I know come round one next year, when I see the first ball bounce and our midfield of Gorn, Viney, Oliver, and Betracker. Our first clearance that you, Melbourne faithful, will be there in full force. My commitment to you is I will give everything to this club. I will need your support and each and every Melbourne person to get there. And we're back. Back on the airways, something like 50 days in between pods. Not gonna lie, I've enjoyed the breather, I've enjoyed it immensely. But here I am doing what I love and absolutely love chin wagging to this bloke too. It's the king of the AFL YouTube content scene. Mate, McDonald, who joins me, welcome brother. Adrian, thanks for having me. I have not enjoyed the 50 days without the debrief in my Spotify every Monday and Thursday. Glad that it's back and always happy to give you a chop out as well. So thanks for having me on. Now, mate, before we get into it and we dissect the trade period, which was of course relatively quiet for the days, I think we scared a few players off because of certain circumstances. There's a certain sense of relief about doing this podcast and the relief is this. I'll hark back to 50 days prior. I just done a podcast with Russell Robertson, I don't know if you listen to it, you don't have to listen to it, we love you no matter what, I hope you listen to it. Anyway, the crux of it was we didn't know what was going to happen with Christian protractor. So that was the situation 50 days ago. Yeah. Lo and behold, I think five or six days later after that podcast was released, we got the statement from track over that next weekend that he's staying, he's committed to the club. Great. Saga over. Done. Awesome. And then it led into Clayton. So then Clayton got resurfaced and he was in the media and Sam McClure and the like were having a field day in the media, writing inch column after inch column, getting his rude peel on some of the reels that went out via 3AW and just absolutely rinsing the story. Then we get into the BNF, Larry rocks up. It's a rousing night. It's actually an uplifting night and I thought it would be anything but and I sat back on the couch and thoroughly enjoyed it and I thought it was the little bit of tonic that we were looking for as a football club at the time. I thought it was a really beautiful, best and fairest and I've only been to one in the flash over the journey. I tend to stay away from the official official events, but then we got stuck into a bit more of the Clayton Oliver minutiae, it read, it's ugly head yet again in the media. Now where we sit, the relief that I'm talking about cados and the opportunity to breathe again is the fact that as Graney delivered his speech and you heard it there in the intro off the top, Clayton Oliver is around, he's still at the club, he's going to be applying his trade in 2025 with the Melbourne demons. Christian Patrak is over in Austria, working his socks off, getting his body back to full tilt, ultimate professional. The number five is going to be out there running on the MCG, wearing the red and blue. Graney, who seemed very washed up and very exhausted, all his triple-am interviews, he seems a bit more sprightly in the last couple of weeks from what I've seen with his media commitments, he's always out and about in that respect and the beautiful thing is we've finally got ourselves to a place, fingers crossed and touch wood, where we can go into an off season now after this trade period, we can go into a draft period with pick five and pick nine, which is super exciting and hopefully we can just enjoy a quiet, productive off season, get some great talent into the club and set ourselves for hopefully, I wouldn't call it a tilt, I'm going to alter my expectations slightly but getting ourselves back in and around the finals mix, maybe making finals, maybe winning a final in 2025 but it's just really good to know that after the 50 days that was turbulent at times and annoying and frustrating and everything in between, we're now in this place doing this podcast night and we've got all our cattle together except for a favourite son that went to Adelaide and we can just breathe easy. Yeah, well, you mix in the clarry staff, the cosy rumours about he wanted to leave, Jack Viney was rumoured to want to leave, it seemed like track was out, like I was sort of residing myself to the fact that Christian Patraka wasn't going to be at the club and on one hand I'm trying to keep the level head and you're trying to read between the lines and assume that it's just rumours and innuendo but then when you keep getting headline after headline, you do start to believe that track wants out and it's going to be impossible for the relationship to men so yeah, it was a daunting off-seize and then you really feel like if we lose, you know, one of a viney, cosy, track, even clarry, the least isn't going to be as strong, the cause not going to be as strong, you're coupled that up with brayshore, retiring at the start of the year and all of a sudden the demographic goes from an absolute powerhouse that can contend to we're going to start to look younger without these guys around so to have them still on the list is amazing, I know a lot of these supporters would feel like myself where I'm not certain in 12 months I'll all still be on the list given what has transpired and you never know like 12 months together, a little bit of success, we bounce back up the ladder, we win a final, it might just smooth everything over but yeah, right now I'm going to go to the MCG, very grateful to see the superstars of our footy club all on the park together because it felt like that might not be the case. It feels good, it feels good to be where we are right now, I did not enjoy, I did not enjoy any of it where we