mo64

Totally agree. Young players develop quicker with better players around them. The argument of "they won't be around when we challenge for a premiership" is folly.

If our policy is not to draft a recycled player in the PSD, a late draft pick in no different to the 1st pick in the PSD. There have been a few gems that go through to the rookie draft, so I'd be happy to take the punt and delist Bell. But it's not going to happen.

You beat me to it casey corp. Most of the big teams around the world, from the various football codes, have their off-season training facility in some remote area away from their city. I haven't heard any player not wanting to play for Richmond because of their new training facility in Craigieburn. The benefits of being able to train on a full-scale football ground with goal posts far outweigh any inconvenience to the players. And if the players have to drive, won't they be going against the traffic?

Everyone was getting their rocks off last year after John Meesen's time trial. Just a shame that he can't play football. We'll soon be hearing that all the players are doing pb's, and just before the season starts, Robbo will come out and say that we can make the finals.

I think you're right. The club's only option is to suspend him indefinitely with pay.

If Bailey started to walk then, he must have tripped up when the players actually ran onto the ground for the 1st preseason game.

You just described Jason Porplyzia. I thought that Hughes showed something when he was at Sandy, and if he has got his body right, is worth another chance. Or at the age of 21, we won't consider him because he won't be there for our next premiership. B)

After 44 years in the doldrums, who is going to ultimately win us a flag? I'm sick to death of continually reading "don't trade for so and so because he won't be there when we have a shot at our next flag". FFS, we need to start developing a winning culture before we remotely think about winning a flag. And as I said previously, the conservative elements of Melbourne continually bring up the "what if" argument for not drafting Cousins. If the football dept. don't have the confidence in their ability to deal with troubled souls, then they are in the wrong job.

Agree. There's too much of a "she'll be right" attitude amongst the supporters. McNamee was sacked because he tried to think outside the square. We have a reputation as being a conservative club, and everything that we've done in the past 12 months supports that.

timD, there comes a time when you have to have a balanced list. If the best available player at pick 17 was a key defender, would you automatically draft him, knowing that we have Garland, Rivers, Martin, Warnock, Frawley, McNamara and bloody Carroll on our list? Hawthorn didn't draft the "best available" when they picked up Roughhead with pick 2. It was a massive shock at the time. But they did address their needs.

What relevance does this article have with Sydney? I can accept that we didn't get Prismall and Warnock due to their asking price, and it was prudent of us not to waver on our offer. If we were financially stable, I'm all for accumulating early draft picks and building a list from the bottom up. But we are not, and the debt demolition was a one-off short term fix. Another year like this year, and we are back in the same boat. Retaining members, corporate sponsors and merchandising, let alone attracting new ones, is all about generating excitement about the club during the off-season. Compare the end of 1997 to now. We had a new coach, and were able to attract Jeff White to club, and had the no.1 pick. There was massive excitement, and the confidence flowed thru to the team in 1998. As ickey_11 pointed out, "what evidence is there that Melbournefc will improve over the next few years." Not only were our results disgraceful this year, we were appalling to watch. And we don't know whether Bailey can actually coach.

We can't afford 3-4 years in the wilderness. Sydney have realised that their market is so fickle, that they have to remain competitive to be financially stable. They have done this by topping up, and snagged a premiership in the process. Our situation is more like Sydney's than Hawthorn.

Scoop, are you suggesting that we draft according to needs, rather than the old chestnut of "best available"? If so, I totally agree. And you were honest enough to admit that you're not in a position to nominate any particular players. Neither is Bailey, let alone most of the posters on this forum.

Spot on Jarka. Many on this forum actually believe that the only way for us to become a premiership contender is by bottoming out, and obtaining early draft picks. People are suggesting that we are following the Hawthorn model. This is a fallacy. Hawthorn were able to obtain so many early picks through astute trading, and any short term lack of success was underpinned by a strong financial position. This draft proved that clubs will not be so generous in giving up early picks in the future, and we aren't in a financial position were we can afford to remain uncompetitive.

Just keep using emoticons to substantiate your arguments. McNamee's plan was about trying to regenerate our finances by acquiring a marketable player like Brown. Which is exactly what Carlton did with Judd. Don't be naive to think that Carlton's motivation to get Judd was purely driven by on-field improvement. And I didn't say that Prismall and Warnock would generate sponsorship. If you can actually read, I said that players not wanting to come to our club would be detrimental in obtaining sponsorship. What's our selling point to potential new sponsors when players don't want to come to the club?

I thought you'd be too thick to understand. If you don't think that Chris Judd going to Carlton didn't attract more corporate sponsorship for the Blues, you are just a plain ignoramous. Why do you think that Paul McNamee was so keen to get Jonathon Brown?

Dementia has set it. Chris Judd to Carlton. Say no more.

When Chris Connolly comes out and says that Warnock and Prismall didn't want to come to the club, it's obvious that we seriously targeted these players, and what we offered were better deals than what Freo and Geelong ultimately accepted. Neil Balme also made that point that Geelong wasn't happy with what they got, but did the right thing by the kid. This suggests that we had a better offer, but Prismall wanted to go to Essendon. If you think that pick 35 for Prismall and pick 19 for Warnock are ridiculous trades, you've got no idea. But I've always thought that anyway.

Based on the comments I just heard from Chris Connolly and Neil Balme, Prismall didn't want to come to Melbourne.

Great selling point for much needed sponsors. The last time we finished bottom in 1997, we were able to attract Jeff White and almost got Peter Matera. Well done to the football department. :angry:

4 consecutive top 5 finishes in the b&f. Really inconsistent. :angry: Glad he's staying.

It shouldn't. Nobody knows whether the club gave Green their blessing to shop himself around on the proviso that Melbourne received adequate compensation. No club, other than the Swans, were prepared to give anything reasonable, hence he was happy to stay.

The same thing would have been said about Medhurst and Leon Davis 2 seasons ago. Malthouse has obviously got confidence in his ability to change this in a player.

Anthony Corrie from Brisbane to Collingwood for pick 93. Bargain.

Confirmed not rumour.