Ron Burgundy

As if we would trade Oliver or Petracca. To suggest that is genuinely ridiculous. Fair dinkum. I feel as though I'm reading the notice board of my 4 year old's preschool. PS. Petracca sounds like some kind of cool dinosaur to the kids. Henry loves him. Favourite player territory.

I'd wear Watts for Stringer. But not much less than that. I've now accepted that there's a fair bit of confirmation bias going on with my view in relation to Watts. That said, I just want him to remain a Demon. I don't know the bloke from a bar of soap, but I'd love to see him lift the cup wearing the red and the blue. I think it would endorse that everything we've endured over the past decade had been worth it. Vindication territory. He's emblematic of this. In a sense, I feel like Watts' journey has become our journey. I hope he stays. And delivers.

He's not cooked. That expression sucks as well.

Great stuff. Henry (my four year old) and I love Bernie.

You guarantee it? Wow.

If true, the pick 2 for pick 9 and Tyson will have turned out to be a very bad trade. Sheedy said to me at the time (at the Light Brigade Hotel in Sydney following a corporate lunch in the pres-season prior to Kelly's and Salem's first season) that it was a bad trade as Kelly was going to be an absolute gun. He didn't really rate Tyson and he said GWS couldn't believe its luck to have landed Kelly. I towed the company line and said we needed to build our midfield and we needed two mids rather than one etc blah blah blah. He just laughed and said 'just watch Kelly - you'll see'. If we let Salem go, it seems Sheedy was right. I really hope he's not on the trade table.

I'd hate to see the club trade Watts. Unlike many posters here, he has class. And ability. I think he can add massive value to this squad going forward. That said, I won't be shocked if gets traded. He lowered his stripes late in the season. I'd love nothing more than to see this bloke lift the premiership cup wearing the red and the blue. But it might be just that - just dreamin'. At least one more season please MFC.

I'd be extremely surprised if the club would consider trading Salem.

Petracca + Leoncelli = Petruccelle.

Some really interesting responses here - thank you. Just read the Craig Ellis Triangl story on the Herald Sun. It's Hollywood territory: he and his wife had only 500 bucks to their name, were living off canned soup, borrowed $20k off two close mates, and now live in Monaco with over $60m to their name. Fantastic. I liked him as a player too. Pity he did his knee in 2002 - we had some top wins that year.

I am now 100% behind the Swans to win the flag this year. Quality article, quality kids, quality club - thanks for sharing this.

I expect Nathan Carroll as the site foreman would carry a fair bit of authority.

Jack Grimes is a person who always impressed me: he was highly articulate, professional and, in my view, displayed clear leadership skills and ability. Skills that I expect would be highly sought after in the corporate world or in the professions. Similarly, Chris Dawes displayed similar attributes. I now read with genuine sadness, though no surprise, that Jack Trengove has been delisted. Anyone know what these guys are doing/will do post AFL football?

Scully was the highest paid player at GWS and they seemed to have retained much of their required talent. If true, this just needs to be managed well internally. Lever is an obvious player for a club like ours to break the budget on. I suspect the players understand this. Howe and Lumumba trades aside, our list management and recruitment strategy seems extremely good these days.

And that's exactly why he might be traded, particularly if (out of left field) we may be able to snare Menzel for less than a sheep station.

Absolutely.

The one thing we have over Adelaide in this is that we are not based in Adelaide.

Such was our arrogance, or absolute incompetence, that we didn't even interview him at the time. Can't imagine that Jason Taylor or Todd Viney would adopt the same approach these days.

Some of you need to learn show some respect. These guys are working their arses off for this club - they all want to succeed, and I expect they want to succeed at the MFC. Sure, some of them aren't quite good enough, or haven't showed quite enough, or are past their used by date. But, for a period of time, they have served this club, they have sweated for this club. Surely this is to be respected. For those of you who seem to take some weird glee each year in the delisting thread, pull your heads in. I expect many of you don't even know what the inside of a weights room looks like, nor would you look any of these players in the eye when delivering such harsh criticism. They are not cattle. Rather, they're footballers who've represented this club, some of whom may potentially represent it for a few years to come. Fair dinkum.

Which seems to suggest that we've convinced Lever, but that's only 3/4 of the battle. We now need to get it over the line with the Crows on terms that are palatable to both clubs. That's where the rubber can really hit the road.

Lewis has been a fantastic pick up for us. Simple.

There's simply no upside in missing the finals this year. Its just a massive opportunity lost. Simple. For the first time this year, our list is in alright shape. We have proven we can match it with the best. Lewis and Vince are a year older next year. Pedo is in sensational form at the moment. In short, there are some key ingredients that are present right now, which you can't take for granted in any given year. Despite the Pies loss, I really think we could've done some damage this finals series. I reckon Goodwin and the boys knew/felt that too. But we didn't get there. I'm absolutely gutted.

The umpiring was undeniably poor. BUT what actually killed us was Jamie Elliott pulling a stack of one in a million goals against the run of play. We dominated the second quarter, only to have it completely neutralised by absolutely arsey goals. We then missed super gettable set shots. It killed all momentum. By half time, it was clear we were the better side. But it was also clear that we were not going to win the game. One of the more frustrating games I have watched in recent times.

Viney: really missed him.

Charlie Curnow? I hate watching him play. Really grates. Would be very good in our forward line. Just seems to have it.