poita

It's weird how we have millions of dollars of coaching and development "talent" on the books but, instead of putting them to work to find out why McDonald and others have regressed in recent seasons, we want to take the easy way out and trade them for peanuts. There are posters on this forum who have never rated Tom and that's their right, but he was our best defender for several years, then he went forward and kicked more than 50 goals in a season (the only MFC player to do so this decade). The guy can seriously play, and you don't get rid of your better players on the back of one poor season. Like others I want to know what has happened to Tom this year, and I want the club to fix it. Trading him would be a cop out and a big mistake and I will be furious if we do so.

I like it. If we try really, really hard over the next few months, I'm sure we can have a list with May, Lever, Gawn and 37 small / medium forwards for next year.

I was all for the club recruiting Harley at the start of this year, and I think that both the club and Harley have done everything that could have been asked of them until this point. That said, this is a simply unforgivable error of judgment from a player who has been given multiple chances by multiple clubs over the past decade. We are no at a point where his performances and potential outweigh the risk of keeping him on the list beyond the season. If he can't be trusted to make good decisions now with his AFL future at stake and in a highly controlled environment, how can we possibly trust him over the pre season with a brand new contract and left to his own devices? This club doesn't have a spare $50,000 to waste fixing this guy's mistakes and the last thing we need as we try to resign sponsors and 40K members is this type of bad publicity. Thanks for your efforts Harley, but you're done here.

Clearly there is a fair portion of the membership base that is pretty unhappy with this situation. Will the club bother responding at some point? Other than fluff pieces, communication with members has been pretty ordinary this year, although I get that staffing has been reduced. It is one thing to donate the value of a standard membership to the club. It is entirely another to fork out additional money for reserved seats, grand final guarantees and other add-ons that have provided zero value during the year. If these aren't delivered, then they should carry forward to future years at no cost.

I think he is probably done, but I'd still have him at the club ahead of any Bedford, Kolodjashnij, Jordon, Nietschke, Chandler, Wagner x2 and Dunkley and probably half a dozen others as well. It really depends on whether the club is collectively going to put its big boy pants on and make some hard decisions at year end. If we prune a lot of dead wood on the list, then I don't have an issue with Jones getting one more year to support what would be a lot of new players. If we only make a few changes, then the need for an experienced mentor-type is significantly reduced.

https://womens.afl/news/51858/suns-or-lions-aflw-cult-hero-eyes-move-north An update on Sarah Perkins - a big loss, as our inability to translate midfield dominance into goals is our number 1 issue. Hopefully Tegan Cunningham can rediscover her mojo.

If we're trading anyone for Saad it should be Salem.

On talent yes, but definite no in terms of workrate, value for money and quality of person.

We're saving money by making Victorian clubs travel interstate several times a year? Makes sense.

I received two emails as well. I understand that clubs are finding life difficult, but I'm pretty unimpressed that the best they can offer members is a price freeze when we received zero value for money in 2020. The price rises in the past 3 - 4 years have been significant, and certainly haven't been matched by the performances on the field.

Corr is the calibre of player you would be happy to get as a delisted free agent for a couple of years, but no way you would consider on a long term, big dollar contract.

Far better to focus on a couple of Langdon-quality players at $500K each than paying up to $1M for Crouch.

Gunston would be a great get and, if we could offset this by clearing out some of our excess mid-sized forwards at the same time, it would be a double bonus.

The Herald Sun is reporting that Collingwood and Mihocek are miles apart on a contract renewal. As a latecomer to the AFL this contract clearly needs to be a big payday for him, but I can't imagine he is holding our for ridiculous money. We clearly lack a link between our midfield and forward line, and have done since Hogan left. Mihocek is a hard worker and could be a decent option at a reasonable price. Not sure what we need to give to Collingwood, although they owe us plenty for Kennedy, Dawes and Lumumba.

There is no point trading Viney (or Brayshaw for that matter) for anything other than a ready made player that meets a pressing need right now. Why take a draft pick or developing player that may help us several years down the track, if indeed they actually make it. That said, I wish we had access to Geelong's unlimited salary cap. They must have about 15 blokes earning between $500K and $800K - what does that leave for the rest?

He's got a contract for next year so, unless we are prepared to have him clog the list for another twelve months playing VFL, we need to give him the last two games to work out where his shortcomings are and then send him away to work on them relentlessly over the break. I don't think he finds the ball enough to be an AFL player, but we've got nothing to lose now that the season is done.

I have no opinion on Serong, other than he is small for a modern midfielder. He does appear to be a genuine footballer though. The recruitment of Pickett on the other hand breaks the first rule of drafting - only midfielders and key position players should be taken with first round picks unless your club is absolutely in the premiership window and drafting for urgent needs. Aside from that, Pickett is an undersized, highly flawed, highly inconsistent player who has never influenced games enough even at lower levels, and I remain highly unimpressed with this piece of drafting. He does have some talent, but not enough to succeed within the MFC patented brand of destroying young players.

