nutbean

Love these comments - Roos has a no DH policy for a reason. When you try to build a culture bringing in a nice boy like Dayle Gartlett is not the way to go about it. I have no idea what Hannebury has or hasn't done. But I wouldn't have Gartlett at my club

Todd Viney struggled to hold it together. I found it difficult when in the last clip they were running off the ground and Brett Lovett was hugging him. Sean Wight was patting his shoulder. We have lost way too many good people recently.

The tributes and outpouring of love for him is both unbelievable but (fortunately) not at all surprising.

I'm not sure. All I am sure of is there was absolutely no concrete commitment to Geelong or he would be there. The official paperwork can not be done today - you could structure a contract before this which may make the actual move unenforceable but will award damages to the party who pulls the plug. Irrespective - I have constantly defended Frawleys season - has it been good ? - no. Has it been diabolical - no. Just very average. Took lots of marks, our second best forward this year but that ain't saying much. People point to his half arsed approach - but you could mention plenty of others that fall into that category this year as well. The hubris directed to his output was based in part on his contract situation (most, including myself, thought he was gone. Once you put the talks on hold you can back it in that he has one foot out the door). I understand any player leaving for more money , opportunity or success - they are professionals. On the other hand I am not a professional. I pay to watch my team play and no amount of money could make me switch my allegiance. Therefore I have love for likes of Flower and Jones ( who is talking to the club about re-signing which is a good indication) and to me the likes of Frawley and Rivers are just footballers who don't leave a mark on me like the aforementioned ( Scully and Clark are in another league again as far as I am concerned). (message box empty)

I loved and respected Robbie. I understand what Frawley has done but I do not respect him for his decision. Delaying the announcement will not alter his place in history. He will be just be another player who came and went - as opposed to the players who are icons of our club who stayed the course.

Forgive me, but this was beautifully worded so I have plagiarised it for my FB page. ( gave you credit though !)

90% correct - I think it means that manager has said that there are enough good offers on the table that you can comfortably move on at the end of the year. With free agency, as I have said previously, you would be mad to a UFA deal early as you have complete freedom to move. I do not believe for a second that a deal was done with Geelong. I believe that Frawley knew pretty early what they were prepared to offer. I 90% believe Frawley when he said "he hadn't made up his mind ". What he actually meant was "I haven't made up my mind which club to go to".

If no draft assistance decision is based on us getting adequate compensation for Frawley and Clark then it is stinking incompetent corruption by the AFL at its best ( worst). Compensation is not assistance. Compensation means you are losing something and getting something in return and we are losing two players. If this is the AFL's rationale then it is just plain wrong. We should have been given assistance and fair compensation for the two players. grrrrrr

Apparently you haven't learned the lesson of not listening to unsubstantiated rubbish. Frawley didn't burn Geelong, didn't spend the year teeing a deal with Rivers and Scott. I am sure that his manager has had discussions with Geelong and may well have got an offer months ago. But as I have been blabbing on about incessantly, why on earth would you make a commitment early in a free agency environment. You hold off committing until the last moment and let the bidding war escalate.

apparently we are still front loading some contracts. other wise we struggle to meet the minimum cap requirements.

Thats how I feel too OD. I can still remember his first game when an unknown stick insect called Robert Flower kicked his first goal o debut and joined in the thrashing of Geelong at the G'.I remember in those days that there was little strategy in football - the most that would happen is players would get moved around, but after Robbie had established himself and declared his genius after a couple of seasons I distinctly remember that we employed this play after the opposition kicked a point. We would stack one side of the ground with all our players except Robbie. We would leave him one out on the half back flank. And then the fullback would just kick the ball to Robbie one on one and he would outmark his opponent or bring it to ground and take off with the ball 11 times out of 10. The pity was he had no one to kick it to as we fairly awful in those days. I vividly remember Robbie turning the last game of 87 against the dogs where we needed to win to make the finals on its head in a devastating 10 minute burst just after half time. And one other fond memory was either the final against Swans when he went off the ground to rest him up with about 10 minutes left in the match and the surge of applause and cheering ( read love) when he came off the ground. Just an outpouring of emotion. I stayed up late last night and read Robbie ( written by Robbie with Ron Reed) which holds place of honour in my bookcase. During his early years we knew we going to get hammered every week but we went because we get to see a magician ply his trade. You are right OD , a little bit of my youth died last night.

