List Mgmt. 2024 Draft/Trade/FA Thread 🗑🔥

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Scythe94

Scythe94

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The Trident - Awarded to posters who do a hell of a lot on the Dees board AWESOME Melbourne Board Fantasy Draft Comp SuperCoach MND challenge - Big Freeze 10th Anniversary Fallout Fan Veteran Mount Buller Demons - Sweet F.A. SuperCoach Div 8-10 Winner 2021
Aug 12, 2017
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Confirmed outs:
  • Angus Brayshaw (Retired)
  • Ben Brown (Retired)
  • Josh Schache (Delisted)
  • Kyah Farris-White (Delisted)

Confirmed ins:
 
Last edited:
Peter Ryan article:


In the middle of the 1965 season, the wise heads at Melbourne sacked their six-time premiership coach.
The curse of Norm Smith was born, and the Demons went without a premiership for 57 years.
In 2024, three years after they won a drought-breaking premiership in Perth, a curse of a different form descended on the club, one, again, seemingly self-administered.

There have been court cases, senator statements and sports integrity investigations to keep the spotlight on the club in the past three seasons.

The legal battle between club directors and former president Glen Bartlett remains unresolved, as does the Federal Court hearing on governance issues.
On Monday, a year will have passed since Joel Smith returned an adverse analytical finding on game day for the presence of cocaine and its metabolite benzoylecgonine after the Demons’ round-23 match against the Hawks. The investigation is ongoing.

That’s the off-field.

Melbourne Demons star Clayton Oliver will miss the remainder of the AFL season after having hand surgery.
On the field, this season loomed as one of redemption with Clayton Oliver’s issues finally addressed after they baulked at trading him, Christian Petracca set to spend more time forward, and Angus Brayshaw ready to go again after the qualifying final bump that flattened him and the Demons’ premiership hopes.

But Brayshaw was forced into retirement through concussion, Oliver was noticeably happier, but his football declined, and Petracca, according to two sources familiar with the club who spoke on the condition of anonymity, became increasingly animated about standards of performance before he suffered a shocking injury on King’s Birthday. None are playing the final two rounds of the season.


It’s been difficult to process as president Kate Roffey – who often talked loudly after the 2021 triumph of her dreams of the Demons winning the flag at the MCG – seemed bewildered at the situation in her president’s address before last Saturday night’s loss to Port Adelaide in front of just 17,867 fans.
“Normally, this time of the year we are standing up here wondering if we are going to finish one or two, or at least in the top four – we are now in a position where we are outside the top eight,” Roffey said.

Now the culture question that has bedevilled the club since the premiership has flared again as a possible reason for their decline, this time with the revelation on Monday that Petracca, a Norm Smith medallist, is disillusioned with the club’s direction.

The 28-year-old has not been able to keep his sense of dissatisfaction with the club to himself, with teammates, opposition players and industry figures increasingly aware of his feelings as he recuperated from the life-altering injury suffered on King’s Birthday.


Ultra-professional, Petracca is also an emotional character who wants to be the best of the best. Sometimes that desire spills over into eyebrow-raising actions.
There is, according to two well-placed sources who requested anonymity to speak freely, also some frustration among teammates that a senior leader preferred to be away in Noosa than at Casey at the business end of the season.

This was a time when young players could have benefited from his tutelage as the Demons struggled to kick a winning score and make the finals.

One source mentioned the positive example Jake Melksham set when sidelined with a knee injury on the eve of the finals last season to highlight what the best leaders do in such situations.
Understanding he endured a traumatic period post-injury when he had emergency surgery and was isolated due to risk of infection for close to two weeks – a point coach Simon Goodwin re-emphasised on Tuesday – they expect to work through the issues.


At 28, with five years remaining on his contract, Petracca is, according to the club and others familiar with his situation, going nowhere.

“Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca will be at the footy club next year,” Goodwin said on Wednesday. “I can guarantee you they will be running around in red and blue jumpers.”

