ChaserJ

Onya Ash, thank you!

The NGA changes were already flagged late in 2019 season, Dogs were worried it would be implemented before they had the chance to get Ugle-Hagan, but the AFL didn’t make the final decision until relatively late in the piece last year. Felt it would be unfair to clubs to change the rules for ‘20 draft, so flagged that change was effective from ‘21. I think our draft strategy would have been ambivalent to having access to Andrew.

Great piece from Megan Hustwaite. So many Demons gone too soon, it was great for this to not just be acknowledged in an article but for a journo to take the time to tell the stories of those left behind and how they are connected to what our team is doing today.

Good yarn from PK. A cracking selection at 17.

Could probably squeeze a 3rd if we paid a bit of his contract next year.

I’m pretty sure Sam and Gerard were just speculating based on a text that came through from a listener. Don’t know if Sam was putting that forward himself.

Enjoy this Landers, I still can’t quite comprehend how good our team is. We’re in and it’s time. Go Dees!

Can I as well please @Lord Nev ?

Players could net us picks, also would expect us to dangle our future first again to get a '21 first rounder in. Would imagine the Dogs pick will be in play with Darcy to be matched much higher than their 1st rd pick, possibly GWS' pick 13 is worth targeting. Whether we end up taking any picks we trade in to the draft, or whether we get deep into other trade scenarios will be interesting.

I believe he was initially in Ports NGA squad, but doesn't appear to still be tied (would go too high for them to match anyway). He's free to anyone with a pick in the 10-16 range. Maybe higher with a few more eye catching performances.

To be fair, covid and constant border closures weren’t in the picture back then.

I’m also wary of clubs/managers using us to create leverage in negotiations without us being a realistic option in trade. Managers will do the work before trade period to work out realistic landing spots for their clients, and if Cerra just wants to get to Melbourne (the town, not the team) Carlton makes good sense in terms of a straightforward deal. If Cerra does decide he wants Melbourne the club ahead of all others, we’d probably have to work to get some picks to get a deal done, but it’s possible. I just don’t get the vibe that Cerra’s particularly strong on us as a destination.

Depends on what we let go when the season’s over. We also had a lot of guys sign long term deals, don’t know exactly how those deals are staggered within the cap.

Fast start by WA!

Streamed on afl website apparently. My day looks sorted!

Thanks Daz. This being televised anywhere?

Which is saying something because Jacko has a handy vertical, but pre ACL Schwarz was special.

We’d already had a ripper trade period, this sounds like an absolute bonus to cap it off.

Our flights back from GC were changed from Saturday arvo on the 31st to Sunday arvo on the 1st, so my family and I got dudded twice.

Yep, same for my family. Miss 12 is ropable & I’m not far behind. This is rolling fixture gone mad. Impossible for travelling fans to plan and surely a contributing factor in crowds being down.

Defensive masterclass tonight. Looks like we really didn’t like losing and aimed to address that this week. Focused, fierce and just fantastic tonight.

And some analysis on our load management, which has us storming over sides in the last qtr (Burgo effect?): https://www.statsinsider.com.au/blog/afl/unmasking-melbournes-superhero-power

A nice analysis on what we’ve changed up in our structure and how it’s helped us get to 6 and 0: https://theshinboner.com/2021/04/29/melbourne-rising-whats-behind-the-demons-unbeaten-start-to-2021-analysis-shinboner-langdon-ben-brown-pickett/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Salem turned his back on FA when the 5 yr deal was put in front of him, Petracca may well do the same. Might have been clever sequencing from the Dees to sign up CP's two best mates at the club before putting the contract in front of him. It's been really good work by the club to lock Salem and Oliver away so early (and hopefully Trac soon), it takes the oxygen out of any speculation and allows the club to have singular focus on performing on the field. Brilliant.

You’re right. He was in Sandringham squad with those guys, but it was Kelly that was school mates with Salem & Hunt at Brighton.