Pates

Will always have the 2018 finals wins as fond memories. Wish him well, even if it is at Essendon.

The footy gods have cursed quite a few trades for Freo, here’s hoping it continues (though nothing against Jackson personally).

Can I just ask are there any out of contract next season players we can target to [censored] them right back?

While I wouldn’t like it I would accept Freo first round this year + next year F1st & F2nd. Then we pray that the footy gods give Freo their worst injury run in history next season.

I think he’s hoping to leave the club on good terms, if he doesn’t want to help us as well I’d say to him we let him walk and he can take his chances with potentially going to North. Maybe even start a rumour that North will take him in the PSD. Freo have put so much work into him that not getting him will be an embarrassment to them.

I think this is what I would be asking of Jackson as a way of upping the ante to Freo. Say to him we are wanting to get him to his preferred destination but Freo are the ones undervaluing him. If he really wants to ensure we are getting fair compensation for him the least he can do is tour WC facilities and have a sit down with them to make Freo actually move towards a fairer deal. All he needs to do it is for show, and who knows by doing it WC could actually make something happen with their pitch. I really don’t want there to be bad blood with him on this departure but if he doesn’t want that he should be willing to play the game. Otherwise he will forever have soured his time at the club. Don’t get me wrong, his third qtr in the Grand Final will go down in MFC folklore but people have short memories and how you leave a club can trump those happy memories.

Agreed, it’s one of the reasons I will struggle to have any ill feelings towards Jackson when we play him next year. He helped to break our premiership drought, as did Benny Brown. I also think that used correctly BBB has value to the team, but he is not a big pack marking forward. Could Bruce be the same? Maybe, I dunno. For a straight swap for Tommo would it be a disaster to try it?

We have made it possible when needed, they have the tools available to do it, they are choosing not to. Simple as that. I am at the point with their [censored] poor trade deals that I would say to WC fire sale on Jackson. Next years first round pick, plus this years 2nd round. He said he would go to either club, see if that was genuine or a crock of [censored].

Wow, I errrr….wow. Not sure how I feel about this, I mean he was starting to kill it for the dogs before he got injured but…is he the answer to our forward problems?

To be fair I have very little respect for any of the managers anyway, they play the game to get the best deal for their client, it’s their job. But the way they tend to conduct themselves is very much painting the players as victims in all of this when the truth is they have chosen a highly lucrative career which is country wide. High draft picks represent big investment for clubs, so when they say they want to go it sets that club back more often than not (us getting May is the most recent exception to this I can think of for us). So when the managers come out and say, “(player X) has given great service across the two years he’s been at (club Y), he just really wants to be close to his home town and desires a deal be done soon” it sounds incredibly disrespectful to the club who has drafted him, put time into his development, helped him through injuries, and helped him become the player he is. Scott Thompson is the best example of us getting royally boned by putting time into a player, then seeing them go to another club and getting set back in progress.

I wouldn’t go so far to say that’s the right thing, it’s a responsible thing to do as he was under contract. However, if he wanted to do right by the club, and he was already feeling that it was a high probability of him heading back to WA, then he would put us in a hugely better position had he pulled the trigger last year. FWIW he seems like a pretty good and simple bloke, so I’m not sure he’s got it in him at this stage of life to think that far ahead. So it would’ve been more on those around him to be advising him on what to do, I’m sure his manager would’ve been saying “hold out until you’re out of contract to maximise your return”. Did we as a club put the question strong enough to him regarding whether he wanted to stay with us long term or head home?

If he ends up at North it won’t be on a crappy salary, he nominates his rate and it’s up to the club to facilitate it. It’s how Jack Martin ended up at Carlton. Surely North of all clubs would be able to do it though, and they’d be mad not to.

It does appear that way unfortunately, he said at the start happy to go to either club but if he were true to that then he would’ve gone through the WC tour and pitch, and heard their offer. He hasn’t done that so he’s basically done it for show. I wonder how his management would react if we said we’re done with dealing with Freo, he’s going to WC. I imagine the tune would very suddenly change. He could’ve pulled the trigger last year, instead he’s waited until our bargaining position is significantly weaker. To me he and his management have put on a show of good faith dealing, rather than genuinely doing the right thing.

Is it me or does it feel like clubs are playing much more of an unders game when it comes to trading picks this year? I feel like in the past there has been at least an effort on the recruiting clubs to trade in fair practice, but this year clubs have been much more on the side of “take what we want to give you”. We’re in on it as well with Grundy tbh, although that’s a lot to do with the Piea desperation to get Grundy’s contract off their books so his value is lower.