I'm not. Even during his playing days he was enormously respected by (thinking) supporters of other clubs. He was a magician on the field, displayed untold wells of courage and fairness and his most endearing quality ( if the aforementioned is not enough) was his humility. I'm not surprised at all.

Always be my number two.

Absolutely shattered. No other words can describe it. I remember his first game and his last and during many dark days of the MFC was the only thing that would get me to the footy. They marketed the whole of 1987 season to "let's do it for Robbie." . RIP the best footballer I have seen and thank you for so many memories. My deepest sympathy goes out to his FAmily and friends.

Just to be clear on how much "no doubt" you have that he met Hawks last year - are you in the same "no doubt" as the other posters who had no doubt he was going to Geelong ?

never subscribed to the theory that he wanted to set up the backline without Frawley. He went back there early in the season when there was no Hogan, Dawes, Clark and he didnt have Garland available and Howe was struggling forward. He basically had little other alternatives. I think the idea of setting up without Frawley is just too convenient. The backline will be ok and hopefully get better because there is no alternative - Frawley is gone. As to him not leaving a big hole - he had an average year at best. He has shown he can play in 2010 and done little else since. We are willing to suggest that players will improve under Roos but obviously we don't give the same leeway to Frawley. We have good backmen but can always use more . He is gone - we move on and hate the next player who puts his contract on hold until the end of the season.

There is a difference. Clark cannot guarantee where ends up - we have the opportunity to thwart his attempts to go the club of his choice ( don't trade him and then he has to take his chances that no other club other than his club of choice will pick him up in the draft). UFA - we have no control - end of story ( apart from trading the year before the contract expires - but the player still has to agree)

Shafting his mate after dealing with cats all year ? The fantasy on this board is that he had settled with Geelong months ago - the reality is more like that he decided months ago to up and leave but was then fielding offers with no guarantee to any club. Use some logic - if you had decided to leave wouldn't you leave the decision as to where until the last moment to maximise the competitive tension between suitors and therefore push up your pay packet ?

???? really not surprising ? Read the last 100 pages - many on here had him signed, sealed and delivered to the Cats months ago. Some have been suggesting it is only about money. That he is leaving is not unexpected or surprising but the Cats have been the very heavy favorites to get him until very recently.

What on earth difference does it make. Until the FA period opens AND the paperwork goes to the AFL AND they advise the compensation nothing can happen.

The club knows from the AFL that they will be given pick 3. The procedure is fairly simple 1/ The club contacts the AFL and asks for guidelines on what pick they can expect and the AFL outlines certain scenarios around length of contract and money that needs to be given to Frawley to guarantee pick 3 2/ MFC officials work out that pick 3 is guaranteed based on their extensive research done (reading Demonland to ascertain the fact as to what other clubs are offering Frawley)

So you think it had nothing to do with the fact that we had no-one over 5'2" to play in the forward line for the early part of the season ? Guesswork at best.

Two other posters have mentioned how the Hawks would react - and you have nailed it. Supporters and coaches react different to players. ( Hawks players were not unsupportive of Franklins move as a couple have mentioned on here).

Just a slight correction. You better check again on " the no hawks stuck up for buddy". I vividly remember roughead and Mitchell being interviewed after buddy's defection and whilst they said he is now just another player at another club they understood his decision. Supporters and coaches don't like free agency but it certainly benefits players.

We talk about poor drafting but this was an absolutely beauty - we drafted the Cockatoo-Collins twins and FFS, neither of them could play.