I've said it before, but the best thing that the ATO could do for us is to cut list sizes to 35 or less. That would force us to be absolutely ruthless with our delistings at the end of this season. Retirements: Jones, Jetta, Kolodjashnij Delistings: Spargo, Bedford, Hannan, Jordon, Nietschke, Hunt, Chandler, Brown, C.Wagner, J.Wagner, Smith, Bradtke, Dunkley Potential Trades: Salem, Melksham, Fritsch Surviving due to contracts only: Vandenberg, Neal-Bullen, Baker One year deals: Hibberd, Bennell, O.McDonald, Hore Two year deals: Petty, Sparrow, Fritsch (if not traded). Viney presumably gets a longer deal if he wants to stay. Bring in at least six players from trades and the draft, even though some morons decided to trade out our first round pick for a small forward who gets about three kicks a game.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-22under22-squad-aflpa-40man-squad-best-young-players-gold-coast-suns-young-stars-who-made-it/news-story/3b403fdafbbc42d5648ae71c38bb5f7c Hardly surprising given our woeful drafting and player management over the past four years, but Melbourne are one of only two teams without a player in the 40 man under 22 squad. That is a massive hole to fill in 3-4 years time when players in this age group will be forming the nucleus of premiership sides. Thanks for nothing, Taylor and Mahoney.

Worst team we have seen all year, and there have been some shockers to this point. We're short a genuine key defender, given Freo has three tall forwards, a lock down small defender, one - two midfielders, and a key forward. Never mind though, we have Melksham, Fritsch, Neal-Bullen, Pickett, Bedford, Vandenberg and Hunt all horribly out of form and not capable of doing anything other than loitering in the forward line waiting for some easy kicks to come their way. Goodwin reminds me of Daniel Andrews, trying to give the impression that he has everything under control when really he lost the plot months ago.

Season over, so need to get some games into Baker. I would be delisting Bedford, Chandler and Dunkley but, if there is any doubt, this is the week to play them. Hibberd presumably plays if fit, and surely T.McDonald is in our best 22. Melksham and Salem need a kick in the rear. There is no value to playing any of Hannan, Vandenberg, Hunt, Neal-Bullen, Wagner and Brown at this point of the season. Does Jetta get a farewell game?

I didn't watch any of last night's game, but we've all seen it countless times before. We have 5 - 6 players who try their guts out every week (Gawn, Oliver, May, Langdon, Petracca,?), a group who wake up on game day and decide whether they will bother trying or not (Melksham, Salem, Fritsch, Weideman, Lever, etc), and a bunch who simply aren't AFL standard (Smith, Neal-Bullen, Spargo, Brown, etc). When we have the majority of the team working hard we look capable of playing good football and matching it with the better teams, but we have far too many players who pick and choose when to put in. For me this all comes back to our putrid list management and drafting. We give long term contracts on good money to fringe players (Kolodjashnij, Vandenberg) and keep proven failures around for years after their use by date. Hunt has been on the list for 7 years, Neal-Bullen for 6, Vandenberg for 6, J.Wagner for 5, Smith for 5. Even Jetta, who we love, has only played more than 9 games five times in his last 11 seasons. Why has Nietschke, a speculative mid range selection who can't get on the field, been promised another year? We should be turning over the list regularly and finding players who are capable of being consistent contributors at AFL level. To be out of the 2019 draft after the second round last year was inexcusable. That's to say nothing of the ridiculous trade to get Pickett that cost us a top 10 pick this year. Players like Salem and Melksham know there is no competition for their spots in the team so they are happy to cruise along, taking a nice pay cheque each week. If Goodwin had any balls he would have dropped Melksham in the first month of the season and set the standards. What's the bet that most of Vandenberg, Hunt, Hannen, Pickett, and Lockhart return this week as we shuffle the deckchairs again? Then we'll get to the end of the year and give new contracts to the likes of Bedford, Chandler and Dunkley who have done nothing to deserve them.

Yep, I think this one will be the problem as well. Very few teams have been competitive off a four day break, let alone actually winning.

Spargo is playing the role that Neal-Bullen played in 2018 - looks great getting getting on the end of a few cheap handpasses when the team wins by 10 goals, does sweet FA when the ball doesn't fall in his lap. We'll never be a decent side with players who can't win their own football consistently and can't apply a reasonable level of defensive effort. At the moment that list includes Spargo, Melksham, Hannan, PIckett and Fritsch.

The AFL have been on a path to destroy the VFL for two decades and they have finally achieved it. Congratulations to Gil and his lackeys. They are well on the way to destroying the local women's comp as well. I assume the endgame here is no reserves competition at all, and this becomes a driver to reduce list sizes. Perhaps we end up with AFL clubs farming players out to local clubs and topping up with injury replacements when required. Great for the AFL finances, not so great for player development and the standard of the competition.