DistrACTION Jackson

I think the results will be kept fairly secret.

I wonder what his skills will be like. Generally basketballer's are fairly skilled so hopefully he is a good set shot and possibly play in the forward line with Hoges.

His height is irrelevant when he is jumping over everybody....

I for one am happy with this trade. Sure the WADA may come into play but the maximum I could see him being rubbed out for is a year, probably more likely 6 months so it shouldn't be a huge issue. If we take pick 25 to the draft we have to select a kid who we aren't sure how they will turn out, put them into the gym to build an AFL body and likely wait a year or two before they can consistently compete. With Melksham we get a ready made player who has shown to have ability at AFL level and who will be helped by stability at a new club. Hopefully the next deal is Bugg for our third round pick and we can somehow improve our draft position with the Howe trade.

Every time I think of Prendergast I want to punch him in the face….

I don't get your point with the height and weight? What has that got to do with anything? Also, 4cm's is not much anyway. I'm not really worried if he stays or goes to be honest. But I don't see the point in trading him in a weak draft for a pick over 25.

You're not far off. Watts total contested marks: 82 Hogan 2015 contested marks: 47 I see Watts as a good 3rd tall though so wouldn't mind keeping him.

I think a lot of the trade speculation for Watts and Toumpas is just that, speculation. I expect at least one of Watts/Howe/Toumpas to still be at the club next season, possibly even 2 of them.

I do understand this line of thinking. But the other side of the coin is if we bring in someone like Kennedy we MAY be able to sneak into finals next season. This would then create a snowball effect. We suddenly become an attractive option for players coming back to Victoria, plus we can top of with free agents who want to have a crack at a flag. I think it's more than just what Kennedy can bring for the next few seasons.

It's a hard one. We see guys like Sam Mitchell, Hodge, Harvey all playing career best footy well into their 30's. Of course there is a lot of other players who start to struggle as soon as they are 30. We could possibly get 5 very good seasons from him, which you are never guaranteed from a draft pick. Edit: Plus with free agency now we just need to make top 8 with our promising youngsters and we will find lots of other players will want to join. We just need to get into that 5-10 range and it will be so much easier to attract other players.

I think he is referring to Josh Kennedy who is definitely an A grader.

I think we will get him for a 3rd round pick which is a win.

Looks likely he is coming to us then.... I don't mind this at the right price.

I'm not blaming Neeld for everything as there were a lot of other issues. But surely it would have been smarter to try and get more for our players rather than just selling them off. It just seemed so poorly handled at the time.

Very good point Mach5. We can see what happened when Neeld came in and had a fire sale where we got nothing for most of our players. Not sure what the point of that was? Was he trying to make a point to the other players because it really screwed us. The players may not be the best option for the future but there is no point selling an 'asset' for under the value you can get from it.

VBerg wasn't the first country player drafted. Pretty sure Isaac Smith was from the country leagues...

That's because everyone's trade ideas is 1) Get Dangerfield 2) if we can't get Dangerfield then we may as well just stop trading.

I think the real question is do we think we can get someone better at our 2nd round pick. If it's unlikely then it's a no brainer really.

I wouldn't be surprised if we offer him a similar contract plus our first rounder and another pick/player. Then if Pies aren't coming to the party we may be able to swoop.

The trade period hasn't even started yet. Guess this is the negativity Roos was talking about

I'm fairly sure they would be on top of any players looking to leave their club?

I think all journalists will list Melbourne targeting X midfielder. It's common knowledge.

Good for him if true.

I'd say it depends on what is on offer from the draft and other clubs. No point paying them out if what we are getting for them is not any better. It may mean that we keep them one more year as extreme depth and move them on next season.

Cross, Jamar, Bail, Fitzpatrick, McKenzie and Riley are all definite to retire or be de-listed. M. Jones, Terlich, Michie and Hunt are possibilities to be de-listed (Michie unlikely). Dawes, Howe, Garland and Grimes are all possibilities for trades and free agency. That's 14 players I think could possibly be moving on at the end of this year depending on how it plays out.