were 50 days ago so I just wanted that to be known, it's flown by, it's been chaotic but we're in a good place now and during those 50 days mate, you've done a bit, you were out gallivanting around, brown low, it's peak cados time during that AFL week isn't it, you've been on a bloody big stage out the front of the MCG, I think you've finished second in the Waddle Park BNF as well, it's been a big few weeks for you in the life of Caden. It's been good, it's been fun, I like to be busy so Grand final week's always a bit of a blast, second in the Waddle Park BNF but miss three games, so next year I'll be coming for the first posy, what if you won, come on, what if you won, if you played those three, I needed a few more goals, I think I went missing in too many games when I was actually on the park. The one I watched. Yeah, I know, yeah, it was face or famine for me this season at the Waddle Park thirds, but yeah, I felt like a gorny this year, like I was close, but just got pipped by your Jack Varnie types. Wasn't that a slight shock and this isn't a knock on Jack Varnie because I just absolutely love him, but I was surprised that he got up, I thought Maxie despite the fact that he missed a couple, would have still got the chocolates and of course if Maxie had actually played those couple of games he would have won the best in Ferris, but look at deserving winner in Jack, he's an absolute bull, we can't brokerage him if he'd finished second, but I was slightly surprised that he got the chockeys. Yeah, it feels like Jack Varnie every week just rates like a B, like he just gets a B grade every time he plays for the D's, and it felt like Maxie had a few A+ games sporadically at the start of the season, but then towards the end, Maxie started to accumulate the C grade games just because we were getting absolutely pumped, he was sore, it was what it was, you know, middle of winter, he's a one man band in the rock, but just consistently all year, Jack Varnie's just banking that B grade game, that B grade game, and then eventually I guess, yeah, caught him in the end, so it was exciting on the B and F night and Alex Neil Bullen, who has been a consistent stall for the footy club for a long time, you know, was pretty high up in the B and F as well, so it was an interesting year, normally we have the tracks and the claries and the brayshaws taken out the top five every single year, so there's a few different names in that, but I sort of like that Jack has too because I look across the names and I think track has two or three, Max has two, Clary has four, and then in my head, I used to feel a little bit bad for Jack Varnie because he got one early on when he first came to the club in 2016 or around that year, and then I remember watching going, oh man, you know, Jack Varnie's never going to win another one because look at the names that are playing with him now, but I always felt like every year he almost deserved another one because he's always in the top two or three, so it was cool that now Jack Varnie is a two time best and fairest winning Melbourne football club captain, like that's such a cool, cool resume now that he's got, and it just adds to the career that he's had at the D's, yeah, very, very pleased for him indeed, trade should we get stuck in, we don't, do we have to talk about Clary and track in more detail, it's weird because so much time has passed, haven't really had much of a say on it, I've been speaking to individuals on the Instagram account and just general punters that love this football club, but haven't really gone into the weeds on it and I don't expect to go into the weeds on it just purely because of the fact that they are Melbourne football club players, they will be playing in the red and blue next year, but maybe, maybe we should just do a little bit about just the way that these two, you know, for want of a better term, we can get salacious with this and call them sagas if we want to and we can feed into the journalistic standards just a little bit, that's a bit tongue in cheek, but I'll start with Clayton Oliver, so the Clayton Oliver male that I've got is, you definitely did want to leave and whether that's because certain individuals are trying to force him out, you know, you can read between the lines on that one and I know his manager was desperately pushing for a move, now the only reason why I don't think he's at the football club and this is just my firm belief on it is the sheer fact that Geelong were the only ones that we were dealing with, now we've just seen that Bailey Smith has finally belatedly got his trade to Geelong which is the worst kept secret in footy and they just had first dibs on him and they didn't have enough trade capital and they didn't have enough avenues or ways in which they can get Clayton Oliver through the door, so if it were a Richmond, a St Kilda, someone else that could have provided us with the necessary capital to get a deal done, I think we're having an entirely different conversation right now, I think we're actually talking about Clayton Oliver, the generational talent, the four time Western Ferris winner as you said, Caden, at this footy club, not actually being with us anymore and I think that's a reality that we'll all have to accept at some point, I know a lot of people don't want to accept that and they think it's all bullshit and it was rumour and it was Enuendo, I don't think it was my fellow Melbourne faithful, I think it was very real sources of information that I got from different individuals, people that actually have integrity and credibility unlike some of the other journalists in the industry, they told me in no uncertain terms that he wanted to go, his manager was desperate, pushing the move, the cards just didn't fall his