Bring-Back-Powell

He didn’t lose his spot. He copped a medium term injury in round 6. He returned to the side in round 17-23 when the Crows were in the thick of a finals spot. He missed round 24 due to a cheekbone injury.

Hopefully he’ll be a Luke Jackson brand at a KMart price.

I’m all for bringing in established forward talent to rectify our forward line issues but Darling only managed 26.19 in 20 games in 2023. That is quite frankly a terrible return for a bloke of his stature and presumably expensive contract. T Mac would easily manage 26 goals in 20 games.

Carlton yes. Collingwood no.

Unfortunately the highlighted won't be in our round 1 side.

Brisbane probably couldn't guarantee Gunstan a game next year in his exit interview. I didn't think they missed him in the finals, and didn't have a great year overall.

Seems fair. The potential upside is we trade in a player who could potentially kick 35-40 goals if he can stay injury/suspension free next year and has kicked 60.28 the last 3 years which puts our atrociously inaccurate 2023 squad to absolute shame. The difference between a future second rounder and third rounder isn't the difference between winning a premiership and handing back the keys to the AFL and closing down for business. I'm sure Adelaide won't be doing us any favours after the Petty affair.

Yeah I'd take him, but if he's specifically requested a trade to Hawthorn, then he'll get to Hawthorn.

I think at least one of the two should retire from the game. One looked completely out of his depth in the finals and the other's been nursed for much of his tenure at the MFC. However, they are both contracted and are legally/financially obliged to play on next year so we can't hold it against them for continuing. It's a long 24 round season, Petty can't be relied upon to play a full season, JVR is still young and Melksham won't be available until August. T Mac and BBB will be called upon at different stages of the season and will be useful depth provided they can spend the majority of the year outside of the casualty ward.

I'd say he has a lot less than a few years left. Otherwise, you make a good selling point about picking up Caddy.

I wonder if he gets booed if/when we play Sydney at the MCG next year? Surely not.

Great deal for West Coast assuming they get the player they wanted with their first pick regardless of pick 1 or pick 4.

Not paying a cent of his salary probably explains the mediocre set of draft picks we got in return from Sydney.

They'd probably ask for a Rivers, JVR or McVee in the package.

On the assumption we're chips in on next year's flag rather than taking a potential step back: Petty should only be traded if Harry McKay or an equivalent proven key forward is coming through the doors. And even McKay won't solve our atrocious conversion for goal under pressure (although he once kicked 58.33 in a season) I cannot fathom how the list management and coaching team will be confident of winning next year's flag with T Mac, BBB and JVR as our 3 best key forwards, while losing Petty and not recruiting another established KPF. The fact that they (probably) called T Hawkins shows you how the club feels about their tall forward depth chart, and how life would look like without Petty. Unless we get a proven 35-40 goal a year tall forward which is what Petty is highly likely to kick next year off a 20+ game season, then we'll hold Petty to his contract.

Round 23 2018 V GWS and then week 1 2018 elimination final was peak James Harmes. I think he polled 8-10 coaches votes in both games. Not surprising he signed a long term contract in 2019 given he was at the peak of his form.

And Sam Walsh who destroyed us in the semi final and did what he liked. In a perfect world, Harmes keeps Butters to 20 and 1 goal instead of 40 and 2 in round 10 and we win. He also prevents Walsh from getting that early goal in the last quarter and snuffing out Carlton's early last quarter burst. However, the club doesn't tag/run with and thus there was no role or future for a below average skilled player in Harmes.

It reckon it will either be Sydney taking on his full salary or we pay a bit of his salary and receive a good draft pick. It won't be both. I'd imagine Sydney have asked us to pay a significant portion of his salary and have offered us a pick in the 40's or 50's.

Given his recent form in the AFL, I’m surprised it wasn’t a fourth rounder. Not a bad trade.

And yet they had no issue playing Kozchitzke at Box Hill for half the season. No chance he is worth pick 25.

Or how about the media be clear and concise in their communication to the public. One section are saying that he has personal issues that require him to come home while others are saying that he wants to specifically play for Collingwood. If he has personal issues that require him to come home, then why is he only nominating the one club? Wouldn't he have a list of Melbourne based clubs that he would like to play for as a contingency plan rather than putting all his eggs in the Collingwood basket who may not be able to satisfy Fremantle with a trade. So again, I ask is he coming to Melbourne due to personal reasons, or does he want to play for a team right in the flag window?

Schultz wants to come home because he’s desperately home sick. He’s also demanding to play for Collingwood. So which is it? Is he home sick or does he want to play for Collingwood? (Welcome to the modern day player)

Would have liked him to have played the Carlton semi final given we were missing goal kicking avenues in Petty, Melksham and JVR (who kicked a combined 14 goals between them against Richmond). I would also like him to go on, but there has to be some confidence from both parties that his knee will hold up next year rather then spending half the season in the medical room. Multiple posters in the B&F thread were apparently told he will be playing on.

I didn't like the comments much because I don't agree with them. We are not better than them. Maybe if the qualifying final was played on a Champion data spreadsheet, we were the better team, but the facts are we lost the game because Collingwood came out harder, focussed and were more ferocious at the contest in the first quarter. They also consolidated their lead in the so called premiership quarter with a 4 goal to 2 quarter. We've lost to Collingwood 7 of the 9 last meetings. Since round 1 2022, Collingwood have a 38-13 record compared to our 32-17, and have beaten us 3 out of 4 times. I've been struggling all weekend to comprehend on what basis Melbourne is better than Collingwood like so many posters are claiming we are.