I think what really annoys me about this situation is that there’s trading in good faith and good practice, and then there’s trading in a dirty prickish way which is what Freo are doing IMO. The money and contract they are putting in front of Jacko is not what is matching what they are offering us, and it’s twice that they have put work into a young player of ours only to low ball at the trade table. The only reason why we accepted the Hogan trade was to get May over the line and into the Red and Blue. This time they are low balling because his out of contract status gives them that upper hand but it doesn’t give them the license to not put something closer to what he’s worth. Now if they sweetened the deal with future 2nd round pick (with us giving future 3rd back) then that at least offsets the non top 10 pick but for the work they’ve put into obtaining Jackson they could’ve at least put some work into trading into the top 10 to get him.

I’d personally love to see Petty played as a forward and Tomlinson step in to fill his role. It should’ve happened late last year when we were crying out for someone to be a target in the forward line. I like Goody, but his lack of outside the box thinking until 3min to go in our season cost us big time.

It’s a fair point, again you can only hope that the club spoke with him to see what he was thinking. Now let’s keep in mind this is a very young man still working out who he is but if he had an inkling that he would want to go home it seems massive own goal on our end not to push the deal then and there. I don’t any Melbourne fans would’ve begrudged it as well as we still would’ve been riding the premiership highs.

I have been wanting this for a while, I know last year it was probably too late in the game to try it for 2022 but if Weid is staying with us and he has clearly shown he is not an AFL standard forward I think it’s time we try him as a defender/ruck and I would really like to see it free up Petty to go forward. The double advantage is that it might teach him a bit of a different game that could aid in him being a swing man. He’s not making it as a forward, it’s time to try something new.

I’m so over Freo being twats about this, they know they are getting a future superstar, possibly 200+ game legend but what they are putting up is saying “meh he’s alright”. Pull you’re F-ing fingers out and do a proper deal that’s befitting the deal they have put in front of LJ. I know this is irrational but I’m at a point where I’d rather him go to WC for nothing than end up at Freo with them being such fI0gs about it. Offer up next years 2nd rounder and I’ll take the deal, I wish (I would hope) we did some research on their list to try to find players that we could poach for this deal to happen. Is there no Melbourne born players on their list that we could get them to hand over as a deal finaliser?

Melksham turning back the clock, doing things he’d do on a regular basis in 2018. That mark at the end was absolutely ridiculous, in no way should he have marked that. Kozzy is such a special talent, haven’t seen a small forward as special as him since Flash (not being disrespectful to Jeffy and Aussie, but Kozzy is another level). As mentioned by others, the commentators were friggen awful but you could tell they wanted the story of Carlton getting into finals so stuff em!

This season aside from tactical things of forward connection being an issue, the thing that has frustrated me was we seemed to fall back into old bad habits of teams taking the lead in the final quarter and our players giving up in a sense. Yes they would keep playing but they didn’t seem to be playing with any thought or genuine will to get over the line. The last 2 and a bit minutes we were in 6th and staring down the barrel of being a memory of 2022, but the players played with a hunger I hadn’t seen in those previous losses. It was like they were fully aware of the stakes and didn’t want to leave anything out on the field. Call me crazy, but I really hope this could kickstart something.

I remember I tried to explain this to an interstate fan, they were saying "oh there's no travel factor" for Victorian based teams. While this is true, I said them that I would gladly take a Perth trip vs Fremantle any day of the week over an away match at KP. It is the single best home ground advantage BUT it has the disadvantage of it never being a home ground for a final except against a non-Vic side. Personally I have always felt if it's an AFL venue than it's an AFL venue. They play all their home games there, BUT they have to provide a significant amount of seating for away fans, particularly in finals. The fact that we get shafted there every single year while the "big clubs" avoid it is tantamount to cheating by the AFL.

I want Sam to succeed, but he just doesn't seem up to it on a consistent basis. Sucks but AFL footy is a tough business, can't have passengers.

I love hearing the players talk about the run home and relishing the fact that we have a run that is against the better teams of the competition as opposed to a soft finish like what the cats have. The talk and attitude (and way we played on Friday) is so much more like what we experienced in 2021 as opposed to what we've seen for much of this year. This Friday will be like a final, the winner comes close to banking a top 4 finish, loser goes back to the pack. Cats by contrast will have to go from having almost practice matches to finals atmosphere, away from their home.

Cox is such a wildcard, he can be the most useless player one week and then be the game changer the following week. Credit to him he was excellent against us earlier in the year. Much like the Freo game, it's easy to forget we had a lot of injury issues/missing players that day. Starting with May, then Petty during the match, then Disco Tuner, then Gawn (played on but shouldn't have). Much like Freo, they took advantage, can they beat us when we have those players available? We'll see next week. The one thing that concerns/frustrates me about them is that they have had the wood over us lately, even when we have been significantly better.