whatwhat say what

older players - sylvia, jamar, clark younger players - trengove, blease, watts new players - dawes, pick #4, viney

top bloke, really rate him as a person and an experienced trainer and hard-worker who gets the best out of himself. i hope we pick up surjan too. hard-nosed, tough-as-nail defender whose disposal is usually fairly clean.

thread delivers. well done chook in perth.

If we can get to 8 wins I'll be pleased. However, if we suffer a succession of floggings as part of 14 losses I'll be extremely unimpressed. I just want to see more of that c word.

That Tom Scully would be our Chris Judd.

Absolutely in terms of the quality of player, but it comes down to contract length and monetary value. Chaplin signed a four year deal on good coin; Riv a 2 year deal on lesser money per year. So Chaplin is 'worth' more.

Absolutely in terms of the quality

oh, and good luck to him at the cattery. really want to see riv playing finals footy. hopefully the dees will be there in 2013, but i think he'd be a certainty if fit to see september action with geelong in 2013.

yep, means dunn is a monty to stay best 22 down back. still reckon we're top-heavy for defenders - frawley, mcdonald, watts, dunn, garland are all very tall and will be caught out by smaller, nimbler forwards. i wonder if this move will mean garland gets thrown forward. quite frankly, the writing was on the wall for riv given that he was thrown forward for the second half of 2012, and melbourne hardly has a history of treating their senior citizens with grace of late. hopefully he has many sons and they're all guns.

really getting slayed for this elsewhere online, which i find strange. he might not be a superstar, but he's clearly talented, strong, fit, and capable of playing another 6-8 years. i fail to see the issue of swapping #20 and exchanging later picks for him.

a forward line structure...first time since 2006!

They're clearing space for young.

i don't want to get involved with them to nab any of these picks. they may say they're willing to trade that plethora of picks, but you can be certain that the only ones that are truly on the table are #12 and #13. no way they'll let the top 3 go. and if they do go whitfield, toumpas, wines, under no circumstances should we not select grundy - the guy has all the tools to be a monster ruckman in the afl, equivalent to a dean cox-type who can play in the ruck, run all day, take contested marks to save games, and go forward to kick goals. if he's available, really hope we take him.

We're offering him half a million dollars per year too. No wonder he picked the Dees - he's on nearly half that st the filth!

Really hope he stays and flourishes. Has the ability.

Interesting to read those reports about his junior career. His form in the Sanfl this year was so bad he was back in the magoos. Misses targets and provides little defensive running. No, no, no.

No, slow and a poor kick. Happily have Surjan tho!

Jinx! Give em Cook.

Geoff Walsh just said pick #20 won't cut it.

Agree with Ralph. I reckon he's off to Freo but.

You're joking, right? Jay Schultz is just about Port Adelaide's most damaging player. He might even be their captain in 2013. No way they're letting him go.

Good luck to Cook. It didn't work out with us, probably for a variety of reasons, but perhaps it will second time around for him.

The majority of sides are moving to a 3 key forward structure where one can pinch hit in the ruck, one plays as a defined key forward, and one who roams beyond the wings into the defensive half of the ground. Then there's usually a plus one smaller player to rove and apply defensive pressure. The 5 and 6 then push up and run back. In Melbourne's ideal structure it would probably be Clark, Hogan and one other from 2014 onwards, with the small rotating between Byrnes, Blease, Davey, etc. We're missing that third roaming tall option. I actually think Martin could potentially fill that bill. I'd prefer Gumbleton to Dawes as he's ostensibly more athletic - albeit more injury prone - and would complement the other two, with Clark the big lug who can pinch hit in the ruck AND play the key forward, Hogan with the defined key forward role and ability to run athletically, and the third able to play deep or push up. No doubt min my mind Neeld is putting together a structure for 2015 onwards.

Everything I've seen of this kid he looks like a player who can play as a key position forward for a decade from 2014 onwards. There's no doubt in my mind that the deal was done to allow Viney to slide to #26, GWS to get the first three picks in total, and gc and Melbourne to get the two best available 17 year old selections. Wines will be selected #4 - in truth, we may have used the pick on him had we been forced to select Viney with the previous pick. I see these deals as win - win - win for all three clubs involved. The likelihood is we will be bottom 5 next year, giving another opportunity to add another quality player to our list - the equivalent of 2 top 5 picks ready for 2014. We will likely not be a finals side until at least 2015 in my opinion - horrifying, I know - but by that stage the guy we are looking at as our prime key forward will have had three years in the system.

Murphy too. I'd probably rather him than Gilham - gives us another halfback flanker with good disposal and defensive intensity.