of stir. We certainly have targets outside of Grundy. Grundy a cert.

In regards to his mum posting on Facebook I think 2 things: - Players and families are specifically told to avoid commenting on social media for obvious reasons. Did that conversation need to be public, when she would have been able to contact people directly? I don’t want to come down too hard but all that did was put her into a public conversation she’d be well advised to stay out of - for her, and her sons sake. Let’s not forget that this is her child effectively resigning from a job. How would you feel if your mum did that to you at work? - Her use of the phrase ‘coming home’ was interesting. I was raised to go and live my own life. 5 years ago Luke was aiming to play in the NBA. What did she think was going to happen then? I’m starting to buy into the theory that his mum had a lot of influence, and was quite vocal about it.

Hard to disagree with any of that Dazzle. But then, I was pretty vocal about wasting a first round pick on a highly speculative small forward (Kossie) over Brodie Kemp, and couldn't for the life of me understand why we'd pick a ruckman in Jackson at 3. Plenty questioned the recruitment of Lever and May. Our list management team have serious runs on the board. If they're chasing Grundy, they'll have a plan for how to use him. I'll back them in.

Looks like WCE are back in the game, altho they may be leaving their run a bit late: “At this stage Tim, no it’s not,” O’Brien said in response to whether pick No.2 is on the table...“If we get the opportunity to trade for Luke, we can split selections to generate more, we’ve got future selections and there’s player trades.” O’Brien says that while he and his team are yet to contact Melbourne or Jackson’s management they won’t be “gun shy” in negotiations. “We haven’t spoken to Melbourne yet at all, I’ll contact Tim Lamb in the coming days and start working through that,” O’Brien said. “But we also need to get in front of Luke and his management to find out their position as well and put our case forward to hopefully convince him that we’re the right club to come to. SEN

This is the most boring rumour thread since 2008. Anyone one want to hear what I know? I don't want to trigger any of the mega DL snowflakes so here is your chance to block me if you dont want to hear what I have to say. Block dont abuse.

I don't think WC are back in the game at all. That to me sounds like WC acknowledge he is Freo bound, but that they will now ask the question of LJ's management. The question is a very simple one, "are you wedded to Freo, or could we sway you with a better all round offer"? If they were serious about LJ, they would have had discussions with his management by now. Seems this is what we thought all along, he is off to Freo and has probably already committed to them. Now it's time to get the best deal we can.

Reminds me of the Life Of Brian skit about the Romans: Recently, no players ever nominate Melbourne as their preferred destination, because why would they! What about Langers? Ok, i'll give you Langers - except for that metrosexual, no player nominated Melbourne as their preferred destination ! Dunstan? What? Who? Ok, except for Dunstan and the metrosexual, no player nominated Melbourne! Lever? Ok, ok. Except for Dunstan, the metrosexual , and Lever - NO player nominated Melbourne! May? Jesus!. Except for Dunstan, the metrosexual , Lever and May - NO player nominated Melbourne! Brown? What? Who? Which one? Ok, except for Dunstan, the metrosexual , Lever, May and Brown x 2 - NO player nominated Melbourne! Tomo? Alright, alright; except for Dunstan, the metrosexual , Lever, May, Brown x 2 and Tomo - NO player has recently nominated Melbourne as their preferred destination!

Yep, I reckon you're spot on. I can just see our list management strategy meeting down at Rye. Tim Lamb: So, do we keep Melksham everyone? Jason Taylor: I think it might be time to go back to the well and see what we can get from draft instead. Alan Richardson: I agree. Let's cut him. Simon Goodwin: Hang on a second guys. I'm really good mates with Melky. Tim Lamb: Oh yeah. You are too. Alan Richardson: Good point. Maybe we keep him. Jason Taylor: Yeah, fair enough. I was forgetting you guys were good mates, Goody. Let's keep him. Stuff the draft pool.

Lobb will fit in at the dogs. Inconsistent, disloyal peroxided [censored] The dogs measure success on Instagram likes

Not a fan of Melksham by any means, but the reason for retaining him is quite simple: Between main and rookie list we will probably and have lost : M.Brown, Rosman, Daw, Baker, and Jackson. That is 5 list spots already, and we will in all likelihood get 2 draft picks for Jackson. We don't know what Bedford and Chandler will do, but if they were to go, then probably more draft picks. Even with 5 picks, that means our 5th pick is pick 90 at the earliest. If Melksham is delisted another draft spot, then that becomes pick 108. Is Melksham better than a speculative pick 90? One would have to think so.

