Deecisive

Pace has its place on the field, usually when you need someone breaking the lines. Ïn the mid field you need fast reactions, get the ball and get rid of it in a split second to another player on the outside as most decent players these days have people hanging off their elbow ready to tackle. Ablett is not super fast, but is damn hard to catch. We need players who have good speed of foot but better speed, stand up in a tackle and have great ball handling skills .

We do not have the $$ and are not an attractive enough destination for A grade players, Roos at the Swans pulled together a premiership team from a lot of refuse and ordinary players. I expect him to continue to look for value in the players that are available and look for guys who play the part he wants them to play. I am sure he and the recruiting team will look at everyone, look at their stats, clips of their game style, etc to ensure they do not over look a diamond in the rough that may fit into our team. I have every confidence that they will be trying to bring in experienced players who will help lift Melbourne next year and the year after, etc....

No he didnt lay a tackle, but i loved that thing he did when he had the ball and threw it down onto the ground and it bounced up and he caught it and ran on again... wow I wonder some melbourne players could actually learn how to do that. As for his long bombs, i think the speed of his ball movement and the fact that he gets an extra 20-30 meters because of his runs its likely to give our forwards more chance of having one on one contests rather than the slow movement around the cape and back again that results in 36 players all in our forward half. an attacking approach to the ball and the game, he would certainly be an asset to have.

Hird may have a little something in the bottom draw that may help lift mitch's mood.... Money

Harry has been getting a regular game in a top 8 team over the last 4 or 5 years and playing well. He is a walk up start to play with us and certainly an upgrade.

We brought or is that bought Mitch clark in a couple of years ago as a key piece of our club moving forward, we were so impressed with him that we gave him number 11. that is no ordinary number and a lot was expected of him following after Jim. I think its safe to say that he has failed to show the leadership and devotion to the club that we were hoping for, as such his talking to others before really talking with the MFC feels like betrayal of both the club and supporters. I have my doubts about Collingwood taking him, only from the fact that Collingwood has made quite a few poor decisions on big men and forwards in recent years a couple more and Bucks and co may find themselves being turfed out of the club. Collingwood fans are far from forgiving, something Mitch needs to consider as their expectations will be far greater than lowly melbourne supporters who would probably be happy with a forward who can contribute 40-50 goals per year.

I agree with the swap mitch for harry, at least harry turns up and plays reasonably well most of the time, where as mitch has the potential to be anything, if he can get his body and mind fit. I think that if he does not do something to help fix up his now tattered image thanks to his manager then some of this will continue to haunt him for years to come.

Any chance she can play football, maybe she will show a little more gratitude for what she received.

No wonder Pert rang Roos to ask if he wanted to talk to harry, obviously had the swap in mind, though knowing collingwood they would probably also demand our first pick as well.

LOL, Youngs quote "The trade was a no-brainer and Fremantle messed up what really was impossible to do. Ross should check with his CEO and find out what really transpired that week. I’m still shocked that no one has been made accountable for the trade of a lifetime gone wrong. The deal of a lifetime that freo missed out on is presumably the deal of a lifetime that melbourne got instead!

Mitch's smart @r$@ manager may have irretrievably damaged Mitch's image and ability to pull big dollars. I believe the MFC would have continued to honor its 4 year contract with mitch at the now insane $750k per year, that would have at least given him a chance next year to prove his value before contract renegotiations at the end of next year. Now he is a broken toy that walked away from us with a pocket full of $$'s in the hope that he could then walk into a new contract with a better club. Unfortunately for him, few clubs will want him and I suspect none would be willing to pay him the sort of money that he would have gotten at MFC. Any spot on the melbourne list would presumably have a performance incentive in there, i.e. he plays and plays well he gets more $$'s. It will be interesting to see where he ends up, also if his manager gets his contract renewed also.

Can someone please advise under what rules we would get compensation, mitch is not a free agent so does not go under the same remuneration as frawley i.e. length and value of contract. The only way I believe we can get compensated for Mitch leaving is by going to the AFL cap in hand and saying please sir we have been hit by exceptional circumstances, can we have another PP to compensate, which the AFL would then adjudicate. The other clubs would obviously protest because essentially Mitch is just walking away from Melbourne hence I cannot see them as being keen on giving us compensation.

