poita

JKH should have been delisted at the end of 2017, but we stupidly gave him a new contract mid-season. Here we are two years later and he is still hanging around. I can't see where he has improved since his debut in 2014, but clearly others see something that I don't.

Are the taxi drivers competing this year?

Surely there is a difference between "banned from" a function and "not required to speak at" a function. Which is it? Or is this just one of those times where dum dums on the internet collectively get their panties in a bunch over nothing?

Good decision to cut ties with King, Filipovic & McKenna. I can't see any benefit to retaining Johnstone, even if his replacement is pick 100 in the rookie draft. Find the best available state league player and give him a chance on the list. Kennedy-Harris & T.Smith survive only because we have badly mismanaged our list over the past two years. Garlett, Maynard & Wagner are lucky they have contracts for next year, particularly the first two. I would have kept Pedersen around until after trade week, and Vince would be better value next year than the bottom ten players on our list.

I've been a massive fan of the way Pedo conducted himself on and off the field over the past 3-4 years, even when he wasn't getting the AFL games that his form warranted. I wish him all the best for the next stage of his life. That said, our ruck and key forward stocks are at critically low levels with the departure of Pederson, King & Filipovic. If Hogan was to leave as well the club would have a massive task to restock with limited draft picks available.

I always thought Bugg's best football was when he was being a pain in the backside tagging opposition midfielders. Once he was moved forward he seemed to lose his edge. If he could have spend his down time learning to kick properly, the Mills incident would have been forgotten. There is no place in the forward line of an AFL side for players who can't kick simple goals on a regular basis.

The gap between Kent's best and worst football is immense and he spends 90% of his time on the injury list. St Kilda are welcome to him at any price, especially if a three year contract is what it would take to keep him.

There is no way that 3 game memberships should have priority access to finals tickets. I understand why these memberships exist, but entry to 3 regular season games should be the extent of the benefits.

At the risk of derailing the thread, Smith kicked 12 goals 26 behinds for the VFL year and 5 goals 20 behinds since the start of July. He will be 28 before the start of next season. He is the absolute definition of a list clogger.

After a strong start, a Casey loss looked inevitable from about half way through the second quarter. How you expect to win a game with no ruckman and one marking forward (because the other is getting flogged in the ruck) is beyond me. The umpiring was abysmal, but Casey had far too many passengers. Fritsch is far too good for that level, and Petty showed some good signs, but the cupboard is otherwise completely bare in terms of players who could make the senior side better in 2019. I was really disappointed with Hunt's lack of impact, particularly in the second half, and Kennedy-Harris disappeared completely after quarter time. Relying on players such as Bugg and Wagner who have atrocious foot skills to deliver the ball inside 50 is a recipe for disaster. I hope the FD is prepared to do some major pruning of our list this year - retaining guys like McKenna, King, Filipovic, Bugg and Garlett would be a horrible decision.

Two days on, Saturday's performance is still hard to contemplate. I didn't think we'd win, but I thought we'd have a real crack. Sadly there was just zero effort or intensity from most of the team. There were signs against Hawthorn that we were getting tired, but that is no excuse for the lack of pressure and tackling that we saw. I feel so sorry for the supporters who spent thousands of dollars travelling to watch that tripe. The main thing I took from the game, which is something that I have suspected for most of the year, is that the gap between the top three sides and the rest is enormous. The gap between fourth and twelfth (perhaps even to sixteenth) is very small, but bridging the gap to third is going to take a heap of work (and luck). Teams such as Essendon, Geelong and North have been very aggressive already this off season, and we will get left behind if we don't add some serious quality to the list. Overall the season has been a success and a significant step forward, but we can't just assume that our next movement is up. Hopefully the players use this loss as motivation and come back bigger and better. It is imperative that we finish top four next season if we are to have any chance of winning a premiership.

I thought last week was the week to bring Smith in, and was surprised to see a change this week. That said, Fritsch was poor in defence last week and Smith (for all his flaws) is probably a better option overall. I would have dropped Hannan and pushed Fritsch forward, but perhaps Goodwin thinks Fritsch is tired and/or down on confidence. Hannan owes us a couple of goals this week, because he has been ordinary in both finals. I'm glad Tyson stays in as we need as much midfield depth as possible, and other than last week his form has been pretty good.

What's with all these nuffies asking for barcodes? Go and buy a membership and support the club you cheapskates.

Because most of their fans are arrogant toss bags who go to two games a year and know about 4 players, but walk around acting as though they are the sole reason for the club's success. Most of their players have never bothered me.

I'd honestly rather have Isaac Weetra back on the list than Gary Rohan.

Be honest re Johnstone (and the same applies for King & Filipovic as well) - if he wasn't on our list already, there is nobody on the planet who would be advocating that he be recruited based on his performances over the past two years. If he is not good enough to be drafted in November, why would you offer him a new contract? Time to cut our losses and give someone else a go.

Of course we would if we thought it would make our team stronger. How is Scully leaving Melbourne any different to Lever leaving Adelaide, or any other player who moves clubs? And I doubt that any of our current list really cares about a decision that was made 7 years ago that most of them would have made if they were in the same position.

Totally agree with this. Throwing the club 70 bucks or whatever it costs to become a 3 game member these days is not supporting the club. It's on par with having a magazine subscription. Supporting the club is going to games and cheering on the team. Clearly there are people overseas and interstate who follow the club, but I don't see why the regular attendees should miss out when it matters most.

Good call, although it is as much about the players you bring in as the ones who go out. Not only did Woewodin leave, but we brought in Heffernan and Moorcroft who never wanted to leave Essendon, and Fatboy Pickett who was there just for the money.

http://vfl.com.au/vfl-votes/ http://vfl.com.au/vfl-team-of-the-year/ Lucas Cook in team of the year - what a star!

I think we'd look better with an extra defender in the team, probably Joel Smith, but this is still a decent side that has no excuses for not performing well. Great to see Tyson get up this week - his form has been good and we need midfield depth to beat Geelong. In fact I think a tired midfield is the main reason we fell away in the last quarter in round 18. Geelong were running about ten guys through the middle against our 5 or 6.

Just go and find the best state league ruckman available and recruit them with a late national draft pick or a rookie pick. The era of clubs giving an 18 year draft pick five years to show something is over. The reality is that talented talls will walk for more game time as soon as they feel their path to senior football is blocked, as is the case with any ruck behind Gawn at Melbourne. With the VFL reserves gone, I can't see anything other than the elite young ruckmen (Kreuzer, Grundy, etc) being drafted in future. Why spend years developing a project ruck when the chances of finding a good one are so low, and when you can pinch one from another club for a third round pick? Better to let the state leagues do the work for you.

Far better to give a bloke like Freeman a chance on a one year deal than waste another year on Johnstone / McKenna / King / etc who clearly will never make it.

Congratulations Bernie on a wonderful career. You have been all class since walking through the door five years ago, and I hope you get a chance to finish on a high note either in the AFL or VFL. Hopefully you stay connected to the MFC, but best wishes for the future either way.

Each venue has its own ticketing agent. That said, it is not good enough for the AFL not to demand improvements. These companies make an absolute fortune from selling AFL tickets. If the AFL were serious they could sell their own tickets and cut out the middle man.