Adam The God

Houston and Trac are repped by Connors Sports, so I think it's more likely we said to them and Port that we won't be offering up a first or future first anymore, so we won't be able to get the deal done. I don't blame Trac for Houston allegedly cooling, because as if a story that Tom Morris reports would have a baring on whether Houston wants to come or not. Not to mention that they would have been well aware of the issues at Melbourne prior to the last week. Houston was supposedly on board with us in July. It's much more likely Connors are pushing all this.

We risk derailing this thread, but anyone that thinks playing this out through the media via his management was the right play and won't be corrosive with the playing group, has rocks in their head. There are problems, but if you're a leader, you have the conversations internally and demand change internally. If Trac were a team mate of mine and I was in the leadership group, I'd be having some pretty strong conversations with him.

Agreed, but I wish we'd tried Max behind the ball and Grundy in the ruck. We obviously thought it would wreak havoc with our defensive system and leave us vulnerable at ground level if Max were to play anchor. Anyway, as you write, we move on.

The huge mistake Hawthorn made was miscalculating the value of their leaders, and trading them out. By trading Lewis and Mitchell in the same off season and Hodge the year later, they decimated their leadership stocks, which IMO has seen them bottom out for too long. Compare this with Geelong, whilst not completely apt given their geographical and lifestyle advantages, their players have been allowed to play on until the very ends of their careers. This has meant standards have been maintained and leadership knowledge and know how has been passed on to the next generation of leaders in the club. We had a void of leaders when our current senior players were coming up through the ranks. Now we have them, we need to follow Geelong's model. We've already lost Gus who continues to be described as the glue that made everyone around him better, we don't want to follow this up with the loss of another leader. It's why I'd be re-signing TMac and Melksham for another year, so that around Max, Lever, May and Viney, we have a senior leadership core that can continue to mentor the emerging leaders like JVR and Rivers, and hold our players who might not be meeting required Melbourne standards, to account. I'm disappointed that this Trac stuff has come out, because I think a real leader would have made sure this stayed internal, and forced change from within. Having to resort to such public spillages may put pressure on the FD, but I think massively undermines Trac's leadership and ability to lead from now on. But that's an aside. The main point I'm making here is we need to ensure our best leaders stay, and if the FD and leadership group deem certain players are not demonstrating elite standards, they should be traded. If there's one thing you could never knock Jack Viney about it would be elite standards.

Haha, it's quite an aggressive thread title. It feels like that Simpsons episode where Tom Jones is chained to the floor and made to perform for Marge.

A Melbourne supporter's time to shine!

It might help if the midfield is half decent.

Lever for mine now...

I wouldn't mind Melksham as a forward coach. But I think he plays on one more year at least.

I'd expect this trade is still on. Alternatively, however, if an in principle deal was struck where we said at, say, the half way mark of the season, we'd give up our first rounder or even our future first rounder for him, and now the season has panned out how it has, you could see why our FD could have got cold feet. And with cold feet, told Dan sorry mate, we're going to take our two first rounders to the draft this year. If this happened, what would Houston's management do if he wanted out of SA? They'd spin it that he'd got cold feet at Melbourne's on/off field situation and apparent internal disharmony. This gives him an out to save face and we cop it, because we essentially reneged on a deal. Nick Gieschen at Connors Sports reps Houston, which adds a bit of spice to all this. I'd say more coincidence than them being [censored] off with reneging on the Houston deal and a [censored] off Trac though.

I wouldn't be ruling out Houston just yet...

They manufacture your consent pretty easily don't they?

I agree, it's more likely it'll take trading one of our players to get another pick in the top 10.

I don't know if it's just his number 5, but O'Sullivan reminds me of a less explosive Trac, but still nimble with good vision and smarts. I agree, I'd definitely have Langford ahead of him. I'd be happy with either Langford or Lalor. Wouldn't be disappointed with Draper either. If we could somehow nab two of these guys, particularly the first two, Lalor could play forward, and Langford at half back and in the mid rotation. I want Houston as well, so we're likely to swallow our future first with a trade for him, but if we can use Nibbler and a future second for Houston, and trade our future first into this year's first round, getting Langford and Lalor would mean our midfield under 22 would be set for the next decade, with Rivers, McVee and Windsor. It'd then just be about filling holes in that 25-27 list demo over the next 2-3 years.

Wow, okay, huge coup for them.

If he hadn't already been with us, I'd say Jennings, but he's obviously at GWS. Leppitsch would be a great get given he's strategy at Collingwood. That would be some good offensive IP. Or conversely, we move McQualter into this role and bring in a new midfield coach. McQualter's Richmond IP would still be massively helpful.

I completely agree. I wonder if we could get a ball movement coach who doubles as a strategy coach.

Factually not true though that Goody doesn't change things. He started as an extremely attacking coach and has reverted to defence, and won a flag and had 3 top 4 finishes. It'll be hard to move away from that, but maybe a lowly finish like 2024 will shift the dial towards more attack.

That's true, but Charlie is an elite kick and user. Swings and round abouts.

When you lose certain players, it can force you into changing game style and method, which Nibbler's departure may do.

Nibbler has been better at it but many more pre seasons on Charlie. Charlie was playing wing and high half forward all through 2022, so has good endurance.

Great post mate. I know this is a thread about Nibbler, but for me it's Spargo. Was basically playing the other flank with Nibbler, now Chandler has played that this season. It means Spargo and Chandler both get spots. Spargo is one of our better kicks too.

Losing the leadership of Gus and now ANB will be huge. A vacuum will need to be filled.

Gutted to be losing Nibbler,but that certainly gives us something to offer Port for Houston.

I know haha.