Ouch!

Davey was tagged when he was the only player in our midfield seen as damaging, if he is fit in 2013, and they still tag him, the positive is that it frees up our other midfielders, but the negative is that it will be a sign that our midfield also hasn't improved and they are not damaging enough.

I will be cranky if we have to take him with 3 on some level....but I'll convince myself that GC and the MFC rated him that highly, and we are getting a steal I will be extremely p1ssed if the club doesnt take him at 3 if they are forced to. MFC has to take Viney, his skills and strengths are EVERYTHING that Neeld would want, and for the sake of a couple of draft positions, we just can't afford to screw this up. Still secretly hoping that GC doesn't bid on him. feeling about 70% confident that they won't....

Sorry the point I was trying to make was that was the issue that supporters are struggling with. WE want 4 first round picks... if the club had been more successful in 2012, we wouldn't have even been in the position, and wouldn't be concerned, but we are, and we are.... It wasn't referring to the clubs... sorry if I wasn't clear there.

Going to be very interesting to see how Tippett actually gets to the swans. They have the lowest draft picks to offer, they can't get him in the draft if Adelaide refuses to trade. But more interesting will be the 'renown' bloods culture. The only way to secure Tippett will be to offload some players ... curious to know how strong that culture is when it is likely that they will have to give up some serious sort of player in order to get Tippett. I can't see Adelaide agreeing to anything less than one of their top 10 players off of the list. Are the swans prepared to damage their culture by being required to trade away a player potentially of the class of Hannebery, Jetta, Rohan or Kennedy.... Because that is what they will need to do to satisfy Adelaide. Bringing in a third party I don't think will help either, as the third party is going to want a quality 'premiership' player as well..... If the culture is as good as it is, why would any of these players want to leave, the club just won a premiership, they are likely to be on a better salary due to the extra cap,..

But faced with the possibility of securing 4 first round picks instead of just 3... this is the crux of the matter. Bottom line is if the MFC didn't suck so badly in 2012, our picks would have been maybe 7 and 8 or something like that. We would have laughed at being able to land Viney with such a pick, and then have another one on hand to use immediately afterward.

Holy crap Chicken Little the sky is falling!!! I have no problems at all with what Viney is doing, I would be amazed if the club or his dad would either. FFS he is touted as the hardest inside mid in the competition, I can't believe the number of people here that want him to have a Mummy's boy persona to try and bluff people like Gubby Allan, Scott Clayton, and SOS. You reckon a scripted response of a potential F/S pick is going to bluff them or the damn media? The draft combine is an opportunity to sell yourself in the best possible light. GWS and GC should interview him to see if he is worth taking a punt on, Viney will be going 110% to prove himself @ the combine, to think he would do otherwise is naive.

I agree with you (and have mentioned it previously a few times). GC gain nothing by nominating for the sake of it. If they bid it's cos thats where they will rate him on a needs basis for the club. Doing deals to stop GC nominating is tampering, just like it is tampering by GC or GWS to force us to use pick 3 if they don't rate him at 2. Good luck proving it though. How can you prove Viney isn't worth pick 2...? Pick 1 and 2 in the draft are too high risk for GC and GWS to be playing silly buggers with. God I am sick of this topic, I can't wait for F/S nominations to be over just so people can move on.

Shhhh... we are like the ninja! ... or playing ninja's in the sandpit out the back with GWS & GC Not quite sure yet :D

Care to let us in on it Dr Evil?

Sounds like the Pies are stacking up forwards with Lynch, Pederson and apparently Tippett. Lucky they signed Cloke as well Dawes might be feeling a little nervous right now!

Providing Dawes actually wants to leave the club as he is still contracted. Goldsack hasn't signed yet either has he?

Sorry, that definition doesn't change anything. (and is one of many definitions btw) You are speculating when you say "For all we know we could be offering...." Tell me how is it that this isn't a speculative comment. Thats not speculation either. Thats rumour mongering, trolling etc if you worded it that way. Speculation is about conjectural thought. i.e your opinion. ... and before you go off half cocked again, I am not accusing you of trolling either. *sigh*

A few clubs might be interested if he were publicly available though.... Us, Carlton, possibly Dogs. He is still young enough to appeal to a lot of clubs without good key forward prospects.

