george_on_the_outer

Losing a $3M annual profit from gaming means the capital needed to replace it has to be in the order of $30 - $60M.!! I’m thinking there will have to be an announcement of a new training base for the club paid for by the AFL to just allow us to break even. And then there still remains the question of on going revenue to allow us to support the side financially into the future.

The other thing which will come into play is the increase in the salary cap for everyone of around $2M. It was effective from June 2017, but contracts would have already been signed for the 2017 year, so the can of worms opens in 2018: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-06-20/players-get-20-per-cent-pay-rise-in-new-cba If you have a quality young list you will be able to pay them to stay with the extra money. If you don't....then you go shopping.

Doesn't look like it: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/afl/teams/sydney/kurt-tippetts-injury-settlement-will-allow-sydney-to-snare-a-quality-player-at-seasons-end/news-story/f9d9a94c8540b7746b6fc77b5abd85fe contracted to end of 2018 https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/kurt-tippett-retires-sydney-forward-retires-after-178-games/news-story/664ca58f73b8232f3bd3eb3fb027e8c3

Gaff is already too old for our profile. 2 years ago he may have fitted, but regardless the Eagles will throw plenty enough to keep him. The big money for Sloane will come from Sydney, with $900k spare from Tippets retirement. North already had enough to offer Dusty and Kelly bucket loads (but who would want to go there?). Collingwood are all wind....Pendelbury is already the highest paid AFL player, and Treloar will be earning a motzza by now. They won’t have enough left for a player like Lynch.

If the Oija board thinks North is going to finish ahead of Collingwood or Freo, then it is connecting with the wrong spirits.

Now ahead of last years figure....... 28,354

Total now 27,914......strangely.... exactly the same number as at 9 December last year.

Looks like the renewals are coming through.....Now up to 27,610 which is only 300 short of the number we have at 9 December in 2016.

Friend of mine thinks with the addition of these discards, they are going to have one Hell of a SANFL side.

Good luck to JT with his new club. Port obviously think they are in the Premiership window, by recruiting all manner of discards from other clubs in exactly the same way North did a couple of years back. Trouble for North was that it got them up and going while those older talented bodies could stay on the field ( remember their 9 wins in a row in 2016), then completely fell apart at the business end of the season. Then all those older players became list cloggers at the same time as their original senior players retired. Result: down the bottom of the ladder in 2017 and likely to stay there for a long, long time. It's a calculated gamble. If it works great, but it is all or nothing.

No it's not because both clubs don't know what they have to offer yet until they start trading players for picks or picks for players. To give an simple example, if we trade Watts to Geelong for pick 20 then we would have something more to offer Adelaide than what we have today. The initial gambits are just that....initial

Adelaide seem to forget they got picks 9, 28 and Dean Gore in return for Patrick Dangerfield and pick 50. Lever for 10 and 27 seems about the same mark ( and Danger was and is probably a better player) The Cows will probably need the AFL to explain this to them in the simplest possible terms during the next 10 days.

Easy.....Gibbs to Adelaide, Lever to Melbourne....(now you fill in the gap) _________to Carlton.

No they can't. This is a civil matter and if he doesn't want to appear, then he won't.

Brilliant! Well done Ash

Well they didn't have any clout as it turns out: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/supplements-saga/essendon-supplements-saga-push-for-senate-inquiry-rejected-says-greg-hunt-20170303-guqeyl.html

For the younger ones who may not know about ..."clearance Clarence"

Caro has come out this morning telling them to move on: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-20170224-gukxno.html If that isn't a message from Head office, I don't know what is. But listening to the tape it became obvious that the fools at Essendon thought they had a deal with the AFL, and they probably did. Trouble was ASADA is the prosecuting and penalty authority. If this was their "leadership" then all....players, coaches, supporters and sponsors have been severely led astray. And this was the same leadership who got them into the situation in the first place.

...and I guess this means Jobe won't get his Brownlow back?

It is important to remember that this hearing has nothing to do with the Essendon players, TB4 or anything else that Dank was supplying. It is about trafficking. To quote from the Age today: While he was cleared of three charges relating to administering the banned drug thymosin beta 4, the AFL anti-doping tribunal, under chairman David Jones, found to its comfortable satisfaction that he had sought to "traffick in [TB4], by selling, giving, transporting, sending, delivering and/or distributing to a third party or parties, namely the Essendon Football Club" between January 2012 and September 2012.

Other readers are not interested in the petty point-scoring that is occurring between posters. Stick to the subject

My bet is that Jobe will hand the Brownlow back before next week. That way 1. the AFL commission doesn't have to make a decision 2. Jobe becomes a martyr to the Essendon fans 3. Since the commission didn't make a decision to take it away, then Cotchin and Mitchell can't get the medal. ( will there be phone calls to Essendon from headquarters in the coming days?)

We need 3 picks in the ND ( compulsory) Wagner likely to be upgraded to full list. We have traded away 1st round pick. Hibberd and or Hurley to fit in? i.e we need 4, 5 or 6 "holes" Delisting contracted players like Dunn, Garland, Lamumba is not feasible, as we will push the salary cap this coming year, and their salary is included if you simply delist. The uncontracted players are the ones in the gun.

Billy is yet another remarkable example of the work of the development staff now at the club. Like Wagner, Hunt and Oscar, they are not yet physically at the level required by AFL, but they are able to play as required. In previous years he would have been thrown into the seniors with hope for the best. Lots of upside still with Billy, and if he gets anywhere near the level of his old man then we will have another beauty!

Pity is that too many can't kick drop punts with any degree of skill despite all this training time......