He's played over 200 games already, so you should probably have had a bit more doubt. Melksham is an experienced role player who can play a wide variety of roles and clearly follows the coach's instructions very well. He came into the side this year and did an excellent negating role on opposition intercept players and won us a game as well. He'll be very low cost, content to play VFL, provide leadership and provides decent cover if things hit the fan. He'll also be an easy delist at the end of next year, which could be important when the alternative would be on a two year contract. I can see why you'd keep him and see why you'd let him go. But overall the difference between those options is kind of whatever.

The post where she - as a member of the MFC supporters page - went out of her way to say MFC will always have a special place in their heart and graciously thanked club and fans? The one where a mother said she is proud of her son and looking forward to having him home again after a few years of Covid lockdowns? Nah haven’t seen that one yet, better post it in here again mate so we can all scrutinize it! Regardless of if his parents influenced his decision or not, the decision is made. We move on. There’s nothing to be gained by us all whinging and creating narratives to justify it to ourselves. Now he’s officially leaving, our focus should solely be on what value we can extract in a trade to improve our team.

Fair dinkum, how people could knock the Dees list management the year after winning a flag after a 57 year drought is beyond me.

At least if we get Grundy that will give us choice of either forward pocket to bomb it long too. You know, make us unpredictable.

Adem should now withdraw, no newbie coach will have a handicap from the start even if they won it - the spectre of Hird is a ‘board movement’ away.

Since when is as an adult, considering the advice, and perhaps also feelings, of your parents when making big life decisions a bad thing (to be clear LT, i know you are not saying it is)? I wish my 19 year old son would take some of my bloody advice and consider my feelings every now and then!

Which one you thinking? I haven’t heard a single quality forward is available? McStay is a third tall, and half the player Fritsch is in the same role. I’m open to hearing options for forwards, but I doubt there’s anyone good available. Jackson wasn’t a forward. He was a ruckman and around the ground spare ruck rover. Interestingly the best comparison is the guy we are bringing in - except the guy we are bringing in is also a 2 time All Australian, and a much better, and more experienced, footy player. Oh yeah, and he’ll cost us 250k a year less than the bloke who left will get. Swap Grundy for Jackson and we are instantly a much better side the next 2-3 years. And if Max goes down what do we do then? Spargo in the ruck? Pinch hitting with Bowey?

Just because we didn't counterattack well (we really lost a lot of run from the back half with Salem hobbled, Bowey out, and Rivers and Hunt offering very little offensive punch this year) doesn't mean that having the opposition kick inside 50 slow and short is bad defending. This was especially obvious when Brayshaw went back into the midfield. Also our pressure around the ball was down on last year, which means that it's a lot easier for the opposition to avoid being counterattacked. Hard disagree. They will want him spending a lot less time in the ruck than this year, not more, given that he's a 31 year old behemoth that's had 3 knee reconstructions. Keeping Max going as long as possible would surely be the number 1 priority, and having him be smashed in the ruck for 80% of the game is the worst way to do that. Getting a big brawler to bully the ruck contests means that we can protect Max and use him to dominate the highest leverage aerial contests (wherever they may be).

Cadman's not perfect, no prospect is. He's not the best with ground balls, and like most talls it may take him a few years to build enough strength to consistently win those grappling marking contests he excels at in his current competition age bracket. His strengths directly address our weaknesses though IMO. He's a really strong mark all round, whether on the lead, overhead, or in a wrestle. He played defense when he was younger and shifted forward this year to great effect due to being able to read the ball and play really well. There's multiple instances in the championships where he had the ball come in high and he marked it overhead while out-wrestling others or with blokes hanging off him in a pack. He's also a proven goal kicker, averaging 3.6 goals a game at underage level and being the leading goalkicker at underage level and the champs. Our main issues up forward are a strong marking tall target, and lack of goal scoring firepower. Cadman's a strong mark and big goal kicker. That's exactly what we need. He'd be the right target for us if we have a top 5 draft pick from the Jackson trade, as he's top 5 on talent and fills our biggest list hole.

