poita

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you don't want to be subjected to dynamic pricing, buy a membership.

I've been saying it all year, 90% of what Oscar does is excellent, 10% is atrocious. There is so much positive stuff in his game, he just needs to eliminate the bad stuff, and that will come with experience and confidence. Yesterday he didn't go hard enough at marking contests a couple of times early. Thereafter he was excellent. I fully expect him to play each week, irrespective of match ups. If anything, Frost or Tom can play on the smaller forwards, eg Dickson this week.

I'd be more than happy to have Zak on board, but the trade price is key. Hawthorn got Tom Mitchell for pick 14 and a swap of late picks. Jones is not worth that, but I'd certainly grab him for our 2nd round pick, which is currently sitting at 28. That's about what we gave up for Melksham, and I rate Zak higher than Jake. Sydney might be forced to deal at that level, unless North or another team jumps in with an earlier 2nd round pick. PS Supercoach points are not a reason to trade or not trade for players.