Rodney (Balls) Grinter

What do you mean just hope? Gus and the MFC should be constantly in his ear telling him how great it is over here and what he is missing out on with the Dockers (the MCG, competing in finals etc) planting and well fertilizing those seeds of thought in his mind like Freo did to us with Jessy. Brothers playing together like you and big brother Anthony did for a few years. How great was that Jnr?

Americanised autocorrect?

Even if he did come back and play for us, I'd still probably boo him. If I reflect back on this, it was probably also about the timing. The MFC was probably at the lowest point it has been in quarter of a century. We were such absolute poo back then, that the only thing that gave us hope was that the elite young tallents that we had recruited and were looking like we could rebuild a team around. Scully fed that hope all year with his optermisitc statements about the club, the wanting to be a one club player thing etc. After all that buid-up his defection was a kick in the guts when we were already down. As you say, his actions since, including his move from GWS (where he said at the time he really wanted to be a part of developing) have clearly shown he was lying through his teeth and that all he was motivated by was the money, which only reinforces why he should be perennially despised by the MFC and it's supporters.

If Scully ever makes it back onto the feild against us, I hope his entire body is smashed, not just his ankle. Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Vanders, Jetta, Harmes, Melksham, Hibberd, Jones - just line him up and treat him like a human pinball or rag doll, like some of the hard but fair hits that Nev, Vanders and Lewis did on Selwood, Mitchell and Worpel during the finals. Just looking at Scully in a Hawks jumper and he is even more hitable and despisable. Turd brown strips suits his persona perfectly.

If Scully ever makes it back onto the feild against us, I hope his entire body is smashed, not just his ankle. Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Vanders, Jetta, Harmes, Melksham, Hibberd, Jones - just line him up and treat him like a human pinball or rag doll, like some of the hard but fair hits that Nev, Vanders and Lewis did on Selwood, Mitchell and Worpel. Just looking at Scully in a Hawks jumper and he is even more hitable and despisable. Turd brown strips suits his persona perfectly.

True to a point. The Toumpas case is a but of a sad story and in retrospect who really knows where its all went wrong. Poor development support at the club post drafting him? Perhaps part of it, but Jack Viney was drafted and part of our playing list at the same time and he has turned out ok I think. I'm no complete expert recruiter, but I thought that Toumpas looked the goods when we drafted him, to the point that our present recruiting team may also have drafted him. He certainly ticked a big box with me, which I would have thought Taylor etc would also rate, to the extent that he had played well at state level finals against men in SA. Main point is recruiting 18 year olds in the national draft is somewhat of a lottrie and that proven mature players the likes of Hogan should attract a premium over raw rookies, particularly as a KPP. Hogan is that far ahead of his contemporaries it's not funny. Josh Schache was pick 2, best he has produced in a 17 game season was 16 goals. Tom Boyd a number 1 pick kicked 16 goals from 14 games in the Bulldogs premiership year, but hasn't come close to that since. Jessy Hogan kicked over 40 goals in each of his first two years when the MFC were just as bad, if not worse than Brisbane. He kicked 20 goals from 10 games in 2017 and close to 50 goals this year as well as racking up possessions galore up the ground. All things being equal, I'd say Jesse has even better to come. To say Jesse Hogan isn't worth two first round draft picks an $8M over 8 years is total crap. The only reason I'd hesitate if I had solid medical evidence his foot is totally Fcked, which I don't think anyone has. Just thinking about it, this uncertainty regarding his injury may mean that this is the worst time for all parties to consider trading him, which may even have been part of the MFC's thinking all along.

Muuuum - are we there yet?

I'd be quite happy if that is the case. GWS were given probably the most priority acess to quality young players in the history of the AFL and at the same time that the MFC bottomed out and needed to rebuild, partially impeding our ability to rebuild. The draft concessions given to GWS have achieved what they were set out to do and that is enable them to build a compeditive team in a reasonable time frame, which they did. Whilst I'm sure the AFL would have loved GWS to have won a flag, they haven't and so be it. Quite happy for GWS to simply survive for a few years being an average to poor side. The AFL will probably need to do a pretty good job persuading the rest of the competition that GWS being in the comp is a net benifit through additional TV rights or something (though I struggle to see how), in the context of the team continuing to loose millions of dollars in it's own right every year. I'm personally getting sick of this artificial team being propped up much longer. You would think the additional national interest in the game from a Tassie team would actually give TV ratings a kick and the Tassie government should draw a hard line and say we are not supporting Hawthorn and North Melb beyond 2020 without the commitment to establish a Tasmanian team in its own right.

