poita

I'm not sure that Hannebery was ever the right fit for our midfield, but I am glad to hear that the club is actively seeking ready made midfielders in this trade / draft period. We have badly neglected the midfield over the past couple of years, and our depth is severely lacking in this area. Gaff would be a great get and I hope there are other free agents on our hit list as well.

The biggest problem with Taylor is his obsession with drafting / recruiting small and medium sized forwards at the expense of genuine midfielders. Tyson is pretty much the only midfielder we have at Casey, so we are in a world of trouble if we lose another midfielder to injury in the next month. Oliver was the last midfielder we brought in and that was almost three years ago. I think we should be taking a midfielder in every draft. Other than that, and the Weideman debacle, he has done a very good job.

I can think of ten players I'd move on before Keilty. I'm more than happy to see him kept on for next year, even if he doesn't make his debut this year.

Good in theory, but we'll cop a home game at Etihad if we leave the NT deal. We'd be lucky to get 15K for any of GWS, GC17 or Freo there.

Great news for one of the nicest blokes in footy. I wish him very, very well.

Totally agree with all of this. I would never, ever contemplate trading Hogan, but if someone wanted to make us a ridiculous offer for Petracca I'm starting to think it would be worth considering. Hunt has some value, but he offers something that we desperately need - I hope he stays. We desperately need to add top 30 draft picks to the list this year, given our lack of high picks over the past two seasons. Otherwise we face having another imbalance on our list in a few years time.

Delist: McKenna, Vandenberg, Kennedy-Harris, Johnstone, and one or both of King / Filipovic Retire: Vince Trade/Delist: Kent or Bugg Retain on short-term deals: Keilty, Balic, Smith, Pedersen, Wagner Resign on long-term deals: Brayshaw, Harmes, Jetta, McDonald That gives a minimum of seven picks across the national draft and rookie draft before further trades. I hope we can keep Tyson, but Frost would be surely looking for more opportunities. Clearly Kent has small trade value and Bugg no trade value, but I can't see the value in keeping both. Maynard is very lucky he has a contract for next year, because I can't see him getting a game unless we have a truck load of injuries. If it was up to me I would delist both ruckmen and find a decent mature age state league ruckman. King and Filipovic are light years away from being AFL ruckmen, and even then they'd be more likely to be poached by another team before Gawn retires.

I'm more than happy to see him go. There is no doubting his ability, but due to injury and lack of application (he never plays more than two decent games in a row. I can't see how he has any bargaining power at Melbourne given his past two seasons, and would happily take a top 50 draft pick for him. I'd be interested to know where this talk of midfield time has come from - he is not within a million miles of having the endurance to play in the midfield.

Surely at least one of King and Filipovic is gone at year end. Welcome Austin, hope to see you grace the MCG for the MFC over the next few years.

I suspect football has always come so easily to Petracca that he has never had to work particularly hard to succeed. For the first time in his football life the expectations of him are now exceeding his performances. I hope he can respond, because he clearly has all the attributes to be a super player. At present though, he is a player who is trying to do several brilliant things a game, rather than a large number of very good things, and he is failing (eg his putrid kicking on Sunday). Brayshaw looks like someone who has always had to work harder to get to the top, and that will hold him in good stead if he can keep healthy. He'll never be a superstar, but he can be a very good player in a very good team (not the same type of player necessarily, but a Joel Corey / James Kelly type at Geelong).

Tend to agree with this. There are just too many of these stories floating around to think that it is a happy camp at present. Hopefully there are just one or two dissidents who can quietly be ushered out the back door. If it is more widespread than one or two, then clearly there is a major problem that Jackson and Mahoney need to handle immediately.

The more I think about this decision, the more I hate it. My 7 year old son has probably never seen a poker machine in his life, and certainly wouldn't know what to do with one. For most people they are out of sight and out of mind. I certainly can't see anybody forcing people to use them. On the other hand, sports betting is absolutely everywhere - at the football, on the TV, in the newspapers. My son certainly knows all about the odds, even though nobody in the family gambles. It is a far, far bigger problem, not least of all because it can be done any time, any where without anybody knowing. For the AFL community to decide that pokies are the work of the devil on one hand, but support the betting agencies on the other, is incredibly hypocritical. However this is fairly typical of an industry that chooses to go all in on certain causes and turn a blind eye to others, depending on the views of its financial backers.

Yet another example of a small minority of people not wanting to take responsibility for their actions and hence the majority who do the right thing and have some self control suffer.