way, all of those things that I just mentioned, so that situation's really weird for me, I don't know where you sit with this but he walks back into a football club, he's well loved, he's a simple lovely country fella, I've met him a couple of times, he's a good egg, he's had a tough time, he's made some poor decisions, that's obvious, off field but footy clubs for me Caden, I think they can be really simple beasts and that's the beauty of them, you get back in there, you start training with your mates, you start building rapport again with your mates and you start winning games of footy again and then suddenly it's rainbows and lollipops and everyone loves each other, so I don't think a huge amount of trust has been broken between Clayton Oliver and the playing group and I know Max Gorm was very candid about that in his interviews on Triple M, I think there's a place where you can break bread and you can get the band back together and you can get the romance of playing footy again together, you can get that back, so I'm bullish on seeing a fit, healthy and productive Clayton Oliver in the middle but I am a little bit hurt by the fact that from what I've been told, you definitely wouldn't be a Melbourne football club player if there are other suitors involved. Yeah it's a tough pill to swallow for sure, it's such a privilege to watch him play for the Melbourne Footy Club and what he's done in his early part of his career, he's now probably at the midpoint of his career and it's been a little bit not disappointing and maybe a little bit worrying to watch the drop off in form and the off field issues and the drama that's surrounded him but I think what's been awesome to see is the supporters absolutely love him, like absolutely frothy him so from my point of view I was actually a little bit accepting of if a clary trade happened, absolutely guttering like we're not going to replace him but I thought fresh start for him, fresh start for the footy club, I wasn't as shocked as defensive as when the Adelaide rumours came out last year, like in my head last year I was going there's no way I'm letting Clayton Oliver leave my footy club, he's one of my favourites, one of the best players I've ever seen, he's an absolute wizard and a weapon, he's a point of difference, we have one of the best midfields when he's up and going, there's nothing that would satisfy me for him to move to Adelaide but then when it popped up again over the last couple of weeks I thought, you know, being in my wood supporter that loves clary, getting me out of the big smoke, getting to Geelong, they've got such a great culture, he's going to be surrounded by the best of the best, maybe it was the best for clary and the best for the footy club so I was a little bit more accepting of it, the track one hurt probably a little bit more because I just adore the great man and his leadership and his professionalism and he's, yeah, just it's amazing to have someone like him at our footy club, so to lose track was concerning, it felt like if Christian Bautrach it doesn't want to be at your footy club like he's the person you want at your footy club, he's that perfect role model for the young folks coming through and such a leader so that was a little bit daunting and it feels weird that they're both going to be running around at the MCG but what we do know about both players is they are so competitive, they're so professional like they put their head down bum up, clary is an absolute beast when he's fit and firing and it's gone from like, oh, maybe track's gone, maybe clary's gone, maybe the cliffs arrived, maybe we're Richmond to hang on, this is a very strong starting 22 if you just look at the players that we had last year coming back from injury, like we've just added track and clary, a fit max go on a fit, Jake Lever, a fit, Stephen May, even just without adding five and nine and a couple other depth players, we should be better than what we were last year because we've kept the group together so I'm still optimistic, you know, it hasn't absolutely broken a bridge with me, what's transpired and I think as you spoke about some of the stuff with track was very fair, like you had question marks on the footy club and I think we've all had question marks on the footy club so no, I think we were sure enough to get back to pre-season, put our heads down and go again. Definitely, I'm going to get to some of those changes later in the program and changes that you'll lead to it there, Christian Betrachka was wanting, some of them are materializing, now we don't know if they are a direct impact of Christian, that is not verified, we do not know, however, change is happening and clearly change needed to happen, blind Freddy could say that, but the other weird world for me that I started to entertain, and this is where your mind goes when, you know, Christian doesn't speak for 19 days, nothing, so all of that silence created more tension and stress as a Melbourne supporter, a similar thing with Clayton, the journalist going to town, it seems like there's mixed messages. Well with Clary, so in the middle of all these rumors and innuendo and it, you know, it felt and seemed real, so you take what we read on face value that he was looking for some change, he was on the Unlaced podcast, which I know you shared some clips from, and he spoke just so well of the club and so well of his mates and so well of his teammates, so when he rolls back into the club at the start of pre-season, there's a lot of mutual love for the man. Yeah, definitely, but it was more just, there is a world where it's hard to accept and you've got to try and be objective when you think this way, were we better off cashing in on a Clayton all of it? Were we better off cashing in on a Christian