Nasher

It's why I went for "barely relevent" instead of "totally irrelevant". The kid has grown up in WA, I think his desire to stay home (or otherwise) will vastly outweigh any other factor, including pressing from his father. I'm just not sure that most 18 year olds, given the option, would move to the other side of the country when given they don't have to. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy for the Wiz to push him in our direction, but I think people are overvaluing the weight of that pushing. He's his own person who will make his own decision.

Whichever club his son chooses (on the assumption he is up to the grade), it won't be up to the Wiz, so his opinion is barely relevant.

If Essendon want to prove they're not tools at the trading table, this is a golden opportunity to prove it. Fair price (our second rounder) seems to already be close to agreed upon, and the trade period is still a month away. There shouldn't be too much left to argue about when the time comes. Get it done on day 1, Melbourne and Essendon, so both clubs can turn their focus to other business.

Nah mate, doesn't count until a Brownlow medalist comes to us as a FA.

He's not in our system. The amount of MFC resources spent on his development has been minimal; we won't be compensated if he goes elsewhere and nor should we be.

Yes, indirectly. Gave up pick 3 (Scully compo) and 14, and received MD pick #2 (Hogan), ND pick #20 (on-traded as part of Dawes deal) and Dom Barry.

He'd be feeling relieved and excited and nervous I'd think. Moving on from this sorry saga starts today. Good luck to him. People have their views on him as a player, but for me, I've erased all past views and biases, go in with an open mind and am looking forward to seeing what he can add.

Sweet! Choke mentioned you in a topic: Declan Keilty Carry on :-)

One of his family members has been posting here in the VFL threads, might be able to shed some light. Paging @Drunkn167... Never tested out the tagging system on here before, let's see if it works!

You don't have to look very far back in to our history to see any actual evidence anyway. Shannon Byrnes and David Rodan were the types of players we were picking up not very long ago.

And therefore one less year he has to work for the average worker's salary after footy. These are the sorts of things professional football players would have to think about if they've got any sense. The extra 70k would make stuff all difference to their existing lifestyle, but has massive future implications. That's why I'm hesitant to ever refer to footballers who seek good salaries "greedy".

If I remember rightly, Heffernan didn't want to leave Essendon and came begrudgingly. This was reinforced by the way he played.

I see that as complementary rather than opposing. Oscar, Frost and Weideman playing ahead of Dunn, Garland and Pedersen are examples of young players being brought in to the side in order to fast track development. The rest of our young players for mine have been self-selecting on talent; I don't believe week by week selection of Hunt, Oliver, Stretch and so forth has been bold, just obvious. The difference between our appoach and Richmond is the goal has been sustainable improvement. The four top 10 picks is ensuring we continue to get talent through the door. We've traded very astutely to ensure that happens, and have picked up talent that will make sure we can continue to grow. We've still also managed to bring in senior players without spending those valuable early picks. 4 top 10 picks, but when was the last time you saw us use a second round pick? In recent years ours have all been used to bring in senior players - Frost, Vince, Lumumba, Melksham have all joined us from picks in the 20-30 range; Hibberd will do the same this year.

To me that amounts to Salem for pick 19. The club's strategy in the last few years has been to take the fastest route possible towards improvement. All our trade types have supported this: 1) trading out picks for experienced players; 2) trading future picks for picks this year to get the jump on development, and 3) trading late picks for fringers at other clubs who are about the right age. Yours is type 4) trading out talent (unrealized at this stage) and going back to the well. It's a regressive strategy. I can't support that and it's at odds with everything the club has worked towards in the last three years.

That one, as far as 'records' go. Winning 3 in a row was also nice. Pretty hard to top the Hawthorn win for moments of the year (decade) though. Not so much for the broken embarrassing record, just for the pure pleasure of the way the game unfolded.

That's a far more plausible number than the other rumour in this thread. I'm not sure why supporters get so hung up over how much players are paid anyway. So long as players on our list aren't leaving for money, who cares how much we play the players we recruit?

While I wouldn't have closed the thread, I'm genuinely surprised people wanted to retain two threads simultaneously discussing the same event. Ah well.

I think the fact that he is under less pressure is actually a feature of his game - he is able to get in to space when others can't. Really pleased with his progress this year.

He was there through 2011.

Freo and Ross Lyon records to go thanks!

Isn't SPC's avatar Nathan Brown?

Haha. I'm surprised but flattered at the amount of attention that got.

"We lost by 100 but Howe took mark of the year". If I was to roll up all of the games from the Neeld era and make them one, that's probably how I'd describe it.

It's just laughable to suggest he broke fingers slapping Ebert in the face when Ebert didn't have so much as a red cheek. I once punched a wall with a fair bit of force (not full force) and had some minor bruising of my knuckles. The only time I've ever seen anyone break fingers by punching someone, the recipient of the punch got totally flattened. Come on guys, it's just silly. We're just fueling our need for conspiracy theories against all common sense by running with this one.

Good story > facts I bet this myth carries on for years now. Sigh.