ucanchoose

I'm going with an A.

We look like we have the right direction for the first time in a long time!

Over the moon. One more downhill skier off the list. And a misfit.

Cannot be happier

Just say next years 1st rounder or he goes pre-season

take it or leave it

Someone might be in for surgery on Queens Birthday night if this goes down

Ive heard We are going to trade out Dawes for our 4th round pick then immediately trade him back in for pick 6 + Howe. (Industry Source)

What???

Your first sentence just emphasises why those players will go to top clubs and why those clubs will pay for them.

Your second is confusing - if many players changed clubs each year it would not be 'picking the eyes'. So I don't understand your point. Perhaps I have confused you by implying that these players were rendered blind and thus somewhat hampered marking the ball......

If the best players were raided each year Nahan Jones would have nominated a trade to Hawthorn or Collingwood 5 years ago. Didn't happen.

90% of the best players DON'T change hands

Thats because they pick the eyes out

So the best clubs ALWAYS get the best players?

No.

So many posters are so keen on self-flaggelation that they miss the point. Sure we have been hopeless, but are the other non-top teams also hopeless?

Clearly if top clubs can keep picking the eyes out of players developed at lowly clubs, equalization will not occur, even if occasionally a team likes ours appears to do well in the trade. Will we still be smiling about getting Brayshaw for Frawley when Brayshaw is poached by a top club in a few years and we have to replace him with another draft gamble?

I dunno about you, but if my job was sheizen and there was a better employer out there offering better money and better prospects I'd jump off a shakey ship too.

Hardly picking the eyes out. 90% of players don't change clubs at the end of the year

They need to do something about the top clubs using bottom clubs as feeders. Personally I think rather than preventing top clubs from recruiting FA's they should give more power to bottom sides to keep their players or attract FA's. Sad as it is, we are the classic case to support this. We've lost players to FA every season since it was introduced, and always to a top four side. We've done pretty well out of the compensation in two of those years, probably gaining well over the value of the players, but it doesn't change the fact that top sides have taken the opportunity to wreak havoc with our ability to climb the ladder by plucking away the best of the players that we've put the time and effort into developing.

So the question is, what can be done to stop Free Agency warping the competition beyond redemption?

Limit the clubs a potential FA can go to by ladder position?

Ban top (x) clubs from bringing in Free Agents?

Create three pools of six and only let FA's move within their own pool?

Surely there is some way the players can have their Free Agency that doesn't completely destroy the integrity and evenness of the competition?

Someone would take the AFL to court for restraint of trade................. and win

So much whinging.

We have been completely incompetent for 8 years.

Blaming the AFL for our drafting errors and horror management doesn't help.

Win games and they will come

Looking forward to an hour or more of kick to kick at the open day on Sunday

Sign the deal before someone changes their mind!

Lol the MFC are already following him on Twitter

I guess it's a done deal no matter how many more pages this thread goes until

Actually, I think Rex has mellowed these days. The interviews are good and there's far less yibbita, yibbita ... that's all folks stuff.

Doing games for crocmedia he's still the same - and that's ok by me

Almost bed time already

You're right, but isn't the Friday Night game considered a blockbuster ratings wise?

Well Carlton aren't playing so it might be!

If I were the broadcasters, I'd be livid with the AFL's decision to allow clubs to rest players en masse.

In the NBA a few years ago, the San Antonio Spurs rested 3 key players in what was a back-to-back game, and the commission fined them $250,000. You would think that a club resting players for 1 game over an 82 game season would be ok, but the commission assessed that it's damaging to the product, and not in the spirit of the league.

The AFL have set a pretty dangerous precedent IMO.

The only reason they were fined is that it was a nationally televised rematch with the Miami Heat. Apples and mouldy oranges

Terrible decision..........

From a club full of them

Your joking surely ?

No......

Do it in private.......... Don't show your pea heart to the world

I'm going a armchair membership next year and investing in Foxtel instead.

I'm downgrading from even this package

https://twitter.com/MDjones00/status/631048646939705344

That is disgraceful

Freo could field 4 blokes and 14 witches hats next week and still win. No need to investigate any tanking talk.

4 is very generous

I personally think he is Max Gawn...

No doubt.......

But Max Gawn will be a better long term player...... Much more important than Howe

I cannot remember the last time a player requested a trade before the end of the season.

I think its done all the time, just not openly

Yeah I'm going to watch the Great British Bake Off

A good contest