classy dees

we may have quantity in our ruck stocks but we dont have quality. why you would to trade our best ruckman is beyond me. we will get someone of very good talent at 11. be happy with it. and you want to trade jones? when we have already traded mclean? who gets the hard ball? think about it. the crap that gets put up here during trade week is unbearable at times.

contender for most stupid silly season post. and that is quite an achievement. if you were port would you accept that? would sydney give up a pretty decent pick in the last uncompromised draft for a rookie and a NQR? think about it. as for garland - that is sheer lunacy. you dont trade away your best players for a speculative pick, when there is no need to. and if he has a career threatening injury you dont think essendon would baulk at giving up their top pick in the last uncompromised draft for a player who may never play again, and a fringe player?? (i feel like im repeating myself) FFS, we are effectively going to be debuting 7 top 20 picks next year (3 from last, 4 from this year - watts hardly counts). this ridiculous obsession with picks is becoming stupid. at this rate, in round 1 we will have 10 "new" players and will get smashed by 80 pts because our boys will be tossed around like rag dolls.

i know he isn't marquee but would luke ball be worth a shot ?( i cringe as i do this, because i more than most hate the ... what about player x posts) he is better than mclean, has is no longer number 1 picked at his club and we have trading currency now... if we got rid (and by this i mean actually let him go) of mclean because his body wasn't right then ball might be an option. if we did it because we believe this sort of player doesnt fit into the modern game, then maybe ball wouldnt be. an interesting possibility nonetheless, albeit with bugger all chance of happening

interesting....he has been pretty honest with the supporters and on twitter. i eagerly await this "announcement" good analogy. Hannibal needs to the blocker dude. great post. its crap like this that makes trade week at demonland god awful

every premiership team has experienced players. harley is 30+ and captaining the side. gardiner and king are integral members of the saints team. crawford was critical for the hawks last year. if we are there on a GF day, i want an even spread of ages and types of players. when the time comes for some nous and experience, i want davey there, i want a moloney to win us that hard ball. if brock didnt have the injury issues and some critical downfalls with speed and skills, i would want him there too. plus i want davey to coach and mentor our kids. i wanted brock to do that too, but he didn't want to stay. you gotta move with it. we aren't 6 years off. no one plans for 6 years away. we are 3-4 years from becoming a powerful side. the what if game doesn't work either. start that, and you'll never see a positive.

you're normally better than that jaded. i know you're [censored] about your favourite player leaving, and i will cringe when i see him without a red V on next year, but this isn't a bad footballing move for the club. if that whole prediction thing is what [censored] off mclean then it is a good move on our behalf. if anyone thinks we'll win a flag in less than 4 years they are smoking something wicked. i reckon 3-4 years is smack on. watts wont mature till then, the bodies of morton, scully, trengove, blease, strauss etc wont be match hardened until then, let alone finals ready. we have effectively got 7 top 20 picks debuting next year (scary and excitign at the same time). hawthorn needed 4 years for their rebuild. the cleanout is one thing, the rebuild is another. onwards and upwards yes, but slowly.

from a material point of view im happy with the trade. pick 11 for a one paced injury prone midfielder whom we have many similar is good compensation. brock was made to look horrendously slow this year and disposal substandard. but that said he has significant upside going forward. this does however give us great trade week flexibility and allows us to be aggressive without even mentioning 1&2. 11 and 18 are excellent currency. i'm sure we'd fight tooth and nail to keep him if we really really really wanted him. if he asked for the trade, a pay rise and the captaincy wouldve gone a long way to changing his mind. the other thing is, why do carlton want him? they have given up their only top 12 pick for two years (assuming next year they are finals bound - likely). this irks me. for me the concerns are bigger than the loss of the footballer mclean. but the reasons why. none of us know. a 5 year player who the club has nurtured through injury and off-field problems who had leadership written all over him, and was committed enough to donate 10K to the club shouldnt want to leave. if the article is to be true, i'm surprised as all hell that we gave him a pay cut given what he did... culture is a dirty word at the MFC. rumblings of players wanting to quit have long dogged us.we all thought we were on the right track with this, lets hope this is another sensible move. as others have said we wont know the winner of the trade for a few years but we have got significant upside out of it. i just want to know why. 7 top 20 picks in 2 years....i hope we have creche facilities at the new bubbledome.

someone with a twitter should 'tweet' schwabby. he is all over twitter and seems to be quite content to talk to supporters....

Port adelaide would be stupid to take this tack. melbourne would just laugh at them and then hold out for PSD. if we were to get burgoyne it would be at the cost of a young gun (making the trade stupid) and 18. it is one thing to negotiate hard. another completely to demand too much and then end up with egg on your face.

From Cam Schwab's twitter: I had a few tweets about Col Garland. Scan showed a small unrelated hotspot. Docs being cautious. In a moon boot for a few weeks. they are taking the best possible approach.

both good points. good post

this question should have been phrased in good call bad call format. as for the topic at hand, they are all about the same. on everyone show there is someone who you want to punch repeatedly in the head.

