Nasher

Exactly. Huge chance to poll very well this year if current form continues.

There were plenty of wise heads on this forum in the early years who said this was how it would pan out, in that if we could convince him to stay in the early years he’d eventually grow out of the idea of returning to Perth. A strong bond with his teammates, a Victorian girlfriend, a club that has actively supported him during his more homesick periods and a bit of team success would (and has) created a sense of home in Melbourne. In my opinion the risk of him going has now completely evaporated. It may resurface when he’s a 30 year old, 200 game player looking to transition his life and spend his last contract at “home”, but by then with 3 flags and 2 Brownlows to his name, I’ll happy wave him goodbye with thanks, knowing he was a loyal Demon when it mattered.

It’s so hard to have this conversation with a straight face.

Maybe they’ll bully him when we play them like Adelaide did with Lever.

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I often wonder what happens behind the scenes with these multi-sport talents - especially the basketballers, when they’ve chosen the other sport, then suddenly rock up at Cat B rookies in the AFL. Given that there’s daylight between the career prestige and cash between the NBA and the AFL, you would owe it to yourself to have a crack at the former first and fall back to the latter when it was obvious it was not going to happen.

Prestia choosing Melbourne also would have required Melbourne to choose Prestia, of course. The vast majority of the time the players are going to choose the club that pursues them the hardest.

I feel for McCartin. The way the footy public crush these early picks with expectations and them flog them mercilessly with them disgusts me. He needs to be given time and patience, there’s no doubt about it. I don’t feel for the Saints fans though. Years of being kicked while down by other supporters has made me bitter and spiteful. I get a bit of a kick at seeing them seethe.

BigFooty Aints supporter comment of the day: Well on todays exhibition the Paddy V Petracca has been settled once and for all - we should have picked Brayshaw! Eat a bag, Aints!

Summary of the last page of this thread: Oscar is a dud because he couldn’t stop a perfectly weighted kick, nor chase down Essendon’s fastest player who some other dope in a Melbourne jumper let get 30 metres in space. Sweet.

@Grapevineywill be happy! Me too for that matter. It’s a disgrace to have a member of the media so willing to trash the club representing it on its official podcast. It’s a bit petty but I hope he was escorted away rather than “stepping”.

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While I'm supportive of (and pleased by) the social aspect of this decision, I highly doubt it's any more than a side effect of a decision that was otherwise 100% business. The current administration hasn't done anything to suggest it operates in any way other than a shrewd one. I'm surprised you're not prepared to cut them some slack and let this play out before flying off the handle.

You don't think it reasonable that people's view might evolve as life experience grows? 2010 for me was 50% of my adult life ago and I can tell you that my knowledge on the topic at hand and desire to explore it was precisely zero.

Very pleasing news. Hopefully there is a plan to minimise or ideally negate the impact to the bottom line. The argument that this does nothing to address the social issue because someone else will just pick up the licenses is just rubbish. The best way to initiate change is to lead it, and that's what the MFC have done. Let's see how many other AFL clubs are still operating these venues in 3 years time.

A couple of points: To you it's good info, to everyone else it's information from somebody called "Beetle" and we have no way of judging the veracity of it other than your word. It's not personal, but people are entitled to be sceptical. We have seen a *lot* of this type of information before and it varies from correct, to a mangled chinese whisper, to an outright lie. Often the poster could be correctly relaying what they heard but their source got the wrong end of the stick. Secondly, people will be doubtful about this particular item because it just sounds unlikely after the year he had. On top of that, it beggars belief that no other club would be interested. There's no need to get pissy about it when people question your post, it is inevitable and perfectly reasonable for that to happen. Try to understand a little bit where people are coming from.

Macdonald.

I don't think it's official until he's been on the Demonland podcast.

If we finish bottom 4, there will be plenty of other questions to be asked first! It becomes an interesting feedback loop when a trade for a player involves a future pick. The player in this case should improve our prospects for next year, thereby automatically devaluing the pick we're trading him for. And Adelaide will now be hexing us big time in the hope that its value grows, so it adds another dimension to the rivalry. Good times!

I'll let the remainder of the trade period play out before giving any thought to whether we should have held out or not. If pick 35 is on-traded, that points to there being value in getting the deal done quickly rather than holding everything up.

There's no way that could be allowed to happen again, surely. If that isn't draft tampering, then draft tampering isn't a thing.

I don't understand why it's a huge gamble. Surely MFC supporters would recognise it's the draft that is a gamble, not gun 21 year olds. We traded off lottery tickets for a known quantity. If someone said to you, "I'll give you a million dollars, or two tickets in to a draw to win 30 million", which one would you take?

Almost needs two threads. The "f yeah, we got him" and the "waaaaaaah, we paid overs". I'm in the former camp and don't really want my mood sullied by the latter.

Well I for one won't mourn the loss of draft picks when it's a known gun we're getting. Stoked!

Hey!