Other clubs will obviously ask questions about mitch fitness and health, few sides will pass up the opportunity to look at a ready made KP player or discuss what he wants with his manager, however they may find that like melbourne they are not going to be offering what he was on in the previous years, he is damaged goods in more ways than one and has done severe damage to his brand. His manager is a major nuffnuff who should be sacked for incompetence. If he had played his cards right with Melbourne and talked with them instead of going behind their back we could have potentially worked something out that saved everyones face and careers. Now mitch is looking far less attractive to many, quite a few clubs and the general public at large. it will be interesting to see what Karma brings him and the club he ends up at.

No I must admit supposition based on circumstantial evidence, i.e. he was on a healthy annual salary which would have included all of this years salary, he had a year to run so would have most likely taken a healthy discount on next years salary to take it early and go. Which would give us a figure or just over $2m which was mentioned earlier as what the MFC had paid him for his 15 games. Happy for you to point out any errors in my thinking, or facts that you have to the contrary.

Titan if what you describe was the case then i would have no trouble with him leaving, but I find the failure of Mitch and his manager to engage with melbourne early to discuss this extremely disappointing, the timing of his retirement and his quick recovery being all to convenient financially for mitch and his manager. He could have stayed on our long term injury list and then possibly asked for a trade at the end of the year, but negotiated an early payout of his next years salary, costing melbourne one of the more financially challenged clubs further $'s that would would not have had to pay out had he left at the end of the year. I find very little in what mitch and his manager has done shows any respect or care for the MFC, it has been about mitch and his wallet and still appears to be.

Yes

Agree totally. Roos said today that the retirement was orchestrated by Mitch's manager. On other occasions it has been mentioned that MFC agreed to the retirement approach to reduce the pressure on Mitch so that he was not constantly being asked about when he was coming back, etc.. So we pay him mega bucks and support him and this is the way he repays that.... I believe his manager has really stuffed this up big time and the papers tomorrow are going to really have a go at mitch for what he is doing it is also going to be quite a lot of people talking about his integrity and the value of him. I thought I recalled his manager saying that he was still acting as mitch's manager until his current contract ends on or around 31st october. I would be very surprised to see mitch continue with this clown as his manager after all the damage and stuffups his made of this so far.

He retired on the 8th of April 2014 and now 5 months later he is back ready to saddle up again. really this needs to be investigated.

I still do not see why the AFL would give us a compo pick, there reason for them to do so, the other clubs are not going to just say give melbourne a compo pick because mitch wants to go to Hawthorn, or Essendon.

Question is how much is mitch worth, given his track record of taking the money and running for rehab, what will anyone pay him, i doubt he would be getting 750k from anyone with that record, How would a club take him on knowing that he has depression that could recur, I would suspect only a club that had a pretty good level of confidence that he was over it. which is pretty good because getting over depression is not something truly disappears.

I dont think Roos is ambivalent, I think he is mightily disappointed Mitch is the sort of player virtually any side would scramble to get. I think he is gutted in loosing possibly his best player for a second time, i.e. lost him to retirement to then find there maybe a chance of a return to now find he wants to go somewhere eles. But what can he do about it on national tv that will not either come back on him, the club or mitch. he played it cool as he could. It now about where we go from here, i have to question the depression bit, for a guy who quickly went into depression he seems to have quickly found his way out again as well, and in doing so have negotiated not only a healthy settlement to his multi year contract with the MFC but possibly a nice healthy new contract with another club. Gee things seem to have really worked out well for Mitch and his manager financially. If mitch was really seriously depressed then my deepest apologies to him, but unfortunately the world is full of unscrupulous people/managers who take advantage of other peoples good will and good intentions. I hope this is the former case, but fear it is probably the later.

He is gone, Roos knows it but is not saying so, possibly in the hope that that may change his mind. One thing I found interesting is that Roos mentioned that Mitch's agent orchestrated the payout earlier this year. that would obviously have been money in his pockets also, you would have to think he would have had in the back of his mind being able to get Mitch back playing and earning another high wage sometime in the near future hence double dipping. Another thing I found interesting was bomber thompsons comment which were along the lines of that Mitch got a payout from melbourne therefore does not owe melbourne anything. A few seconds later my son said their was a rumor of mitch going to Essendon, it certainly had me thinking a lot more about bombers stance. Lastly there has been a lot of talk about compensation, i am wondering under what rule melbourne would be considered eligible for compensation, after all we did not get it for the last few years when we met the guidelines for compensation for poor performance. So can someone please advise why we would be eligible for compensation.

I wonder if he went to an Essendon doctor, they we can at least blame the drugs for his decision.

Obviously we should have checked what team his doctors supported. If MFC is not the right environment for him then you would have to also scrap StKilda off the list too as well as another 6-8 teams.

disappointing GNF.