Deecisive

I thing it would be great PR for melbourne to get a couple of internationals on their list, it would help generate a lot more interest in our club overseas as no doubt a few canadians now know one of their own played in our grandfinal and performed well, it does not hurt that these guys are pretty good athletes as well.

Melbourne has repeatedly stated they know his worth, meaning yes we will take him first if we have to, but maybe, just maybe we may not therefore creating a very small doubt in the GC's mind. That small doubt in GC's mind will determine if we get three top 5 picks or two, so who wouldnt try to keep that doubt alive until 10:05 Monday morning.

We are all picking players based on likes and dislikes, needs and perceived needs. The footy dept has obviously been over the stats and identified our strengths (??) and weaknesses (lots), these are the same things everyone here is stating, midfield, crumbing forwards, 2nd banana big forward, running backs, etc.. While we may not agree with all of their choices we need to acknowledge they are making their choices based on a lot of background work that none of us would have done. This will help them identify and prioritise who can fill those needs, what are the greatest needs and what they need to fill first. For some players we may need to pay overs, for others we may get cheap, but at least there seems to be some analysis going on to get the sort of players Neeld feels he needs as opposed to just getting a whole lot of top draft picks that dont give us a team. We need a balanced team if that means that we take dawes with pick 13 (aaah) then so be it. MFC under Neeld is obviously still a work in progress so he needs to keep an eye on the future i.e. young draft picks against bringing in experienced hard bodies to fill short term needs who can play the sort of fierce football we all want to see the club play. Trade period will help determine how many of these harder bodies we can pick up prior to the draft. For me the expectations of this years draft are probably higher than any previous drafts due to Free Agency and possibly the prospect of picking up JViney and a few other really exciting and talented footballers in the next month or so.

Strange to hear so many people talking about having to wait a year for hogan to come along... how many of our young midfield and other picks played games in the last 2 years. quite a few of them spent more time running around with Casey than with the seniors. While hogan can not play for us he can play with our team members at Casey, train with them etc in much the way viney has, this has got to be an advantage over just drafting another 18 year old next year who we will probably need to have run around the 2's for a year or so until they get AFL fit and ready to play their first game, where as hogan should be raring to go from round 1.

I dont mind taking dawes if it is for a reasonable cost to Melbourne. Problem is that Eddie seems to think that anything out of Collingwood is worth 4x the market value even if they dont want it. He will want a top pick for his discard and Dawes will want top $$ to come to us. I would be inclined to pass if they are asking too much, Melbourne has seldom had any luck with big named recruits, i.e. for those that remember past failures Diamond Jim Tilbrook, Kelvin Templeton, Peter Moore, etc.. Look at what other options are available, they maynot be as big as Dawes but they may have other attributes that give them real value.

I would like to see melbourne play Stef in one position for awhile other than ruck and let him learn it. I believe he has the talent now he needs the training in how to play a ONE role, as a tall mobile forward who can push up to the wing he can drag a tall lumbering backman after him and give Mitch and the crumbers a bit more room. I recall Jamar took awhile to get himself into playing decent football.

Cale has shown glimpses of real talent, but has had some issues over the last couple of years by the look of it, while there have been injuries I suspect it is more attitude related. Maybe he needs to get a mentor who can help him out, given we have so many young players maybe we need to get a few older/retired players to help mentor some of our newer recruits and help them deal with AFL football at senior level and the demands placed on them by coach, club and fans.

There are a few good midfielders in this draft this year and probably a few more in next years, but there are not many really top notch forwards from what I have seen. Melbourne is likely to pick up at least two good midfielders this time around, so I suggest investing pick 4 in Hogan.

He does look a good prospect, I hope we dont go wasting pick 13 on mature body that is over priced, when we could get a player hopefully like Kennedy or Stringer who has potentially far greater ability. We should be able to pick up harder older bodies with later draft picks, there is likely to be a flurry of players who cannot be traded who will be dropped to make way for new/fresh blood.

