titan_uranus

Also, the absolute gall of Kane to say Koz has been let down by the club. All year Kane’s been saying we can’t keep playing Trac and Oliver in the midfield. If we’d kept them and made no changes into 2026, he’d have said the same thing - “all well and good to reward Pickett with the money but by continuing to play Petracca and Oliver in that midfield, they’re just not letting him be the best player he can be”.

No one in their right mind would have thought on 11 June that Goodwin was anything other than in danger of being sacked at any time in the upcoming 18 months. No matter how hard he might have wanted to deny it in his mind. Trac wanted out last year. Clarry’s issues are well known to the playing group. It might be surprising that it’s all happened in 4 months, but that’s all. None of this has happened totally out of the blue.

Meh. I’d prefer McVee to pick 23, but in the circumstances it’s ok. I haven’t felt this annoyed at a player leaving us in a long time.

Everything about this is just so sad and [censored]. Doesn’t matter whether you’re in the “the club is a disgrace” camp, or the “good riddance” camp. The mere fact that it’s 2025 and we’re on here squabbling amongst ourselves about Clayton Oliver touring GWS in preparation to be traded out is a rubbish situation no matter which way you look at it.

Yeah. Twomey’s a good journo but has absolutely jumped the shark when it comes to creating content.

Source? "Didn't even make the effort" - is that because he was a bit busy preparing Geelong for a prelim and then a grand final?

Isn't the reason for the different language between Trac and Oliver obvious? That is, the club is prepared to take Trac back, but we don't want Oliver back? If we did the same dance with Oliver, but then flogged him off for nothing, our words on Trac would look cheap. In some respects this is smart - we're making it clear to the market that Oliver (and May) are players we're happy to facilitate a trade on, but Trac we're not, because if it were up to us his name wouldn't be up for discussion.

Spineless? Not sure. But capable of extracting the best possible price? I have no confidence at all. None in Lamb, none in our club’s current vibe, none. Maybe in a year when King’s been able to embed himself on the culture of the group and/or we have a stable training ground situation. And/or someone other than Tim Lamb is our list manager.

In what way would it undermine everything King and Guerra have been saying?

Completely ignoring everything the media reports is as unhealthy as accepting everything the media says. You are better connected than most on here, but for the majority of us who love this club but don’t have your connection, we have nothing else to go off and therefore start with what’s reported. And with the reports being that we had a discussion about 2026 with him, following which the next day he was on a boat with GWS, is it unreasonable for us to link the two and conclude that he’s considering a change following that meeting with King?

This is one of those argument that actually means nothing. If we had more players who’d get a game in a top 8 side…we’d be a top 8 side. Run the analysis again on Carlton, St Kilda and Port. Can you find more than 12? Clearly we won’t be challenging for finals unless/until we bat through to 15-18 players who are good enough. Which means, in your analysis, Viney and Salem playing strong football, perhaps Petty going back and rediscovering form, and then otherwise the development of Tholstrup, Culley, AMW, etc.

Mate, if St Kilda are going to offer pick 7, GC will be signing this deal up ASAP. We’re out of this race.

I’m happy it’s just a 2 year deal. Have always rated him but at his age the end could come very quickly. Just 2 years IMO is suitable to bring in someone who knows how to play a leading forward role in modern footy. Should help JVR and Kentfield develop whilst allowing Petty to return to the backline, where he belongs.

Yeah St Kilda is such a triggering club on here. They’re going sideways from Marshall to TDK but at double the salary hit. Silvagni’s played, what, 3 games in 2 years? A great role player but does he move the finals needle? Ryan’s well past his best (imagine the reaction if we were interested in him!) Aleer’s a promising defender but promising is all - unproven at AFL level. Which leaves Flanders. A good get, one I wished we had snared, and confirmation we are a really tough sell to any prospective player. But contrary to @Bring-Back-Powell ’s pessimistic scaremongering, St Kilda’s true form this year was firmly bottom 6 and worse than us. Again, if we had won 4 of the last 5, all against bottom 6 sides, and all by single digit scores, anyone on here who would dare suggest that was a sign of improvement would be howled down. They had a bad year but with salary cap space they’ve thrown money and it’s stuck. A reminder to people on here that we’re by and large less attractive to play for than what ought to be considered an irrelevant club not anywhere near a flag.

If Trac’s gone and there’s any way that the price for Trac is Humphrey, that’s a deal I can get around.

Put to one side whether you think moving on from Clarry is a good idea. Is this the right way to do it? Tell him 2 business days prior to trade period to find a new home? Let it leak? Destroy bargaining power? All the while remembering that he’s under a sizeable contract that can’t be ripped up - meaning the only outcome now is for us to trade him for a packet of chips whilst we pay him 30-50% of his salary? Be supportive of the new management all you want, but we are still, right now a mess.

No one responsibly acting in Clarry’s best interests would let him forego that sort of money.

If it’s true that we’re going to tell Clarry to look around (and note that @Dannyz says this isn’t actually the case), this is terrible planning/management IMO. Trade period starts on Monday. Clarry has one of the biggest contracts in the league. If we want clubs to come for him, we’ve left them no time to plan. Meanwhile we put him offside yet again, after last year’s Pert-led debacle. I’m hopeful @Dannyz is on the money, simply because the alternative makes the club look dumb.

You have said a lot that we ought to “keep cap space”, and that because of Pickett and Oliver we don’t have much to work with. What do you suggest is the reason we need to “keep” the space? We have to pay 95% of it, won’t we? And with the higher cap, I don’t think clubs are now restricted to only two large contracts.

Cowboys, Lions, Chiefs

Personally, I hate this. Trac's probably my favourite ever MFC player. Watching him annihilate the Dogs on Grand Final day in 2021 and propel us into relevance was as proud a moment as most of us have ever had as MFC supporters. It stings, bad, that a knee from Darcy Moore could spiral this way so fast. But equally, I applaud the club's maturity. Unlike last year, we're writing to members about it, and we're also allowing him to go explore in the public eye. Go and find us a deal that is reasonable. If not, you can come back and front up to the leaders you're trying to abandon. Isn't that Oliver's contract (i.e. indexed with TPP increases)? I've never heard of that being a Trac contract thing.

You did it again - Smith won his side a final in 2021. You seriously have unbridled ability to cherry pick singular moments! Also yes he was amazing this year (albeit with a side of dickheadishness). Caleb Daniel may have been under contact but was awful, and in no way was worth 25 under contract before or after that trade (plus how old is he? Judd’s 22). Anyway, my point is that 11 is as unreasonable as 38, which you think we’ll be “lucky to get” because Judd got torched by Rankine. And whilst I don’t currently believe McVee will be AA next year, I think he has potential to be an AA defender, and I’d like to see us ask for remuneration in a trade which reflects that. Again, in the context of everything, not just one game.

You really do have a penchant for highlighting singular examples to make your points. Last year Caleb Daniel was traded for pick 25. Based on that, he’s worth 11 a lot more than he’s worth 38. And Judd played a bad game this year vs Rankine? Cool. Shall we go through all the good things he’s done since debuting, plus his age, skill set and importance to us moving forward? Or is context not really your thing?