The tought of Hawthorn picking him up for as low as pick 53 is making me spew. Kane Corns and Tim Watson are also suggesting that the AFL shold get involved and investigate/ interven should he go for that little. Fat chance of that happening, the AFL do nothing in these situations, just look at Luke Ball - Collingwood and Chris Judd to Carlton. Still it suprises me that the likes of St Kilda, Carlton, North and the Doggies are not into Scully and surely those players would have better trade material than pick 53 to offer GWS in return. Equalisation is completely broken if there was ever such a thing in the first place.

Suggestions that Tommy couldn’t be moved back to defense on a semi permanent or swing man on needs basis to me really lack critical thought. Tommy is both one of the fittest players and best defenders we have on his day. Distinctly recall him being one of the few players to curb the super athletic Nick Riewoldt in Nick's prime. I could imagine a scenario where for instance Frost was being carved up by Joe Daniher and we wanted to wrestle back control of the game, so shifted Tommy onto him. Frosty has great burst speed, but Tommy's endurance and aerobic capacity are practically unparalleled for a guy of his size in the AFL post Nick Riewoldt. Concerns about Tommy's foot skills and decision making down back are also being over played. He has moved on from the scared deer in headlights mode that use to define his play down back at times, through a combination of improved self and team confidence and system. He regularly ventures up the ground in his forward role these days and his foot skills can be observed to be quite sufficient and even prolific at times. All the above said, I think he is a gun forward and that's where I'd prefer he was utilized, but the flexibility he provides to be switched to the backline is an asset to the team not something to be dismissed or cringed at.

Fairly sure Tyson was actually uncontracted by us, so I think it's a pretty fair assumption that we would be paying zero of Dom's player payments moving forward. Though as I have stated, I really would have liked to have kept Dom as a pretty handy depth player and I think the club would have entertained that at the right asking price, however in the circumstances, I can also respect and admire Dom for his drive and motivation to be good player in his predominant position.

It would make a complete mockery of point 1, Gold Coast would have to be about the biggest travel from Perth that you could get in the AFL. We will have to wait and see what actually transpires, but if Tony Sheanan is the guy I'm thinking of (bit of an AFL recruiting guru?), then I think this suposed trade offer has more credibility as a rumor than some of the other muppet jurnos.

If Freo only want to trade one first round pick for Jessie, then I could settle for the the Freo equivalent of the Bulldogs deal for Tom Boyd, pick 6 and their then captain.

My reading of the last line of Mahoney's statements on the MFC website article is that that's effectively the stance the club has taken, but I'm only reading between the lines and wouldn’t be full confident in that assumption until trade period actually closes. On top of our previous trade history, for us to hold to that would send a pretty strong message to all clubs and players wanting to deal with us in the future. i.e. we will deal in a fair and reasonable manner, but don't stuff us around and play stupid games or you can go get stuffed.

I don't follow North that closely, so can't really rate too many of their mids asides from Higgins who I understand is more outside and Cunnington who I really do rate as a hard as nails inside mid who can play.

Seemed pretty fare to me. I didn't really want to loose a player of Tyson's realitive quality, but understanding the realities of the scenario fromantic a MFC perspective, I think it's a pretty reasonable win win really on the presumption that North have a deficiency of inside mids. He has been a bit of a whipping boy here for a few seasons now, but I actually rate Tyson as a pretty decent player, it's just that in our current position I'll agree that he's nowhere near as good as Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney and now Harmes.

Yes, the AFL will support several players trying to break there contacts early and demand to be traded to clubs of their choice - I think not. What is becoming a farce is the domino effect of deficient free agency rules causing players to demand trades before the end of their contract. The free agency rules need to be ballanced by making the club receiving the free agent repay the compensation pick from their own draft picks. Would still be a reasonable form of free agency, because the departure club does not need to agree to the deal.

