titan_uranus

Yeah but when their fans hate Marvel, they may as well cash in while they're [censored] and get the money. When they get good again, they'll wipe this deal and push for 11 MCG home games, and if they get a Marvel home game they'll pull 20,000 extra than they will in the next two years of being bottom 4.

Of all the arguments that get put in favour of it, this is probably the worst one. Got a problem with the pre-finals bye? GET RID OF IT! It shouldn't be there anyway, it should be the week before the GF, but if the problem is that we don't want a week off between the H&A season and finals, the AFL has the power to just get rid of it. Absolutely moronic reasoning here. A bit like this year? When Sydney finished 10th on 12-11 and 97% but would have made finals and got to have a crack at Gold Coast, who were 15-8 and 124.9%? If GC had not choked and beaten Port in Round 24, 7th would have been Fremantle, who were 16-7 and would have been percentage out of the top 4 and one win off 2nd. But Sydney, who barely broke even on the year, would have been gifted a chance to knock them out. [censored] me.

Not only has the AFL made a terrible decision, they've also managed to mangle its implementation. The majority public outrage tells you that this is not what fans want. Sure, some people like @Bring-Back-Powell can't get through a week without watching football, but for the rest of us, we want finals to mean something. Now you can finish 10th, in the bottom half of the competition, and make finals. They had the chance to say these wild card games weren't finals, to make the top 6 seem like a feat, but they haven't done that. 10th is a finalist. 10th having a rubbish year but playing a blinder against 7th credits them with a finals win. It is of course clear that the decision is purely monetary. You hear it when people like Greg Swann talk about it - they mention that it's good for revenue, good for broadcasters, etc. It's no wonder Kane Cornes and Gerard Whateley are so in favour of it - it means they make more money! The AFL makes a lot of bad decisions, but I can't recall the last time they treated the fan base so poorly. Knowing the (vast) majority don't want this, but shoving it down our throats anyway, and then gaslighting us by telling us we don't know how good it's going to be.

Bills, Lions, Eagles

Chargers, Colts, Jaguars

Not our call though, these dates will all be locked in under the CBA.

IMO 2026 goes one of two ways. We either find that we had midfield cover all along (plus Steele) and a new coach and game plan reinvigorate us to such an extent that we challenge for finals. Or the transition hits hard and we finish bottom 4.

Yeah, after everything that’s happened, Gawn should have to earn his spot. /s

Bills, 49ers, Bucs

I took this a completely different way. To me, it was an indication that perhaps the penny has finally dropped. We have spent 2022-25 trying to keep as much of the premiership winning 23 together as possible, not just on the list but on the field. We continued to try to get a supposed "best 23" to gel together with an argument that we needed to get the best 23 playing together as much as possible for results to come. So we kept playing the same guys over and over, and as a result didn't play other guys who were fit and at times in strong VFL form. That extended to wanting to keep Trac and Clarry, despite what had happened to both of them in the last few years. The club's overall view was to keep everyone together where possible. Now, whether it's because Goodwin's no longer there, or for other reasons, this is no longer our priority. So we let Trac and Clarry go, and we "grow up" and accept that our next flag isn't going to come about just by continuing to plonk members of the 21 flag winning side on the park.

We have a new regime and we just turfed two MFC hall of famers, with members having deserted us all year It would be incredulous if the new leaders didn’t get out there and talk about what we’re doing.

Didn’t take long to get the classic “talk is cheap” trope. What do you want the club to do in [censored] October? Yes, judge the club on how we play. But we can’t play until March. It’s brainless to suggest the club should say nothing until March, so just accept that in October (and November-February), the only thing the club can give us is words.

Thankfully he was under contract then! Long term contracts aren’t always a bad thing. As @Lucifers Hero says, Clarry netted us such an awful return for other reasons (off field stuff, and our mishandling which led to us having no negotiating leverage).

Steelers, Patriots, Falcons

I don’t agree with any of this. You only had to look on here to see how many didn’t understand why we traded Oliver, or are upset about him/Trac, or still think it should have been “no Humphrey, no Trac”. And regardless, it’s absolutely the right thing to do for the club to acknowledge that we’ve just traded two future MFC hall of famers. The point of the letter wasn’t to tell us something we didn’t already know. It was to acknowledge something meaningful happened, and to put a full stop behind it.

Anything except this. Anything that doesn’t involve players moving jumpers. 5 was Trac. That’s a past era now. Let Langford become HL19. Make 19 the new 5.

Nah we just traded out two of the best players we’ve ever had, he 100% should have said something.

That’s a nice bonus.

Again, a sad day. A genuine champion of our club walks out the door for a largely useless pick whilst we pay him to play for a flag contender. It’s an appalling way for his chapter at Melbourne to end, no matter how you look at it. Like with Trac, it’s time for us to launch into a new era with a new midfield, but I sure hope we had good reasons for this, because to my eyes, we’ve cocked this up.

A sad day. Was my favourite player. Brought us relevance, and of course a flag. At his best, which I believe he can regain, a top 5 league player. Time for us to move into a new era with another 2 first round picks.

It’s the former. Surely. Surely…

I’m ok with using that pick. Spargo into CJ is not a loss. Whether it is a win remains to be seen, but here’s hoping!

We are and were never going to get Humphrey unless one of the following occurred: GC believed we would take Trac back, and therefore had to cave before we did GC value picks 7 and/or 8 higher than Humphrey and therefore would prefer to trade Humphrey and keep the picks Point 2 would never occur given GC’s position needing points for the academy players. So long as GC believe we won’t take Trac back, they’d never trade Humphrey. They will still get Trac and then, if need be, will trade Humphrey next year for additional picks (worth more to them in a stronger draft) or players.

What do you mean none of the other Vic clubs didn’t look at the deal? Trac nominated GC. He wasn’t inviting offers from Vic clubs. Hawthorn have been distracted by Merrett, and look what they’re offering for him. This wasn’t an open market where we were going to get to pit rivals bids against themselves.

If we knew this was coming, we should have let him go to Geelong last year. Or we should have started this process earlier than two business days before trade period, so that we didn’t have to rush it. There’s almost nothing we’ve done in relation to this situation that is anything other than shambolic. And we’re about to pay a ridiculously steep price for that.