rpfc

@jnrmac is right - there is no vacuum. The worst deals were for the players that clubs wanted to get rid of.

We had an effective trade week - we got our targets, and we paid for them. When you get the most coveted young player available you can’t have a bad trade week, but let’s not do a lap of honour over trade week FCS...

No, action happens on field. In big games. That is where ‘the statement’ is made. I hope 2018 is full of statements. 2017 was a mixed bag...

Swapping 73 and 77? Are you kidding me?!

Why? That is a rhetorical question.

GFY \ has never done nothing.

Yeah, you have to look at the whole period to know where we end up. In theory, Mahoney could trade back into the teens with two of those 2nd rounders, and have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd picks in the draft after a trade period that we came away with Lever and Balic for Watts. The loss of the 1st rounder next year only hurts if we are not as good as I think we will be (or we should be). Josh gets stuff done - we have a good rep with other clubs, I have some process concerns but you would struggle to critique player retention and recruitment strategies at the MFC these days.

He can frustrate as a footy player, but, my god, he was brought up well. All class. Yes, I am at the age where I say things like that. Cant wait to shout him a beer after we win the flag and he is supporting his mates while still at Port. Can you imagine the Leoncell36 equivalent at Port when those photos come out?! lol

Value price. If he does anything - bonus really.

Yes, we seem to have slipped back into over valuing draft picks or whatever the clubs have blocking their trade digestive tract...

Nope, you don't get to do that. Doesn't work like that. Kelly is a star. Tyson is a very good player, so is Hunt, and Salem can be a very good player. There are other surrounding circumstances that should be factored in to this trade; nothing happens in a vacuum. I don't have as much 'butthurt' (I believe that's what the kids call it) about this trade as others do.

I can only assume that the Leadership Group drove this move, or at least sanctioned it. And that is the only way they are going to be able to manage the change of trading a popular player. I don't have great concerns for the playing group - he isn't dead, he's in Adelaide... ok, that's not much better... But they will get on with it and follow their leaders - how could you not follow Jack Viney?

They sure have. We don't have to go around in circles; the FD is not what I am critiquing. They can do whatever they want (should the board approve). I am just simply attempting to arrest this notion that 'MFC - Watts = [Insert Awesome Result/Process here: Flag, Professionalism, etc]. I expect us to be top 4 contenders next year - and it isn't a 'Goodwin Ultimatum' that a couple on here think should happen after this trade -it is because we are a very good team that should have won 15 games last season and we just recruited the best 21 year old defender in the game, and we will have the natural improvement of our most talented players (and the appearance of our star FF).

Just on this board? I am taking dramatic licence but if your (the royal you) is that this is a statement by the FD around commitment and preparation then that is tacitly saying Watts was Ground Zero for that behaviour, of you think we are now automatically destined for finals now that we have ridded ourselves of Watts you are directly saying he is the reason for our failure. And if you go to the footy and all you see and critique and lambast is the blonde number 4 then you are a sad individual who does what Mahoney said today and, unfairly, make Jack Watts the face of Melbourne. An abject failure of a club for most of his time here. If you want to sit there and say that those things have not happened and prefer to have a semantical argument you definitely can do that.

Umm, I don’t see it like that; I would prefer to look at it as a collective trade period result and not trade to trade. One of the reasons why is that we should be competing for a flag next year and trading out someone who may assist in that for someone who definitely won’t isnt a big seller to the average punter.

The kind of fan that strings up a player like that don’t hold themselves to a high standard. Just as likely that fan is a member of the ‘Watts is soft and to blame for all our ills’ brigade that was so eager for his exit.

How obstinate. I suggest you never work in change management. "We had to fire those people, I blame their spouses and their colleagues for their negative reaction. Not us" Sometimes all you can do is manage a bad situation, and I am not going to absolve the club here, we had some process, perception and execution issues. It's not the end of the world, but denying any blame won't end the conversation.

Bumper sticker. $10. Take my goddamn money.

Tyson, Salem and Hunt for Kelly and Gardiner? That one is still up in the air... And, no, trades don't get downgraded based on what a 'club was going to pick up at a later pick' because that is a hypothetical that rejects reality and rejecting reality is a bad thing.

So Riewoldt and Watts are as talented as each other with the same predispositions in physicality and courage? With the same god given endurance and marking ability? @Dr. Gonzo - the difference between a Watts and Riewoldt or a Kennedy and a Viney are intangible and tangible. The tangible differences between Watts and Riewoldt are so marked and numerous that the difference in intangibles don’t even register. Don’t matter. The intangibles that Watts didn’t live up to - commitment, application, ‘giving a [censored]’ - only meant he didn’t become a better version of Jack Watts. Not some delusional fever dream that he shat away the chance for us to have a great of the game play for us.

Really, you think this? And the 5 posters so far that liked the above? You think he was 'application' away from being Nick Riewoldt? You think he was 'giving a [censored]' away from being a great of the game? I thought this thinking died years ago, and we all came to the conclusion that he was never able to reach those heights because he is not that type of player. Would you say that Ben Kennedy is 'application' and 'commitment' away from being Jack Viney? The very fact that some fans think this - floors me. He was never going to be the reincarnation of Nick Riewoldt, and to judge him on not getting there and blaming a lack of application and commitment is delusional and one of the many reasons we this is so personal to so many. You were promised Nick Riewoldt and no-one ever explained to you it was never going to happen, and no-one took the blame but Jack.

Zac Clarke maybe. The others; nah.

In some order: Viney, Oliver, Jones, Gawn, Hibberd, Jetta, Tom McD, Hogan, Hunt, Petracca, Garlett, Tyson and Lever are above Watts in our 'player rankings'. That's 13 players. Lewis is declining but an argument could be made. ANB is rapid rising and so too Oscar for the specific role they play. If Brayshaw can stay on the park he could be anything. Jack Watts is a role player, which isn't a slap, I love role players - have enough of them do their job and they will win you flags when the stars cancel each other out. But the suggestion that he is amongst the top players is incorrect. It is one of my issues with the club throughout all our admins and many FDs - we never treated Watts like the role player he is. Get a question about Watts - 'Jack is a role player at this footy club, next question...'

It is interesting to see this kids experience juxtaposed against Schache; both had homesickness and underlying mental health issues and one is not set upon by all and sundry like the other one. Amazing what being picked high in the draft does to the narrative around a player.