Hannibal, you make demonland readable, given the loads of tripe and bickering on here at the moment. thankyou. my key reservation is at what price does he come, both financially and from a trade point of view. 600K was mooted in the paper i think. this is too much. sets a precedent. very few players in the league would get 4yr 600K contracts. unheard of. and also what we have to give up. port will want one of our top picks or a one of our best 3 players. grimes, morton, frawley or perhaps davey/sylvia. no thanks if that is the case

is that such a problem though? his age is exactly the age where we have a massive hole in our list. the odd 30 year old in a premiership side is not a problem. one could argue it is needed. plus he will take the heat off other players from a tag point of view whilst they develop. jones, blease, morton, scully etc etc i cant see how we lose unless we have to pay him through the nose

i want to agree with you DD, but i just feel their list is in a better position that ours was. They have some real quality young kids, and their key players are younger than ours were. Time will tell though. this does genuinely concern me. but geelong was so desperate for that week off, they will be primed for this. incredibly clever post, showing a real knowledge of football. did you come up with by yourself? because a post of such quality would surely need the collective IQ of 40,000 collingwood supporters. and even then you'd still need spell check. wow, since when are the tough collingwood supporters such petty cry babies?

that blind turn is amazing. i could just keep watching and watching. as RR said, it is a testament to how much he got out of himself even after the injuries. but he could have been anything without them

i wasnt going to post on this topic but i couldnt help but give my 2c on this one. despite the lure of a top pick (even then realistically no team is likely to give a top 10 pick up given the concessions next year) i would be loathe to trade rivers. At half rat pace this year after two years out he was able to show his true qualities. there is no doubt that he had his troubles on the lead, but his ability to judge the contest and provide cover was still second to none. hopefully with a full preseason under his belt he will gain that extra bit. secondly i'd be loathe to trade quality key defenders. whilst there are arguments suggesting the game is changing and that the need for a 3rd man up specialising defender is less so than before rivers has old fashion defensive qualities that are so extremely important. the rationale for trading him is obviously that we have cover. but when you analyse it properly it is definitely no easy call. garland like it or not has a career threatening injury and DB has been quoted as wanting to try him forward, martin is learning the craft of afl and has been dangled in other areas of the ground and frawley and warnock look pretty good so far. it is with great trepidation here that i bring up the example of nathan carroll. carroll was arguably AA FB in 2006. we all know how that turned out. not for a second am i likening either of those two chaps to that lunatic but things can change quickly and if the game changes and you cant adapt, you will especially be found out in key defensive posts. that said both of these players hold great promise. i think more importantly rivers brigns leadership and a calm head to a young, naive and inexperienced team. with 5 picks last year and arguably the same this year our list is already exceptionally young. you cannot win a GF with only kids. 23-27 year olds win you flags. these are seasoned and battle hardened bodies with experience that will win you hard finals games of football and are calm under pressure in tight games. with 6 top 20 picks in the last 2 years, i am confident that we will have enough top quality cattle when our time comes. given that junior will retire next year and bruce and green if still playing will be pushing or past 30 in our next finals campaign, the key players in that age group will be the daveys, rivers, mcleans, sylvias and moloneys etc. add to that 12 or 14 exciting youngsters that have been added in the last 3-4 years and it will be a nice mix. but you need enough players in that key age range. rivers can and in my opinion will have a big influence on the way this football team rebuilds. if we get him right and with help from the other guys we can get many a season out of him. given our struggles with key defensive posts inthe 90's and 00's, trading rivers for picks just because we need to load up even more than we already have would be very risky.

H, right now who would you pick (im only asking because you've seen both) people seem to be wanting this twin towers business. it is too risky. our midfield really is D grade. went backwards in 2009: Brock decent quality:Beamer, Sylvia, Davey,Morton almost there: Jones, Grimes (this is arguably a stretch), big question marks: Dunn, Buckley, Bartram, Valenti not proven: Blease, Strauss, Jetta, bennell McKenzie, Bail, experience:bruce, green, macca. that midfield list needs some serious quality injections. if the best two players are mids. take them.

Great Post Rhino. sums up my thoughts exactly. im just glad the season of wanting to lose is over. i couldnt take much more of that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6bIVEeI5cU that gave me goosebumps. raw emotion for football and raw emotion for the melbourne football club. thankyou robbo from the bottom of my heart. you gave me so much joy watching the melbourne football club. just seeing some of the videos on this thread just reminds me of what i love about football and what i love about this club. Go Dees!

6- davey. Easy 5-bate. Gaves us plenty 4-rivers. Awesome down back 3-jones. Makes errors but love his endeavour 2-mcdonald. Is there a better tackler out there 1-petterd. Love this guy Valenti, moloney, and brock very unlucky

geez that is one hell of a thigh injury if it is making him groggy, and likewise one hell of a concussion if it is affecting his thigh! unlucky for the kid. lets hope he can still play the remaining games this year lets hope we are with them all day but just not good enough in the end. 11 points down again after a goal to goldstein

true. lets just hope they are playing for something come our game with them. lets hope they need to win to get a home final or something or cement a position etc. personally and from a selfish point of view i hope and prey we somehow manufacture a loss against north this week so that i dont feel so dirty at the freo game and can actually hope/cheer/barrack for us to win as a loss against north will all but ensure we get a PP

6- Mcdonald 5- Petterd 4- Grimes 3- Davey (king had him for much of the day, but anything decent we did was because of him) 2- Bate 1- Dunn

i'd be immensely [censored] off if it was any situation other than the one we're in. i'd hope just for image sake that we make some sort of fuss about it. dont want the result changed or anything but...