ignition.

Mitchell is worth considering for a 1-year rookie contract on the basis his body is still up to it (passes medical). At worst, he'd create a tough opponent on the training ground for the likes of Rivers and Langford to compete against. He was also the master of running patterns (paired with his endurance), so while some might argue that we already have enough veterans to pass knowledge, if he has a good enough character to lead and teach, his footy smarts are second-to-none. He'd also provide on-ball depth following the departure of Oliver and Petracca (Steele has covered Oliver, but no one has covered the loss of Petracca). Considering our already squeezed and [now] lesser salary cap, with much offloaded to Gold Coast and GWS. Mitchell in at an insalely cheap price offers value for money.

Care to elaborate why?

To be fair, I'd prefer their run of success than ours. At least they have their culture right and all cogs appear to be moving. We have to content with Richardson and Lamb screwing FD and list up.

Agreed on Will Brodie if available. I'm also a big fan of Cooper Harvey if available.

This trade and draft period, particularly the former, I'll be watching and judging Lamb's performance closely. I feel we've made some excellent inroads to get club back on track. I commend Green on his work as president, am pleased to see Steven Smith elected to the board late last year, a change from Gary Pert to Paul Guerra, and of course the appointment of Steven King as coach. The one thing I've been critical on these last few years is the state of the list management. While drafting lead by Jason Taylor has been second to none, trading critical replacements after the loss of Jackson (Fee), Brayshaw (med.ret.), ANB (Ade), Brown (ret.), Hibberd (ret.) has left a lot to be desired. Grundy, McAdams, Schache, Billings, Sharp. If we look to the Todd Viney and Josh Mahoney list management prior, they built that premiership winning list around the midfield via trade (Lever, May, Brown, Langdon). I attribute much of the current list woes to Lamb, and to a lesser extent, Richardson. My other gripe is Lamb's inability to negotiate (trades and player contracts), or at least that's my perception. Having been in multimillion dollar sales for a while, I get the impression that he has a tendency to promptly go straight to floor price and then try to pick up pieces when he encounters the inevitable push back (I see it all too often in my line of work). With all that said, I can't be too harsh, I certainly acknowledge and commend his knowledge and contribution to the player selections associated with the draft (alongside Taylor). I believe his pros outweigh his cons. Perhaps he needs to read 'Never Split the Difference' (to start) and/or get some 3rd-party help for his negotiations. To me this trade period is critical if we genuinely believe that we can win another premiership with the likes of Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Lever, Langdon, McDonald, Melksham, and Viney on the list. I certainly think it's possible. So where to now? We still need that tall forward and Charlie Curnow is allegedly on the market, but do we have the salary cap available (an A+ list manager would make it work)? Sure there's Mihocek, but his best is well passed and at what cost? Flanders is also rumoured, a great get for the right price. Which prospects with some upside are available for silverware (Harvey?)? I just hope that Lamb and the MFC are successful during this trade period as it appears to be inflection point for the premiership-capable vererans on our list.

Agreed, and my mistake having worked off my phone. I will send my previous post over to the other one.

[Redacted] See 'The List Manager Thread'

Cooper's game against us in Round 18 was excellent. He was one of North's best on that day. Currently out of contract, with North not guaranteeing him a contract and shopping him around. His other games showed he has development to come, but, if we can get him for silverware, he's worth it!

The AFL and their outcome doesn't suprise me. But let's face it, if this were the week before or the first week of finals with May being in the #1 ranked side, he'd get off scott free (e.g. Maynard). If the ball had bounced forward to May's advantage and Evans still collided with him for the same outcome, again, he'd get off scott free. The AFL spoke of May having 0.56 seconds to react to not contact, how much time did Evan's have to react to avoid contact which wasn't taken?

Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?

Ahh... Fritta... just love him. He's my favourite player. Said it a few times here, there's only one problem with him, we don't have two of him. I remembered his draft year. I was excited to see him come via Casey. That year I had started a new job, well career path, and made a new mate who was a country boy Queenslander. I asked him, do you have a footy team, he said "I'm thinking about the Bombers" (there were two reasons, we were both in aviation and he had an old bombers mate). I responded in a joking yet scarily serious way "Mate, if you're going to be a bombers fan, we can't be friends". I then said, "I'll take you to your first game, my shout". So off we went to the MCG. He was so intrigued and perplexed by the size of Spargo (also in the same draft year as Fritta), simply because he too was short and had grown up playing rugby, stated he had the heart but not the physic. To cut a story short, we won, he became a Dee and for the rest of the year while we we at the academy, we just spoke Dees. He'd often whisper " Spargo...." through the comms to which I'd reply "Fritta....". These days he's back in Queensland but he's a Dee for life and each week when the footy is on we frantically write to one another through the match.

