Pates

Definitely not saying this as gospel but I thought there were some cheeky deals done somewhere along the lines with real estate a little while back while Bomber Thompson was coach. If they have been able to make salary cap room for Cameron, given their already high amount of "stars" at the club, it's quite an achievement of book keeping. I'd love us to go hard after him, but I suspect he's looking to go to one of the big clubs.

If you could've chosen from the top 8 the two teams I least wanted to make the grand final it would've been these two. I'd love to see the Tigers absolutely destroy the Cats by 100+ points, give them a little bit of humiliation on the biggest day of the calendar. Failing that a 1 point loss with the Cats being denied a goal by the review system at the end. EDIT Also with Dangermouse also missing 4 easy shots at goal.

Steps forward but he’s still not reaching his potential. That said there was a point when he first came in where he was clunking marks in a way I haven’t seen him do before, and regularly. He should’ve had bags of 4 a couple of times, like Fritta he missed some very gettable goals. I’m not sure he can hold down the number one forward position, I think as a number 2 he is very dangerous. There’s a lot he needs to work on but I felt one of the biggest failings by the FD this season was keeping him out as long as we did. Hopefully a disappointing end to the season won’t hurt his confidence into next year, get him a solid partner up forward and I think he can kick 40-50 goals for us.

Why’s that? What’s the bad blood between them. Just on the Richmond discussion I think their best trait is purely teamwork driven by a good system and game plan. I think they also have a strong “squad goals” mentality where everyone who comes in just does their job. I hate them but I have so much admiration for their determination. I dream of the day Melbourne will show that much fighting spirit consistently.

In that area I would say we might actually be slightly better (staggeringly).

If Brown were to nominate someone else that I would chase Jesse down to come back to the Dees. I don’t recall there being any bad blood about his leaving, he had been intimating for years that he would probably go back to Perth at some stage so it wasn’t a massive shock and I think the club had felt that the journey between club and player was over. I think he and Goody had a good relationship and I also recall Harmes being one of his best mates. Viney spoke to other clubs before re-signing so if anyone is going to accuse him of disloyalty they only look that far. I think with less baggage and more runs on the board Brown is the better option but I would be all for getting Jesse back as long as Burgess thinks his foot problems have (mostly) healed. What he did in 2018 wasn’t a fluke and I saw a few of his late games towards the end of the year, it wasn’t the Jesse of old but he just starting to show glimpses. I also think the Red and Blue faithful would welcome him back with (socially distant) open arms.

It’s a sliding doors moment, if the umpires had have noticed the other Melbourne players that had played better against West Coast and Scott West (more deservedly IMO) won the Brownlow how would his career have gone? He really did have a cracker of a year, was it Brownlow deserving? Perhaps not, but it was crucial to our GF push. I didn’t like the way we traded him out, definitely could have been handled better.

Well I guess on the results of the year our coach is 9th so you’ve got your wish. ?‍♂️

It's hard not to roll your eyes at some of the things he has said in the past but whatever you think of the bloke he should never have been given a clearly racially charged nickname. Reading that story about Robert Muir you realise that there have probably been hundreds of cases where minority players have been given nicknames that they feel denigrates or humiliates them but they stay silent because they don't want to be "that guy". If Lumumba actually went to the Pies to complain about it (which he claims) and nothing was really done then they have done themselves no favours and deserve everything that comes their way.

Good luck to Rhyce, I'm surprised this hasn't happened before to be honest. There's so much pressure on the coach and you only need to look at some of the stuff that's said about Goodwin to understand how much it could get to a bloke.

Trac's goal vs St Kilda that only just made it through was pretty sweet given how many times the Saints have done us in. Also loved his power, pick up, and finish goal vs GWS; pure class.

Seeing Jackson develop, he really looks like he could be something special. Seeing Kozzie hopefully get more confidence and a cool head to finish some of his great work. Watching Petracca, not much else needs to be said he's just a joy to watch. Hopefully actually seeing a game live.

The Cairns issues aside (that really did scuttle our season) if Rebel are paying for this stunt I would just like to instead think about how they could've put that money into a local footy league competition, or donated that money to go towards people doing it tough. $100K spent on getting some MCG grass up to the Gabba in this climate feels like a wasted PR stunt, I'm just waiting for the moment a player injuries their knee on it because it shifts underneath them, bet that'll look real good for the AFL and Rebel Sport.