protractor? We don't know, we don't have the crystal ball, we'll never know until we get another 12 months down the track, and the annoying thing with these two players who we love dearly, to the best to ever wear the Melbourne Guernsey, this story won't leave us, like this story is going to hang around like a bad smell, even if we're up and going and we're winning games, I don't think it matters, I think it's intensified if we're down toward the bottom of the ladder, because I think from a protractor point of view, you can really turn his head and go to the big club, go to Collingwater, go to a Carlton if they're going well and we're not really doing the business, but the story won't leave and that's the frustrating thing, but in the here and now, and I talk about time heals all and the relief of getting through a trade period and these two guys are still going to be playing footy for Melbourne next year, is that at the very, very least, we get five months, whatever it is, from now until the start of the season, where we don't have to deal with that bullshit, like, but who knows, the media works in very mysterious ways, they might find other techniques and other ways in which they can just flog a dead horse, but you look at it in isolation now and you think to yourself, all right, this is just purely about getting back to work, this is about healing, this is about coming together, if Christians hurt the playing group a little bit, there's a bit of distrust there, if Clayton's done that, there's a bit of distrust there, they'll sort it out, I used the word mature, you just mentioned it a few minutes ago, just max going, we'll just get them in, have a chat, boys, we're all on the same page, we're all in this together, we're going to do the best possible job we can to get ourselves as fit as we can before next year, and just have a really mature chat in the same way that we've heard back into 2020, finished ninth, we've just missed it out, what are we doing wrong, we've got the list here, what are we doing wrong, and just some home truth, so if those conversations need to be have, need to be had, I've no doubt, someone like Max Gorn will lead those conversations. Yeah, for sure, and I think, I wonder if it's a coincidence or not, but Max Gorn looked very fatigued and tied on triple M towards the end of the patriarchal thing, and he said, look, I'm, I understand that I'm Christian's captain, so I have to front up to it, so I'll happily do this for Christian, but it is getting a little bit tiring, and within a day or two of him speaking like that, it all got sorted, so I wondered if track potentially felt guilty that he was putting Max Gorn and the club, but particularly someone like Max Gorn through the wringer like that, and brought the whole thing to an end, so yeah, Max Gorn, who wouldn't want to play under the great man, he's got great relationships with patriarchal, great relationships with Clary, and you know, I thought potentially in the next few years that track would be our next skipper and would be our next leader. I don't know, it probably feel a little bit forced if we did it over this summer, but I wonder if that is like maybe another ploy or tactic to keep the man at the footy club over the next five years or whatever it is. That is a sensitive topic. I'm all for time and healing, and I'm very aware of that concept in my life, but it can't be this summer anymore. No, but that conversation for me is a whole different kettle of fish, because that just pulls at the heartstrings of so many Melbourne supporters because, and I don't know if Christian purposely made this situation what it was, but it got drawn out the far too long. You cannot wait 19 days in the footy vacuum that is Melbourne. 19 days in the footy world, that's a fucking eternity. It is, that is a long time to break your silence and then recommit to the club, while there's this raging fire that's burning, inch column after inch column, program after program, radio, freaking radio outlets that I work for like kiss FM are running this story, like talking about it, and I'm like, it's not even the demographic. It's just not the demographic, and everyone is talking about it, right? Yeah. So, I think that the reality is, Christian will need to accept that he's bruised and hurt quite a few Melbourne supporters, just purely because of how elongated that time period was. Yeah, that's the only thing. So, if you start throwing captaincy into the mix, god, that's a sensitive, sensitive topic. Like, I got, I got emotional about that and put up a post about Jake Labor being our next captain. I knee jerked it because I was so sick of the silence and I was like, all right, fuck it, I'm going to do this. And I want, I want Jake Labor to be the captain anyway, I've been very upfront about that and I think Christian could make a great vice captain, no doubt. But, you know, those, say what I mean, that's, that's the reaction of a supporter who's emotional. And we're all emotional. It's a super emotional game. It's a passionate game. Aussie rules and we love our clubs dearly. So, that topic, oh, it's almost taboo for me, Carlos. I don't know if we can speak about the idea of Christian and captaincy at the moment, just purely because there's a lot of people out there that are still a bit hurt by it. Yeah, good call. I have jumped the gun there, but I don't, I don't really like captains retiring and leaving. And then there's a new captain. I sort of like where there's a bit of a transition period, sort of like a Pendles. Like Pendles isn't the captain anymore, but he's still at the club. So you feel like Darcy Moore's in great hands to lead the club. So, yeah, I think it's definitely not on the cards in the next six months. But I wonder if a little bit of