pantaloons

Yep, the Fan's Eye is a good addition. Well done, and very humorous. I have to say, that North Melbourne's list does little for me. Perhaps its because I haven't watched as many non-Melbourne games in the last couple of years and therefore less AFL, but I don't understand how, if this is pretty much their best 22, they win games. They possess quite a dwarven forward line minus the key positions, and their backline is very average. The centreline is honest without being spectacular. Simpson's had a great career but is on the wrong side of it. Dean Laidley should be awarded Coach of the Year status if they make the finals this year. That all said, we're fairly rancid ourselves and I'm picking North by a point. I do love our backline, and I'm happy to see the likes of Jetta and Bennell in there for some pace.

Richard Pratt must have run out of things to spend money on.

Haven't read every post here, so sorry if it's already been raised, but two years was an overly generous offer to CJ anyway. Why two year deals are offered to clearly sub-par players like CJ and Newton is beyond me.

I agree with what you've said, Scoop. Not because I value CJ as a footballer, but because it's sad that the son of a former club star can't be stuffed pulling on the jumper.

I'd rather Dean Bailey hadn't come out and said he was disappointed in Johnson. Again it paints us as the dateless dweeb on prom night. In reality, we've lost an incredibly soft player who was never going to be a part of any premiership side, so let's move on. If pick 51/67 doesn't turn out to be better than Chris Johnson, then that will be an indictment on our drafting.

Great work, Ron! I think he stabbed some guy with a trident!

This is pure gold. I can't believe I'm contributing post #54 on Charlie freakin' Gardiner. I haven't read them all, but I will suggest that whether Gardiner is better than 3 or 4 or 8 current Melbourne players is not of concern to me. What is of concern is making sure Melbourne either used the first pick in the preseason draft on a player who may legitimately aid us in our premiership quest, or pass and have filled our list via the national draft. Using the pick on a guy who has been rejected by 2 clubs, is clearly not up to it and wouldn't be part of our best 22 is a complete waste of everybody's time and would be another list management calamity. Gardiner being better than players like Bartram isn't a reason put them both on the list, it's a blatant hint that neither of them should be on there.

If that is indeed our home schedule, then I'm happy all of our home games are at the G bar the one we [censored] off to Canberra. I'd imagine Demonland would have gone into meltdown had we been given two or three Telstra Dome home games like we used to cop. I'd take the G at 3am on a Tuesday over Friday night at the Dome.

A few people have scoffed at the notion that footballers might not want to travel an hour to training. Fair point. Don't ignore the choice factor though. If you were a banker and there were 9 banks in Melbourne, would you choose to work for the one furthest from your home over the others?

Ultimately, if Ryan O'Keefe nominates for the preseason draft, then it is up to Melbourne, not O'Keefe, whether we pick him or not. He can nominate his price, but we're in no worse position to match it than anyone else. The thing is, do we want to? Given that he's at the tail end of his career, and will be commanding a lot of money for a half forward flanker. I'd be interested for sure though. He has to decide whether he wants to play for a contender in Sydney, or just come home now. He won't get to a contender in Victoria now that the trading period has passed. As others have noted, if he's not taken by Melbourne, he'll go to Richmond or Carlton, neither of whom will be in flag mode in the next 2 years with or without him. I'd stay in Sydney if I was O'Keefe.

Yes, but Nugget is right also. Bruce (along with Peverill incidentally) were on Melbourne's supplementary list in 1999 and played very well in our reserves.

BB, With GC17 coming in, our task of acquiring good draft picks was made very difficult. That proposed Wheatley to Sydney for pick 30 deal was a comedic supernova. As was discussed well before trade week, Hawthorn in a way has made it difficult for the clubs that have tried to copy their method, as other clubs have looked at their trades and learnt from them. Who wants to be the club that gives us the number 1 pick for Trent Croad now? Or good picks for players like Hay, Rawlings and Thompson? We did realise Brad Green's trading value, but he refused to go to Sydney, and Collingwood's insulting offers were never going to get the job done. While we knew his value, other clubs didn't meet that realisation. I'd have liked to have picked up deals for the likes of Wheatley, CJ, Jamar and Bell too, but we'd have received very little in return - it'd have been the same as delisting them since we likely won't pick past 51 if we even use that pick. Keep in mind that if we had traded Jamar we'd have had to trade for another ruckman (Taylor, Seaby) which would have meant overall our draft position would have suffered for lttle gain.

