Dr. Gonzo

Exactly - there would have been an easy way to make this particular rule air tight. All you would have to state is that these mini draft picks must be bid for. Once the bidding has concluded these picks must be used by the club that won them and cannot be used as part of a subsequent trade (or on-traded). Fairly simple and still allows GWS to be able to trade them for picks if that's what they would prefer rather than players. The AFL deliberately writes their rules as loose as possible so that they can manipulate the interpretation to their advantage as circumstances require.

Don't think they HAVE to trade these mini-draft picks. It is just another option for them to help build their list. If they don't want to or don't get enough for them they can choose to use all 4, 1 or none.

I just wrote a post which was deleted in response so this is a truncated version. If GWS don't trade any MD picks they leave O'Meara & Crouch available for next year. Now even if GWS don't get pick 1 next year they will still benefit as the player that would've gone pick 1 (Whitfield?) will then be available for them at pick 2 or 3 if the team with pick 1 (Port or GC?) chooses O'Meara or Crouch. They may be willing to forego pick 4 this year in a weak draft (and one in which they have a monopoly any way) to all but ensure they get one of O'Meara, Crouch or Whitfield (or whoever the number 1 player is come next draft) next year. A bit Machiavellian but that is what these guys (Sheedy, Allen, Williams) are renowned for.

As you said Scully makes one - Warnock wants out and we're happy to oblige, that's two. I could easily see Wonna being delisted and then picked up as a rookie. Bate wants to go and it looks like we'll be happy to accommodate if an offer can be made. That's 4 spots and probably enough for this year. We can upgrade Nicholson to the senior list leaving 3 more spots being pick 12, 36 (or whatever our second pick is) and maybe get a player in for Bate or Warnock (Lisle?). That's probably all I'd do for now given the shallow draft pool and given there's no other rookies I'd be too keen to upgrade (possibly Evans?) unless there's another player they have in mind for a trade. Question - does anyone know if we happen to land Crouch (or O'Meara however unlikely) do they take a spot on our senior list next year? Or do they come on for the 2013 season?

Think you've got this wrong - no matter who we trade the pick to it still comes after OUR pick in whichever draft it is used in - so for instance we trade the comp pick after our first round pick to GWS and we have pick 12 next year they get pick 13.

Pretty sure they go for a couple of hundred dollars each - there's a card shop near the Vic market I go to sometimes if I'm down that way (Card Zone?) My sets only go back to the late 80's but it's always interesting to see what some people will pay for them.

Agree those offers would appear to be severe unders.

Yeah I think BoM would be good as I could see us being able to form a long-standing partnership with them, similar to Sydney & QBE and WCE and is it SGIO? Kia would probably be a big windfall but we may get greater longevity from BoM. Either way it is a long way from where we were a couple of years ago where we were without a sponsor just weeks before the start of the season. This board has done tremendous things for our club over the last few years, let's hope the players and FD can translate that to some on-field success very soon.

Murmurings on these and other boards (Demonology & Big Footy) were that BoM was going to be the sponsor but we were going to go with Kia as the money was better. However recent other mutterings have linked Kia to Essendon so you can assume that either Essendon pipped us as the Dogs did with Mission Foods a couple of years ago or BoM upped their offer. Either way it seems the offer will be substantial and together with the Energy Watch sponsorship should be a great windfall for the club. Here's hoping.

Pretty sure Collingwood do this with their memberships but there is different cards for different levels of membership. May not just be current players though. I think its a good idea, the footy cards around these days are way too expensive for kids to collect (~$5 a pack - when I started collecting them they were around ~40 cents a pack and you got a piece of chewy lol).

What sort of connection do you need and how much bandwidth does it chew through per game are also questions that need to be answered. If you have to get BigPond Cable to be able to watch a game in decent quality you will go through your monthly allowance in half a game.

Think you may have misunderstood WJ. Trades for the mini-draft will be finalised by the Thursday and trade week extends to Monday.

Yeah that or he was still contracted (unsure about this).

15 seconds? That's Bushwhacker territory!

At least $600K-$700K Exactly right, how could they fit in Goddard with guys like Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer, Walker eating up their salary cap? I call shenanigans!

Yep we owe them one for Thompson but I won't hold my breath at this stage. Also huge laugh's to those who think any other club would do us the favour of taking Bate, Dunn or Maric of us for anything better than a late 3rd round pick. Would you accept pick 12 and 2 or 3 borderline duds for Trengove or even Sylvia or Jones?

Surely if its about the coin GWS would beat us hands down.

I'd say it may also have something to do with the amount of cash we have to throw around. I would assume rookie coaches out of the TAC system would cost a fair chunk less than guys like Gary Ayres or Blake Caracella. It may have been one of the caveats that yes we will provide you with as many guys as you require but there's only so much cash to throw around at this stage. Not saying its only this but I think this would be a factor.

Not unhappy with the appointment but thought he might have been one of the "assistant" line coaches rather than the forward line coach. The guy wasn't the most skilled or fittest player but eked out a very respectable career including a flag last year. You would expect this shows that he must have some level of footy IQ and no doubt Neeld will be well acquanted with him. Great also considering some posters indicating he was likely to head north (GWS? Brisbane?) meaning we may have pinched another of our FD from under the noses of another club.

And my view as well. What also needs to be taken into account is the fact that investing in the club/FD will hopefully win us that elusive flag (or flags) which will in turn reap it's own financial rewards through prize money, merchandise sales, sponsorship, membership, attendances etc. Also some (all?) of the increase in FD spending is covered by the recent injection of cash from the AFL which is specifically ear-marked in our case for spending on football operations. The AFL has told clubs what this additional money must be spent on and for us it is mainly the FD - other clubs like North were told they need to use it to pay off their debt and invest in off-field resources such as marketing and investing in strategies to increase membership and attendances and break into the western metropolitan region. I'm not sure how much this will cover but it gives us some scope to significantly increase our FD spending to be able to compete with the elite clubs without having to worry about blowing out the bank balance.

Is this even a question? Any true Vicotrian, nay Australian, is going for the Cats. Can you imagine the rubbish we would have to put up with if the Pies not only went back-to-back but at the same time equalled Carlton and Essendon on 16 flags? Makes me sick even thinking about it. And for the guy who talked about the Cats being the umpires pets and whinging for free kicks - Collingwood are the AFL pets and whinge for EVERYTHING!!!

Hopefully once Norm is resurrected at the G in the parade of champions next year and welcomed back home the curse will be lifted. Would love for the Pies to be handed the curse but even with being reigning premiers and pinching one in 1990, I'd hope our next 50 years is more successful than their last 50 years let alone ours.

Are you serious mate? Yes I uunderstand where you're coming from but geez the club can't win with some of you blokes. The club needs to roll the dice and back themselves to get some success and hope that leads to generating greater income. It's on the supporters as well to buy memberships, turn up to home games, back the club and get others along to games or convince lapsed members to sign up again. Pay extra for a reserved seat membership, by some merchandise from the Demon Shop, whatever but you can't expect to compete with Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, West Coast, Adelaide, Carlton & Essendon if the club and supporters aren't willing to do their part as well.

Intensity was unbelievable especially from the Hawks and Mitchell, Lewis and Sewell in particular. Neeld should sit our boys down and make them watch that from start to finish before the pre-season starts so they know what level of intensity and gut-running is required to be the best.

No mention yet of Mahoney & Choco Royal? Hopefully they're next out the door.