Dr. Gonzo

I disagree. Josh Caddy is another who last year wouldn't even talk to us.

Haha you and me both mate people couldn't believe I could consider tradin one of our "A-graders". It's a good decision by the club but I can't really see anyone bailing us out on this one.

Would be a decent replacement for Betts I would have thought.

Taylor Adams says you're wrong.

I would be very very happy if I was a North supporter with these appointments. They should be looking at top 6 next year and pushing for top 4, very unlucky this year with so many close results going against them - it won't happen two years in a row.

It's a pretty well founded assessment considering we've only played in 2 GF's in 50 years and been demolished in both.

I don't mind the front/back ending of contracts and think it's a pretty clever strategy. The problem I was trying to convey in the OP was more about how we could possibly meet the minimum cap requirements next year considering the make-up of our list (a couple of highly paid players and a whole lot of rookies/unproven young players). Especially considering you would assume some contracts have already been heavily front-ended (Clark & Dawes for starters) I just can't see how 1) we don't have stupid money to throw at out of contract players to entice them across and 2) we can restructure the contracts further to meet the minimum cap. I like Undeeterred's suggestion above that would "deter" clubs from hoarding their cap space so they don't lose millions of dollars but allow them to pay their list it's true value. There would have to be some kinks ironed out but overall I think it's smarter than saying Melbourne has to pay it's list roughly the same as Hawthorn, Freo, Geelong and Sydney. I was discussing this with my cousin the other day and specifically around the front/back ending of contracts. He said it's a good idea in theory but it's been discussed by Bill Simmons on his BS Report podcast before in regards to NBA teams mainly I think and the problem with it is that clubs create all this future cap space and then are unable to lure any "big money" players across - they then have to spend that cap anyway and end up overpaying average to above average players more money than they're worth. I think we may have done this with Dawes and fear it could become an issue for us in the next few years. In a way I don't mind it though as it is kind of contradicted by my earlier point about throwing stupid money at players just to be able to entice them to the club. If we have to overpay players to come here then it could be worth it if we are successful in luring them - think of it as a "signing on" bonus.

On a related issue I also think its time the AFL began disclosing the figures on players contracts. The list management/salary cap side of footy is a huge issue these days and we as members/shareholders have the right to know how our clubs are investing the money and how they are managing their contracts (front/back ending them).

I agree but there has to be a happy medium. You don't want to see clubs paying only 75% of the cap and getting smashed every week just so they can pocket the extra couple of million and turn a profit/break even.

2 good gets by the Kangas, they are going about rebuilding their club extremely well over the last few years. I'm disappointed we couldn't land Walsh, I have no confidence in Mahoney at all despite the praise he has gotten recently. Tudor I'm neither here nor there on, probably would have been a good assistant but not sure if I'd want him as head coach moving forward. Would be interested to know if we made a play for these two though.

Yeah so could everyone else - including Freo or WCE... And on the "A-Grade mid" I'd love to be proven wrong, but I just don't see it - at all.

That's the whole question though - who? Who can we convince to come to the Demons, no one wants to come. We've freed up space for FA and to "build a war chest" and have been front-ending contracts to create space but we've got all this money to wave around and no one wants to take it it seems.

I agree with your first part BH but not so much your second. Sewell is very good at the bottom of the packs and can be pretty creative with his use of the ball. He would easily be a best 22 player for us next year the question is really how long would he last?

Of course the big clubs will suck up all the talent through FA, to think otherwise is severely delusional. No decent players want to leave their clubs to play in front of 15K people and lose by 10 goals every week to see out their careers. They will either leave for a chance at a flag or move from one contender to another for better coin. The smaller/poorer clubs may attract some B-graders through FA by overpaying for them but any high grade player is only going to move to a big club which will see the smaller clubs lose out in the long run. The salary cap doesn't mean anything if 1) big clubs are allowed to have 3rd party deals and 2) no one wants to play for your club anyway because they are perceived as poor in every facet of the word.

No [censored] sherlock! Hahahahaha - you've only just come to this realisation now?

If Tapscott is on more than $250K then that helps explain why we are so crap.

Usually clubs face salary cap issues when trying to fit in all their players under the cap and resort to 3rd party deals or brown paper bags to try and cover the difference. I think next year MFC will face a salary cap squeeze of a different sort; I just cannot fathom how we will possibly meet the 95% minimum cap requirements. Davey and Sylvia are out the door, so you would assume there is close to $1M in cap room there - or close to 10%. At a guess I would break down our players into the following brackets (guesses in parentheses); >$401K - Clark ($600-$800K), Dawes ($450-$600K), Frawley ($500K), N. Jones ($500K) = roughly $2.4M $250-$400K - Watts ($400K), Trengove ($400K), Dunn ($280K), Garland ($350K), Grimes ($350K), Howe ($350K), Jamar ($350K), Tapscott ($300K) = roughly $2.8M $150K-$249K - Byrnes, McKenzie, Blease, Strauss, Pedersen, McDonald, Nicholson, Gawn = roughly $1.6M <$149K - Toumpas, Viney, Evans, Kent, Barry, Jetta, Spencer, Taggert, Bail, M. Jones, Terlich, Fitzpatrick = roughly $1.2M Rookie - Magner, Stark, Clisby = roughly $200K These guesses equate to about $8.2M - add in about 8 new players on minimum contracts (maybe one or two like Cross on higher contracts) and that's another roughly $800K so $9M. Granted I'm probably off with some of those but I think it's a pretty fair assessment. Next year the salary cap is about $10-$11M if I'm not mistaken and I struggle to see us getting any massive recruits who will eat up a large chunk of our cap, so you can add about 8 or so more "minimum wage" rookies on there. I know we can restructure contracts to front and back-end them but seriously, how in god's name are we going to meet the minimum cap requirements considering we've probably already front-ended a lot of these over the last few years anyway? We really need to throw stupid money around at mid-level players to not only entice them to the club but also to try and meet our minimum cap requirements. Everyone thought it was an issue that we couldn't pay 100% of the cap but I think the real issue is we don't have the cattle to justify paying 95% of the cap. What do you guys think? Maybe I'm way off with my figures and structuring of contracts, but surely we should have a big chunk of cap room to throw at an senior midfielder something which appears we either aren't doing or can't do. If anyone wants to correct my guesses please go at it and I can edit the OP to reflect it.

I agree, the whole "Senior Assistant/handover" thing left a sour taste in my mouth when Roos was signed. Add to that Peter Jackson only signed on for 6 months initially and then extended to the end of next year. No permanency there either. We need to build a solid base for the future of the footy club and it may be difficult when two fo the four pillars won't commit long-term.

He is far better than Byrnes.

Initially I'm thinking no but would be some good protection in the middle for our kids coming through. Can't throw them all to the wolves at once. Of course there is the small matter of convincing him to come to MFC.

Yeah Croad & McPharlin for picks 1, 20 & 36 according to wiki.

Big bodies should be our mantra at this draft. We need a Wines or Rich who can impact straoght away even if their ceiling may not be as high as someone like Aish.

Freo traded pick 1 for McPharlin also.

Chapman would offer us nothing at the stage we are in (below rock bottom) - he would add something to a side in the 6-12 position looking to make the jump to top 4 (Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, North even Port). No point going after Chapman at this stage of our respective developments he won't add anything to our list.

He was traded for pick 3 AND Josh Kennedy (former pick 4?) but only AFTER he had already told WCE he was leaving and had an agreement to join Carlton.