Thanks Rhino and titan. Good news indeed. And Rhino, I'm with you on the captaincy front.

The only message that will make Warnock and Prismall regret their choices is the improvement of the club into a premiership force in 3-5 years time, ahead of Carlton and Essendon. Let's face it, we're not going to be able to do that by luring players to our club. The romantic notion of players choosing to come to our aid in a time of dire need is great, but we're dealing with footballers here, hardly the deepest thinkers humanity has to offer. We can't rely on other clubs' starts coming our way to help us out. We need to start drafting well, and not piddling our first round draft picks up the wall like we do most years. We have to change the public perception of us as the flatulating dullard cousin by ourselves. I'm not in the slightest bit annoyed that we couldn't land an overpriced or injury-ridden player from another club by sacrificing a draft pick this week. It would have been nice to offload some players for draft picks, but you can't force other clubs to give up picks they refuse to part with. Attention now turns to both drafts. Melbourne must draft extremely well, especially with the first three selections. We have to make it a massive priority to convince a currently uncontracted quality player that Melbourne is the place to be in 2009 and take them in the PSD. It's in our hands.

Forgive me, the AFL and club websites don't work on my computer. Has Green officially resigned or agreed to do so?

If we could, we would!

We have enough sub-standard footballers on our list without adding Corrie. Assuming he's contracted, it's a good move by Brisbane to get rid of a dud contract. Collingwood's Rhyce Shaw deal is a real nothing one, unless Shaw plays some good football for Sydney over the next couple of years. As for the Ray deal, both teams supporters would probably feel happy with this, but in reality have gained little. The Saints fans will learn how ordinary Ray is, and the upgrade of 48 to 31 isn't massive for the Dogs.

Translating St. Kilda's "interest" into an actual trade for Carroll would be an amazing turn of events. I just can't see it happening though, regardless of what happens with his salary.

That's a bit harsh. Why should Freo be punished out of this? They've got a turdburger who's ditching them and nominating one club in a city of nine teams. They've got to do the best thing by themselves.

I know, Old. Maybe I'm getting antsy because his procrastination has left us with some hasty work to do. If I see an article appear today saying that he's re-signed, I'll be happy. I'm just not sure how likely that is at this stage.

Just keep the picks unless something very special comes up, Dees. If Prismall's there in the PSD and is the best available for our needs, then great. Otherwise, enjoy Windy Hill, Brent.

Damn players rights!! Ideally, I'd ship Green off to Sydney for pick 16 and be done with it, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too - wants to leave the Dees, but not leave the city of Melbourne. Wants to go to a contender, but not Sydney. He's shown us no consideration throughout this whole process - we've got less than 28 hours to work out a deal for him, and he's still umming and ahhing about what he wants to do. I wouldn't put it past him to head into the PSD. This doesn't mean I want to ditch him for pick 29 and a packet of stale apricot chews, but we can't afford to have him waltz into the PSD and get nothing. Much of the onus is on him now. The longer he continues in his dithering ways, the less likely a positive result for him and the club is.

Greg Denham was on SEN with KB earlier this morning and had to choke back laughter when KB asked if Carroll was going to be traded. He didn't provide any answers on whether there had been any progress in the process of getting rid of him.

Who's calling him a dud? We're talking about trading our best player for him.

Sadly Pax, we'd have to give up Carroll and pick 17 in return for pick 50, just in order for someone to take Carroll onto their list. I'd hoped we could do something like what you've suggested a little while ago, but there is just no way any club would want Carroll and his extensive baggage. On a simliar premise, I'm staggered at the interest in another cuckoo in Andrew Lovett.