Pates

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.

He's one of a few players that I feel like he could've been better than what he turned out to be with better development in place, still he's managed to get himself to a very solid AFL career and certainly became a cult favourite at both the Dees and Pies. All the best Dunny.

I know this is off topic but the Fox Footy article has a mention of something that makes me roll my eyes every time. They claim this great victory that Howe was turned from forward into defender. When he left us he was playing in the exact role he's doing at the Pies but when he left they said, "you are a forward and we will play you there". Sure enough he goes to the forward line and is useless, they switch him to defence and say, "jeez Bucks is a genius moving Howe to defence!" Anyway, mini rant over. With Tom there was be a hint of sadness about him leaving, he was pivotal to our 2018 Finals run and provided one of my favourite moments in recent Dees history with his winning goal agains the Eagles in 2017. I confess I was actually a little happy when I heard a few weeks ago that the word was he was staying and setting himself to get leaner and closer to his 2018 body shape (apparently he bulked up to match the gorilla style defender and improve his contested marking). But it does also seem like there's a fracture in the relationship between club and player, he's been taken over by Wied and LJ, and in the games he's played he has shown little to give us confidence of a return to form. It could well be that a change of club could be a good thing for him, and moving him on will free up our salary cap. It's sad, but I hope whatever happens (stays or goes) the Dees fans treat him with the respect he's earned over his years with us. Certainly the garbage that has been said about Oscar would understandably make him want to get out of here.

I think you're taking Viney's words and twisting them to suit the narrative you're trying to spin. Viney's comments on the midfield being selfish is more about the bees to the honey-pot idea where too many of our guys seem to dive in to get the ball almost blocking others out of the way. I even remember one point where I think one of our players essentially tackled his own teammate to extract the ball. I hate to say it but they all do it, Clarry included. The other knock on Oliver (and the midfield) that may not be selfish but it's not a great attitude is to palm off responsibility of the play to other players. I remember one of our closer losses when we had a chance to come back into it he won a free kick in the middle of the ground from the bounce and rather than taking a breath and backing himself he handballed it (poorly I might add) to one of our younger players and put him under totally unnecessary pressure. Now this talk about Clarry and Carlton is scuttlebutt anyway, but if he has problems than he should do what Trac did and confront the issue and take the necessary steps to become better.

I wonder whether on top of Preuss there could be a mixture of exchange of picks to improve our draft position. Like many here I'm of the opinion that as a contracted player we shouldn't accept tiddlywinks for him. While I accept that given he hasn't played a lot of senior footy that doesn't rate him super highly he has been kept out by two of the best ruckmen for the last 5-6 years (bizarre choice by him to come to us!) and many believe he would walk into the number one ruck spot at quite a few clubs. So he isn't worthless. To us he is back up to Max and he isn't getting any younger. Ideally I would like to see us have a look at their list see if there is someone in there that might be able to fill a role who is from Melbourne and keen to come home.

I feel I’m in the minority here but I like what little we have seen of him once he gets into games. Early I think he’s got a little lost with the speed of everything and like many others he’s probably suffered with lack of proper 2nd tier competition. But 2021 could be the year he takes his game up a level and starts to feature regularly.

And Jacko’s mullet ?‍♂️

If the FD felt satisfied with the list than we wouldn’t be looking to trade anyone in. They are clearly going after certain positions: FF and opposing wing to Langdon. I would hope that the other area they know we are very average in is speed and skill in the middle, a true outside player who can burst from the pack and hit up a target (and yes I know they don’t grow on trees). I think we’ve got some quality in most areas of the ground, but we need to go further. Ideally I’d like us to go after higher end talent but if we can get Brown back to form than we have a Coleman medal-competing FF.

The names and ages we’re going after definitely indicates the club feels a lot of the ingredients are already there, we just need to complete the puzzle (and then get a cohesive and clear game plan).

I have memories where he would kick a bag on us and 4 of his 6 goals came from soft free kicks. Personally I’m on board with getting him, do due diligence on his to see what the circumstances where that lead to his awful 2020 and work out what needs to be done to fix it. As for the way he plays, before 2020 the way he played was to kick lots of goals and consistently be in the Coleman medal race. Two questions will be firstly what will north accept as trade for draft picks, secondly should we get him do we basically have to do all we can to move TMac on? If not do we move him to defence permanently?

Actually I’d say typically players end up getting less if they stay compared to leaving. Perhaps we have an extra year on the contract as our carrot.

I haven’t watched any of the finals live, I just checked the score. We’re there seriously only three points scored in the entire third term? Did the cats shut up shop to kill the game? Hopefully the cats are garbage next week.

I’m really glad he’s signed on, 5 years you might argue is too much but this basically makes him a Demon for life. There was a lot of criticism for Jack at times this year but as it said in the article, he and his wife had a newborn when they packed up and went into the hub. He had every right to say to the club he was staying behind with his wife and kid while they got through the first part of their daughters life, but they brought their newborn into hub life which must have been extremely taxing at times for all of them. It’s a little gutting to heat that he really considered going to Geelong but I’m glad he’s stayed. His motivation of his relationship with Goody shouldn’t be underestimated either, Simon has good connections with the playing group. Now, as Jack said, they need to take that next big step on the field. Btw @Wiseblood I PM’d you but no need to pm the article anymore.