Earl Hood

Looking forward to next year when Roos can create a few more stories like Jetta, by picking up delisted or rookied talent at other clubs and turning them into brilliant role players.

Don't the Swans have 6 former rookie players in their team today? That's no coincidence.

And the Hawks top up their list with some experienced depth players. They haven't got a weakness in any position!

Where is the Swan's midfield? Tippett having a shocker. Just saw Langford's goal, give me a break! This is a training run.

Utter tripe! I agree totally with Qwerty30. You have no idea about why and how these players left the Dees. Don't post crap and guesswork on here without any semblance of truth. It's this sort of shite that the MFC needs to rid itself of. Have you ever truthfully spoken to these ex players about the circumstance of their leaving? I have lstened to both Alves' and Wells' explanations. I am more than comfortable with what they did. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Still Waiting funny that a quick search of websites has two backing my version of events for Wells departure mid season 1980 (blueseum.com and australianrules.com) Demon wiki has your version? Never be so sure that you know all the facts!

Flip a coin I say, they are so evenly matched. Can't believe the betting agencies have the Swans so much in front. But what would I know, the Hawks seem blessed to me, Port could have blown them away if they kicked straight last week in the first quarter and then ran all over them at the end but lost. My bet tomorrow is that Buddy will have a 3 goal 7 effort rather than the reverse and give the Hawks hope till the end.

Both Alves and Wells went to those clubs virtually against their will, they both wanted to stay but the club felt the offers to good and asked them to go for the good of the club.

Have heard this straight from the horses mouth.

Players now are looking for success handed to them, it was clear from Frawley's last season that he had no intention of putting anything on the line for the good of the team, let alone his body.

Perhaps the 8 years wouldn't be quite so cr@p if players like him who should be leading by example didn't throw the toys out of the pram and seek success by taking short cuts.

Yes I remember an MFC official admitting they shopped Wells against his will. The officials rang him and said your on your bike and sorry but it is about money. The reason the club has always battled, lack of funds and particularly lack of brains at the top end.

We'll get mentioned with every tall who comes on the market, because it's obvious we need at least 1 or 2 more with Clark and Chip going. Some people on here seem to be on heat for every player who wants to move clubs or is delisted.

For what I've seen I'd prefer Butcher over Jones, but trust that Roos, Stones and co will find a tall diamond in the rough somewhere.

R&B where is Butcher at these days? When he did finally play for Port a few years ago he kept kicking goals then he disappeared from sight again after an injury I think.

I've seen little to indicate that this guy is any good.

He looked good on Sunday in the VFL final with 5 goals in a high standard game. He is big, physical and has good hands. His problems are above the shoulders perhaps.

The third club is Hawthorn, as some media reports suggest.

If MC goes to the Hawks what we will know for certain is that his foot will be totally cured, his head will be totally cleared and he will have an unbroken run of games in top form, without injury, for the next 3 or 4 seasons!

Injured again but that is our lot but then I didn't see Max mentioned in the AFL' s response to our request for draft assistance. It is all rose coloured glasses for us apparently, every kid on our list is a champ! Bring on 2015 I say.

Agree with all this except the part in bold. If he goes into the draft he WILL get to the club of his choice with a late pick and we will be left with nothing. So it would be rather silly, IMO. Very similar to Luke Ball situation, no other club would touch him in the draft.

A better way to [censored] him off would be to refuse a trade and keep him on the list for 2015. Waste of a list spot, sure, but why make a rival team stronger?

Totally agree players in some demand don't rot in a draft they will most likely get to where they want to go. Free Agency is a joke courtesy of the AFLPA that was brought in to supposedly help journeymen to get to other clubs to get better opportunities. That is how it was sold. The reality is that FA is for the fat cats to move on to bigger contracts at the expense of the battlers! The other reality is that players in demand are going where they want when out of contract. Tell me who is stuck in a club against their will? All players can move once they are out of contract so FA is really not needed these days.

I will ask another question; if you were a prospective club recruiting a bloke who has played 15 games over the last 3 seasons (that's 51 games missed through injury) - what would you give up for him?

FA given our track record!

Top clubs lining up to pick over the carcass of the MFC? Mitch, Chip and other. Thanks AFL for all your support in recent years. How depressing and don't expect too much compo.

GWS CEO Dave Matthews was quoted in that article? He is opposed to us receiving draft assistance? And also believes that their draft tampering hasn't affect our rebuild...

Yes you are right Tatu. I just checked my hypocrosy-meter and it has gone completely off scale with GWS blinking in red. I will have to get it re calibrated and rescale it up after that effort.

Again people are falling for the attempt to apply logic and reason , let alone fairness to the AFL..There simply isnt any.

Theres about as much bone fide to the AFL's supposed 'rule" as there are 11 herbs and spices in KFC...Its a myth....a ruse.

Hey what no herbs and spices? What the.....?

wow... This is one the most annoying, hypercritical and arrogant comments from another team I've heard in a while, considering its their draft concession and tampering that has made it unusually difficult for us to rebuild properly... GWS and the GC17 have taken the last five years of top end talent out of the draft leaving us with pittance, and then they have the gall to sit back and smugly judge our club.... GET [censored]!!

Actually in that article it is not GWS but the Pies bleating about where will it stop? How about where will it start? Nobody is getting any draft help except of course the Suns, GWS and of course the Swans and their priority picks through their academy!

