layzie

Hope he's with us and makes a good go of 2026.

Very happy with Mihocek however I don't think he's ever been someone who takes the best defender. He's more a nice 2nd or even 3rd tall, yes Collingwood asked him to be the no.1 a lot in recent times and that was part of their problem. A good get but I don't think he's the Gorilla Monsoon key forward that some are making him out to be. We need to keep working on that.

People don't seriously think the club let Oliver down do they?

Yep. Had our chance for this in the 2000s, move on.

Not this time. Got much better stuff to do than put energy into hoping a team does terribly. If it happens, great. You guys can do the legwork though. And maybe at 0-8 I'll stick my head in.

The action is really all you need to know. Yes, Oliver might have slowly been returning to form and I wouldn't have minded another year from him but I'm not in the club. The fact is that they didn't want him around anymore and that surely means that the expectations were not being met and we were better off without him. It is one of the quickest falls from grace I've ever seen in the game. You hear people say that he's always been a certain type of character yet we barely heard anything about his life outside of the game before 2023. And I don't remember one person hating the deal when it was made in 2022.

I think it's just the time. There is obviously a lot of mixed feelings right now, we may never know the full extent of what has led to this. I'm hopeful and confident that when he eventually retires, the bitterness and resentment will fade and that love for the club will come back.

Why didn't I think of that?

And he is a very good tackler. Probably one of the best in the comp! Will be nice to actually stick some of them for a change.

My word. Everyone needs to ask themselves this. Our fans, opposition fans, media, everybody.

Seems like a ripping bloke. Looking forward to seeing him out there.

Jack Steele is 29? Thought he was 31. That's another plus!

Land Cruiser drives us home

It is a sad time and people will need a little time. Christian Petracca will always be one of my favourites to play for MFC. Getting a no.5 guernsey around 2016 was a happy moment because it paid tribute to another all time fav the Ox at the same time. It’s been a pleasure seeing him do his thing for us and we’ll never forget that ride that took us to the ultimate success and him yelling “We bloody did it”. One of my favourite memories about that night. From 2020 to mid 2024 he was at his absolute peak. It was just 18 months ago I remember being at the G on Thurs night against Carlton and him almost single handedly dragging us to the victory with 5 goals. He was something else that night. What happened on King’s Birthday was horrific and thankfully while it didn’t have more serious ramifications, stopped the CP5 juggernaut dead in its tracks. Will we look back on this trade with disappointment in the long run? I don’t believe so. It is just my gut feeling but I think we have seen the best of Petracca. I have no doubt he can play some good football for the suns and provide value and leadership but deep down I feel that this injury completely changed him as a footballer and a person. Trac will be 30 in Jan and personally I think he has 3 years in the game left at best. It would be an unbelievable achievement if he has some kind of renaissance up there but I don’t think we’re going to see a Dangerfield like scenario here. There’s other fish to fry for Trac and the best you could hope for is a guy who provides good value footy and maybe even a shot at a flag. We might never know what fully transpired at the club to turn Christian away, I’d love to hear that side of the story when all is said and done. But also when all is said and done, he will be a Melbourne great and may rediscover the love he once had for the red and blue. Thank you for absolutely everything Christian, we will always be grateful.

Come on mate, you know what I meant. Short term sadness, long term 'moving forward'

It's not about the acknowledgement of their departures that I'm frustrated with, that was necessary. It's the constant silver linings and reaching for positives that I and many others I've spoken to are getting a bit tired of. Do we need a spiel on the calibre of new players we attracted as like it's a St Kilda haul? Two guys are in their twilight, one has played 4 games and one is injured all the time. Do we need to highlight what we received in the Petracca trade when it was a win for both clubs and what you would expect from a club doing their job? Are we really going to play this angle up and then go radio silent on what we received for Oliver? This is nothing against Paul Guerra and I've been very impressed with his start. However after receiving all kinds of letters and communication for 2+ years now the talk is getting cheap. After a lot of mismanagement I'm not going to give the club a biscuit every time they do something right. Glad that they addressed it but now let's move forward into a new era where we act like a successful club should and not be focused on individuals. The club trumps all.

We gave one out this year 😉

We don't need to grandstand every little success we have in the form of a letter. The Petracca trade was good for all parties, not unheard of in the trade world. I appreciate the way Guerra communicates so this isn't against him but after a year of having letters to members to highlight things like great 3rd quarters in terrible performances I'm kind of over it.

B is fair

Its all good wanting to move on to the future, I'm glad to see people optimistic. However I do think the next few days should be for grieving. These were generational players that at the end of 2022 you would never imagined would be leaving this way. Things are short in the AFL. One day you're the happiest person that ever lived, the next day you're some shmo working in a box factory

Trade up, get Robey

Good job by Carlton. There's some real delusional people on here thinking that we're in a much better position but Florent and Heyword are quality players that will improve them

Spare a thought for the 80% of us that didn't attack nor praise Lamb during the trade period but let him get on with his damn job. Those who want to use Lamb as a reason to attack people here just pull your head out of your rear ends and shut up.

Can't help but feel there is a lesson here

Who?