Grand New Flag

Fair call, clearly there are more spots than 3. We are spending our Bonazza on moving up the draft or perhaps trading for another gun.

As I mentioned before, we don't have enough room on our list. MFC only wanted to delist/trade 3, possibly 4. Now with Melk that could be 5. Simply the MFC would be forced to delist players that they don't want to or they think are lessor players than what the draft offers.

Only years of multiple AAA trading and recruiting can get a club into this position. Forget Gawn or Track, JT is our most valuable asset.

WCE have publicly said they would trade pick 1. WCE and North have almost certainly come up with a solution the delivers Curtain to WCE and leaves Reid to be traded out. MFC and WCE have already come to "in-principle" agreement for Reid, plenty of fine tuning to be done but leaves a live option for Dees. No other club can satisfy WCE I hear the MFC feels it does not have room for all its early picks. In other words, they will be forced to delist players they want to keep. Far better therefore to trade up. I think the chances of us landing Reid and very high.

Make no mistake, Premierships are won from the self-belief created from wins like that. A truly outstanding victory with parallels to R23 2021. All the more impressive, that we were playing for nothing.

OK looks like I may have spoken to soon! But then again, as DLs have posted above........ maybe it makes no difference. I am still super excited!

Today's results are certainly great news for MFC. Opens up our options. WC need multiple first rounds picks as we did in 2013........ splitting our number 1 pick went along way to rebuilding our list....... a super important step to building our premiership list. No doubt WC are very aware of this. Reid becomes a real and live option again. Whether it can be done and whether this is the direction the MFC wants to go, only time will tell. But what we do know is that we have been interested enough to pursue Reid as a possible payday for our 2023 draft bonanza. It is a fact that we have put in enormous time and effort to make this a possibility of happening. The MFC has options on how to spend its bonanza everywhere. This is the honey train draft/trade period for us. Whatever direction we end up taking.......... if we nail it, we set our football club up for a decade. We give ourselves the opportunity to create a genuine dynasty. I am just so excited.

Hardtack, I am sorry to hear this. I hope you have a cancer that there is a pathway to cure from Stage 4. As you know some there are some there are not................ but whatever the case positive thinking will increase your lifespan. I was given 6 months the week the Dees held up the 21 Premiership and have been so grateful for the extra 2 years I have been able to spend with my family. It's been particularly tough on my 11yo and 13yo and wife. What I can say is that I have made the most of my time since becoming terminal 3 years ago. The Dees have delivered one flag for us in this time, I am upbeat they can deliver a second this year. Your comments above about me are fair.

No disrespect RPFC but over the years I have openly spoken on what I have heard. Some things have come to be, some have not.......... and sometimes yes, you have annoyed me so much I have had some fun. Perhaps you forget some of my scoops like Roos a lock to coach the Dees next season a done deal after round 7, 2013. The abuse I copped on here for 9 months was extraordinary........ but no apologies in the end. Anyone can go through my record if they could be bothered, the truth is its far better than any journalist as I have enjoyed a direct ear from the very top for a long time. There is plenty more I hear that I simply dont tell as its not in the MFC interest. To suggest I make it up is not true. I have rarely done this, when I have it's been so obvious, it's been to get you back. This place is pretty boring most of the time. What is the point of having a rumour thread if those hearing rumours only get abused, or belittled when things don't eventuate. Unfortunately, I am terminally ill, I have been for 3 years. This will be my last season to pass on what I hear. So enjoy it while it lasts. As for Reid, what I have written is 100%, we had an in principal agreement with WCE....... but as I said who knows whether it would have eventuated anyway.

Delete

I don't know the details. Only that broad agreement had been made. WCE to pick up most of our early draft picks in return. How much? Players involved? I have no idea.

The Doggie implosion has blown-up an in-principal deal with WCE for us to get Reid. Lyon has been involved at a personal level. The final decision whether to exercise the deal, by both WCE and MFC had yet to be made. Plenty of water still to go under the bridge between now and November. Nevertheless, we have been actively pursuing Reid as an option on how to spend our draft bonanza. It would seem we are still keen to have this option with NM, but considering everything our chances are now weak.

If this game ends up a dead rubber for us as it is likely to then surely, surely, we rest Gawn and bring Grundy in as first ruck. The entire idea of recruiting Grundy was to ensure Gawn came into finals 100% fit and fresh. When Gawn in 100% he is worth 3 players. He was banged up in the finals last year and was a shadow of himself. Gawn was badly beaten last weekend, he looked tired. He is our most important player and captain. There is simply no point in playing him in the wet in Sydney in a dead rubber. Equally importantly putting Grundy in will give him an opportunity to connect him to our mids should Gawn go down and Grundy is required in finals. Gives us some real insurance. It also gives Grundy an opportunity to show his trade value to our benefit. I just don't see any downside, only risk of injury to Gawn. Two weeks break to Gawn (like 2021) will have him in absolute top fitness for finals. Don't forget how incredible Gawn was for us in those finals, particularly v Geelong. Rest Gawn!

