whatwhat say what

waste of time you know what she's gonna say? nothing of note; it'll be all "we are committed to Christian and Koz; they are contracted to us" blah blah blah give us a Caulfield update or stfu - she's president not football dept

if he wants to go back to sa / wa...then he wants to go, but it would seem clear to me that if we can get the deal done then it'll be sooner rather than later i think we're all mature enough to realise that, at some point, he's going to want to leave melbourne (the city) it will no doubt be at same stage during this current contract - he'll want to be 'settled' in a home state before his first born starts school, you'd think, which will be around the time of the current contract expiring

myth

what i like is that a lot of the media narrative has moved into the 'gawn as aa ruck' as a lock after the end of the season all the same medja nuffies were talking up xerri or cameron or marshall (who, in the end, wasn't even nominated in the expanded 44-man squad) it better be his 2024 was PHENOMENAL he's the greatest ruckman the game has ever seen and he will be duly rewarded with a record 7th all oztrayan blazer this evening

unfortunately, probably the best we can hope for

from great to good decisions in four words that's the mfc way!

roos was on abc afl daily and said he thinks trac and the club have handled it beautifully by NOT making any comment if nothing happens on the trade front, everyone has kept quiet and not besmirched anyone else on the record

even the bit about trac never having had a significant injury before? people forget he did his acl in his first season

leaks don't come out of the club

And those that want to play for a ‘big club’

completely ridiculous we're one of 18 teams in a domestic competition that doesn't have relegation if he wants to go, go if players don't want to be at your club there's no point trying to hold them

My central maxim during football season amongst fellow followers of the code every time we lose is “[censored] football; it’s a [censored] sport and I hate it” Never been truer post-season

fwiw, here's an aunty report in the wake of neale's mooted move back to flagmantle in the wake of the 2021 season: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-08/lachie-neale-dad-afl-trade-reports-brisbane-lions-fremantle/100442880 similarly to trac, he never officially requested a trade, was able to return to the bears, be made their skipper in subsequent years, and win another brownlow as well as lead them to a grand final last year

gawn had two injuries this year, from memory - both impact injuries he was, by some margin, the best ruckman in the league

thomas was de-registered by the afl i believe very different circumstances too

gawn on the decline? huh?? viney the same... probably two of the top - and most consistent - performers in 2024

do you even mfcss bro

third if you exclude the tiny sample size of yze (1 game for 1 win) and smaller sample size of bert chadwin (53 games for 38 wins in the home and away, 4 wins and 1 loss for 1 premiership in finals) then goodwin is #3 on our current list of winningest coaches ever... norm smith: 181 wins, 5 draws, 101 losses, 63.94% winning rate in home & away seasons // 16 wins, 7 losses, 69.57% winning rate in finals for 6 premierships from 8 attempts checker hughes: 146 wins, 1 draw, 93 losses, 61.04% in h&a // 11 wins, 1 draw, 6 losses, 63.89% in finals, 4 from 6 premierships simon goodwin: 99 wins, 1 draw, 72 losses, 57.85%, 5 wins, 5 losses 50% in finals, 1 from 1 tactically innovative, embraced by the playing list, seemingly disliked / underappreciated by the media...

well, i would argue, that in the last strategic plan the club achieved 4 of the 5 outcomes stated the one glaring omission was the home base but, as per other threads, that ain't for want of trying...

hope so

i would expect that any plans and commitments - such as those alluded to by @smurf - may be started over i know there is so much criticism of the board and administration of finding us a home base, but it really ain't for want of trying

as an inside mid he doesn't win enough contested football as an outside mid he doesn't use it cleanly he's too slow to play the nibbler role as a push-up half forward i think there's a reason he's always on the outer at the puddy tatts - he's classique 'good, ordinary' and too good for vfl, not good enough for permanent afl ...yet he's available as an unrestricted free agent which obviously holds appeal...

one thing... can you 'work on burst pace' or is it something that you innately have as part of your natural athletic gifts? we've tried to train clayton to 'use his legs' to power out of the contest and it worked very well in that 2021-23 inclusive period, but before that his fitness base didn't allow him to do it and this year was a write-off in that regard as well due to him not being able to do so as he did in his peak years you also don't want to do away with a player's core assets - such as smillie's strength in the contest - while ultimately harming what makes him so valuable i look at the way gc17 have tried to re-tool matt rowell to get him to burst away from stoppages and he's not particularly effective at it - yet - cos it's not in his natural footballing make-up

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/racing/we-had-no-choice-how-a-rebel-blindsided-the-melbourne-racing-club-20240827-p5k5my.html

ah right, other side of the race course derby thai right by caulfield station is excellent and always chockers too