I don't want to jump ahead but a small part of me is sensing our up and coming list management is going to disappoint a lot of supporters. Jungle drums beating that we're about to hand over a first round draft pick for a 29 year old ruckman as this is what Collingwood will supposedly ask for. If this is going to be the case then it's a huge mistake imo. I'm genuinely confused why we're putting all our eggs in the Grundy basket when our biggest need right now is a key forward. On top of that, we're then happy to pay at least $650-700k for his salary for the next few years. This amount of money could be saved to go on an all out assult on say a Harry McKay from Carlton or a Ben King from Gold Coast. All this just makes zero sense to me. Then to top it off we're now about to resign a cooked Melksham who was part of the mess that is our forward line. I have faith in Tim Lamb and co, but if the reports are true which they've obviously have been around the Luke Jackson departing all year and the Brodie Grundy recruitment then its concerning imo for our list demographic moving forward.

Totally agree. I understand how she must feel though; missing her son and wanting him to live close to her and… dagnabbit, I can’t keep a straight face. 🎶 Sorry Ms. Jackson I am for real…🎶 Try having a son who lives on the other side of the planet and doesn’t have bazillions to visit his mum frequently. *sigh* Anyways I apologise for always banging on about this. Once the deal’s done and he’s gone back to Perth, I shall whinge no more. I promise.

Wouldn’t mind Hayden Young as part of our trade with Freo for Jackson 👍🏻

What DL thoughts exist on including Liam Henry as part of Jackson deal to Freo? Steak knives?

Best news ever! Just sit back and enjoy the show all!

Marvellous!!!

100% I agree with you. If you want a dominant key forward history shows that it's almost entirely in the first round because it's such a difficult skill set. My comment was only in relation to the correlation between underage goal kickers and dominant AFL forwards, not the value picking a key forward int he first round of the draft. There are a lot of ways to kick goals in juniors, it's a recruiter's job to know (and detect) what parts of a player's game translates from juniors to AFL .... and that's really tough!

My theory on Melk getting another year is that pesky son of his who everyone loved so much in the lockdown bubble in WA must have been DNA tested and he's going to be a superstar and we need Melk to get 6 more games for him to be a father/son. Otherwise a bit surprising. But I'm sure I'm right. Smith can't keep getting injured forever can he? Unless he's me. Fully fit he's a special depth player with his versatility and potentially a very special medi sub for that reason. Hibbo earnt another year on the back of one of his best years this year until finals. On Grundy haven't we all learnt not to listen to the fourth estate on this stuff. I'd put money on us not paying a first rounder for him. We're in the box seat. However, past experience has taught me rule no. 1 in trading. Absolutely no matter what do not trade players in or out to or from Collingwood no matter what. I don't need another example to prove this rule.

Because Salem and others were 'untouchable'. One of the worst things this season was our coaching staff seemingly rewarding players down on form or hampered with injuries based on their 2021 output.

I thought he was this year until we started playing him ahead of guys like Chandler, Van Rooyen and Laurie who were showing much better for at VFL level then what Melksham was.

I can't understand Weagles determination (if True) not to give up pick 2 for him. He's been in the system 3 years, proven himself under the ultimate pressure of a Grand Final. Won a Rising Star. Has 3 years of physical development and tutoring by the best ruckman in the comp. And he's only 20. Compared to what at pick in the draft. There's never a guarantee a pick 2 is going to prove to be worth the pick and then they have to be developed for 3 years or so before they will be a major contributor. Plus they desperately need to draft a ruckman to replace Nic Nat. I'd be grabbing the opportunity to get him with pick 2 with both hands.

That's probably fair considering a trade hasn't even been done yet.

