whatwhat say what

not really i think we're both saying you should always prioritise talent regardless of home locale

if you're prioritising a player because of their home location then you're not drafting for talent, you're recruiting in fear chad wingard is a player who was clear in his recruitment chats that he didn't want to leave adelaide; as such gw$ didn't pick him and he 'slid' to port...yet still finished his career at hawthorn under no circumstances would any club say 'we're only drafting local players' because of some notion that they may want to go home at some indeterminable point in the future crom have made it clear that they want to bring players 'home' - so far they've targeted dawson, rankine, neal-bullen, lukosious (who preferred to go to the pear), and a bunch of others who have NOT gone home to sa (such as chandler from us) they have continued to recruit vic players; they have had less strength in retaining them, unlike their cross-town rivals (who lost houston to a go-home call, and a significant pay bump)

+ may + tomlinson + frost + tyson + bugg, if you exptend it back to the 'since roos' era, and i'm sure i'm forgetting some more the big one was getting 100 fantastic games outta proud south oztrayan bernie vince when the crom decided he was surplus to requirements and he immediately brought a fantastic attitiude and became a much-loved team member at his second club

you always 'draft for talent, trade for need' retention of wantaway players is just something that has to be managed in a national compettion

not only that, but it's currently up for rent...until october

unfortunately, i agree he does it too often, has been warned, and still continues to hit players late and high

exactly going nowhere unless the offer is too good to refuse

they don't exactly grow on trees

ah, righto i'm so used to petty training in a hat that i presumed it was him

agreed let's hope it never happens

so i take it petty continues to train as a forward?

clubs move the total value of contracts around the years that they're in all the time only two clubs i can think of have got stung and had to move players out as a result; the peptides in the early 00s with caracella, blumfield. and heffernan, and the filth around 2020 with treloar, aish, and even grundy to a greater / lesser degree i imagine oppo fans ask the q of us with petracca, oliver, brayshaw, lever, may, langdon, jvr, and pickett on long-term contracts

as much as they say that andy brayshaw is going nowhere, his signature on a contract remains elusive

backended, backended, forwarded, forwarded, backended deals up the wazoo also expect fyfe, walters, possibly o'meara - whose deal they inherited from the hawks, i assume - and pearce to retire within the next year or so, which will free up a lot of cap space my thing against them is are they ever going to actually achieve anything? they're consistently mid-table with the occasional dalliance with the top 6 on very rare occasions

Nice puff piece: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1707629/he-learned-from-a-legend-now-kozzy-pickett-wants-to-inspire-the-next-generation

that's what i meant by 'ride the bumps and barbs'

surely we're not looking at bell for the ceo role??

yeah, you won't... we all won't we'll ride the bumps and barbs til the end of october

i always thought it was the other way around; thompson was coming back from a broken arm, the side was settled and in finals, hence he wasn't selected

2026 and 2027 future 1sts, thanks - teams can trade two years in advance as of the end of this year, i believe, and while i don't think he'll be leaving to flagmantle at the end of the season, that'd be my opening requirement at a minimum i don't think it's too surprising that he might want to do this, but there's a lot of obstacles in the way to make it happen

i take it that howes is training to play more of the '3rd tall' role, a la lever?

His manager is Peter Rohde, I believe? He is fairly straight down the line

it'll be the same story as every year; kozi is homesick and wants to go home to sa...no, wait...wa...no, wait, sa...maybe the nt? he's contracted til the end of 2027; if he wants to go he wants to...at the end of the year

i still have my doubts that will ever happen...with a roof on it

yes, yr negativity towards anything, everything is well understood however, as has been made clear by the mfc many times over, this is about more than just a home base for us but about community-based engagement and projects in order to enable that home base to happen i will wager that we will be at our caulfield based within the next decade; i.e. before 2035