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Max Gawn was drafted in 2009. 2010 = 0 games 2011 = 4 games 2012 = 0 games. 4 games in three years before he went on to develop into one of the best ruckman of all time. Rucks take longer.

Bloke is 23yo and has 3 kids?! Clearly Can hit a target and can kick a goal

Dude, Oliver at or near his best is our only hope of snagging a flag over the next few years. Forget how teams our winning flags atm, it's all about how the next team wins a flag and although I'm doubtful it'll be us it won't be because we didn't trade Oliver for a peanut.

Come on now, when Oliver is up and going his ability to get the hard ball and breaking out of congestion then quickly dishing out to someone in space by hand is the best in the comp. A fit and firing Clarry is the he key, his hand was buggered all year and admittedly fitness not up to scratch. He owes us & deserves one last chance to get back to the form of his first 150 games Getting good ball users is they key when given the space by Clarry

I have made an official complaint re this post on the AFL website, as it implies that the AFL is supporting Barrett to undermine the Melbourne Football Club, I will keep everybody posted on the sort of reply I get, helpful knowing a couple of 'independent' journalists if I get the brush off.

Last 9 years. The four musketeers have dominated our B&F. Clarry x4 Gawn x 2 Petracca x 2 Viney x 2 (Gawn and Oliver tied in 2019) they are surely all going to be listed amongst our very best players ever hope we can resolve the issues with Clarry and Trac over the next 12 months

When we played our best football, our Casey side was just as strong as our AFL one. Tom Campbell shouldn’t make our AFL side better but having the best VFL ruck on our list certainly helps our Casey squad and fringe mids. The strength of the entire squad is just as important as the AFL

lol..If its off the table he'll have nothing to talk about all trade week.

It gives you a reference number, which I can quite happily follow up direct with a few AFL personages, easy to find emails. I am seriously over this so called modern sports journalism

The key word being most.

Saw this at the top and my heart sank. Thought he was on the trade table.

Here’s yours truly laying the boots back into Sam McClure on SEN. https://x.com/fog_house_/status/1843214003314528742?s=46

Not sure about the ethics of having cyborg implants added in a secret lab in the Austrian Alps, but if we're doing it...

Can't agree sorry. As horrible as we finished this year we are not a bottom 4 team. Academy picks don't make any difference to us as they were never available in the open pool anyway. Next year we have the ability to trade two years in advance to get back into the first round. Failing that, if we do have a dumpster fire year then we will easily get two first rounders for Petracca and potentially a good pick for Oliver (pending form on and off the field) if one or both want out and we want to reset down the youth pathway. Better to get as much quality kids in early and have that extra years development. I'm looking forward to seeing the possibility of two midfielders (or whatever type of player we select) to develop alongside Windsor and Tholstrup as our next wave of elite players.

It's important to remember that our 11 wins this year would land us in 9th to 12th in all other years, assuming the extra game we played this year was a game we won (so a 10-12 finish in a 22 game season). Getting 14th with 11 wins and 98% is genuinely great for us. We had a pretty terrible season that started going awry in December last year. All that considered, we still finished with 11 wins and lost 3 games to GWS, Port, and the Lions by less than a goal in the run home to the finals. @ChaserJ insightfully likened this year to 2019, and I agree. We're extremely lucky to have pick 5 with the amount of wins we had this year. And it's not like we had a great season and failed to do well. A pick swap will likely end well for us, given all of these variables.

Damian Barrett is so pro-Geelong it is embarrassing. That he should be in the AFL website - which should be objective- is a joke. He is all about how great "Jezza", "Danger" or Scott is, and also, if he can get half a chance to slag off Melbourne he jumps at it. He clearly has an agenda: to destabilise Melbourne and Oliver and thus get Oliver to Geelong. And BTW, if Clarry is past it and out of date in his style, why is everyone so interested in pursuing him? I hope and believe he will be at Melbourne next year, hopefully on his way to his THIRD AFLCA medal.

Oliver has burst speed... is as quick by hand as anyone and almost always kicks down the corridor... Your point?

This whole thing could have been handled way better if we just carried the Paul Roos mantra of 'anyone is tradable for the right price'. Would take all the pressure off the club for 'shopping players around' and players would never feel like the club is dealing behind their back. If a player gets chased while they're in contract you just tell them its fine and they can explore it but the deal has to work for us. All the secret dealing behind the scenes, leaks to the media followed by emphatic statements just make the club look silly and rudderless as soon as circumstances change.