.... you forgot Thomas and Sidebottom who just re-signed also

Source? I didn't think you could have more than 2 veterans on your list? Or has that changed recently?

ummm... and I quote "We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, for all we know we could be offering our pick #3 to Adelaide for Dangerfield or to Richmond for Cotchin." This is commonly referred to as speculation.

GC would be negligent if they didn't approach him. If they are considering it, then again I think it is because the are losing Caddy, and what club wouldn't want a hard inside mid? Viney should meet with them.... after all might get a free trip to the Gold Coast :D I've said all along, GC is not going to be bidding IF they don't want him, if they bid then they rate him at pick 2. It's not gonna be a case of ducks and drakes. I stand by this still.... But but but... Whilst I am on record in saying I reckon MFC will not be forced to pay overs... I am starting to think we can't afford not to chose him. With everything that has gone on this year, the last thing we need to do is overlook him on the basis of 1 or 2 picks in the ratings, from a PR perspective Viney is what we need, and the type of player Mark Neeld needs as well.

Except we have no confirmation on any of these players yet, so the notion of a quick fix is baseless. WJ posted something regarding an MFC function that he attended recently. That at least gives some concept that that the club is not taking scattergun approach and has something in mind here. Edit: Beated to the punch by Rjay!

According to the herald this morning, Geelong are apparently frontrunners. ..... because he knows Andrew Mackie really? is that all it takes for a player to leave the MFC *sigh*

Surely the size of the contract is the biggest component for compo. For instance Goddard on 4 x 800k (if thats correct) that might be tier 1 Moloney and Rivers might get optimistically 250k x 2 for Moloney and 4 x 350 for Rivers.... It wouldn't even be close even with the other things like B&F etc thrown in.

Probably not the best analogy, Collingwood did offer Davis a contract, but he didn't rate it, and chose to go back West didn't he? I think several clubs would have taken Davis had he chosen to go anywhere.

Based on the assumption that we stack all those leaving the club and hope the AFL gives us the top band pick which *could* be worth pick 5. I really don't see it happening, nor do I see it outweighing 2-3 shrewd free agency intakes. Shrewd is the key bit here, we have to make sure they are enhancing the list. But I still think getting a couple of productive years out of say 2-3 free agents will do more for our list than a player in the draft who won't add value for a couple of years at best. But moreso... we have 3 first round picks, and we stand a good chance of getting Viney in the second round. We should get the more from the the 2012 draft than almost any other club you wish you mention anyway.

I would be astounded if we lose Moloney, Rivers and lets say Bate or someone like that, and the AFL then turn around and give us a category 1 compensation pick. Part of the compensation surely must factor in the size of the contract that the other club is offering. I can't see any of our players being offered a big contract. Yes a lot of the other things will get factored into the equation (B&F, top 10 in brownlow etc) but it would be miniscule I think in comparison... The compo rules would have to be similar to the ones for losing players to the expansion clubs. Scully landed us the picks we got I believe moreso because of the size of the contract he was offered more than what he had shown (Being number 1, or 'other' stats like B&F etc might helps somewhat but contract is going to be the biggest indicator of a players worth...) I think as things stand we have the potential to inject some experienced role players into the club that will assist the development of our group through free agency, we have the draft picks at our disposal to pick up some very good younger players, AND the space in our salary cap to lure player(s) over in trade week if we need to.

You make it sound like a bad thing. So.... what stops us going for both options here Ralphius? I actually see Lynch and Clark enabling us to bring in another player like Fitzy, or Watts if played forward or gumby / butcher. Take a look at WCE, Darling had Kennedy and to a lesser degree Cox and NicNat to aid his intro into AFL, playing the third forward or third tall in defence is easier than being the main man Similarly at the Hawks with Roughead and Franklin, Gunston has had the benefit of being the third tall. Remember we have to give up nothing except a contract and a spot on the list. No trades, no picks.. just a spot on the list.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/148929/default.aspx Lets hope this is the extent of our punishment for the 'tanking' investigation