Earl another poster said something along the lines

"Whilst the PP has been ruled out, other forms of assistance were still possible"

Perhaps in their minds that may mean something like 3 for Frawley and second rounder for Clark but you end up in therapy trying to figure it out.

IMO the flimsy motherhood attempt at justification ( at face value) simply doesn't stack up. Could it indicate the AFL's immediate preference for the quartile it likes to see the MFC operating in? Slowly suffocating until its ultimate demise and the ultimate objective of further freeing up the MCG for them.

Makes you wonder how they go about things and the real agendas.

Could be so easily avoided by disclosing how the real decision was arrived at.

Let us hope your theory is not true and that we are just dealing with club compromised imbeciles that make up the AFL commission of Drones and the Executive Management

Be cautious, such public mishaps may impact on your chances for "higher honours".

Yes good point. I must be aware of my pees and ques, as it were. It is such a burden being linked to the Royals.

Wouldn't it be nice to see the formula , requirements and see how we didn't qualify. But I suppose that would be a bit much to ask.

Docket it would be good to see the formula but it is irrelevant I think. Dont equations or formulas require actual data for input to then spit out an answer? I just read the Huns report on the AFL decision and the AFL's Andrew Dillon's rantings for the case for no help to M F C. it is based on a crystal ball, there is no hard data to put into a magic formula. Draft assistance was once based on the past, on prior performance but now apparently it is based on the unknown future!

We were knocked back because we could get top compensation for Frawley ~ different issue we are losing a known player for a speculative pick and we have form there!

We could get something for Clark ~ again another issue and we won't get pick 12 and we have lost 3 years of play.

We have a HIGH level of young talent ~ well zero AFL system Rising Star nomination but suddenly all our kids are gifted and zero in the AFL under 22 year olds.

We lost Jurrah and Wonna through no fault of our own but no mention but sorry that is the known past.

We have been raped through FA every year since it came in but this is somehow a positive because we will be compensated.

The AFL Commission now deals with the unknown future but presumes to know the future! I just ask as a career engineer/scientist is there an ounce of logical, rational thinking to be found amongst the whole lot of them? It is just astounding that this bunch of idiots is in charge of a billion dollar industry.

Then we now go as hard as possible on Clark.

As well we refuse to play most games in anything but our traditional jumper until Richmond, Essendon and Collingwood come up with geniune clash jumpers.

No more Mr. nice guys go for the jugular wherever possible.

And when the tide turns it will be time for revenge.

Remember it is dish best served cold

OD unfortunately we are on AFL welfare so any show of defiance on our part will be dealt with severly as most people expect losers to be treated as in "it's all your own fault". We bent over in that absurd Tanking inquiry because we had little choice, we were blackmailed no doubt.

FRom here it will be just hard freaking work just to stay competitive, let alone win anything. I am expecting the larger clubs to really ramp up the cherry picking of players from the poorer clubs to fill roles for their premiership tilts. They wont be waiting for FA, they will be trying to nab the good kids as soon as they are out of contract.

Shouldn't we be looking to form a voting block amongst the smaller clubs to seriously lobby the AFL for more equalisation measures to be implemented?

Frawley aint worth pick 3.

That is assistance in my book.

You have absolutely no idea what that pick 3 will be like. Frawley is a walk up start in just about every side in the AFL. We have had how many top 5 to 10 picks that haven't made the grade? A bird in hand is often worth two....

Surely if there was to be no compensation that would come out as a simple statement from the AFL, and everyone moves on.

Something is about to happen you would think,... perhaps the Commission has sought some clarification on our request before announcing details? Seeking some information in regards to Frawley and Clark from the club... interesting that nothing has come out though.

The Frawley part of the equation should not come into this decision. The Mitch question maybe but we are still a loser as we have lost 2 him for two seasons so far and now he wants to go so again should not come into the calculations (devised by the mysterious Economics Professor).

Maybe half way through Mark Evan's powerpoint presentation with Kelty and some of the other rusted on Commissioners dozing off after a heavy lunch the new bloke Kim Williams (ex News Corp) asked a dumb but obvious question that threw Gil and Evans into a tail spin and off to seek further data? Williams wouldnt know what shape an Aussie Rules football is but if he did some homework and looked at the competition without carrying any club baggage he would realise MFC is a blight on the game at present. He is new, tends to be a bit of a maverick and is not yet groomed to be a Drone. Just a thought!

Geez, was Matt White's goal really that good? :/ Both Kent and JKH had almost identical goals during the year by running half the ground then kicking from the 50m arc.

Good point. I think Kent did two of those but gee we don't count so that is why.

I think you may have gone back just a tad too far Earl!

Yes BBO I just checked and it was 1931 and we had the lowest aggregate count last year recorded since then. Sorry for the exaggeration I will try better next time.

Will the MFC beat our own record from last year? That is the lowest club agregate of Brownlow votes since I think 1915 when the current 3,2,1 voting system was introduced! Was that stat from last year given to the AFL Commission of Drones today?

none of them. They couldn't get a run in the AFL side that finished in the bottom 1/4.

Hartung and Sicily for the Hawks are seriously good though.

Agree George on Sicily, first year on the list and apparently the development guys are amazed at his progress so my Hawk spy tells me. They are saying James Morrisey mark 2! Certainly loves a goal, can take a contested mark and is remarkable agile. How do they keep unearthing this talent that others miss?