I'm thrilled with this one. For a good 1-2 years I've hoped (and proposed on here) that the Dees target who they deem the best forward across the state league competitions so at minimum we have more tall forward depth. I hope he promptly adapts to the AFL environment and can step straight into the main lineup for an immediate impact to help us contend another premiership while we have the likes of Gawn, May, and Viney still making an impact.

I found it perplexing that he was a part of the internal review, yet all roads seemed to lead to him (at least there needed to be some form of accountability from a culture perspective).

Beat me to it :D

Clint Bartram, Cale Morton, .... heck Mark Neeld?

I'm thrilled with this one. I genuinely believe he is a Best 22 player that's capable of holding his own in a premiership side. I just hope he can have a great preseason, some luck with with injury or specifically lack there of, and secure his opportunity for a spot in the side where he can string multiple games together.

To be honest, I wouldn't complain if the club picked him back up to provide us more depth in the talls. He'd be cheap as chips and upgrade to Schache.

I agree and remember this. Allegedly Schache and Francis went head to head that year (as a FWD and BACK) to which Schache came out on top. If I recall correctly he also kicked some record number of goals? or something to that effect. Charlie Curnow was also highly touted but had some form of police misdemeanor prior to the draft. On draft night then commentator Sando expected us to select a tall either Weideman (first named) or Curnow (second named)... then it went over to Roosy.

I can't quite recall the reason for Sam's move to Essendon? Please correct me accordingly, but did he choose to go in the hope to seek more opportunity, while the MFC had preference to retain him? Or was it mutual?

The intricacies of his contract and any trade currency requested is just speculation for us outside of the trading circles. It's no different to us letting go Grundy while still having to pay some his contract. I doubt the difference that can be negotiated is not far off what ANB is about to free up. From a midfielder perspective, three above are stated. Oliver had a terrible year and we're hoping he gets back to his former self in 2025. Rivers showed promise and can certainly take another step forward in that position but is not guaranteed. He is also sensational off the half-back. Trac is still very much of an "if" and if he does get back one can argue his brilliance up forward if someone like Macrae is working his brilliance on ball. So what else do we have for 'elite midfield depth'? Nothing really. Sparrow also spends time at the centre and can pinch hit in there as does Pickett. Brayshaw was forced into early retirement. I also have to disagree that Macrae is a defensive liability. Likewise, former quotes from others that he's merely a first-touch midfiedler. It's always amusing at this time of year when people disagree with a player they're often labelled as 'slow, one-touch, one-dimensional'. For me, Macrae is a gun and if a good deal can be struck he'll slot right in where he can fill the void left by either Brayshaw or ANB whilst keeping us competitive trying to push for another premiership while we have the likes of May, Gawn and Viney in the team.

You're welcome. I've always rated him and watched him many times. For many years people questioned us taking Toumpas ahead of Wines, well we also took Toumpas ahead of Macrae who is arguably more to the playing style then-coach Mark Neeld wanted in the team, a "Swan (Viney) and Pendlebury (Toumpas/Macrae), instead of two Dane Swans (Viney & Wines)" (quoted something to that effect). The stats alone show Macrae is certainly not just a "first-possession" midfielder but rather a magnet.

Time to scrap any form of investment we have in the NGA. Spend the time and energy elsewhere. At best, get an aspiring volunteer clubman down there assisting with perhaps a couple check-ins with senior staff per year to show some form of investment from the club and brand awareness if it's ever appreciated.

This one stings. The trade/draft period where the AFL decided to change the rules. Andrew should have been ours under the NGA academy. Taylor and the team had put in a tremendous amount of work. The worst part was that it wasn't the first time they changed the rules on the eve of the draft. They did the same the year Jack Viney was due to be drafted forcing our hand to select him in the Top 10 while prior years the like of Gary Ablett Jr was selected at pick 40. If we didn't win the premiership that year (and I'm glad we did) would the AFL had changed that rule to prevent us from getting him and seeing him go at Pick 5? The AFL have become a manipulated socialist system as the push for 'equal outcome' instead of 'equal opportunity'.

Wasn't he caught binging at the local TAB/Pub day after day while he was suppose to be in rehab as well?

Yeah, it does appear that way. Will be interesting to see how the cats go* if they secure him and Smith. They are the masters of recycling their list and staying competitive*. Edit *