Demonland

If the Lions are playing well every game at the Den is a blockbuster.

PART ONE - OVERTURE I have a disclaimer at the outset. I’m not a fan of the races - be they horses or motors of any kind. Once the final siren sounds on the football season, I find the month or so that follows and corresponds roughly with the Spring Racing Carnival to be the most boring time of the year for sports fans. You turn on the radio and you’re confronted by the monotonous drone of a self-proclaimed racing expert or by the nasally twang of an ex-jockey banging on about the equine prospects in a coming group one race. Who cares? But we now have another phenomenon adding to the off season boredom and that’s the concept of the endless AFL trade radio, television and other media discussions proliferating on the airwaves and the internet. Trade talk apparently rates well and makes for lucrative clickbait targeting so get ready for a week or so of endlesss repetition about whether this or that player will leave his club, which club is playing the role of suitor and how much it’s going to cost in terms of draft selections or other incentives to get him across. And because there is a limited number of players who will ultimately trade places, this information will tend to be repeated often and ad nauseum. Actually, the talk has started some time ago and the opening of the free trade window has already seen the first dominoes (Brandon Ellis and Cameron Ellis-Youlmen) fall but this will only get worse when the official trade period starts at 9.00 am on Monday and builds up to that final crescendo on Wednesday week. The Trading Chronicles will come back to you on a regular basis with the highlights of this trade period but don’t say that you haven’t been warned. It’s going to be an encyclopedia chronicling repetitive and boring information over the next ten days until the Big Bang happens on Wednesday 16 October and the curtain falls and trade radio is silenced just in time to take in the excitement of the Caulfield Cup. Done deals: Brandon Ellis (Richmond to Gold Coast Suns) restricted free agent - Richmond gets an end of second round draft pick by way of compensation Cameron Ellis-Youlmen (Adelaide to Brisbane) unrestricted free agent

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2019 by Whispering Jack PART ONE - OVERTURE I have a disclaimer at the outset. I’m not a fan of the races - be they horses or motors of any kind. Once the final siren sounds on the football season, I find the month or so that follows and corresponds roughly with the Spring Racing Carnival to be the most boring time of the year for sports fans. You turn on the radio and you’re confronted by the monotonous drone of a self-proclaimed racing expert or by the nasally twang of an ex-jockey banging on about the equine prospects in a coming group one race. Who cares? But we now have another phenomenon adding to the off season boredom and that’s the concept of the endless AFL trade radio, television and other media discussions proliferating on the airwaves and the internet. Trade talk apparently rates well and makes for lucrative clickbait targeting so get ready for a week or so of endlesss repetition about whether this or that player will leave his club, which club is playing the role of suitor and how much it’s going to cost in terms of draft selections or other incentives to get him across. And because there is a limited number of players who will ultimately trade places, this information will tend to be repeated often and ad nauseum. Actually, the talk has started some time ago and the opening of the free trade window has already seen the first dominoes (Brandon Ellis and Cameron Ellis-Youlmen) fall but this will only get worse when the official trade period starts at 9.00 am on Monday and builds up to that final crescendo on Wednesday week. The Trading Chronicles will come back to you on a regular basis with the highlights of this trade period but don’t say that you haven’t been warned. It’s going to be an encyclopedia chronicling repetitive and boring information over the next ten days until the Big Bang happens on Wednesday 16 October and the curtain falls and trade radio is silenced just in time to take in the excitement of the Caulfield Cup. Done deals: Brandon Ellis (Richmond to Gold Coast Suns) restricted free agent - Richmond gets an end of second round draft pick by way of compensation Cameron Ellis-Youlmen (Adelaide to Brisbane) unrestricted free agent

A conspiracy theorist might suggest that the tour of the Gabba complete with channel 7 cameras on the scene are all part of an elaborate plan by Elliott and his management to make Collingwood up the ante.

He didn't say that he had signed with the Pies but that Pie Insiders were confident.

This is the interview with Chris Fagan.

This is the new report where Tom Browne claims the Dees are resigned to losing out on Elliott. (right at the end)

“As The Age reported on Saturday, the Demons launched their bid for Elliott weeks ago while Fagan met him recently. The Lions reportedly had used their injury-free run in 2019 as a selling point to the oft-hamstrung forward.”

