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Really? He's just standing up for a bloke he has worked with for a few years. There is nothing wrong with that.

Normally I would be at the front with you saying 'that's the rules' but the AFL makes this up as they go. It's all PR and internal politics amongst the power clubs. Swann is trying to pressure the AFL to free jazz us down to Pick 19 and I hope no one is listening at AFL House. I am confident that we will get Pick 3 but only because of the Clark situation being an absolute embarrassment to the health of the competition that this is the easiest way to get us a 'PP' of sorts.

thedeeman - you will think back to your thoughts in this thread in a few years time and shake your head, or at least for your sake I hope you do. Dunn is just being a good friend, you are not his employer, he is not in a position to reveal what Mitch and the club should only reveal, and the situation would still be horrendous if you knew 'the whole truth' that everyone loves banging on about. Clark wants out, the club seems utterly ambivalent about it - they moved on ages ago. Unlike us, they have to deal with the reality of a crocked forward wanting to move whereas we are still stuck howling at the moon over what should have been when Neeld hijacked a Fremantle trade. It's over - his issues remain his issues and we can move on.

It's ok, you can tell them. I am ET's source.

Is that first line the set up to a C grade joke or do you actually have good info?

I am as confident about Pick 3 as I was about Sylvia's Band 3 compensation. We will have Pick 3.

He was a valuable commodity...

I thought the principle was "trade players not willing to re-sign a year before they become Free Agents"... At the moment - Jones has not re-signed.

So...you would rather Roos get nothing for his best player than something? Even though you are criticising him for not getting a good return for him? You are having it both ways - Roos is living in the real world - where our most talented player has major issues, has missed 51 games through injury, and doesn't want to play at the club anymore. The situation sucks - Roos' handling of it doesn't.

Go over to that other thread and count how many posters are not happy with HL. And then look at how many have since recanted, or pulled back from their unhappiness. HL gets a lot of unwarranted nonsense thrown his way, he also gets some warranted nonsense... Sit a poster down and smack them in the face and tell them HL is coming and they will be happy he is.

Same with Jones... How is that principle going?

They are running on the spot. It's a furious status quo.

Adelaide wants to know if Dangerfield has signed his last contract with the club, and they want to know now. But the cards are in the hands of Dangerfield - if he wants his freedom - all he has to do is endure 2015 at the Crows. My god it will be a feral time, and he will regret a decision not to leave now if he has decided to go via Free Agency. Keep the pressure up on the situation - if Adelaide can't get him to even verbally commit - they might try to force him out. A deal now will be 100 times better than compensation next year.

The only thing they can do/will do is put some pressure on clubs to give us something decent back. It is a terrible look and they know it when a bloke retires, gets out of a contract, and goes somewhere else (especially a good team) for very little. I would hope that we can pry a decent player out of Geelong that they want to offload for reasons other than playing ability (fat contract, personality issues, application issues, etc).

lol They are gone. To Roos and Mahoney they are purely investments for players that we actually want.

I wonder what Roos/Viney/Mahoney are willing to give up for him... As Jaded alludes - he isn't a priority for our progress. But he will be welcome, more so if the deal is suitable.

The other no brainer is that the investment required for Cameron would be huge. Better spent on his equivalent in the midfield. Now, if we happen to be able to secure that midfielder with one of the two picks we have in the top 3, then go after Cameron. But our midfield is the single on field reason we are where we are. All other lines we are average to above par. Midfield is still 3rd world.

He's a great young player, but give his equivalent in the midfield, please. I have heard the arguments against needing a great midfield, all I have to go on is bitter experience and envy.

You've learned your lesson, Melb16... No idea what the lesson is but you've learned it.

MC has not been able to play football and Frawley was push/pulled out of his traditional position in the backline. They are both excellent players but life after them is not only on the horizon, it will not make this club any worse, in fact, if we use Pick 3 properly - it might make us better...

Hang on a second, pants. Stern was rubbish and the ownership situation over there is pure evil but the fact remains that the Lakers were about to get another superstar and the NBA stepped in and made a decision that has rejuvenated Basketball on the West Coast and the NBA in general. A good competition is predicated on the rise AND fall of teams from year to year. The AFL has seen a couple rise of late but the other side of that coin is the fall of some clubs that won't fall if they continue to be allowed to recruit the best players.

Here is an anecdote (or an antidote...): A couple of years ago, one of the best players in the NBA was traded to the LA Lakers, a perennial finalist and mythological franchise, in a deal that was passable from the standpoint of the club losing said player. However, NBA Head Office stepped in and nixed the trade. They said publically that the deal was not good enough for the club losing the player. However, a few weeks later a deal was struck with the LA Clippers, a perennial basket case, for that player to go there and change the dynamic of the league and Los Angeles Basketball in general. If Gillon cares about his league that he is running (into the ground), then he will take note of the ancillary powers at his disposal...

What I know is draft, free agency and salary cap regulated sports. The AFL is now a member of all three regulations now - and is, by an embarrassing distance, the worst run. There is no room in those sports for players to stop trades unless they have a 'No Trade Clause' in their contract. An NBA, NFL, and MLB player can be traded without their consent, just as kids in the AFL are drafted to clubs without their consent. Darren Jarman once did what was reasonable and refused to come the club that picked him in the draft - the Demons. Soon, the same will be said of players who refused trades - it will be a thing of the past. You simply cannot run a competitive league with the rules set up the way they are now. Free Agency is not the problem - the half baked regulations and rules of the AFL salary and player movement infrastructure is the problem.

Read the OP, not just the title.

Players do not get a say in where they are drafted, why should they get a say in where they are traded? Players want more freedoms without the negatives that come with this ultra-professional environment. If you want to be able to stop a trade, negotiate a No Trade Clause into your contract, otherwise you should have no say in where you are traded to - just like in other draft and salary cap regulated leagues - NBA, NFL, NHL, and the MLB. The best teams are not going to get any worse if players are able to dictate where they play.