Without Brayshaw’s calming influence, frustration among the group has bubbled to the surface. The retired midfielder was the team glue who brought out the best in skipper Max Gawn and vice captain Jack Viney.

But those two, who have had to tirelessly represent the players throughout the tumultuous period, have busy lives with family alongside football, and again find themselves engaging in a review where all the old problems are re-aired.


Alex Neal-Bullen, the club’s most respected figure, won’t be there as family needs dictate that he has to return to Adelaide , while there will be a freshening-up of assistants under Goodwin, who remains well-regarded among the players and staff, both current and former.

But what will remain is the lingering concern that this club has blown its moment – kicking a reset down the road with another internal review that can’t repeat what happened at the end of 2020, when decisions were made that led to a premiership but also established a level of scepticism about the club’s leadership that has never disappeared.

Can they reset, with a fit Oliver, a reassured Petracca, a relaxed and supported Gawn, and a determined Viney leading emerging youngsters such as Trent Rivers and new ideas to cause damage on the scoreboard and contend?

And, most importantly, can the players – without Brayshaw and Neal-Bullen – win the respect they earned in 2021, when they were selfless and united?

It shapes as another challenging off-season for the disturbed Demons, at a place less settled than it should be.
Click to expand...
 

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schmuttt said:
That Roffey bit is unreal lol. Also whose the senior leader they’re referring to?
Click to expand...
Roffey literally took on the reins in a flag year thinking the club would never have issues again.

Do you mean this bit:
There is, according to two well-placed sources who requested anonymity to speak freely, also some frustration among teammates that a senior leader preferred to be away in Noosa than at Casey at the business end of the season.
Click to expand...
It's Trac.
 
schmuttt said:
Worst bit is that article saying all players like goody 😔
Click to expand...
You can still like someone and not want them to be your coach. Not reading too far into that.
 
Currently re-watching the Grand Final 🥲
 

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Bluelegs said:
Peter Ryan article:

Click to expand...

Golly.

Lucky we’ve got wall-to-wall talent coming up through Casey.

It’s already a year since the Joel Smith thing? Feels more recent but that’s probably because of the action-packed year we’ve all enjoyed
 
Key takeaways from that article:
  • Trac was pissed with the performance issues at the club before his injury.
  • Roffey is in over her head and has no idea how to run a club when actual issues arise.
  • Players are bickering over small issues.
  • Viney and Gawn are tired of having to manage the internal political bs year on year.
  • Gus was a much bigger loss off-field than he's been given credit for.
  • Incredibly everyone still loves Goodwin despite his inability to keep the group from turning into a factional mess.
 
A11dAtP0w3R said:
I think that's part of the reason the club is in the mess that it currently is, Goody is good bloke and the players don't want to offend him.
Click to expand...
This is all I can come up with too.

I mean if Trac is frustrated with the direction of the club, he would have to feel that the coach has something to do with it, so the only explanation I can think of is the one you gave. Plus everyone keeps saying really really quickly just what a great relationship they have with Simon in that way you overcompensate when feeling guilty about your emerging dark thoughts
 
Proper Gander said:
This is all I can come up with too.

I mean if Trac is frustrated with the direction of the club, he would have to feel that the coach has something to do with it, so the only explanation I can think of is the one you gave. Plus everyone keeps saying really really quickly just what a great relationship they have with Simon in that way you overcompensate when feeling guilty about your emerging dark thoughts
Click to expand...

Trac probably isn’t the guy who would want to single out someone like that too. He’s spoken in the past about how close he is with goody, maybe he’s realized he sucks but doesn’t want to burn a friend.
 
schmuttt said:
Trac probably isn’t the guy who would want to single out someone like that too. He’s spoken in the past about how close he is with goody, maybe he’s realized he sucks but doesn’t want to burn a friend.
Click to expand...
It does feel like that. And if we are bored watching our style, I’ll be they are fed up with playing it. And we can no longer hide behind the at least we are still winning thing
 

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