Absolutely, if we nail this year like the incredible 2019 draft, we set ourselves for a genuine dynasty. There is no doubt the 2019 draft delivered a Premiership, but 2023 could be the one that takes us back to being THE POWERHOUSE OF THE AFL. A super club. Given a sweet hit like 2019 happens once a generation, if we somehow do that again well..................

This is definitely being considered.

I am told the decision has been made to hold Oliver back until the Carlton game. It is also my understanding that we studied Geelong's run to the finals last year and compared that to the Dees. We went in banged up, literally half the team was carrying an injury, we tried to play all players through their niggles. Geelong on the other hand rested their older and niggled players over the season and had them all fully fit for finals. Not managing our players and playing too many injured players cost us a Premiership (in my view). As such I expect Melbourne to rest players in the final month as they have during the season (eg Hibbert). My view is we must rest Gawn. He has been unbelievable for 3 weeks; we want him playing like this in finals he is pushing 32yo he needs to be rested particularly since we have Grundy ready to go. I expect Sparrow to be brought back in, a bit of a lottery who goes out for him and I expect Grundy for Gawn. Not sure what to make of Hibbert, I would have brought him in for Dusty when forward last week. In the end our rookie Juddy struggled on a sublime Dusty. Perhaps moving forward Hibbert is a match-up player. In saying that Juddy does not get dropped. There will be players that have niggles that we are unaware of. Don't be surprised to see some unexpected "managed" outs particularly against North and Hawks. I get the argument about flirting with form, I just think this is a risk that the match committee are happy to take to get our boys full fit for finals.

There were numerous tiger fans around us. There was little banter during the game, and all were well behaved. That is until I started waving them goodbye when we got 4 goals up late in the last. A bunch of tiger supporters took offence at this. One said I was setting a bad example for my kids 11yo and 13yo. My 13yo son stood up and said "What are you talking about, it was your lot that taught me all my sware words when I was 6yo. We have put up with Tiger arrogance for years". At that the man stood up, told me I was ad disgrace and left. They took that loss hard.

An extraordinary career, but became a dirty player as he became older. I am still getting over the corky he gave Trac in the Qualifying Final last year. Effectively ended our season. Trac had to play through a deep corky in both finals, lost his explosive speed. In my opinion Buddy purposely went for the injury.

We certainly have an incredible hand in the draft this year. We can either: trade our early picks for established marquee player/s pick swap up the draft to secure Harley Reid use the draft to pick up a suite of young talent ensuring a strong list for a decade trade some of our early picks for developing players and leave some for the draft. On top of this is the Grundy question which comes into the equasion. The question is whether our focus is on trying to increase our odds of premierships in the next couple of years or develop a list that will continue to be rejuvenated beyond the current list maintaining success post Gawn. The aim; regular top four finishes for a decade or more with an occasional flag. Think Geelong. Our list is middle aged, Gawn at 31 will start to tire in the next year or two and Track and Oliver are at the peak of their powers. Viney is having a career best season at 28yo (My god he has been unbelievable). Regardless we need to pick-up another young gun midfielder in the next year or two if we are going to try do a Geelong. Then again we could go for immediate Premierships. If so the temptation of trading for McKay if he comes available is massive. He is the missing piece of our puzzle now that Brown is in quick decline. I am not sure where our salary cap is at but we could easily trade Grundy to free up cap space if required. My only concern with McKay is he gets the yips far too often. This is in his head. Could Chocko fix this? Regardless, if we picked up McKay we would go into next season as Flag favourites regardless on how this season pans out. I am not sure what is best for us, long term success builds culture and power, but Premierships is what we play for. Whatever the case we do have a mighty hand. This year's trade and draft period will be pivotal to our short- and medium-term premiership hopes.

More likely Port for a trade with Mitch Georgiades.

I know we are all disappointed, but we did not play that badly. We one every statistic (most easily) except "GOALS". We have played in the wet 4 of the last 5, been in winning positions in every game but have lost due ONLY to poor goal kicking. This will turn, some dry weather footy under the roof on Saturday night will be welcomed by the team. Interestingly our only win in the last month was our only dry game. Collingwood. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Tomlinson to play back Petty to play forward Rooey to replace Brown. In: Rooey, Tomlinson Out: Frita, Brown

The club is flirting with Mitch Georgiades

I honestly don't know if we could fit him into our 23. A shadow of the player he was. Too banged up, too old. There is no way our FD will even bring up the discussion internally.

This is absolutely correct. I spoke to a Board member after the Essendon victory very early in the season last year. He essentially told me Jackson was likely gone. Last week spoke to the same Board member about Pickett. The Board, and the greater MFC don't see him leaving. Pickett nor his manager have ever expressed a consideration to leaving....... to the contrary. This was not the experience with Luke whose mum put enormous pressure on to return to Fremantle. Expect a new contract to be signed by Pickett in the first half of the season.

Assuming an ok run with injuries we should win it this year. Never in our lives have or will we be in a stronger position to win the flag (pre season). The demographics of our top 28 players is at its absolute peak. The sheer talent is the strongest in my lifetime and arguably up there with the best teams in the history of the game. 4 genuine superstars (including Grundy) backed up by a plethora of A graders. Our list is the envy of the league. The pass mark this year is a Premiership!!!