Might be an interesting one of Nev to move into, I fear he could become a bit of a spokesperson for the Pies having to constantly field questions about a culture he has nothing to do with. Not unlike what Goddard had to do when he joined Essendon.

Jeez who would want to be a defender in the AFL? Bit by bit they are taking away every avenue that they have available. Rushed behind - basically gone Disguised deliberate out of bounds - gone Rush kick out of the 50 with it bouncing out - gone Creating more rules making it easier for forwards to draw free kicks - in I'm not saying all those rules being altered are wrong but they really aren't giving the defenders much of a chance. Killing the ball with a big spoil is an art and shouldn't be taken out of the game. If they're going to bring that in than they should be enforcing a harsher side of the "unrealistic attempt" rule, who many times do forwards do that, get a fingertip on it but take out two defenders at the same time.

Yep I reckon we should go for him, he's got attributes we need so go for it. Make it a part of the Jetta trade if it's going to happen, be interesting to see which club feels the other has more currency.

More so meaning that if he is unhappy about something (like Petracca was last year) I’d want the club to sit down with him and sort it out. He’s a brilliant young midfielder and I would be over the moon to sign him long term but he has his deficiencies and I would rather him be unhappy about that than anything else.

I’d say Jones and Jetta had very similar years in their output when they played, but if we’re rating their leadership qualities I’d say they’re on par. Both have been strong warriors for us. I’d struggle seeing Nev play at the pies, I could handle a couple of other clubs but the pies would be tough to swallow. But if he’s not going to be given best 22 opportunities (and it’s difficult to see that happening without injuries) for the well-being of Nev I could understand saying goodbye. But equally I’d also be keen to offer him a coaching and mentoring position beyond 2021.

Jeez it would be tough to watch Jetta play as a maggie, but it does look like he’s on the outer with Rivers showing some flare, Lockhart showing some zip, and Hibberd returning to form. With players fit it would be hard to see him get regular games as much as it pains me to say that. I would really like to see us linked to more movement of players coming to us. I am a fan of the idea of getting Brown (medical due diligence pending), I like getting Smith from the Hawks but I hope if it’s 3 years it would be 2 years plus a trigger based on games played. Would prefer Polak though as he would have more longevity. As for the word about Oliver, remember that last year Petracca wasn’t exactly ecstatic but he and the club sat down and worked out what both club and player needed to do to make him reach his potential. I suspect something like that needs to take place with Clarry.

I wonder whether part of Hannan’s frustration would stem from seeing the likes of Melksham and AvB consistently avoid the chop (Melks in particular) despite being equally ineffective in the games. Personally I’m a fan and could see a trial on the wing for him. I’d still be offering him a 2 year with that said with an option for a third should he break through a certain amount of games.

Hindsight’s a beautiful thing but I think he should’ve stayed in WA until after he was 18. We could still draft him and perhaps assign him to a WAFL club for development while he might pop over to Melbourne every now and then for updates and the chance to meet other players and coaches. But I think plucking him out of his home state at such a young age wasn’t good for his development as a human.

I'm probably in a minority here but if Brown were to choose someone else as his desired club I would be quite ok with us luring Jesse back to us, as long he didn't cost us a lot. Say whatever you like about him but while he was in Melbourne and fit to play he performed to a high level most weeks. And really the biggest (most consistent) off-field distraction was always to do with when he would be going back to WA. If he came BACK to us surely that would put those questions questions to bed. I've got zero doubts that he's got internal demons he's fighting, but is he actually better in WA? Seems like he's got worse looking from the outside in.

That's a great little off-season win if true, he's done a good job with what he had over one season so hopefully two seasons gives him a chance to really hone the attitudes and fitness of the playing group.

Tommy as a FB is a fairly unknown quantity right now, he hasn't played there properly in years. Would be interesting to see how he'd go there, I'm wary of dealing with the Pies as I can't think of one single trade we've done with them where we have actually come out winning. They always seem to give us their spuds while making gems from ours.

I think this is a very good measure of the bloke, he has had an awful year and instead of taking the deal in font of him (I was to understand it was 4 years I believe) he backed himself to have a cracker of a year and get a big deal sewn up. Instead he's now a project to revitalise that will do a lot better at a club that has a chance of competing than a team that seems to have the rats fleeing off a sinking ship. If he chooses the bombers it'll be because he's chasing the coin, if he chooses us it'll be because he feels he can have a chance at something. I genuinely feel like we're a good fit for him, perhaps a performance based contract will be his best motivator for us.