bing181

Just ridiculous. It was about the role. Also because the writing was on the wall and he knew he was gradually being squeezed out of the team at Hawthorn. Wouldn't have taken much to turn his head. "When King and Lamb pitched the move to Jiath at Connors Sports Management, the role was central to the sell. It's what turned his head. Hawthorn is stacked with rebounding run: Karl Amon, Jarman Impey, Josh Weddle and Massimo D'Ambrosio. Melbourne isn't. "They came into the office and said we would love to play you there, where you want to play. I felt the role I was playing at Hawthorn was awesome, but I needed this to get the most out of myself. That was the key reason to move to Melbourne." As for "Our drafting from other clubs has been hopeless after we got Lever, May and Langdon." CJ wasn't drafted. Nor were Lever, May or Langdon. They were traded. It was our drafting post Lever/May that got us players like Jackson, Pickett, Bowie, Rivers, JVR, Langford, Lindsay etc.

On-field maybe. But off-field ... Nothing could be clearer than that we wanted him gone, whatever the cost.

And will be hard to make that up. He may get in required levels of fitness, and even play some games - but difficult to see him making it through the whole season. Still, will be interesting watching his development.

It's irrelevant whether he was playing well or not, whether he'll ever get back to his stellar best or not, whether he could still play primarily mid or not. None of that is why he was shown the door.

Yes, wanted so much to keep him that he didn't even have a meeting with him. The club, including King, went through the motions - at least in public.

Not talking about the draft though are we. We're talking about an experienced player with B&F's, AA's, Coaches Awards, a premiership, you name it ... that no-one wanted to touch with a bargepole, even with us paying half his salary. You'd wonder if even GWS would have taken him had they not desperately needed cover for an injured Josh Kelly. While the wider public and blinkered supporters might be blissfully unaware as to what's really gone on behind the scenes with Oliver, the other clubs know only too well.

Hyperbole much? You also left out the bit where he could walk on water.

Sure, but we’ve now got a lot of younger players carrying senior-player responsibilities, or expected to in the near future. Apart from the outliers (Daicos, Ashcroft), most young players take four to five seasons — and pre-seasons — before they really hit their straps and start seriously impacting games. No amount of work on the transition game is going to turn JVR, Kentfield or Jefferson into 50-goal-a-year forwards overnight. Over the next couple of seasons we’re going to lose (or come close to losing) Max, May, Viney, McDonald, Melksham, and perhaps/probably Lever, plus the new boys Steele and Mihocek. At the moment, there’s no-one even close to filling those shoes. Still, as always, we live in hope.

Suspect it will take longer than a year. Though with the emphasis on rebuilding around younger players, I personally think we're looking at 5 or 6 years before we're seriously contending again.

I wouldn't count on it. (But who knows ...)

I suspect that Dezi Freeman can.

We're actually paying him to play elsewhere. Maybe think about what kind of situation you would need for such an outcome.

Interesting that we took him while Ollie Greeves was still available.

Going on the injury reports, could be a while before we see him.

Only boggles the mind if you take a superficial view Add Johnson to your KPFs, Mihocek will be there for your couple of years, and we have White arriving. Not sure how many key forwards you think we should have? For the rest, we need small forwards, though adding them also frees up Kozzie for more on ball time, just as adding defenders frees up the likes of Rivers, Windsor and Lindsay to play more mid.

Matthews plus Pickett puts pressure on Mentha, Henderson, McAdam, even Chandler.

Apart from anything else, it shows how much more homework clubs and recruiting teams do on draftees than random or not-so-random track watchers.

Can take a mark it seems: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_ZzdfovObC/

Charlie Spargo replacement ...

Tom Matthews (Gippsland Power, small forward) The athletic forward was lauded for an enormous pre-season and a big start to 2025 earned him selection in the Vic Country squad at the U18s National Championships. Remarkably, though, he did all that with a PCL knee injury, suffered early in 2025 which meant he hardly trained, working hard just to get himself on the park on Saturdays. Eventually, the injury worsened and he featured in only half a game after early game - a wildcard round final for Gippsland where he showed his point-of-difference - forward 50 pressure - on a treacherous day for footy. The stymied year was highlighted by a four gaul outing in a Vic Country trial game against the Young Guns in May. Draft range: Late-rookie https://www.zerohanger.com/out-of-sight-out-of-mind-nine-injured-prospects-on-afl-draft-radar-170173/

I suspect it's because of the evenness of the draftees after the first couple and outside of the Academy and F/S picks. And given that evenness, that clubs are drafting for need.

Does it matter if he was, at least in part? Both will benefit, and as such, the club will benefit.

Yes, especially noticeable when all the male presenters have such perfect elocution.

Especially as that has never ever happened in the past.

Plenty of unknowns in all that. Henderson with a full pre-season under his belt and a different game plan, McAdam over his injuries and with his head in the right place, Mentha with a year in the system? Dovaston isn't Watson, and Pickett isn't Pickett, though hard to see either of those aligning with our current picks in any case. Dovaston tested really well, so could be a player, though not sure if it'll be for us.