Pates

Jay Clark reported after the football tonight that he's likely to be heading to Melbourne. I'll be fairly happy about that, premiership player with experience. He's also a free agent (not sure if he's restricted or not)

Very good point, he hasn't developed a list before so it would've been new territory for him.

Cook has shown he can take a grab but beyond that not much today. And what is with the game plan today, no where near what they should be doing given the conditions and abilities surely. They've gifted Willy two goals by going backwards.

I would be staggered if that was the case, Neeld loves Trengove there is zero chance in my mind that this went down, especially since Neeld appears to be the sort of person that wouldn't take that kind of interference.

I see that you've included Watts, I think he can be a forward option but I hope to see him played mainly on the wing. Of those guys, I'd be happy us taking a punt on Gumbleton.

Not what 80% of people were saying on this board in 2011. It was there last year, he can regain it.

Hi KC, I'm wanting to take public transport in and out (might have to leave early) is there a shuttle bus that runs to and from the station and Casey feilds at all?

The only change I can possibly see is Grimes being made full captain and Trenners VC, perhaps Jones Co-VC. Grimes has had an excellent second half of the year, remembering how much footy he has missed its not surprising he started slowly. I expect he'll finish 2nd to Jones in the B&F.

I'm happy for Neeld to be given license to move on the players he wants to, but I hope we hold on to Gysberts. As Gonzo said above, he's had a very difficult year injury wise and has a truckload of talent. Blease has been able to turn things around, I really hope we give Gysberts a chance too. That said, I still back what Neeld is trying to do.

With the loss of Green and Beamer, I feel it's very important to hold on to Rivers. He was playing some excellent football early on in the year and was moved forward because we had no one else, that said I feel the move lasted too long. He IS a defender, IMO a good defender, and is a much better defender than Watts (who should move out of there next year). I hope he stays, he has good aggression and desire.

Clark bought Neeld's sales pitch, hopefully he can convince others as well. As stated above, money talks pretty well also.

If we have the same success as he did with World Series Cricket we'll be doing pretty well!

Ok I understand people being critical of Mark, but this sort of talk is pointless. It's not going to happen, he will be here for a minimum of one more year (and honestly unless we have a worse 2013 than 2012 I think he'll be given the full term). Be critical, but what is the point of bleeting about something that's not going to happen? On topic, sad to see Brent go, he's been a favourite player of mine since he came to the club but we are building our culture and style from the ground up if he really was dedicated to the MFC he would be willing to buy in to it. He's had a poor year, last year he was good against soft opposition and soft against good opposition, that is not what we want going forward. I genuinely wish him the best of luck, he has been a good player for us over the journey and I wouldbe happy for him if he finds himself at a club that will give him finals success.

When she said that I ask myself, and when did Ratten get questioned about tanking at his press conference? If she's so all over tanking why didn't she ask the question?

There seems to be a few feelings on this thread that I feel are misguided. One is the "he screwed us so lets screw him" mentality. Whereby if he nominates for the PSD we should pick him up to prevent him from playing next year for anyone but us. The one thing that feel we can say about this whole experience is that we as a club have aquitted ourselves very well, we have given him support that goes above and beyond (something I feel the media isn't recognising enough). If we go down this route that we turn into a disgraceful club that has no regard for Liam's future. If he wants to go, we let him go. Why waste the pick on someone who doesn't want to be here? The other common issue in this thread is the hate levelled at Davey. I am sick of him being treated by the supporters with such anger, it was only 2-3 years ago he was our best player and was given all the love and praise for what he was doing with our indigenous players. Liam's decision to leave, and the situation that has brought him to this is of his doing. Nothing to do with Flash. Leave the guy alone. Unlike Liam, he WILL be a Melbourne player next year, support him. One more point, I am still annoyed by what has happened, more to do with how we have heard nothing from the Jurrah camp. Bruce has talked about why he's chosen to go to Adelaide and pursue playing there, but how about showing some graditude for everything we've done for him. Leave us with something, but the silence is deafening.

This is a very hard pill to swallow. I was really holding out hope that I would see him in a Mebourne jumper again, obviously that hope was misplaced. What really cuts at me is how we have been used as a support network for his legal battle, but have got nothing but disrespect back in return. We deserved better. I get that he's going through a lot at the moment, but if his focus is truly on his case and getting his life back on track than footy shouldn't be on his radar, Adelaide or not. The thing that really stings is the idea that this happened with us giving him our blessing to go home, then we give him massive support with his case, while he is injured with us paying for rehab, only for him to up and leave. I want to let him go with a "good luck and all the best", but I just don't think I can at the moment.

The part of that article I really liked was the bit about Blease being challenged by Neeld and him accepting, and then them having a laugh about it after he beat the challenge. It shows that while Mark has come in with a bit of an old school [censored] 'em and get them fit mantra, he does have time to be a like able coach. It may be a puff piece, but this shows me the culture is heading in the right direction.

I really hope we keep Gysberts, I understand attitude and fitness have been said to be problems. But how can we be sure of what he's capable of after the year he's had with injuries? He's still young, he knows how to get the ball (when fit), I will be super [censored] if we see him go given that he's what we got for McLean.

I would say mostly it's easier to improve skill and decision making, we always hear that all fans want is for the team to have a good hard crack at it but there are some that simply don't have that desire no matter how skillful they are.

Jeez felt sorry for Bennell but not Bartram? Clint has twice the desire of Jamie and our best small defender. I reckon we might keep him on out of the off chance his hail Mary surgery comes off. Otherwise I'd agree with most of your choices and idea, we need to cut ties with the last 5 years.

I feel no anger or sadness at the end of this year, just relief. We have been to hell and back again, and then gone to a worse kind of hell. But I truly believe the worst is behind us (surely not that hard). I'm looking forward to a clean out and us chasing some players like we did with Clark, I'm looking forward to pre-season no. 2 with the Neeld/Craig double act, and I'm looking forward to see some more speckies from Jumping Jeremy! (Also looking forward to him getting the car for his one man show in Sydney) Can't see the positive? Feel free to jump on someone else's bandwagon.

Wasn't all that long ago everyone thought Jones was a battler and nothing more. Jordie I have no issue with us giving him 3 years, I think he can develop into a tagger that can extract the ball and hopefully develop his kicking. Jamar I'm not as comfortable about. I like the idea of us treating older players with respect and wanting him to stay at the club post-career but I think he would've been happy with two years, and I think that would've been fair. It wouldn't surprise me if he retires before his 3rd year, injuries are already taking their toll.

There's zero doubt in my mind he was robbed that year, from memory didn't they used to give a car to keep back then? Better than any mark I have seen by a Melbourne player since (although I expect Howie to give it a run). It's always saddened me that he left, I think we missed out on having a genuine career superstar there. His move back home made him half the footballer he was at the Dees. I hope if his son does get good enough to be an AFL player that he chooses us.

Right I thought the "matching" of an offer was similar to the father/son bidding, where if you win the bid you have to keep him. In that case I wouldn't be against us matching the offer to try to trade him.

We don't want players that don't want to be here, he'd play the year with a chip on his shoulder and we'd gain nothing. Unless your suggesting we sign him then trade him this year, which clubs aren't allowed to do.