success, maybe we make finals next year, pinch a pinch of big elimination at the G. We go through next summer, we get through the trade period with genuinely broken bread and mended relationships. I wonder if, you know, I don't know, in 18 months time, whether that is a question, but you're right. It is too early and I don't want to upset the days faithful. No, no, no, it's good. And it's a warranted conversation. I just don't know if this is more the Melbourne faithful. I don't know if the Melbourne faithful are ready to embrace something like that yet. And we're also not ready to embrace life after Max as well. We all think Max is going to play till he's 50 and just be the absolute champion that he's been almost his whole entire career for the Melbourne Football Club. But I ask you this question before we move on, because it is topical. Are you a little bit battered and bruised? Does Christian need to win back a little bit of your trust? Is it a pertinent question? I think when you said the word bruise about 10, 15 minutes ago, I think that word jumped at me. Like that definitely resonates with me a little bit. Now I'm pretty resilient, especially as a Melbourne supporter, but pretty resilient in life anyway. Like, you sort of, you get burnt by people at work. You get burnt by family members. When it happens consistently, that's when you put a line through someone, but you sort of have to death by a thousand cuts me a little bit. And this was a significant blow, especially when I thought it was out the door. Like one of my favourite players, we finally got a superstar. I've had the analogy a million times before where I said, growing up in July, they had seven or eight blokes get 300 games in this seven to eight year patch. And they all came through together and club grades, Jimmy Barthel, Joel Corey, Gary Ablet Jr, sailwood Hawkins. And I'd be watching my favourite players play 30 games and be delisted. And now it felt like this wave that we had would all get to 250, 300 games together. And then in the last 18 months, Neil Bullens left and Ray Schaus retired. And so, yeah, I think, I think I am a little bit bruised. That's probably a great way to put it. But I'm also resilient. And I can get over it with someone recommitting, coming back professional. I can also get inspired by the fact that it felt like Betryker's motivation stemmed from him wanting the malwood football club to be better. Like, yeah, it is frustrating that he ultimately wanted out. But I'm also inspired by the fact that he looked around at the footy club that he wants to succeed and thought that it wasn't getting the best out of itself. So that's an angle of the story that I can really get behind. So, Bruce is a great way to put it. But I don't know if I say the number five, just stiff arm and blokes and kicking it from 60 and leading the boys week and week out next week, fully committed. The bros will go away. I agree. I mean, exactly where you are. Burnt me a bit. Hurt me a bit. But he can definitely earn back all of that trust, as you've just said really well then. And you also make a really, really good point. He put the club on notice. He wanted them to change certain things. We spoke about that as soon as the news broke a few months ago. It's not a bad thing. And change is starting to happen. And Melbourne supporters are enjoying that because it means, well, in theory, it means that we hope that we can improve on our deficiencies inside the four walls, whatever they are, ride this little mini storm out and come out the other end. So, I'm with you. I think he did some good there, a little bit of good for sure. And it might even become greater in the future if we get the right people in place at the footy club. But yeah, he definitely hurt me a bit. We'll move on. We're going to talk about Nible really quickly. He's gone to Adelaide. And that wasn't a hidden secret. And that story broke at the back end of season 2024. It was a long goodbye. It was a beautiful goodbye, to be honest. Such a deserving goodbye as well. This guy just gave everything 10 years in the system. Very maligned. Very maligned at one point. It was a bit of a whipping boy. And then was put on the trade table, wasn't he? We kind of spoke about this with Broden. He goes out the door. He goes to Adelaide. This is where we can start our trade brief. And that wasn't a pun for day brief, by the way. That's just what came to mind. But Alex Nibleen is going to be so missed. And I watched a interview with him, his first interview for the Adelaide footy club. I watched the whole thing. And I was like, "Fuck it now." We are going to miss this guy's leadership. And he's an obsessive type. He's super focused. He's footy, footy, footy. But that's what you want. That's what you want, particularly from your role players, the guys that help you set up the ground. And they lead by example on game day. And great mentors for the young kids as well. That was one thing that I probably didn't highlight on previous podcasts. Just the way that he nurtured and helped those developing players through the system. I just watched the whole thing and thought to myself, "God, we're going to miss." Not only what he does on the field, so much of what he has clearly done off the field for our footy club. Yeah, I watched the whole interview as well. And I was watching it from the perspective. And I was watching it from the perspective of someone who Alex Nibleen has just come to their club. It was almost like I was watching it through Adelaide support his eyes. And I was going, "Man, if any rom fans click onto this, they're going to be blown away, absolutely blown away." But that's what we knew we were losing out on. We knew that Alex Nibleen was this leader so committed. He speaks about the DNA. He