Since our ejection on Friday night I've been reflecting on our season and where it might have gone wrong. Or in particular, why this year never quite felt right. All teams have question marks on whether they have what it takes to get to the top. Supporters and the media focus largely on whether the playing group is talented enough, whether the coaching/gameplan can succeed and whether the off field administration is enabling success. These are no doubt important. For us though, none of these 3 elements have changed materially from last year. We know the team is good enough, we know the coaching group was good enough (notwithstanding tactics need to change) and we are stable off field. What has changed and I think why I felt 'uncomfortable' with a lot of the seasons successes - is the culture. This is what stitched it all together last year and in this sport in particular, with the largest ground and freeform positioning, is a crucial element to executing a defensive-minded gameplan. Bit by bit, week by week, I think our leaders (players and coaches) have let it slip, with a trail of markers going back to the end of last year: - Gawn declaring at our premiership celebration that we'd salute in 2022 - I'm sure this was designed to be bold, but it imbued from the start a disrespect to our opposition and to some degree, embedded some underlying complacency - the Carlton pre season game, conceding 8 50m penalties and clearly lacking some discipline and respect for our opponents and the umpires - consistent selection of players who were underdone, out of form or blatantly injured, reducing accountability, reducing trust in the FD to be impartial, and denying our youth and second stringers of chances to grow. Not very selfless or trusting from our FD decision makers. - May/Melksham incident, notable not for it's drunkenness or timing but for what was said by May to Melksham, implying a clique of 'premiership heroes' to the exclusion of all others, and again a sense of entitlement stemming from achieving success last year - coaching refusal to change structure or gameplan in the face of pretty compelling evidence that it was being dismantled - clear on field selfishness in front of goals - Fritsch the poster boy but it arguably most damaging from players like Trac who repeatedly attempts to kick goals with 3 oppo players on top of him rather than using his gifts to release someone to space as he did more often last year - clear drop off in accountability to team defense standards in guarding space appropriately or sitting at the defensive side of a contest. The selflessness that was such a hallmark is now difficult to see in this regard. - clear drop off in willingness to work hard at the little things off the ball - they spoke about being the best teammates they could be last year. Being 3rd last in pressure implies they weren't very good teammates to each other this year at all. - Continued poor discipline in both our finals, conceding 50m penalties to Sydney at crucial times and again against Brisbane, with the leadership group repeatedly at fault and a litany of downfield free kicks as we repeatedly dumped players after kicking -players openly arguing, pointing and expressing frustration with each other on field, including the leaders -Langdons poorly worded 'duck dinner' comment - I'm sure not wholly intended to be disrespectful but again a marker of an underlying arrogance in the teams evaluation of its opponents -Consistently going ahead early in all our losses - indicating again our pure footy ability was clearly good enough - only to be overrun. I think fitness wasn't the issue. I think it was the teams mindset to run for each other, trust their teammate to win a contest and a collective belief in the system and team defense. -Gawn spoke about last year how their cultural change started with the removal of the 'little quips' around the club - not bringing each other down for fun. I'm sure I'm not alone in noticing that from about a 1/3 of the way through the year, the Gus and Gawny episodes took a bit of a turn...the quips of teammates returned in subtle doses in exchange for a laugh. By the last few episodes of the year I no longer enjoyed the show - arrogant, backslapping banter often at the expense of their guest or the team's lesser lights. - Gawn has a guest spot on Nova's breakfast show once a week. The hosts questioned Max a number of times about our form during the 2nd half of the year. It's a breakfast show and I don't expect it to be serious, but near the end of the year Max kept referring to our ladder position as his defense. "Well, we're still second so we must be doing something right". There was a clear denial of the trends within our game (at least to the extent he would admit it externally), again implying a level of disrespect for the opposition. Jonathan Brown more than once accused Max of living in the past. Brown is hardly a beacon of morality or good judgement, but I think he was on the mark. I'll stop here to avoid making this any longer - I'm sure others can add their own observations to this list. I've no doubt some of you will say I'm being pedantic, particularly on the final two points on how Gawn has presented in the media - but I just can't shake the sense that the selflessness, humility, and team unity that we had in 2021 has been pretty significantly eroded. I think this is encapsulated by our two finals games. We were deers in headlights when both Sydney and Brisbane cranked up the pressure. We clearly weren't running for each other. Uninspired and selfish can look a lot like being gassed. It was pretty alarming to see this team, our amazing, contested, tough, 'built for finals' team start playing hot potato and putting teammates under pressure with errant or 30cm hospital handballs. I think this reflected that the playing group to some degree lost the trust & faith they once had in one another. If I am unfortunately right, it won't be an easy fix from here. Culture is the hardest and last thing to get right, and it's the easiest and first thing you get wrong. Looking forward to the offseason moves and all of that - but my eye will be watching for the return of some of the cultural markers we had in 2021. Or at least, the non recurrence of the markers of 2022.

