Deers

What is he really worth? I look at Caddy in the same light as the alleged David Mackay offer. We over-rated Mackay but from the inside the club clearly saw a bona fide, top-class midfielder against our current list. With our good hand in $$$ we could afford to raise the stakes. With Caddy you have a top-10 draftee from two years ago who hasn't set the world on fire. But he is an inside midfielder; a tough clearance player who attacks the ball aggressively and takes contested grabs. His work ethic was seen as first-rate. If Jack Viney is the culture changer then I got a good feeling Caddy will support the movement as his right-hand man. Even without the proven numbers he would slot into our midfield. With our good hand in the draft we could afford to offer pick 13. We're not in the position to rightly determine if that is too much for Caddy, or if $500k a year is too much for Mackay, because frankly we don't have much in our own backyard to compare with them. I've still got only ten players I'd want to field next year. Viney makes 11. Caddy would make 12.

Nicely put, Ron. The full impact of Misson's contribution (or Neeld's) won't be seen until they have a solid talent base and absolute "buy-in". Elite coaches have the ability to turn a good list into a quality team. See: Ross Lyon. But a crap list is a crap list no matter who or how many you have at the helm. See: Essendon.

If that is your own creation Old I am forever in your debt.

Can anyone hand-over-heart declare that Davey will be of any use next year? He's undisciplined and totally behind in fitness. I will applaud him if he makes the call.

The market is thin; a lot of names thrown up here are either staying put or pipe-dreams - save for a few ring ins. I want a big dog. All this does is enrage my appetite for this guy:

Agreed. Stuff the player banner. Use it to honour our legends past and present.

Gysberts is a smart player and whilst over-rated by BP I don't think he was an absolute recruiting blunder. But as Jack Grimes said, Neeld's methods are not for everyone. If Gysberts is a casualty of this so be it. Culling five Gysberts' does not equal one Jack Viney, though.

SportsnewsFirst is to sports media what McDonald's is to food & dining and Fox FM is to music. Cheap and tacky yet shamefully irresistible; but you will regret it over time.

If we take the best available I would snap him up at 4 but his injury has clouded things. He has the mass of a bull and will be ready from Round One. But the broken leg has defanged his pace, spurt and leap. It took Blease two years to get over his compound fracture fully; for Stringer it'll be two years since in April. He can get away with being slow and sluggish in the VFL but lacking that run & spread could prevent him from starting in the big league. Does it matter much, though? I think he's a tremendous talent - one of the best in the draft. The Bulldogs are keen and so should Brisbane, Richmond and Carlton. If he lasts to pick 13 I'll do a little dance. Imagine him being taken by Brisbane or Carlton and by 2014 turning heads and tearing up the park? I don't.

Not a question of why or who but how - how does Melbourne attract players to join? First step? Put Mitch Clark front and centre.

Four down and Cook / Gysberts are pencilled in. That leaves nine out-of-contract players in limbo until October. If Petterd is on the nose then Bate, Dunn and Bennell can't be far behind. Do we carry Davey or Bartram through 2013? Rivers is a curious one, too. MacDonald, Davis and Sellar are solid bodies who play Neeld's game and hence they'll survive. I'll take a second-rounder for Martin. And then there's Big Cale. My guess? 13

If he was pick 68 and a VFL straggler you wouldn't bat an eyelid at it. Shame he's not a pick 68's [censored].

So he's a quad bike crossed with this guy: And who said he's on our shopping list as a freewheeling whatchamajig? He could be on our list as a doorstop or a paperweight or a transsexual two-bit drug dealer. Don't give up your day job, Spicy McHaggis.

The club must hold its nerve and get the balance right. I don't want to see half a team of reliable, strong second-tier players running around just to appease the nervous nellies.

Is every player rumour going to put the blame solely on the club for their exile? I guess no-one wants to admit they were dismissed from the worst team in the land.

I pray that you are being sarcastic. I would be terrified to think we are on the same page, ever.

I am glad fans are nervous. It means Mark is doing his job properly.

The greater tragedy is that you care enough about Nine News to open a new thread about them.

Nothing I wrote remotely refers to him as a "future star". What do you think, bright spark?

I'm not disappointed by it. Disappointment comes with expectation and I certainly did not expect Jurrah to play for us again. Although, if I ever see him in Adelaide hoops or Port's black I will be heart-broken.

He wants to continue playing footy in Adelaide. The season's over but the torture continues unabated. Good luck to Liam all the same.

Are you guys taking the [censored]? How did second-stringers like Sheahan, Williams and Couch enter the discussion? They don't hold a candle to young Tynan. On topic: admittedly I haven't noticed his skill sets so I am rating him based mostly on intangible qualities. But like his brother Luke, Josh appears to be a solid, reliable worker and has a future with us.

Twice did he run backwards into packs and took a contested mark; laid two tackles (the equal of Sylvia and more than Watts, Blease and McDonald) and desperately ran into at least three contested passages of play. We could hardly get it inside 50 all night to his disadvantage. Nevertheless, he did more in the last quarter of the year than half the list has for the entire season.

When you have Garry Lyon around the club, one is blinded by the notion that everyone is a "good bloke" or a "superstar". [censored] good footballing people or good business people.

I did in 2008-09. I believed in hope that we would turn good soon. There were exciting young recruits to be got! So it was easier to put up with horrible losses. The hyperbole was such that the press and industry competitors "bought in" to it as well. Doing it again is tiresome. EDIT: I'm even tempering my faith in the great white hope of Viney. He'll be a star but I've been stooged before.