Adam The God

You don't nominate a club unless that club has given you various assurances that a trade can and will be done. Remember, we've been pretty clear all the way along here that if Trac wants to go, it's up to his management to find a deal that satisfies Melbourne. That would be two pronged: 1) that whichever club Trac nominates will pick up his entire salary and 2) that the club has something valuable it can give to satisfy Melbourne. A handy small forward who's played 18 games in two years (Rogers) and wants to leave because he can't crack into their best 22 permanently and a first rounder is not going to do it. And the Suns are unlikely to go into a huge points deficit to match bids on their academy players because they've traded picks 6 and 7 for Trac. This leaves the Suns in a position where they hope to get a deal done for Trac with mere picks, but simply can't. We're not interested in this draft. They need to come up with an appropriate trade. That trade is Humphrey, a Victorian boy is who out the door in 3 years anyway, and already meeting with Victorian clubs. We are the only Victorian club that has the capital to get the deal done, and with Trac (and likely Clarry going) we have ample salary cap to splash here. I am increasingly confident that Humphrey will be a Melbourne player and have solace that Trac will be otherwise. Win, win.

Sitting back and hoping we don't land Humphrey so you can watch some fans on a forum melt is pretty funny.

And we say, back you come, Trac, and the Suns' look horrible to market. King wants to coach Trac remember. And the Suns need a marketable asset up there. Trac would be their first landing since Ablett. If they don't get the deal done, what's that say to the next opposition player they're courting in a trade? That player would have every right to ask, if I nominate you as my trade destination, will you actually get the deal done? The league doesn't work in a vacuum and all these managers talk. The Suns would be a laughing stock. Melbourne needs to hold their nerve and keep pushing Humphrey to request a trade.

But Suns don't get Trac.

It's about who can get the deal done. Hawthorn aren't in the conversation.

Yep, agreed, that's what I meant about being the main man in there

Sure, we're looking to offload two stars of the game (formerly super stars), but given the Suns' midfield and our emerging midfield, I think we'd be an enticing prospect to Humphrey. Playing next to Kozzy, Langford, Lindsay, Windsor and Bowey, but being the main man in there is a pretty good sell I reckon. We want to play fast, we want to be aggressive, we've still got the best ruckman in the league, along with some hardener premiership players in Viney, Salem, Langdon, Lever and Fritta. We also play our home games at the MCG and have recently won a flag. I don't think the sell is as difficult as some make out. And the biggest point is the $1.5-2mill pa he'll be unlikely to get anywhere else and certainly not at the Suns.

Jeepers, Hamill? 😬 I spent 5 minutes looking for that grimacing meme, but anyway, that's the thinking. Was at St Kilda through ordinary times and was defensive coach at Carlton, a team who couldn't defend.

My take too, but this would also be our goal. If they are to leave, it's not a firesale, we'll need to get something in return. We [censored] up the messaging on Clarry by allowing that leak to beat our press release, but Lamb's press conference yesterday went some way to reframing the situation.

King of the flip flops. And Clarry was the best player in the competition at the time. Why don't we rename this thread The Tim Lamb is s h i t thread for all the Eeyores?

You don't sound like you're trusting the process.

Lamb said today in his presser we'd take Clarry back if a deal isn’t worked through.

That's pretty good, isn't it?

My recollection of Lamb's presser was that he said both Trac and Clarry are really good players.

Also, come and be the main man might play to him nicely.

Me too. Happy for Trac to stay. But would much rather accelerate our list build with Humphrey now. Time will tell.

Utter rubbish. The rest of that sentence was "...and how we wanted our midfield to operate, where he saw Clayton fitting in with that..." Pretty important part of the messaging I would have thought.

I get it and I agree, but Humphrey is older and very likely better than any 18 year old next year. I want us to be able to attract decent FAs and trades at the end of 2026, and that means getting Humphrey in the door now.

If we land Humphrey, I don't really care how we do it. As I said above, Kozzy, Langford, Humphrey and Lindsay with Bowey in support is a mouthwatering midfield group as early as next year.

I love his no nonsense approach. I thought he answered and framed the Clarry thing well. I read on another thread from one of the perennial Eeyores that Lamb was further undermining leverage with any Clarry deal. Lamb said that "we had a really honest chat with Claz where Kingy outlined how he saw our midfield moving forward and how we wanted our midfield to operate, where he saw Clayton fitting in with that and then obviously we've seen a bit of interest in Clayton from rival clubs, so we'll see how that plays out". Then when asked whether we would contribute to any ongoing Clarry salary he said "we're not gonna talk about any details about what a deal would look like with any of our players at the moment".

The Saints haven't really underspent, you still have to pay a minimum of the cap, and now they're losing good players like Marshall, because they've overspent on players like TDK this year.

Our past experience shows we just want to get the deal done. With the Suns allegedly asking for x3 first rounders, although I've only seen that on Demonland, we may have to give up our future 1st for Humphrey. If that's what it takes to get the deal done, it's not ideal, but we're getting a young gun to build our midfield around with Kozzy, Langford and Lindsay. It's pretty exciting and the details are really minor at the end of the day if we land Humphrey.

And Flanders is the curveball here too. I think the Suns will trya and force him to Melbourne. And I hope we say it's Humphrey or Trac stays.

Nice one, Tim. Round 1 is over. Suns say Humphrey won't be traded under any circumstance. MFC say Trac is a superstar, if you want him, you need to give us the best deal. Look forward to Round 2.

Good early posturing from CC. Flanders could still well be the domino here.