Bonkers

Yeh I don't see much point in dropping Renshaw either. He's been quite reliable so far. Seems to have a good head on his shoulders for a young bloke. It will be interesting if the selectors are willing to drop anyone else if they have some scratchy form. Probably more benefit with your idea of Bancroft at 6 I'd agree.

He actually played quite a good knock. Second top scorer and if it wasn't for him and Cummins supporting Smith we'd be in strife.

Pretty entertaining and interesting first test so far. There's not much between the two sides. Anything around 200 will be difficult to chase down from the Aussies perspective, especially as the pitch detiorates. It will be interesting to see how Anderson pulls up after the 1st innings of bowling. It looked like he was carrying a niggle and spent some time off the ground.

I can see where you are going with this but he has also been in the system for 3 years? The first 2 years he was injured which is noted.

I think Gaff may be a free agent next year. I get what you mean though that we could use the pick in another trade.

We got a second rounder back. Pick 35 was the Cows second rounder this year.

This is taken directly from the trade radio/afl trade news feed: The future is looking brighter for wantaway Adelaide defender Jake Lever, with Melbourne confirming productive talks with the Crows on Monday. It's been reported all has not been rosy with Crows after the third-year backman declared he wanted out of his first AFL club to return home to Victoria. But, Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney said talks were "amicable" on Monday, with both parties working to get it done. The Crows then confirmed via list manager Justin Reid there had been some "good dialogue" between the parties regarding the 21-year-old's wishes.

4 Years at $750-800 is what was mentioned on Fox Sports News.

I'd suspect the decision to leave was probably made 3-6 months ago. I don't think the result will have any bearing on what happens after the GF.

He's important in setting up structure behind the ball & provides almost an on field coach. It was noted last year by hawthorn supporters that he was slowing up & beginning to lose his feet quite often. He is clearly slowing up, but he was still good enough to come 2nd in Hawthorn's BnF last year. Calling time on his career after 1 borderline bad game is jumping the gun. He will get plenty of games this year & next year. How he goes in the 3rd year is an interesting question.

I don't think there's much chance of us becoming like north. I'm pretty sure we only have 1 player over 30 years of age? We've been playing as the youngest side in the Comp for around half of the season. If the club can identify players like Hibberd or Bernie Vince I think it would go a long way to pushing this team towards finals. Our midfield is getting close to being complete & will mature again this preseason. The areas of weakness are outside run, skilled ball users & a second ruck/forward ruck. You could also say CHB is not covered off either as Frost is not proven & looks shakes at times, same could be said of Oscar. I'd be happy if the club targeted experienced players in some of those positions to attempt to complete the list. I should add, so long as they don't target a player like Vickery & continue with their ok record of picking up experienced players.

The two kicks by Kent & Stretch were exasperating. I don't know if there is any level of football where those decisions would be the right decision ever. Then the skill execution after the decisions that were made were just as bad. Sometimes I wonder if the players either over think a simple scenario or are over coached at how to move the ball. I would have thought that the decision to move the ball in a certain direction would almost be instinctual at that level after years of training? It's the one area of our game that is still average & has stopped us winning multiple games this year. I'm hoping that some of it can be coached out of them, but I think the club is going to have to really focus on bringing in better decision makers & users of the ball over the next few years if we are going to be any chance at getting near competing for a flag.

Oliver & Petracca are currently averaging over 10 contested possessions a game. They are ranked 3rd & 2nd at the MFC and around 40th overall for the competition. Pretty amazing for young players who have played less than 5 games(grain of salt with Petracca only playing two games but I'm sure it will continue or even get better).

He's had less than one pre season & it was a 30 degree day. It's hardly a concern. I'd say it's a good sign he can get that much out of himself already when you take into account he's probably only trained for 12 weeks as a pro.

I really don't understand this line of thinking. If a player does his knee on day one it's an accident that is unavoidable. MFC recruited Melksham knowing he could be rubbed out for 1 or 2 years & we still followed through & paid the asking price which Essendon demanded from us. Your point regarding it only being a year out of his career is an odd one also. A very good to exceptional AFL player will play 10-12 years of good footy. An average player might get around 4-6 good years in his career & most will probably on average play a lot less. Having one year taken out of his career & not being able to train with the club is a blow that we could have minimised at least. I don't see how the trade can be judged a good one at the moment or glossed over as not a big deal now that Melksham will be out for a year. All these points are without even considering whether he will be a good player for us or not if & when he does get on the field. He has been ordinary at Essendon for a couple of years & if you ask Essendon supporters they weren't fazed to lose him. When I add all these points up it doesn't look like an astute piece of trading, but like all trades we can only view it after the players career is over. I hope for the MFC's sake it does work out, but on the face of it, it is looking like a bad trade.

Haha, footy isn't really that complicated is it!

Both ankles I believe? I'm not sure exactly what was wrong with them.

Sanderson commented that Weideman could be the steal of the draft. On talent alone he believes he could be a number one talent. If he was able to get some consistent footy together instead of being injured he believes that he could have been the number 1 draft pick. If we can get this kids body right then we may have our F50 sorted for the next 10 years.

Exactly. I'm not an expert but from what I've read the only knock on Parish seems his size & tackle numbers. Everything else he apparently does well. He's averaging 129 SuperCoach points a game & 29 disposals albeit at a lower level than AFL, but he can only beat who he's up against. I'm pretty sure Brayshaw & Salem averaged less at that level. He's been an All Australian twice. Not sure how we can really go wrong drafting this kid & how anyone sees him falling out of the top 5 let alone top 10.

Tom Scully was a Stingray, Petracca was from Eastern. Just saying.

That's actually untrue. There are tests that can be done to ascertain the percentage of fast twitch & slow twitch muscle fibres on the body. The percentage of high twitch fibres will determine how much muscle mass an individual can build up, the percentage of slow twitch fibres in combination with lung capacity & the heart will usually determine how well the individual can perform aerobically.

I don't think it's about immediate results. It's more about building your team around a nucleus of A grade talent. You have too look at it long term & back the recruiting team to find the right players. If they want to move up the draft order to get pick 3 they must be confident that player will be a 200 gamer to build a team around, otherwise I'd agree with you & say there's not much point. So far the new footy department seem to be right about Tyson, Salem, Petracca & Brayshaw so you have to back them in on this decision as well.

Whilst it appears there is nothing too much to be excited about I think the club is building the list in the right way at least. They are trying to fill holes in the list with players of a certain age profile that they think they can get a certain amount of service out of. Hopefully those players will reduce the holes in our list from the bottom 6 players in the 22 & make us a lot more competitive. I will admit that we could do with a star player being drafted but the reality is there is another 15 or so clubs that won't land any big fish this trade period either. Building our list around Hogan, Petracca, Brayshaw & Viney is a good start. Looks like we will have to be patient & see if the club can land someone like Parish to add to that nucleus of genuine A grade undeveloped talent & build our list around those type of players until we get closer to finals & become a "destination club".

It isn't official yet. The speculation is based on what Mahoney & Dodoro discussed via the media, that the trade would involve a second round pick. It may be that we are asking for a pick as well as Melksham etc.

Agree with this, we drafted in Vince for pick 20 odd, but we also drafted in Dawes for around the same. I think the Dons win this deal if its true.