Earl Hood

Remember that we pinched Jeff White from Fremantle when we were a more attractive proposition, so I guess it is swings and roundabouts.

I think the issue is more about the forces acting against equalisation. Unequal competition means there aren't swings and roundabouts. In our case maybe its more about one door closes, another one slams in your face! So far FA movements of good players have been from low clubs to strong clubs and strong clubs to other strong clubs. Yet to see a mature elite player go south. We all thought Buddy was headed that way but he pulled a swifty and got to Sydney on a ridiculously contrived deal.

Now the AFL is looking to squash FA compensation all together. For why I have no idea except some of the powerful clubs are whinging about their compensation and some agents are saying it discourages FA movements. No compensation to lower clubs would be just another slammed door as far as I am concerned.

Happy to have him as a run with, negating, big bodied mid next year, who can play half back or half forward when required. He can do all that although many seem to hate him because he hasn't been a star and so he should be got rid of. He can be good back up.

This news is big. I rate this guy, if fully fit he could be anything. I remember arguing in 2011 at round 10 that this guy was playing as well, if not better than everyone's hero, Buddy. He was taller at 200 cm, almost as agile on the ground, a much superior high mark, a more accurate kick at goal by a mile, playing in a crap team, with a very predictable game plan.

Yet this guy for half a season managed to kick as many goals as big boy Buddy getting it lace out 60 times a match and kicking 60 odd plus 70 behinds because Buddy can't kick. But Gee Buddy is the greatest. Well maybe. If only we can get lucky and Clark plays 24 games.

Getting excited! So much so have knocked the top off my 2nd bottle of red! 5 months can't go fast enough!

Was it an Argentinian Malbec yet? Just checking on your drinking habits. Don't take it personally.

Can we not play the fr&/&king Hawks first up please. Some easy beats early would be good but just who they are is interesting. We don't get to play Vermont or Blackburn for points do we?

IMO the very first thing we should be doing at the end of 2014 is extending the contract of James Frawley

Paul Roos is a smart footy person and it would not surprise me if he developed Hogan into a CHB just like David Neitz

I have put this option up before. Hogan to cut his teeth as a CHB while we off load Frawley in trade week while we can get maximum return. If he won't commit now I think he is as likely to go and from what I am hearing the AFL is moving to get rid of free agency compensation. So potentially we lose Frawley for SFA.

So much depends on a Roos lead resurgence up the ladder. Let's hope it happens and Frawley resigns for the journey but what are the odds, especially if he has a big year and the team struggles? He will be in big demand by the top clubs, who always seem to have excess room in their salary cap. Funny that!

Never been so confident that one of our player will become a star.

Destined for big things and a steal at pick 26.

Will be one of our main mids in 2014.

Interesting isn't it. I agree with your optimism but what makes you and I so confident? It is that he is physical, passionate, aggressive and confident. His skills may or may not be elite, who knows at this stage but we are confident he will make it. These guys find ways to compensate and develop their strengths.

Now there are one or two of these personality types in every draft but not always blessed with sublime skills. I really believe you should zero in on these types when drafting, they won't all work out but if you got 2 or 3 of them right you could be suddenly playing finals footy.

Get into em' Horhay!

That would be spelt Jorge, if it is pronounced horhay!

Dear James ...

Here is a 4 year contract extension for 2015-2018. I have managed to get $450,000 a year ($1.8 million) for this. It is a fair offer based on the longevity and your vital role in our team as a leader. You are a very important part of the future of the Melbourne Football Club.

Peter Jackson

CEO and informal saviour

(enough to save him from GWS who will offer a 9-year $10 million deal !!!)

I have heard a 15 year deal myself.

Key point to this trade are what Bugg and Buntine bring to us? Can anyone enlighten us?

Hey on reflection can I change my question to " Key point to this trade is what do B&B bring to us?" Sorry for this lapse in grammar.

Interested to see what people think of this deal.

Buntine, Bugg and Pick 9 for Pick 2. We add a younger backman who is highly rated, a good if unspectacular footballer in Bugg and a pick inside the top 10 for our second selection. I think it's a decent deal, not one to jump for joy over but certainly not a bad one either.

Key point to this trade are what Bugg and Buntine bring to us? Can anyone enlighten us?

What impressed me most was something I can't remember seeing from an MFC player for a long time - dishing off a handpass then heading off for the follow up receive, a couple of times.

Yes you are right we will have to stamp out that stuff.

Everyone stop bloody wringing your hands and being pathetic, Chip will be signing a contract extension. No doubt.

Can you please give me your Powerball numbers for next week?

I rarely have any bottle half full at the end of a night, mostly empty but will try some Arg Mal to see what transpires! Can't go past a good Rutherglen Red though!

Please let me know how you go. May I suggest that Alamos Malbec is a cheapy but a goodey.

Big footy post:

Webjet's Demons exit frees up second major property

14 October 2013 3:11pm

Online travel company, Webjet has ended its jersey co-sponsorship of the Melbourne Demons but the AFL club is confident of securing a replacement following the appointment of popular coach Paul Roos.

http://www.sponsorshipnews.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&stream=1-1&selkey=43531&hlc=2&hlw=

Goady138, Yesterday at 7:17 PM #33

Anyone else hear any news on their exit?

