pantaloons

Once the number is revealed I'll be heading down to the club to pick up a guernsey for my son. Great stuff for the MFC today. Our best day since landing Clark.

That's about right pick-wise, so it'll either be that or Big Stef off to Eddieland. Maybe swap fourth rounders. That's hilarious. Gotta love pre-trade posturing. I'm keen to see Dawes come across and I think we should be able to get something sorted. There have been some wacky comments from the Pies lately though, such as the one you've mentioned, and Eddie's Wellingham comments.

I don't know why Melbourne would be looking at this sort of trade until 10.05am on Monday once we know what pick we'll be using for Viney. This trade would start to sound sane if it was pick 26 instead of 14, but even then it's not even.

No. The point was, the article offers nothing to suggest we would trade him or that he would want to go. This could've written about any player in the league.

In other news, Lance Franklin will be traded if he and Hawthorn so desire.

The problem with free agency compensation not being distributed until October 19 is that it's going to drag out most trades until the final week. If Viney slips to the second round, our second rounder is off the trade table, but with Moloney and Rivers compo, we could end up with a useful second round trading chip. So while if we are going to trade Martin it'd be nice to know what art of return we could get, we don't exactly know what our assets are yet, and I'm preparing to have to wait 2-3 weeks to see honour trades unfold.

Strike me pink. Pick 118 for him, and they'd have to throw in Riewoldt.

Sydney weren't trading top 5 picks though. In the last nine offseasons, guess how many top 5 picks have been traded. One - for the best player in the game at the time, Chris Judd. I'm not against getting players from other teams, but we have to build smartly.

He will be turning 48 in 2034 though.

Thanks for that. I would ask something like "I thought they were getting rid of the veteran's list - what's going on?" preempting a one page, vitriolic response from across Demonland around how I need to read the rules, but I'll just take your word for it.

According to the Hun - Geelong leads race for Gold Coast midfielder Josh Caddy "Geelong, however, could be a big winner of the trade period if they can lure Caddy, with North Melbourne ruckman Hamish McIntosh and Melbourne defender Jared Rivers also likely trade aquisitions. After 150 games in 10 years with the Demons, Rivers is keen to join Geelong on a three-year deal believed to be worth $350,000 a season. But he may have to wait until close to the free agency deadline on October 19 before knowing his fate with the Cats, who can officially start dealing for Caddy with the Suns on Monday when the annual player-exchange period begins." It's folly to believe anything you read during the Gilette trade period until deals are signed, sealed and delivered, but if that figure is accurate, then thanks for your service over 10 years, Jared. With Frawley, McDonald and Garland already in the backline, we can't be shelling out that sort of coin. It bodes well for the compensation though.

If we give up trying to draft a star with an early pick and instead trade it away for B-graders, it is time to shut the place down.

Too confident. Let's get a nice kid instead.

If there is indeed some mutual interest in Wellingham and Dawes to Melbourne, I'd say this will be stretched out to October 26 while the Pies ask for pick 4 and we offer pick 14 + stuff. While I'll happily have these two in our team next year, we can't part with pick 4 for them. Unless we're insane, we'll keep pick 4 off the table, and there should become chance Collingwood will relent and accept 14 and something useful given their salary cap squeeze. They have a great recent history of getting the best out of their players, and Wellingham is easily replaced and they've pretty much already replaced Dawes. But again, I'm bracing for another 23 days of this.

Classic large footy. He's contracted for another two or three years.

He doesn't want to be seen as a downhill skiier off the field as well as on the field.

As long as he comes with a cassette of Benny Hill music so that it lightens the mood every time he gets the ball and runs around like a headless chook before kicking it to the opposition.

Seriously, player contracts need to become public knowledge, as is custom in sports around the world. That Collingwood could afford a huge offer to Tippett smells of complete rort.

I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to Melbourne's free agent targets, but I can only assume this is some horrendous joke. Soft, not good enough, just a shocking idea.

I'm not sure there have been so many rejections, just us not wanting to end up with gonorrhoea.

Yes. We weren't getting Clark for $300k and a free tour of the MCC Long Room. It didn't take him long to invest himself in the place though. We're going to have to pony up if we want a star like Tippett.

Somewhere out there is someone who thinks $26 on Richmond for the flag is good value and has a punt. Someone who needs to be shut away from society for the greater good.

The game was won and lost with two behinds from Brad Sewell in the last five minutes. I dare say that purely by chance, Ryan Ferguson would have snaffled one.

This was a feature of our last really good team, 2000. Yze 37, Powell 32, Bruce 22, Woewodin 20, Leoncelli 15, Johnstone 15.

Nice effort, dr. Just to nitpick, I'd leave pick 4 out of a Butcher deal. We'd be madder than Brynne Edelsten to trade Gysberts for Gellong's second rounder (34-40ish) and we'd be lucky to get anything more than the world's second-largest ball of twine in return for Cook. Your Wellingham-Martin deal is the most realistic proposal regarding those players I've seen on this site.