poita

Okay, that's a start. Hopefully several more still to come. Interesting that Billings is not on the initial list. Goodwin clearly put a line through him, but maybe the other coaches think differently.

I don't mind Campbell as a backup for Gawn, but there is no way that any young, sane ruck prospect receiving good advice would come to Melbourne to sit behind two 34 year olds next year. Playing second ruck at VFL level is not a great way to develop. We are really making it very difficult to get Gawn's replacement to the club before his body gives up on him.

It's actually a disgrace that they don't make these events more accessible to the fans. You can get an 11 game membership for less than the cost of a ticket to the B&F in what was a dismal season for the club. Anyhoo, I expect Gawn, Pickett, Petracca & Bowey to be the top 4. It gets harder from there, but the top 10 generally play most/all games and Viney always polls better than expected.

This would be the first thing I would do if I was the list manager. Yes, he is a waste of a list space and a waste of money, but mostly because he sets a disgraceful example for every other player on the list. I've never seen anyone less interested in doing the things required of an AFL player.

Culley has so much potential, he just needs to tidy up his defensive positioning and work rate. A full pre season with the group should help in this respect.

That would be insane if true. A 25 year old permanent small forward who kicked 2 goals in 9 VFL games this year after being dropped from the senior side. He is actually older than Spargo. Surely we can do much, much better.

Not sure about the wisdom of bringing back Colvin, one of our slowest players, into a team that already looked overly tall and slow last week. Pisano is a real worry, although the 2023 draft class looks to be quite weak. A top 5 pick should be finding the ball much more easily than she does at present.

I assume Heath is no certainty to play this week, in addition to the 9 confirmed outs. It's one thing to have a lot of injuries, but ours seem very focused on the midfield and half back line. That's pretty tough to cover, and I thought we looked overly tall and slow against Collingwood as a result.

I don't expect our players to be Rhodes Scholars but, after ten years in the AFL system, surely it's not unreasonable that they can engage in a conservation with a journalist without tipping a bucket of poop on the club or its employees. Or do they all say whatever they want in the hope that the club won't ask them to do it again?

For that price he'd want to win the next six best & fairests and captain the team to its next premiership. We need to add half a dozen quality players, not one potential superstar.

Given that both Petracca and Oliver screwed the club as much as they possibly could, it is not surprising that they remain towards the top of the list. Other star players have struck a better balance between taking a fair wage and allowing their clubs to add other quality players. Cameron is #17 ($950K - $1.05M), Dangerfield is off his big contract and is not on the list.

Negatives: one of the oldest and most experienced lists in the competition finished 14th for the second consecutive year, winning 4 less games than the year before. Opportunities to rejuvenate the list will be massively limited by the lack of coach, no first round draft pick and ridiculous contracts held by fading senior players. We're a shambles off field, with no home base, and are therefore completely undesirable to any prospective players, Positives: Langford is a gun. The win against Brisbane. No more Goodwin.

Don't all MCG tenants share the rooms? I don't think any club has designated rooms, so I would be very surprised if there were honour boards there. I agree that these are most likely cricket related. That said, it would be great to have a place that members can access to see all of this kind of memorabilia.

Noah looked really good on the weekend, albeit against fairly ordinary opposition with little pressure coming out of the middle. My concern is how he would fare against AFL level opposition in a senior side where we almost never hit a leading target on the chest. That said, I'd be more than happy to pay McAdam out and give Yze a rookie spot instead.

I really hope the MFC support the Casey alliance and make all eligible players available for the entire finals campaign. I'm a firm believer that playing as many high stakes games as possible against experienced opposition is much more valuable for young players than getting in an extra week or two of pre season running.

I'll be interested to see if Sydney have one last crack with their experienced core group, or if they take a step back and try to get some more games into their fringe players. If the former, you wonder whether the likes of Roberts, Sheldrick, Cleary or Campbell might look elsewhere for more significant opportunities. Not sure if any of these might suit us at the right price - Campbell certainly hasn't come on from his first year, but has some ability. They also have a number of more recent draftees who are yet to get a go.

So right in the range of where our third round pick would have fallen if that moron Lamb hadn't (indirectly) thrown in into Essendon's hands as part of the Lindsay deal. There are always negative consequences to that guy's meddling, even though he clearly thinks he is the smartest guy in the room.

I'd almost rather be sponsored by a betting agency or pokies operator than an insurance company when you hear how they conduct their businesses. At the end of the day the business models of both are based around screwing the little guy as much as possible.

I was disappointed when we let Jayden go, particularly regarding the way it was handled, and it is a shame that the move to West Coast didn't work out for him after the first year. Very few players make it past ten years in the AFL and 172 senior games is a great effort. Well done Jayden - I hope to see you back playing in bayside Melbourne next year.

The last thing this club needs is more levels of management and less accountability at each level. Presumably we would have the coach reporting to the head of football who reports to the strategy boss who reports to the CEO who reports to the board. As if any experienced coach is going to accept that. I'd much rather we support the coach with the football staff that he needs to get the best out of the playing group, rather than putting in more managers to meddle. That's the problem with hiring people who have worked in government entities - they are good at spending money and bad at taking responsibility.

I'm very happy with Tommy Mac getting another year, and okay with Melksham getting the same. However, I don't understand why we always rush into locking away veterans and rookies prior to the trade period, and I especially don't understand doing it when there is no coach in place. It significantly impacts our options in the trade period and in the drafts, so we end up with sub-optimal situations like taking Johnson in the national draft when he could have been a rookie.

Will all these star performers, why did we drop from 11 to 7 wins? The reality is that the majority of our list went backwards significantly. Bowey and Turner are the only players I'd argue have materially improved. Joeboy is spot on with the vast majority of that analysis.

The way May acts is exactly what I saw from the "cool kids" in my son's under 13 team. He abuses teammates, says things without thinking, carries on like everything is someone else's fault, undermines coaches and leaders, etc. The only reason it has been tolerated, as it was in the under 13s, is because of his football ability. Now that he is a liability on-field as well as off, it is well past time to cut him loose.

100 point loss coming up. Our kicking efficiency must be about 2%. Sub May off now before he embarrasses himself further.

I'd entertain offers for any / all of May, Salem, Sparrow and Langdon. Lever as well. Oliver is not going anywhere unless he takes a massive pay cut. Petracca is not going anywhere unless his new club offers up a king's ransom for him. Hopefully McDonald plays on, but I'm not fussed about Melksham. McVee's situation is definitely a concern. I'd be happy to see Sharp play VFL for the remainder of his contract.