speaks about the contest and defense. He reiterates team values every time he opens his mouth. He doesn't go to 10 culture meetings or game plan meetings or just fall asleep. He's writing that down in his little notebook. He's reading it at night. He's just so obsessed and committed to making the places that he goes to better. And he did. He made us better. He was in that run of drafts that took us from a really mediocre footy club. And this group of seven or eight blokes went, "No, we've had enough of that and we can change it." And the clubs, we got the keys to the club now. And they did. They changed it over time. And I remember I was watching Neil Bullen in an interview after the grand final. And he was saying it was really special to win the Granny and look around at the club and you see Cozy and Rive and Jacko together. And Neil Bullen said, "Oh, it'll be great that we came into the Melbourne Footy Club when it was down in the dumps. But I'm looking at Cozy and Rive in particular knowing that they'll be able to enjoy this club for the next 10 years. So I hope that the work that Neil Bullen's done has set us up for 10 years. I know we dropped down this year. But hopefully the body of work of what they achieved will be remembered at the Melbourne Footy Club. And sort of the standards will be uphold for a very long time. Yeah, there were some Crow supporters very excited. And there were Melbourne supporters going back on Twitter just being like, "He's a Ripper. And enjoy him. Cherish him, all those types of things." So even to the point where I'm at work and my mate from Adelaide walks over the other side of the building and just wants to talk about Nibla, because he was so enamined in that particular interview. And I was like, "Same, same rhetoric." I was just like, "You got an absolute Ripper. Enjoy him." But I think I'll be a sneaky little Crow's fan next year as well. I reckon. Yeah, they're a cool club. I guess we've had some battles with Port where it feels like it's a bit dirty and nasty. And they're targeting Maxie off the ball. And you go over to a game at Adelaide Oval and the faithful are gripping India. So it doesn't feel the same as if he would have gone to Port as if he would have gone to Adelaide. Like, I sort of like Adelaide as a footy club and they got a cool young group. And Alex Nilbon is going to be able to give them a hand with their next step up the ladder. So yeah, all the best of the great men. Well said. I couldn't agree more. Now, what have we done, Melbourne? Who have we brought in? Where do we start? Do we start with pick five and pick nine or do we start with big time gamble? Pick nine is an unbelievable get in this draft. It is an absolute coo and a half. I can't believe we've done it. And it's something we do every year. We always trade up. We tried to trade up the baby Humphreys. We tried to trade up a couple of years ago as well. We do it every year. And we've done it again. I cannot believe that in this draft where there's five or six potential number one draft picks. And then that five or six crop will get pushed back to 10 and 11 because of the academies that we're going to get to people that have been highly touted throughout the year. It's massive. I'm very pleased about it. I know, asset and supporters, we're indifferent. They've got our future first next year. It was a stack of other picks, but who cares? Let's just hone in on future first and pick nine and talk about that. But yeah, it was surprising when it came through. But I got so excited because then you go and do a little bit of research and get a better understanding of what maybe next year's draft looks like. And apparently it's just going to be a whole stack of academy picks. It's just not the exceptional draft class that this one is. And Cal Termi, the guru, he has been just absolutely rinsing how amazing this draft pull is. And we're right in the thick of it, two picks in the top 10. So happy about it. So I've got a couple rebuttals to people saying that we've given up a future, a future first. Sure. So I don't think it's relevant at all, because last, so over a three year period, you'd normally bring in three first round draft picks. Say, well, we are getting up next year's and say we don't get back into the first round. We took two last year and we're taking two this year. So over that three year period, we've taken four first round draft picks. Over a normal three year period, you only take three. I don't anticipate us being below 14th next year. But if we are, we're already 12 months ahead, because we took two first rounders and knowing this footy club, we're going to sell next year's future first to get back in. And if we have a bad year, people are going to want it because they've seen that we've actually slid off the deep end. And also next year, we should, fingers crossed, get Kalani White. So being involved in the draft isn't as important next season as it is this year. But yeah, in 12 months time, depending where we finish, it doesn't matter. We will have had four first round draft picks in the last three seasons, which is more than what you normally get. It's a good point. It's a good way to look at it. I know Essen and supporters are very keen and excited to death-ride us next year, because we were death-riding Fremantle and we had their first round draft pick, of course, which turned into Caleb Windsor, I may add, which was very exciting for us. But they'll have a bit of fun. They'll be poking a bit of fun. I can't wait for it. The Sash Boys and Rob and we've already had a chat about it. Like, go for it, death-ride the shit out of this Essen and I dare you go for it. It's fun. Yeah, it is fun. And it was funny the year we did it with Freo because they went from making a semi-final