poita

I much preferred Bugg as a pesky tagger in his early years at the club, as opposed to the permanent forward role he played over the past two seasons. Either way his poor kicking prevented him from getting a regular game at AFL level, but he was a consistent contributor at VFL level. I could understand if he is a bit miffed that the likes of Garlett and Maynard continue at the club whilst he is out the door.

27 years old in a couple of days, played 2 career games, dropped after both. We are in a lot of trouble if he is playing regular football next year.

Hopefully the latter - Johnstone is miles off AFL. Not sure why he wasn't delisted last week with the others.

I don't see that Jordan Lewis is any different to anyone else on our list. If his form is good he plays senior football, if his form is rubbish he plays in the VFL. If he cracks the sads and refuses to play in the VFL, then we rip up his contract and tell him to bugger off. I have no issue with him playing 3-4 games, then resting him against a Gold Coast or Carlton to keep him fresh. Prior to his diabolical effort against West Coast, Lewis's form had been good and nobody was suggesting otherwise. The idea that he was keeping anyone out of the side is laughable. Who would you have brought in - Dion Johnstone?

What a massive disappointment Garlett was this year. He clearly didn't want to be playing football at any point of the season. I hope he can sort out whatever personal problems he has been dealing with this year, and come back strongly next year. If he doesn't want to be an AFL footballer any more, I hope he can step away now rather than going through the motions for another 12 months.

I couldn't justify having both Dion Johnstone & Lockhart on the list. If we delist Johnstone, then Lockhart becomes a viable option with a late draft or rookie selection.

I would definitely keep Tyson. Let's not forget that Kennedy-Harris was in the side until Viney returned, and he is a long way from being an AFL footballer. Perhaps Tyson is not automatic best 22, but every team has injuries during the course of a season and you need some cover. I would hate to lose Tyson and have to resort to playing a bloke like Maynard in a big game. At least you know that Tyson will find the footy and use it reasonably well.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If we don't think we can play finals, by all means play Weideman for the next two weeks. He is not even close to AFL standard at present, so a decent reality check might be the best thing to spur him to put in a massive pre season. He needs to get fitter, stronger, tougher, smarter - the whole lot. If we think finals are achievable, and I think this week is very winnable, then Goodwin needs to finds the 22 most in form, seasoned footballers he has this week. If that means playing a small forward line so be it. If he wants to replace Hogan with another tall, Weideman's inability to provide a genuine physical contest makes him a liability against good sides.

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.

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.