I thought this was a no brainer option from the start. Freo just acting like a bunch of self righteous [censored] thinking that they have the world's strongest hand and can dictate the terms to everyone else rather than swallowing some humble pie conceding that Neale is gone, but being greatfull for locking away one of the premium mature key forwards in the game, but that they will actually have to pay market price for him or maybe a bit over given that he would actually be breaking his contact to go to them. With such a clear way forward, you'd think they'd be jumping over themselves to get this deal done, rather than [censored] EVERYONE in the AFL around - a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. I'm also honestly not seeing why Freo think Neale is worth so much either. My understanding is that he is a fair player and had a bit of a breakout year a season or so ago, but the way Freo are carrying on, it's like he is the equivalent of Dangerfield or Martin or Fife at their peak. Trelor was a significantly more established player for a number of years before he attracted the type of trade leverage for GWS that Freo are expecting. Unless Neale is at that sort of level, then one first round pick and perhaps a later 2 Rd is about all they can expect. I mean Neale played all 22 games and didn't even make the top 30 brownlow (AFL midfielders award) vote getters playing in a team of spuds when Fife was injured and wouldn't take votes off him for half the year. At 25 yo, he's around his peak performance and ain't no Oliver or Brayshaw. I know Freo also want Lobb, then to me there options are 1. concede that you can't always get all your whish list ticked off in one foul swoop, or 2. start trading some of their other players and or future draft picks. But they just don't seem to get the concept that you need to give something to get something in return. As a side note, you have got to wonder what Fife saw in Freo to keep him there? To me, Freo hit the down hill slide when they uprooted Mark Harvey and replaced him with Ross Lyon. Harvey had pulled them out of obscurity, developed and motivated them into a competitive team playing a good brand of footy. Being the expert on coaching that I am, Ross Lyon does nothing for me. He always seems to be highly rated, perhaps by association with some of his former teams and former senior coaching mentors, but look at his record - 3 loosing grand finals playing the most boring brand of football ever. No wonder Neale wants to leave, he doesn't want to be bored to death. After inheriting a good team, the subsequent decline and failed 'rebuild' at Freo under Lyon has been a disaster. @binman, can you please read this and paraphrase it for @Tram 74, I think he can only read simple one line sentences. Perhaps he should stick to Twitter, the social media platform for Twits.

Nice perspective. Yup, he's pretty small that AVB!

And now his fantasy price should be even lower for 2019, having not played a game in 2018.

Sorry a bit of an ignorant question, but can someone tell me did North have other backup ruck options? Strikes me a strange that if we see value in having backup and support for Gawn, that North wouldn't want the same thing for Goldstein. Really does also go to show how much fads the AFL goes through. Go back a few years and all those in the know were saying that their is only room for one genuine ruck in the 22 and now after West Coast use Nic Nat and Lycett, everyone is looking for that second ruck option. Also wounder if North giving up Preuss to us is going to be like us giving up Martin to the Lyons a few years back - we can only hope!

Agree Binman. The main reasons I'm not celebrating this are: 1. The trade period isn't over yet, so it ain't done and dusted that he's not moving this year; 2. Would really be something to celebrate if after this (hopefully failed episode) he signed on for another 2 years on top of 2019. I'm not in the boat of thinking May would be the greatest thing since sliced bread for the MFC either. May had a pretty ordanary year as well and if he were to come to the MFC, I think he'd actually have to lift his training ethic to that of Max Gawn's to get a game here. I fully expect that Oscar will continue to get bigger and end up something near the strength of Tommy, plus a few cm in height. May would be good if we could trade for him at a reasonable price - isn't he actually a FA after 2019? That's when we should strike Richmond style.

Which says to me that Hogan is really worth May plus some decent spare change at the draft table.

Which would completely contradict the stuff the Eagles have been banging on about all week with respects to 'it's no the go home factor with Kelly...some people have genuine circumstances and Kelly is one of those...' If Kelly reslly does needs to get back home that urgently that he can't see out his contact with Geelong, the he should/will entertain a genuine offer from Freo. That said, I think associating 'genuine offer' and Freo together in one sentence these days is an oxymoron, so scratch that theory.

Freo's headquarters is Cockburn Central, so probably infers multiple burnt apendages after the MFC told them they can all go F$#@! themselves, because they are not getting Jessie for the rubbish they were carrying on with.