and almost being a top four team to dropping off the face of the earth. And it was comical towards the end of the season, watching them drop further and further and further down to the point where we got Caleb Windsor. So yeah, bombers fans are going to have a lot of fun with it. But I just can't see us being worse next year than what we were this year. This was a very diabolical season for us. But even if we are, once again, we're taking two first rounders in a sack draft compared to taking one next year. I don't think it matters that much. No. Should we talk some of these drafty potentials? So for what it's worth, I don't think we're going to get say a Harvey Langford. I just think he goes anywhere between one to four. Obviously, Ashcroft is the one that will go number one. Will they pick him number one? Well, someone bit on him and they have to pick him number one. I'm not actually too sure. But it looks like Harvey Langford, who's been touted in in and around two and three, probably not going to get him, probably not going to get Finno Sullivan, who will go to Carlton. He's the second cousin of Sam Walsh. She's got some intel on him. Looks a good fit. Jago Smith, maybe we might get him a pick five. But the players I'm really excited about. And I want you to take the floor on this cados because you've got a better read on the drafties than I do. But look, I went through. I've gone to the Phantom draft. I've gone to a few forums. I've watched a bit of footage. That's all you can really do, right? Unless you're a bloody scout and you're at the game. But Murphy Reed, I really, really like the look of Murphy Reed. So Murphy Reed is a pick five for us. Footy IQ is off the charts, by all reports. Super classy ball user. And this is the bit I almost enjoyed the most. The quickest mid in the draft class. How many times have we spoken about one-paced midfield, Bs to a honeypot midfield, not explosive enough out of contest at different times? We've seen it with Patrak Oliver and Viny over the journey. They do have that leg speed. But I look at him Murphy Reed. I always reference Port Adelaide. And what happens with Rosie and Butters and the way that they burst out of contest? I really like the look of him. I think my hope is that we can get him a pick five after seeing all the other mids. Like Sid Draper, good kid. Love his speed from the contest as well. Sam Leylaw, kid can play country, big country boy, tough, loves a tackle. There's a few question marks on his hamstrings. He's already had some high-grade hamstring tears and things like that. But I'm leaning more towards this Murphy Reed kid if he slips through the pick five just purely because of those traits that I spoke about, which I clearly just ripped off the phantom draft from Cal to me. So thanks for that, Cal. Yeah, I have not really thought of Murphy Reed just because I know that a couple of the boys higher up will slip to us. Oh, he was so bullish by this Sam Leylaw. It's I think it's the dusty patraca mold. He's a big kid, 187. Murphy Reed's only 180. And I'm big, you know, every week on this podcast, I say that our midfields too small, our forwards are too small, our defenders are too small. So I like that extra bit of height. And a lot of these mids have that extra bit of height. So Harvey Langford, he might be a medium-sized forward, but I think he does do a little bit of mid. He's a big boy. He's 190. And then Josh Smiley, who was talked about halfway through the years being pick one, he's 194. And he keeps slipping further and further down the pecking order. So maybe he is taken earlier, but there's a chance that Josh Smiley will be sitting there at pick five at 194. That's that's criper-high. And then so I want a big bodied mid. And then I want like someone fast and dynamic, almost like a Trent Rivers. Alex Tarrou is, I think he's, they say he plays like Sicily, Cal to me says he plays like Sicily. But the stuff that I've seen, he looks so athletic reminds me of Weddle a little bit. Or you've played on Weddle, you know? And I can tell he's a gun. Imagine him off that line. So just for context, just to explain that, you did a little, that was a great video by the way. So actually explain the video and then you had to line up and Josh Weddle and my God, he just ragged on you. Yeah, he did. So I did a video upgrading the defender every time I kick a goal. So I started with a couple of young blokes who make YouTube videos, 17 years of age, and then I moved on to some local footy boys, then I moved on to some senior footy boys and then um, so talented. Billy Gowers was in there, VFL player. And then you finally got to AFL level and you had to line up and Josh Weddle and he fucking just took the piss out of you. Yeah, so we were doing one-on-one inside 50s and it was once I kick a goal, I can upgrade from their level and go on to the next person. So Billy Gowers from the VFL, I had some one-on-ones inside 50 with him, strong, strong man, then we moved on to the Josh Weddle machine who, I don't know, you watch him on the weekend and he's like a medium defender with a lot of pace. But then when you stand next to him, it's like, it's ridiculous. Like they are the top 1% of society in terms of their fitness capacity. So, yeah, Josh Weddle had his way with me. So are you saying that Alex Tarrou, the flying Viking, as he's affectionately known, 193 centimetres, he is the next Josh Weddle. Let's get him in. I like him. I think he's cool. The other one off the half-backline is Toby Trevalier. He's got the foot skills off the half-backline. So I'm almost, and I don't know what the club's going to do because Harry Armstrong's floating around, big key position. I like Harry Armstrong. So he was one that really caught my eye. I know a lot of people get fixated