Excellent post If it was just one player and not the other it would be a difficult thing to manage given the level of talent (a way lesser player might or would be dispensed with) But both? And both are arguably our best 2 players. Very difficult and the coach would need masterful man management skills to get both back on track ... as well as managing the rest of the list Both are on huge contracts to a point that makes both almost untradeable. Goodwin has the job ahead of him and I wish him well. I just hope he gets the right support in terms of managing the situation So those wanting Goodwin out are going to replace him with who? That new coach would inherit the same, said issue ... it would be like walking into a minefield

GWS are simply spitting the dummy here. They’ve lost Perryman, Cumming, Peatling. Haynes. They must have a toxic culture. Their players can’t wait to get out. Cameron. Caldwell. Taranto. Hopper. Treloar. Shiel. Tomlinson. Williams. And plenty more have walked out. A young bloke who hasn’t been played wants a better situation for his family. He’s stuck behind too many at the Giants who are stacked with tall defenders and tall forwards. Strange decision by the Giants. If I’m Lamb, I’m still pushing and asking the question. I’d offer Pick “48” on the table. Thats more than reasonable. If the Giants hold out or ask for more, its disrespectful to the Dees, to Derksen and his family.

According to Andrew Mackie Geelong was contacted by Oliver's manager who thought it might be in Clayton's best interest that he move to another club. Bear in mind that his manager would pick up 5% of a new contract. Tim Lamb said Clayton was not shopped around. I believe him. I do not believe Pert made phone calls as McClure claims.

As I am not on X and have no desire to give the owner 1 cent can anyone advise the guts of this story please?

Just think, if Clarrie gets fit of mind and body and his hand is healed, His ability to get the ball out to Windsor who could then break lines is very appealing. Windsor and Trac bursting could be key to a faster moving team especially from stoppage.

When is Kozzy requesting his trade to port Adelaide ?

No one should take Sam McClure seriously. Using the word "journalist" in the same sentence as him is not advisable. Clarry with be at MFC next season and I am tipping he comes back with some good form in season 2025.

Yes, until PROVEN otherwise. We should disbelieve it.

As an aside, congrats to Jessie Hogan on winning the GWS B&F. If you get a chance, watch his acceptance speech - it’s great.

Not sure where to put this. How much of 'MFC is a shambles' is a media construct and how much is the truth?

Possibly too much leeway Time for a number of our players to repay the faith that the club has put in them through very lucrative contracts Lets see why you get the big $$$ fellas

I think it will still get done

Hopefully if GWS manage to get Stringer to head up to them it will allow Derksen to move. Stringer would be yet another player ahead of Derksen in that GWS forward line

Presser for the crows. What a class individual, absolutely respectful way to answer the questions about your former club.

He's got buckley's chance of getting a game in 2025 for BWS with the key backs and forwards in their arsenal. Holding him for depth, please!!! Let the fella go play, how selfish do you want to be.

We granted Neal-Bullen's request but GWS didn't. We are a compassionate club.

We’re capitalising on a poor year in the same way we did in 2019.

Don't you have to get the ball? He gets the ball.

We’ll be giving F1 and 28 to get pick 10 or 11 from Freo. If that happens I’d call it outstanding trading on our behalf. Clubs are crawling over each other to get high picks this year.

Shai Bolton is icing. he is not the cake.

Great work Fog. Don't forget the crows camp, where he made stuff up and had to apologize and hand back a media award because of it. Plus the Harry McKay Trac trade that he made up.

i think there is a complete disconnect between list management team and coaching. why bring someone to the club and never play them in the role in which they were brought in for....so many examples of this over last few years.

I think Dan Houston answered the question for us. our biggest fish right now is an uncapped GWS VFL player we can’t even land Lever and May are really the last big gets I can think of. I remember watching the doco “show me the money” And they spoke about how our pitch to Cerra was so impressive. Where is that Melbourne demons? we won a premiership in 2021 and the list of recruits since then is not very pretty. you want to be a destination club. Fix Your culture. And take it seriously. ofherwise you’ll keep missing the big names that would’ve taken us to another premiership

Brodie Grundy?

Ignoring Tom Campbell are we? A "ruck" 13 years in the system, now at his 4th club at 32 years old, played only 50 games and is barely taller than most forwards? Talk about wasting a list spot

Alright forget the flag credit, which I personally will forever credit him with. Standing up when it counts most is the measure of a man He is just shy of 200 goals in the past 4 years which I would guess is top 10 in the entire league for a 3rd fwd. He also missed 6-7 games last year Add in 47 goal assists and you can see his value

In the presser today, Lamb a dead set straight shooter, who wouldn’t even spin whether we were an attractive destination for players at the moment categorically denied that Pert “shopped around” Clayton Oliver. Pert may have spoken to clubs about a range of things, but Oliver was “was never up for trade” and not “shopped around”. So yes, I do not believe the reports Pert called one other club now, not even multiple clubs, Jay Clark was saying one club now, to offer Oliver in trade. Whatever happened, whatever the other club official who leaked this thought, or misrepresented, Lamb was clearly stating today we weren’t offering Oliver for trade.