PART 1 - IT’S A LITTLE MORE COMPLICATED THIS TIME This year’s free agency, trade and draft period will see the usual drama and upheaval as the AFL’s 18 clubs seek to better their lists in order to challenge for finals and possibly premiership honours. Long before the final siren sounded on the season just over a week ago, the maneuvering was under way with player agents and clubs discussing possible player movements and in some cases, deals had already been done. Yesterday, the restricted and unrestricted free agency window opened and today the first players in each category traded places. Restricted free agent Brandon Ellis (Richmond) is now a Gold Coast Sun after the Tigers declined to match the Suns' offer while Adelaide's Cameron Ellis-Yolmen, an unrestricted free agent moved to Brisbane. There will no doubt be others to follow over the coming week. The trade period will run partly in tandem with the free agency period, officially opening at 9am on Monday (it will run to Wednesday week). The coming off season of change has assumed added importance for the Melbourne Football Club after its dismal on field performance in 2019. Whilst it’s true that the club will be hoping for improvement on the understanding (or hope) that next year it won’t suffer similarly from the ravages of injury that it had to deal with this year, its year from hell exposed a number of weaknesses that cry out be covered with the right sort of recruitment via trades and the draft, making life somewhat more complicated for its recruiters. The starting point is the club’s player list which underwent a couple of changes after the 2019 list was finalised with last year’s November drafts. At that time the lists stood as follows - PRIMARY LIST: Oskar Baker Toby Bedford Angus Brayshaw Bayley Fritsch Sam Frost Jeff Garlett Max Gawn Mitch Hannan James Harmes Michael Hibberd Marty Hore Jayden Hunt Neville Jetta Nathan Jones James Jordan Jay Kennedy Harris Kade Kolodjiashnij Jake Lever Jordan Lewis Oscar McDonald Tom McDonald Steven May Corey Maynard Jake Melksham Alex Neal-Bullen Aaron Nietschke Clayton Oliver Christian Petracca Harrison Petty Braydon Preuss Christian Salem Charlie Spargo Joel Smith Tom Sparrow Billy Stretch Aaron vandenBerg Jack Viney Josh Wagner Sam Weideman ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Kade Chandler Declan Keilty Tim Smith Corey Wagner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Austin Bradtke Guy Walker For the first time, the AFL club’s were able to tinker with their lists in March with the introduction of a pre-season supplemental selection and in the case of the Demons, they used the opportunity to add Jay Lockhart to their rookie list (15 days later he was in the team to play the Cats). Another AFL innovation was the 2019 mid-season rookie draft in which Melbourne was able to participate because it placed first-year Aaron Nietschke on the inactive list due to his ACL injury. This set up the opportunity to select Kyle Dunkley on the club lists. Since the end of the season in late August, the lists have been reduced with the departures of Jeff Garlett, Declan Keilty, Jordan Lewis, Corey Maynard, Tim Smith and Guy Walker through delistings or retirement, leaving them presently looking like this:- PRIMARY LIST: Oskar Baker Toby Bedford Angus Brayshaw Bayley Fritsch Sam Frost Max Gawn Mitch Hannan James Harmes Michael Hibberd Marty Hore Jayden Hunt Neville Jetta Nathan Jones James Jordan Jay Kennedy Harris Kade Kolodjiashnij Jake Lever Oscar McDonald Tom McDonald Steven May Jake Melksham Alex Neal-Bullen Aaron Nietschke Clayton Oliver Christian Petracca Harrison Petty Braydon Preuss Christian Salem Charlie Spargo Joel Smith Tom Sparrow Billy Stretch Aaron vandenBerg Jack Viney Josh Wagner Sam Weideman ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Kade Chandler Kyle Dunkley Jay Lockhart Corey Wagner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Austin Bradtke Then are some players being mentioned in despatches as being on the table for trades. Sam Frost and Billy Stretch have been mentioned in connection with Hawthorn and Gold Coast respectively while Ed Langdon and Adam Tomlinson are expected to join the club in trades or in the case of the latter, as a free agent. The Demons are also in contention for Collingwood’s injury-prone Jamie Elliott who wants more than the two year deal offered by the Pies but he has yet to disclose his hand between staying put at the Holden Centre or joining Brisbane or Melbourne. So let the next period of upheaval and change begin ...

