whatwhat say what

Zac Clarke from Freo will be exploring his options - key thing here is that he's a free agent. I remain to be convinced he's much chop, but could he be that dual forward-ruck role player?

Was once dubbed 'the future'. Would rather pick up Kane Mitchell for midfield depth and Buddha Hocking for assistant coaching duties than draft Butcher...and that's saying something. Mitchell must be dark that he goes yet Toumpas remains.

Rio Ferdinand got banned for two years reduced to one for a guilty plea when he was at Manchester United, didn't he? Gotta be in giant trouble.

he has the capacity to be a superstar - the questions are, will he be, and will it be for the dees? hoping so on both counts!

funny seeing chip, fitz, and howe at the end all together.

big fitz.

looking beyond just players: would love to poach yze back from the hawks to master skills. he's been an integral part of clarkson's coaching team, with the hawks' disposal amongst the best in the competition. would we look at neil balme as a football manager? the only way that could happen i think is if mahoney is transitioned into the deputy ceo role, as if you bring balme in on top of mahoney it's clearly a demotion for josh. i wonder if rawlings - who has masterminded a third defensive structure change in almost as many years - will look to move on to new opportunities, and whether or not the dees might look at freshening up their off-field coaching ranks, with the likes of rawlings having been their prior to roos, and mathews and fruity allison coming in in roos' wake. will goodwin want different people in his assistant ranks? former crows and bombers might be an option you would expect.

all these 'prestia requests a trade to melbourne' headlines are doing my head in. we wish! (although not at the rumoured $750k a pop over five years.)

of course - it's not like #freekickhawthorn is a myth!

Salem played eight games, Lumumba five. Other than games against the Tigers and yesterday for Salem, I'd say they had very poor years.

it really did end badly, the last fortnight was pretty much unforgivable. i was thinking we might get around 6-8 wins, so from my perspective we over-achieved. and yes, you're right, it's an indictment on the side that four of the most experienced players were complete non-entities.

