Jack Jack

AFL have apparently stopped the Ryder free agent move. Some explanation on trade radio coming up.

Clark is not eligible for free agency. If we delist him he has to go to the draft. Besides that, would his contract really be likely to get anywhere near a band 1 or 2 compo?

If a free agent costs a club a pick it will cause them to consider whether they are worth it or not. Or even worse they give them a low contract to avoid any costs and renegotiate soon after. Anyway, my point was that there are 2 top 4 clubs that have signed free agents. They have come from 2 bottom 5 clubs that can't sign free agents or they risk water down compensation. If free agents are no cost to these top teams, why should the bottom teams losing free agents be subject to a cost? I was just highlighting another example of a system that benefits the top teams. I think they should scrap the compensation all together, or at the very least scrap the "net total points" and just award picks for losing players, and not take into account gaining them. The minimum is 95%. And it's difficult to understand exactly how much of the cap we are paying and how much space we have. It just seemed strange that we can lose a player and basically be prevented from offering that space to another free agent for fear of watering down our compo.

It's been talked about a bit on trade radio. If a club has to give up something for a free agent then they explained that it would not be true free agency. Whether you like it or not, it's unlikely to change. I don't really have a problem with clubs not having to give up picks, but I see a major problem with the "net total points". Hawthorn could theoretically sign Frawley, Higgins and Waite without it costing them anything. But after losing Frawley, we have no motivation to sign any free agents as it would water down our compo. Further to that if we were interested in signing a free agent, we would more than likely have to trade so as not to effect our compo. The bottom clubs should, in theory, have the most cap room to throw money at free agents. But if we lose a good player, it's difficult to use without compromising compensation.

It's gone now, so does that make it Black Ops? You can do a google search that shows an article was posted and removed at the same time. Finals, Success lures Frawley to Hawks

I expect he'll run for parliament so he can get the laws retrospectively changed or ammended - Hird's Law Either that or he'll declare Toorak an independent sovereign state and as such he does not recognise the federal or state laws - The Very Princely Principality of James Hird I (the suburb formely known as Toorak)

Exactly.

He may still bleed red and blue

Clark isn't a free agent, so he has to be traded or he has to nominate for the draft. Lumumba is contracted for next year, so he has to be traded. I've no idea how Blease could water down any compo? He's not eligible for free agency, so he has to be traded or nominate for the draft. Just on MC. Whilst I'll be disappointed that he seems intent on taking his talents elsewhere (although a part of me will be relieved that it's one less player I have to worry about reaching his potential), I'm not really worried about where he decides to go, The fact that a lot of this has been played out in the media bodes well for us. His agent has stated that he want the Dees to be well compensated by his departure. That coupled with the backlash his exit has received in the AFL community and media says to me they have backed themselves into a corner. If they do nominate the Pies, the onus is on them to make the trade work. If there's a standoff with the Pies refusing to cough up a decent trade, then it falls back on MC and his agent. I don't think they can afford for us to be held hostage over this.

I'm not up with all the different leagues and their rules, but there is a glaring difference between the AFL & NBA free agent rules. When an AFL player is traded, their free agency clock is reset. ie they have to be with the new club for 8 years to be eligible for free agency again. In the NBA the clock doesn't reset. So in that regard I can understand why an AFL player would want a say in where they get traded. I'm not sure that there is a perfect solution to all this. There's always going to be loopholes for players to get where they want to go.

That Harts track is awesome. I've been watching some anime of late. Here's a track that caught my attention, opening theme from Berserk!

You can't trade PSD picks or Rookie draft picks (although you can trade rookie listed players) I was under the impression that players could nominate for either the National or the Pre-Season Draft. The PSD has become a little superfluous since they changed the rules on nominating a contract figure in the national draft. I think the PSD used to be the only place for established players to nominate if they wanted a contract over and above the minimums set out in the national draft. But players can now put a price on their head in the national draft (ie Luke Ball).

Last financial year, ending 31st October, Essendon incurred $1,939,710 in legal and consulting expenses associated with the ASADA investigation (plus the $2,000,000 AFL imposed fine). I'd hate to think what their bill is going to be this year, particularly if they have to pay ASADA's court costs.