CHANGES 2019 by The Oracle PART 1 - IT’S A LITTLE MORE COMPLICATED THIS TIME This year’s free agency, trade and draft period will see the usual drama and upheaval as the AFL’s 18 clubs seek to better their lists in order to challenge for finals and possibly premiership honours. Long before the final siren sounded on the season just over a week ago, the maneuvering was under way with player agents and clubs discussing possible player movements and in some cases, deals had already been done. Yesterday, the restricted and unrestricted free agency window opened and today the first players in each category traded places. Restricted free agent Brandon Ellis (Richmond) is now a Gold Coast Sun after the Tigers declined to match the Suns' offer while Adelaide's Cameron Ellis-Yolmen, an unrestricted free agent moved to Brisbane. There will no doubt be others to follow over the coming week. The trade period will run partly in tandem with the free agency period, officially opening at 9am on Monday (it will run to Wednesday week). The coming off season of change has assumed added importance for the Melbourne Football Club after its dismal on field performance in 2019. Whilst it’s true that the club will be hoping for improvement on the understanding (or hope) that next year it won’t suffer similarly from the ravages of injury that it had to deal with this year, its year from hell exposed a number of weaknesses that cry out be covered with the right sort of recruitment via trades and the draft, making life somewhat more complicated for its recruiters. The starting point is the club’s player list which underwent a couple of changes after the 2019 list was finalised with last year’s November drafts. At that time the lists stood as follows - PRIMARY LIST: Oskar Baker Toby Bedford Angus Brayshaw Bayley Fritsch Sam Frost Jeff Garlett Max Gawn Mitch Hannan James Harmes Michael Hibberd Marty Hore Jayden Hunt Neville Jetta Nathan Jones James Jordan Jay Kennedy Harris Kade Kolodjiashnij Jake Lever Jordan Lewis Oscar McDonald Tom McDonald Steven May Corey Maynard Jake Melksham Alex Neal-Bullen Aaron Nietschke Clayton Oliver Christian Petracca Harrison Petty Braydon Preuss Christian Salem Charlie Spargo Joel Smith Tom Sparrow Billy Stretch Aaron vandenBerg Jack Viney Josh Wagner Sam Weideman ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Kade Chandler Declan Keilty Tim Smith Corey Wagner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Austin Bradtke Guy Walker For the first time, the AFL club’s were able to tinker with their lists in March with the introduction of a pre-season supplemental selection and in the case of the Demons, they used the opportunity to add Jay Lockhart to their rookie list (15 days later he was in the team to play the Cats). Another AFL innovation was the 2019 mid-season rookie draft in which Melbourne was able to participate because it placed first-year Aaron Nietschke on the inactive list due to his ACL injury. This set up the opportunity to select Kyle Dunkley on the club lists. Since the end of the season in late August, the lists have been reduced with the departures of Jeff Garlett, Declan Keilty, Jordan Lewis, Corey Maynard, Tim Smith and Guy Walker through delistings or retirement, leaving them presently looking like this:- PRIMARY LIST: Oskar Baker Toby Bedford Angus Brayshaw Bayley Fritsch Sam Frost Max Gawn Mitch Hannan James Harmes Michael Hibberd Marty Hore Jayden Hunt Neville Jetta Nathan Jones James Jordan Jay Kennedy Harris Kade Kolodjiashnij Jake Lever Oscar McDonald Tom McDonald Steven May Jake Melksham Alex Neal-Bullen Aaron Nietschke Clayton Oliver Christian Petracca Harrison Petty Braydon Preuss Christian Salem Charlie Spargo Joel Smith Tom Sparrow Billy Stretch Aaron vandenBerg Jack Viney Josh Wagner Sam Weideman ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Kade Chandler Kyle Dunkley Jay Lockhart Corey Wagner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Austin Bradtke Then are some players being mentioned in despatches as being on the table for trades. Sam Frost and Billy Stretch have been mentioned in connection with Hawthorn and Gold Coast respectively while Ed Langdon and Adam Tomlinson are expected to join the club in trades or in the case of the latter, as a free agent. The Demons are also in contention for Collingwood’s injury-prone Jamie Elliott who wants more than the two year deal offered by the Pies but he has yet to disclose his hand between staying put at the Holden Centre or joining Brisbane or Melbourne. So let the next period of upheaval and change begin ...

Plus the surface of Goschs Paddock is great for the hammies. Not so great for the feet though. ?

He can't wear those shoes in Melbourne in winter. He's heading north.

Taking perspective recruits on a tour of our facilities is not a selling point. Number one reason we need a home.

Touring Brisbane's facilties.

I have no doubt of this. We are not a destination club unless our $$$ trump all others.

He couldn't miss from anywhere against us. Still a no from me.

What is the general consensus on the Collingwood boards?

Someone posted yesterday that he was born in WA then moved to Queensland and after his father passed away when Elliott was a teenager the family moved to Eurora in Victoria. There is a Queensland connection and if his brother lives there then that makes a strong connection. The fact that the Lions are coming off a strong season with a lot of hope for the future certainly trumps our dismal season. Sure the Lions could fall from grace like we did and we could climb up the ladder given a decent run at preseason and in-season injuries but the Lions outlook appears brighter. We have the advantage in that he wouldn't have to upend his life but a Brisbane offer similar or better than ours would definitely turn his head. That is all predicated on him not wanting to stay at the Pies even with a less than optimal deal.

I'm going to lock this thread for the time being. No need to spread a rumour with nothing to back it up. I've PMed the OP for more information. At the very least I want to confirm that this doesn't just come from a friend of a friend of a friend. If this was a first time poster and not a long time poster then they would be immediately banned. I'll reopen this thread if more information comes to light. Unless this is a brand new injury (ie: last week) I can't believe this wouldn't have been acted upon before he went on vacation. Methinks the OP has been hoodwinked. A reminder to all to not post rumours especially if you can't verify the credibility of a source.