it was a real up and down season. a massive let-down in the last two weeks. hopefully not a sign of things to come in 2017. there's nothing quite like going 'BANG!' after an appalling final round performance...here's my player ratings for the entire season after a flattening final round. 1. jesse hogan - 5.5/10. a real hit and miss season. if he doesn't mark the ball he doesn't get involved in the play, provides little to no defensive pressure, and can't do much below his knees. could be a superstar, but might not be 2. nathan jones - 7.5/10. still too many cotchin-like games where he is 'busy' but doesn't do much with the ball, but his best is still great and generally speaking when he's up and about we look a better side 3. christian salem - 2/10. great last game, but he needs to actually play regularly to achieve more out of his football as he is clearly one of our more naturally talented players 4. jack watts - 7.5/10. probably his best season, but he still goes missing throughout games and has lapses into poor second efforts on too many occasions, and needs to continue to work on that 5 christian petracca - 6.5/10. shows a tremendous amount of promise, but he dips in and out of games too frequently for my liking and for a player with such exquisite skill too often tries to overdo it 6. chris dawes - 1/10. hope he gets another crack at another club, but he's fundamentally had a shocking four years at melbourne through both injury and poor form, good luck for your future 7. jack viney - 8.5/10. a great season, but his last several weeks have been very poor and his disposal needs a lot of work as too often he makes mistakes at key moments 8. heretier lumumba - 1/10. hope he retires, good luck for your future 9. jack trengove - 3/10. i'm happy that he's been able to come back to play afl-level football, and i'm hoping he can come back but i definitely see him as that sort of 28-32 on the list player who can play a role when required 10. angus brayshaw - 4.5/10. i really question how good he'll be; his disposal under zero pressure and hitting a teammate short is the worst i've ever seen even if his effort cannot be questioned 11. max gawn - 11/10. an amazing season. he's clearly tired as the year has gone on, but he's had an absolutely brilliant 2016, i'd say 9/10 in reality 12. dom tyson - 7/10. a very good second half of the year in particular, but he's another player whose disposal is poor and he often loses possession at key moments in games by turnover or by being caught holding 13. clayton oliver - 7/10. i understand that they're probably managing him, but he's clearly our second best clearance player already - big things expected and i would rather he play in the afl than the vfl 14. lynden dunn - 2/10. depth at best. others have gone past him and his inability to adapt to the gameplan was glaring 15. billy stretch - 7/10. an up and about and lively player who more often than not makes the correct decision, think he'll be a good 'n as he makes the 'right' decisions more often than not 16. dean kent - 7/10. vital to giving us some genuine run through the midfield into the f50, we need him to have another strong fitness base; that said, another with dodgy disposal at times under pressure 17. sam frost - 7/10. can't understand why they persisted with him as a forward / ruckman early in the season; looks at home down back and provides great contest and run; same story as so many of our players re disposal by foot 18. jake melksham - gets a pass, for now...but i have massive doubts as to what he'll bring to the side 19. ben newton - 1/10. had an interrupted preseason which probably put him on the back foot, but i think he's a likely player to be cleared off the list 20. colin garland - 1/10. i still can't fathom giving him a three year deal at the end of last year; should've been two as he's not in our best 22 and barely a depth player as key defensive cover 21. cam pedersen - 5/10. massive mistake not to have him in against carlton, as for the most part he's serviceable and provides a great contest; misses too many games through injury and goes missing in patches too yet i think we have to retain him to give us depth in talls 22. viv michie - 1/10. probably a case of an excellent player at a lower level but not afl-ready, as his disposals at afl provided no advantage for the side despite his deceiving efficiency and his defensive coverage was non-existent, good luck for the future 23. bernie vince - 6/10. really hope his last seven or so rounds were due the knock against the power in darwin, as he has been pretty ordinary in the second half of the year and hopefully father time has not suddenly caught up with him 24. jay kennedy-harris - gets a pass, for now...his body clearly let him down all year, but if it's true that carlton are offering a second round pick for him i'd take it; don't reckon he's fast or skillful enough based on previous years 25. tom mcdonald - 8/10. by far and away our best tall defender, and whilst he makes mistakes and stuffs up attacking plays from time to time, we're better for having him than not 26. sam weideman - 3/10. probably a mistake playing him against carlton, but once that was lost might as well have played him against the cats, despite how little readiness he had for the afl-level game, but in truth the same was true for o mac in his first games too 27. liam hulett - pass, really thought he'd have made the senior side ahead of the weed as he looks the more physically ready player at this stage 28. oscar mcdonald - 6.5/10. we had to blood him at some stage, and he's ahead of the older options in terms of his ability to impact the play...probably both positively and negatively, although his run of games since the bye has been impressive 29. jayden hunt - 7.5/10. the find of the season, with his pace a massive weapon that whilst occasionally sees him run into trouble, i'd rather encourage his willingness to take the game on than curb it 30. alex neal-bullen - 2/10. a super disappointing second season at afl level, unable to replicate any of his vfl form; his skills didn't look up to snuff, but like other youngsters he either deserves more time or an opportunity elsewhere 31. jack grimes - 1/10. just looks cooked as an afl level player; i'd like to think he'd make it elsewhere, but unfortunately i think his lack of pace and skills sees him exposed at afl level 32. tomas bugg - 4/10. a lively player who is aggressive and in-your-face, he misses too many targets by hand and foot and goes missing for too many extended periods of time to be a best 22 player 33. jack spencer - no rating, never got a go so unfair to rate him, but i worry if he's our back-up if gawn goes down 34. mitchell king - unfair to rate, hopefully the season out will see him learn a lot a la gawn, hogan and petracca 35. ben kennedy - 5.5/10. i think he's better than others, as i like his turn of speed and his ability to impact the scoreboard, plus i think he 'goes when it's his turn...he's probably not best 22, but he's not far off it 36. jeff garlett - 4.5/10. see, i would've had kennedy's buzziness in the forward 50 ahead of garlett's for the majority of the year; no doubt jeff is a more talented player but he doesn't do nearly enough with his talent 37. aaron vandenberg - 6/10. i basically see vdb as playing a default chf role - he gets up the ground, competes in the air, tries to hit the scoreboard, provides some defensive pressure, but he's really let down by his disposal when he gets it it, which is infrequently 39. neville jetta - 8/10. our best defender by a street, as there's no one else in the side that can play the role he does, to lock down on the best small forward plus also provide a lot of run out of the defensive 50 41. mitchell white - 2/10. he doesn't offer much more than depth, and it would be a surprise if he was upgraded to the senior list after the mandatory two years on the rookie list 42. josh wager - 3/10. he's first cab off the rank, more or less, for tall(ish) defensive coverage, and he's able to provide a bit of run, but he really doesn't impress as an afl-level or afl-ready player 43. james harmes - 4/10. he was good in patches in three roles, from a marking half forward to a wingman and then as a defender, but his disposal is just nowehere near good enough 44. josh smith - unrated, hopefully he can continue to develop at casey next year and become a surprise packet 45. matt jones - 6.5/10. a really surprisingly successful season, he's a player who has got a lot out of himself and runs hard both ways; don't really want him in best 22, but he's better than other depth options at this stage 46. dean terlich - unrated, all the best for the future 47. max king - unrated, all the best for the future i think that's it? what's clear i think is that we desperately need: - a kurt tippett-type, a player who can play both forward and move into the ruck - watts has battled away admirably playing that role but he's not best-suited to it. - class and skill through the midfield, particularly players who can break lines, hit targets and impact the scoreboard, someone like a fit jaeger o'meara would be ideal, but we don't even seem to be in the conversation to land him, and he's not played a game for two years so fitness is a massive concern of course, these sort of stars hardly grow on trees! in terms of victorians that we could 'lure home' i'd love gaff and 2 metre peter please, preferably traded for a packet of stale twisties so as not to upset the balance of our list.

i'm hoping it's just because he spent so much time out with injury, but it really is appalling.

melbourne 2017 first rounder higher, gives them greater value points for the next in their neverending supply of academy bonuses.

Nice one.

hawks would be massive winner there! more like: - hawks get o'meara - gc17 get melbourne 2017 1st rounder, langford melbourne get hawks 2016 1st rounder, hawks 2017 1st rounder

111 to finish the season. absolutely pathetic.

what a disgraceful performance.

disposal of so many players seriously poor today.

send hogan to full back to play on hawkins to teach him how to play the role.

i'm watching the peptides thump the blues. it's a far better quality game.

brayshaw's short disposal under no pressure is THE WORST i have ever seen.

agreed, he should be in. our second best clearance player, in only his first year. am i wrong or does him playing in the vfl today qualify him for vfl finals? i don't know what to say about brayshaw. his second year has been a shocker.

jesse laid a tackle!! (then tuned it straight over.)

hogan's lack of interest at the contest is appalling.