It's the Middle(ton) Sorry.

Actually he started there in late 2010.

I've wondered about this. If Essundone lose and appeal, does that preclude ASADA from issuing show cause notices? I would assume that win, lose, or draw the show cause notices are coming whether they like it or not.

Clubs can get an indication from HQ as to what their compensation will be before they're handed out. Whilst we cannot consummate any trades until the compensation is officially announced, we can still negotiate trades based what we'll be doled out.

Talking Footy @Talking_Footy7 · 4m @Talking_Footy7 speaks with @mitchjclark tonight about his footballing future. 7:30pm on @7Mate_TV

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with the AFL trying to maximise crowds, but the argument should then be to share gameday revenues. The AFL can either give equal fixtures and let teams stand on their own feet, or continue with gifting better fixtures to the powerful teams and share the revenue.

Geelong have done this before. And I'm not aware of any fines or sanctions that they received for breaching any rules. I'd like to see something similar to the NBA rules come into play, where by the teams cannot even engage with the player managers until the player is no longer under contract and becomes a free agent.

Sure I understand that. Still, when you compare us to a team like the Hawks, they'd be paying close to the cap and have players on contract under market value. Us on the other hand, I would assume, would be barely making the minimum spend and having to overpay our players. When you look at the quality of our list, I can't see how we could get much over the 95% spend, even if we were to bring in another Vince or Dawes. I just can't see how we'd ever utilise that extra 5-10%? Maybe we will at some stage, but not for a few years at least.

Actually in the last few years the minimum spend has changed to 95%. Considering the cap is currently around the $10 mill mark, it makes me nauseous to think that there's only about $500k difference between the Hawks/Cats list and ours.

That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time! (I could have asked but I googled it instead) It's a little insincere considering only a few months ago they had yet to sign up to the long term medical observation of the players involved.

If you are to believe some of the reports, LBJ signing with Cleveland will bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the local/state economy. I, for one, don't believe the reports, but there must be some truth to it. And being a town that has been devoid of success for so long in all their major league teams, having soeone like Lebron back in town must have a huge effect on morale. A few noteworthy happenings in the NBA of late PG broke his leg, during Team USA practice. If you haven't seen the footage yet, don't, it can't been unseen. An incredibly unfortunate incident that now sees him out for a likely 12-18 month recovery. Cleveland looks like they've secured Kevin Love. They're reported to be trading No1 picks Bennet & Wiggins plus a protected future 1st round pick. Seems like a high price to pay, but Love is still pretty young and will further confirm the Cavs as a legit title contender. The trade can't be made until the 23rd (30 days' after Wggins signed). The joy of Aussie basketball doesn't stop with the drafting of Exum. Keep an eye out for Ben Simmons and Thon Maker (and possibly his brother too). Australia is the next basketball powerhouse

I wasn't looking forward to heading down to the game yesterday. On the way I was thinking of the Aristotle quote that sits on Misson's desk "We are what we repeatedly do", ergo the Dees are a bunch of losers (and, by extention, I'm a masochist for going to all the Dees V Hawks games). But I have to say that was one of the best, recent efforts, against the Hawks I can remember. As much as I hate losing, it was a fairly respectable performance by the boys. Starting the first 5 odd minutes with the scoreboard basically being untouched was a good start. If we'd played like we did last week, no doubt the game would have been all over by quarter time. Nev Jetta was brilliant, must have been dirty when he was caught out in the backline with a dodgy pass. Skills weren't great again, but I think the ins and outs certainly improved that area of our game. Forward entries are still pretty woeful. Over possessing the ball in our forward 50 is making me lose my hair at an alarming rate. And I don't think Dawes is the greatest contested mark going around, but with the high, slow entries giving the defenders so much time to zone off their opponents, it basically reduces his chances to 0. A few too many easy goals out the back, but the backline is still a work in progress. Just that couple of extra % improvement should see a few of those easy goals dry up. Somewhat relieved it's over and that we came to play.