La Dee-vina Comedia

But has the cull finished (for this year, I mean)? Is there still a possibility of more before whatever the next cut off date is? Has every player who was out of contract been either re-contracted or delisted/traded/retired/free agency transferred?

There is a germ of a new and possibly damaging story in Caro's article. She refers to a meeting occurring at which something relevant to tanking might have been discussed. If that meeting existed and was not disclosed to the AFL during the previous investigation there is a secondary but important issue of the club failing to be honest with the AFL. As Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton both found out, it's not necessarily the initial action which can bring you undone - it's being caught out lying later on. Nevertheless, there are a few 'ifs' to be resolved first...did such a meeting happen? was it relevant to tanking? if it happened, did we not mention it, or worse, did we deny it took place?

Are you suggesting we've already been punished enough?

When did we last have such a large turnover of players in one year? Anyone know? In my view, I'm comfortable with the decisions made. I might differ around the edges (I might have retained Martin and Gysberts - but I'm not upset about them leaving, either). I thought Neeld was just using 2012 as a pre-season for 2013 with respect to improving fitness levels and learning to play a new game style. I didn't realise (although it's obvious in hindsight) that he was also using it as a filtering mechanism to refine his playing list.

I'm struggling not to say 'what on earth are you smoking?'. So instead I'll be more circumspect and say 'In what way?' And on the original topic of this thread, the key point about Barassi coming back to Melbourne was that it coincided with the club finally recognising that it needed to get professional (and I mean literally). if I remember correctly, the MFC split from the Melbourne Cricket Club because the MCC was stifling the football department by being too slow to make the key decisions a professional football club needs to make. Ironically, the two got back together recently. But at the time, the split was the right decision and allowed the football club to become more professional. I suspect more than anything the new-found professionalism instilled when Barassi joined lead to the club playing finals in 1987 for the first time in 23 years.

Oh. I thought it was a typo and you meant 48 years, not 8. And I agreed.

No. The only thing he needs to do is get the performance on the field. It's the only explanation necessary.

Is it generally accepted that any or all of Rodan, Dawes, Pedersen and Byrnes are "really good leaders" and/or "known hard trainers"? (I don't think there is any evidence that can support a claim that Viney, Barry or Hogan are, although they may well fit that description once they start - and I wouldn't expect them to be at their age.)

So, it's Ned's fault!

And it doesn't matter how they go at Brisbane and WCE. The better question is - how would they have gone at Melbourne in 2013 and beyond. Past performance is the best indicator we have. And certainly a much better indicator of where any player gets picked in the draft.

What role was that. I'm not sure I've ever known what his role was. And, by the way, I don't think any player, ever, who runs out onto an AFL field has a pea heart. Undoubtedly some are more fearless than others. But I think the starting point for all AFL players is a high level of pain tolerance and willingness to be hurt. I think that descriptor is unfair and unwarranted.

While some on here decry the loss of Morton, Gysberts and Martin I wonder whether they were actually the first choice of the footy department to be moved on? Perhaps what the FD really wanted was to move on players like Bate, Bennell or Cook for whom they couldn't even get a nibble. It's an unfortunate fact of trade week that the only players traded are those that have some value to the purchasing party. I'm not particularly fussed about any of the players we have lost and I remain circumspect about all the players we've traded in - but I'm absolutely sure we couldn't stand still and do nothing during this time. And at the risk of being completely diversionary, is Jurrah still technically on our list or has he been formally delisted?

I'm not sure how you get to that conclusion. But as much as I get enjoyment from watching us win I desire a far bigger prize. I want that elusive premiership and I'd be happy to forego wins in the short term if it was the way to get a premiership a little later. I'm sick of seeing us being described as "brave" and "performing above expectations" when we win enough games to play finals but have no realistic chance of winning a premiership. We have not had a team strong enough or skilled enough to challenge for a premiership since 1964. In both our Grand Final appearances since then we were never considered likely to win.

Really? If I could guarantee you that we would have a premiership in 2014 but you'd have to put up with zero wins in 2013 - a sort of reverse Mephistopheles - would you take it? The point being, that if a premiership is out of the question in 2013, there are other things to measure improvement by.

Let me guess...Blacktown, SCG and Manuka Oval?

As much as I admired his efforts, this is probably the right decision for all concerned. Geelong happy because Rivers replaces Scarlett; Rivers happy because he has a chance to play finals football; Melbourne happy because he's at the wrong end of his career for the latest rebuild plus a compensation pick. Well played everyone.

When I first started work I entered a system where promotion on merit had just replaced promotion by seniority...and there were grumblings. In the late 1980s, governments were using the phrase "affirmative action" to explain strategies to redress gender imbalance and increase female participation in senior roles...and there were grumblings. In 2012 the MFC arguably "pays overs" for particular talent...and there are grumblings. The first two examples paid off. Whether the third will remains to be seen - but if you want to make cultural change, if you want to do more than stand still, you have to do more than exchanging like for like.

Not a chance. It is an impossibility to expect all 18 clubs and their employees to keep a secret. Any secret.

Purely hypothetical, of course, but I wonder what we would have been doing in the trade and free agency period this year if Dean Bailey was still coach. Somehow, I think it would have been a very quiet period.

Please let it be true...

Could also mean St Kilda will only let him go if they need salary cap room. Which may happen if they can lure Mitch Brown from WCE (although you'd think that would happen as a straight swap for Jason Cripps who wants to go from St Kilda to WCE).

Extraordinary that he played VFL prior to being drafted and subsequently struggled to get a game in the VFL afterwards. It adds to my view that there must have been a serious disconnect between the drafting and development sides of the club just two years ago. Hopefully that disconnect has been repaired.

Jack Viney blames Jack Watts for Demonland

Surely someone on Demonland bemoaned the fact that St Kilda managed to get Andrew Lovett arguing he was exactly the player that we needed at that time. Probably a good one to have avoided. Similarly, Lawrence (was that his first name?) Angwin when he went to Carlton.

Rodan has now been delisted by two clubs. Surely that's got to be a concern, whatever the reasons.