That's a completely valid point. No draft pick is a certainty and there's been plenty of top 5 picks who went on to be duds. We've had more than our fair share of them! By the same token, the best players, especially tall forwards, are usually highly talented juniors taken in the first round of the draft. If you look at the Coleman medal winners, nearly every one for over a decade has been a first rounder. 2022 - Curnow - first round pick 2021 - H McKay - first round pick 2020 - Hawkins - father son pick 2019 - J Cameron - underage pre-draft (first round equivalent) 2018 - J Reiwoldt - first round pick 2017 - Franklin - first round pick 2016 - J Kennedy - first round pick 2015 - J Kennedy - first round pick 2014 - Franklin - first round pick 2013 - J Roughead - first round pick 2012 - J Reiwoldt - first round pick 2011 - Franklin - first round pick 2010 - J Reiwoldt - first round pick It's up to the recruiters to determine if they think Cadman's physical attributes, skillset, and personality mean he will flourish at AFL level or not. Based on his output and data on previous draftees, he's more likely to become a winner than not. No guarantees though!

It’s not a bad thing at all. There’s also nothing wrong with what his mother posted in support of everyone. There’s no point dissecting it to create a narrative. I was attempting to convey that, albeit with sarcasm attached. Nothing wrong with someone having their family as a key part of their decision making process. More importantly I was trying to say no reason for people to be creating these narratives and having a crack when they don’t know the circumstances and it’s a pointless exercise. It’s all irrelevant, as the decision has been made now. We have no choice but to accept the decision and move on with the sole focus of extracting value from the trade, instead of looking in the rear view mirror at an unclear view.

I’ll be barracking for the Swans. Geelong are always my least favourite team because they get such an arm chair ride to the finals, and every year I pray for them to finally fall off the cliff. Collingwood. No. Obviously. Brisbane have some players and a coach I like, but they are offset by Zorko and his pathetic attempts to manage his reputation after he clearly did the wrong thing. Go Swannies.

I know that you're talking about this like it's a bad thing but I see it as the opposite. We are forcing teams that are used to playing a particular way, to play a way that's different to how they want to play. If we are forcing Geelong to kick the ball away from Hawkins and Cameron then that's a win. It also means that we are forcing shallower entries and slower entries, which helps us to counterattack more easily. What Max allows us to do is to troubleshoot. If we are dominating the defensive aerial contest or struggling up forward then we can swing him forward, and vice versa. Max has gravity - wherever he goes the opposition's focus will follow. By bringing in a big ruckman to bully the ruck contest it allows us to use Max to exploit his league leading asset .... his contested marking ability.

we were much better when ball came in low with Bowza playing as his positioning was so good. Still can't understand why he didn't play finals - was BOG for Casey.

Not sure about Max (or Grundy) behind the ball. I think that belongs in the 'it was a 2021 tactic' basket. It worked in the first part of this year but when we played Geelong they did everything but kick it high into f50 or anywhere near where Max was. Other teams have followed that with varying degrees of success. Not sure Max behind the ball is the same weapon in future that it was in 2021. The new mantra to play against Melbourne: keep the ball low into f50 where Melb struggle to defend. Every team will try that tactic in 2023 so fixing that part of our defensive game will be a key for 2023 success.

Agree. I can see the arguments for and against getting Grundy, but the FD seems committed to getting him and the most likely explanation is that Max is more banged up than we'd like. I think the Jackson trade could drag on while Freo try to negotiate their other deals to set it up. I wouldn't mind getting the Grundy deal done early for our future first with Collingwood paying a 30% of Grundy's salary. Then we can concentrate on some other deals like trading up for Brisbane's first.

So Jackson, the ruckman in all those situations had no part in them? FMD. It's nuffy season.

Although I’m disappointed he’s leaving, I’ve had the opinion all year that it was a win/win scenario for Melbourne. If he were to stay then we have a potentially generational talent to build around, but now that he’s leaving we should expect to get a decent haul in return. However speculative draft picks may be, I’m confident that we have the culture and the ability to develop the talent we bring in. People can say what they want but I’m excited about the possibility of retooling a premiership calibre team and injecting some fresh blood - something that clearly wasn’t done enough this year.

No booing.

Hello darkness my old friend..

I like that, with Turner getting more gametime as well

All I want for Xmas is two elite kicks and an above average tall forward.