Pick 3 for Hogan, Pick 4 for Toumpas Pick 13 Stringer if he is available, Pick 26 Viney

well good luck to wellingham at Westcoast 2nds as thats probably where he will be playing most of his games next year. Very expensive bench warmer. While I would not mind him coming to the Dees his price and attitude both stunk, not the sort of player I would be keen on.

The kids are the future the FA's are the present to help develop the kids, we will pick up more kids this year and the next, while that is happening kids from a year a to ago will start taking over key positions. Neeld seems to know the sort of players he wants, players who will not only help win games but help build a new culture. We need to change both players and culture to be successful. Future FA's and draft will help us build on this years platform.

I suggest our recruitment staff go over and have a friendly word with our GC friends and remind them of a couple of facts. 1. Viney wants to play for melbourne 2. If they nominate Viney they may get him but we MAY get him back, while he is a strong minded individual who said he would make melbourne pay, he may also just as easily change his mind once he goes to GC. So he may come back to Melbourne in two years time, 3. We would probably get Tippet if he falls into the draft if not Tippet then the 2nd best up and coming footballer in the country. 4. If they take our prime midfield choice then that means we would obviously have to find replacements, i.e. they have a couple of young very good midfielders that they are telling everyone to stay away from, what if we start making them really bit enticements to come to Melbourne, we would either get them or GC would need to pay overs to keep them. GC know that if we want Viney we will have him, trying to put a spoil on us is only viable if they are prepared for melbourne to call their bluff. I think they run a bigger risk than we do calling him.

Sadly he does too many coach killer moves for me, at times he looks really slow which often resulted in him getting caught or turning the ball over. I hope he can get over any injuries that show a bit more toe next year.

Collingwood may not have much choice, they have to drop some players as their cap is to small and these are two players who they have targetted to trade/dump. What other clubs have the salary cap room and what would they be prepared to pay them to get them to come across and lastly what would they give Collingwood that collingwood wants to get them. Not too many options available to collingwood, spending money like drunken sailors nuying players looks to be coming back to bite them.... I hope so at least...

Collingwood needs the best draft picks they can get as quality players would either be too expensive or cost too much to trade for. A high draft pick provides them with a near ready cheap good player that can develop and eases their salary cap pressure. Pick 4 is over the top in my mind. Collingwood NEEDS another ruckman bigtime so will pay overs to get one, while they have the Qstick, I am not sure he is good enough to carry their ruck long term, which is why they will be looking for draft picks. Pick 13 would be a good deal for us no so good for Collingwood if there is no up and coming ruckman left by pick 13. Welly and Dawes for pick 1 and then if we could then pick up pederson to fit into our backline, brynes crumbing, Rodan crumbing as well as the range of midfielders mentioned we would be a very different and competitive club next year.

Doh meant GWS [censored] at us for letting them have scully...

GC will bid for viney, cause they are still [censored] at us in letting go of Scully.

His manager took a chance to start to hawk him around while he has some decent form, that form has longsince evaporated. He will be finding it hard to find any other club to offer him a better deal than what Melbourne was probably going to offer him. Good luck though he was good while he was with us.

His worth a chance, his age is not that bad, it comes down to his fitness and knees. He is only going to get a game if he proves himself better than the others we have so should not be too hard for him (at least for the first 4 years)

Not going anywhere but... is managers speak for make me an offer..

Poor Brock said he had to leave Melbourne cause he did not want to play for a team that he considers tanked, so where does he go but to a team that many agreed probably tanked to get additional priority picks... Good one maccabrain.

I would dearly like to see Melbourne get another key defensive tall able to take on Cloke and franklin types.

Collingwoods supposedly looking at a few different big men including Lynch and Pederson they surely cannot afford too many without giving away something else with their tight cap. A few more hours... then let the games begin..

Cumbing forwards, this last year we have kicked then ball into forward 50 heaps of times only to see it bounce back out because we did not have any forward pressure or crumbing forwards that could consistently get the ball and kick goals.