I understand why we have moved on from Luna Park, but I thought yesterday was a little disappointing by comparison. There were really very few activities for kids, and no rides, and I thought they could have made better use of the players (Jordan Lewis was fantastic interacting with kids in the arts & crafts section, but far too many of them seemed to go missing for large parts of the morning. I get that it is not fun signing your name for two hours straight, but surely it is a small price to pay for making a few kids happy). My suggestions for next year: 1. Have a signing area for the big name players where you only need to line up once, rather having to line up ten different times. 2. More players helping out with the activities, engaging with the kids. It is a great way for the younger kids to become comfortable interacting with fans, in a relaxed environment. 3. More rides / skill activities. Even run a mini clinic or two. 4. Have a bit more space between activities, so that lines are not running into each other. PS. When you advertise something as being at the MCG, I was hoping it would actually be on the MCG.

Thanks again for your great work getting this running each year. PC Demons is back again.

I find it incredible, and highly concerning, that we have so many fringe players coming out of contract next year (Balic, Bugg, Filipovic, Keilty, JKH, Kent, King, Johnstone, McKenna, Smith, Vandenberg, Wagner). Add in potential retirees and there is a good 12 - 15 players who may need to be replaced this time next year. Hopefully a few of those guys step up and earn a new contract, but surely best practice would be to spread these types of contracts out and to have delisted a few more players this year so that we could have had some rookie picks.

Wow, 12 months of work by the recruiters results in us reading out the name of a midget with bad shoulders with our first pick. This ought to end well.

I buy an 11 game reserved seat membership each year. The money I have saved over the past 17 years of no forking out for a higher membership level far outweighs the cost of buying a GF ticket on the black market. Why anybody would pay for a guaranteed GF ticket for a club that hasn't played finals for 11 years is beyond me, but each to their own. I really dislike the idea of the club bleeding loyal supporters dry when it keeps on wasting money on boneheaded decisions such as paying players to pay for other clubs (Watts), or to not even play at all (Garland, Lumumba).

This will make three years in a row that we've traded out of the first round. Those are the actions of a team that is premiership contention, not one that can't even finish top 8. We have a below average midfield, with terrible depth across the board. Pick 35 in a weak draft is basically worthless, I'm not sure why we bothered asking for it. So why the hell have we given up two first round picks, both of which could be in the top 10, for a defender? I'm sure he'll be a good player for the club, but we need to stop the ball getting down there, not worry about what happens when it gets there. Every year it seems as though we talk tough and end up capitulating as time ticks away. Other teams must [censored] themselves laughing when they see us coming. I'm bitterly disappointed that we've given up any chance of landing a top quality midfielder either this year or next.

Its astonishing that you can get 9 years on a senior list and never once be your club's number one ruckman. I thought Jake was okay depth for a while there, but he really fell away over the last year or two. His inability to put pressure on a flailing Gawn late this season really hurt us. I would be gobsmacked if he was at another club next season, and he really only has himself to blame if old dee's post above is accurate.

I hope Adelaide dig their feet in and demand two first round picks. Surely Melbourne aren't stupid enough to give in (although we have been known to agree to some horrific trades), and turn their attention elsewhere. Our midfield is a much bigger problem than our backline, and Lever showed on Saturday that he is not up to the task of leading the defence. I'm sure he'll be a great player if he can play as a loose man forever, but he's not the big bodied "gorilla minder" that we need.

We did waste a few years looking in New Zealand. Are the odds of plucking a player from Ireland any better than looking at other sports (eg basketball or athletics)?

Totally agree with this. There is a big difference between making list changes that actually improve your list, and making changes so it looks like you are actually doing something. I'm not sold on Lever as being the type of player we desperately need, and certainly not if we get sucked into a ridiculous bidding war / pissing contest with Adelaide and / or other clubs. I'm more than happy to hit the draft hard over the next few years and ensure that we keep our list together in the meantime.

No issues with taking him with a rookie pick or very late draft pick if he is still available, but there is no way we should be using high draft picks on mid-sized forwards. You take genuine midfielders and key position players in the first two rounds of the draft, especially as a developing team.

The biggest problem with our defence is Sam Frost. We all admire the way he takes the game on, but he turns the ball over far too often and consequently is 50 metres out of position when the ball is kicked back over his head. It happened on numerous occasions on Saturday and either Brown was left on his own or Jetta was forced to cover. If you are playing on the opposition's best forward, you have to sacrifice your game and stay close. Oscar, on the other hand, is the sort of player you can build a defence around because he is (almost) always where he is supposed to be. Yes, he needs to get stronger and tougher in the contest so he can take the number 1 forward each week, but that will happen over time. Jetta is similarly dependable, but unfortunately he isn't another four inches taller. That said, we certainly didn't lose because of the back line. We lost because our midfield collectively gave it up in the last quarter.