Might as well just put AFL logo on our jersey front and back to reflect reality.

Any sensible person can see this is reading the tea leaves correctly.

He doth protest too much and for no apparent reason really.

Gee I hope Rfpc is correct and he is a FA band 1 compensation pick because otherwise we will be screwed. And come to think of it losing a full back of his quality equates to us being screwed no matter the draft compensation.

At this time of night and a half full, or is that half empty bottle of red, I just don't have the inclination to try and grasp the thrust of your message

I have recently returned from South America. May I suggest that you try some Argentinian Malbecs. You won't have too many half full bottles of red left to clean up in the morning, they'll be empties.

I am so over this Ollie Wines V Toumpas crap. I can almost guarantee that Wines would have been copping flack from our supporters for being too much like Nathan Jones and we needed an outside player who has skills blah blah blah ... With Viney and Jones leading the way in the middle and a pre season under his belt Toumpas will show us his elite skills in due course. Now of that I am sure. I have a lot of faith in him and I believe he will develop into possibly our best ball user in time.

I am still not sure, let us use 2014 to judge where he is at. Also let us hope there is a competitive inside mid field operating to get the ball out to him so he can maximise his skills.

C'mon hood, don't feign ignorance

Sorry I meant Leviticus 10 verse 8:

"Do not drink wine nor strong drink thou......"

Alas I believe it is a lost cause with you and a half empty or half full bottle of red.

We are so desperate for mids aren't we that we get all gobsmacked over this guy...shows just where we are at as a club

It seems we will always be paying overs for anyone. That is our lot.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Leviticus 10 verse 2?

He doesn't have to sign now, there is no need for ultimatums now.

Should we start acting like a decent club or should we just continue to act like the toddler of a club we have been these last 7 years?

Play good footy, get players to want to stay, and don't fret the end is near when they do leave. We can meet his wage and trade him or get Pick 5 for him as comp.

Pick 5 as compensation? Rpfc you know how it works but this seems optimistic. Of course if true then yes we stay the course and see what happens in 2014.

This is a very diplomatic way of saying - " we need a few extra dollars guys". So come on D'landers kick in a few extra quids. Imagine a life without the opportunity to read the pearls of wisdom we get on this site.

I have just payed up, I admit I should have and meant to earlier but I can be a skinflint at times. Anyway got to keep this site operating so I encourage others to cough up.

He needs to tell the club of his intentions before next Friday, if he wants out, then we can trade him before he becomes a free agent in 12 months.

Roos talked about players being traded before they reach FA status. I would hope we are gauging his current value, if it is a first rounder to someone then we should be putting some options to him to sign now or we look at a trade before next year when we might get a second round compensation pick maybe. He can counter this of course if he wants to.

Let us just say I am a pessimist in this whole FA bargaining. We will be working uphill into a headwind just to stay competitive in this environment. Our only hope to keep Chip is that the side gets totally fit, develops some kids and we start winning games big time a la Port A. If he sees there is hope he may stay.

One alternative is to trade Chip now and look at Hogan to cut his teeth as a CHB a la David Neitz for a few years to fill a need as we hopefully have Clarke and Dawes up forward and we know Hogan played both ends as a junior.

I'm one of those who is in the 'development' more than the 'drafting' camp.

Holistically, I see development as referring to providing draftees with the ability to get the best out of themselves. IMO, the MFC has not provided this for a decade.

Specifically, I think this includes having good leaders at the club, having strong training programs (a lot has been said about how we trained under Bailey with a view to playing downhill skiing uncontested football, and not matching it with the clubs who started playing stronger contested football), having optimal facilities (this has changed in the last few years, but we were at the Junction Oval until 2010 (correct me if I'm wrong on the dates, I can't remember), having clear plans, and a preparedness to get our hands dirty and work hard consistently (rather than expect that the talent we brought into the club would get us there on its own).

There can be no question that we have made some significant recruitment errors over the last six or so years. However, I firmly believe that the majority of players we selected were taken at the right point in the draft, but failed because we weren't able to provide them with the environment to develop.

When one pick goes wrong, it's easy to say we picked the wrong player. When multiple players taken in the first round over a six year period, the fact those picks coincided with two sub-standard coaches, a sub-standard CEO, sub-standard management, sub-standard fitness regimes, sub-standard facilities, and sub-standard leadership should not be ignored.

What you say makes a lot of sense. God knows we have stuffed these kids up with a revolving door of coaches, game plans and experienced players, leaders being pushed out the door. Tough love coaching, getting rid of player counsellors and so on. It has all made things difficult. The lack of leadership on the field has been telling since Neitzy retired. Unfortunately he was our last real leader, I think.

But we were just as dysfunctional in the 90's but we could still pick some X factor players out of the draft system. Players with that something special that allows them to stand out in their first season, however they may not always go on with it. But at least they had. that X factor. I just have not seen any X factor from our plethora of first rounders. They have all been nice types, some skills, ticked some boxes but no excitement factor at all.