on Melbourne don't have a full line. Melbourne don't have a full line. It's a bit of a myth. Disco and JVR going to be tremendous. So, we're all in on JVR. I think everyone knows that Van Ryan's going to be an absolute jet. You can just tell. I really think back end of last year, I could see why the coaching staff had persisted with disco, big on disco as well. Now, we don't know what's going to happen with Jeffo. We don't know. Is Jeffo going to get games? Is he going to come in? Is he going to do the business? Or is he going to end up being Lucas Cook 2.0? We don't know. But Harry Armstrong, a big boy, loves a packmark, loves a hanger. He's quick. He's mobile. He's got the beautiful kicking action as well. This will sound stupid, and I don't want to say this. But he's got that smooth moving style as a big tall forward in the same way that Tamara does. Now, it sounds stupid, and I didn't want to do the comparison game and put Tamara in there. But for the sake of this conversation, I have. And the reason why is because he just looks like he plays the game at his pace. Like, the clips that I watch were so fucking impressive. Now, I've got mates that are a bit off him. No, no, no. We don't need it. We don't need him. It's fine. No. No way. Let's just go two mids. Two mids. I'm not so certain. There's something about Harry Armstrong for me as well that really turned my eye. Well, we didn't address the forward need at all in the trade period. Like, even getting away Dirksen in would have made a little bit of sense. Getting someone else from around the league who's playing some 2s footy for some depth would have made some sense. So for us to not have done that, maybe they are leaving that one spot open for a Harry Armstrong. I don't like it because the mids available are your track and clarry caliber. So I'm concerned that we do take a Harry Armstrong type who ends up being a Matt Jefferson type, takes five or six years, may or may not make it. And then we look back in 10 years at the names in terms of the midfielders that we had available. And then you'd throw that in with potentially track and clarry not wanting to be at the club in the next 12 months. In my head, I'm like, Oh, man, I just want to bank the best talent available. But it's a great problem to have. It is a great problem. Five and nine is a phenomenal position for us to be in. And as I said, we took Colt and Windsor last year, we're going to have two more first round picks. I don't think you have to go too far back where we've had some more for I know, because he wasn't that far ago. Baoi was in the 20s. So every year, we're topping up with young talent. We had one of the youngest teams on the park in the last five, six games of the season. And with these two players who should be ready made, our 22 is going to get younger, but almost get better as well, which is exciting. Super exciting. Now players that we missed out on Dan Houston, were we were we really in for him? Who knows? People saying that Patrak has scared him off. We don't know. He goes to Collingwood. It annoys me that he goes to Collingwood. I'm sure I'm sure it annoys all the other opposition supporters. It felt like he was ours though for a minute though. It was like a month period where I was watching Port Games going, man, I can't wait to get him into the side. But that's what the media do. I don't know if he truly was, because what if he's managers like, let's go and have a look at Collingwood. Let's go and have a look at Carlton. Let's go and have a look at Blah. They walk into their facilities. Like, let's get real. The facilities is a massive, massive problem. It's not an attractive proposition if you if you look at us through that lens. So anyway, he goes to Collingwood. Mad always. I'm not really that bothered because there's a forgotten man for me. And I know we'll link with him and we had talks with him, apparently. I think Charlie Spargo. Some people hear me say those two words and go, get a grip. Honestly, get a grip. He's nowhere near our 22. I call bullshit. I actually think a fit Charlie Spargo up and running gets past his Achilles issue, full pre-season, got a point to prove as well, chip on his shoulder. And he's a Spargo after all. And his old man was full of mongrel bastard and a very dogged player, a good player. I think he can get himself back into calculations and be that really smart, clever, pressure forward, who sets them up and kicks enough as well. And my biggest knock on him has been he doesn't accumulate enough disposals, but his disposals are always high impact. So there's a little forgotten man for me. Like people, people like to shit can Bailey Laurie a bit. Similar mold. We've been floating him through the midfield a bit. Could he also play a pressure small forward role? Who knows? Does he actually get into the team? Is there a spot for him? Maybe not. But I just don't want people to give up on Charlie Spargo. So when Mad always gets linked, he goes to WA. I'm like, yeah, whatever. You lose a bloke that'll kick you 30 to 35 goals if we'd gotten him in. But yeah, Chuck, no one's spoken about him in a long time. That's why I was not bothered one I owe to buy Mad always. Yes. Spargo Chandler Cozzie is probably the starting Smalls now that Neil Bullen's out. I think Bailey Laurie probably gets again. Like I think we need that Alex Neil Bullen. And unless I know they like the running capacity of our man Harry Sharp. So maybe he comes in to fill that wing void or maybe he's coming in to learn that Alex Neil Bullen get up, get back, style, high half forward role. But yeah, I like I like Spargo. I think did he come in towards the end of the season or was he at? No, he's out for the whole year. Oh, yeah. So his last game is one of the more impressive games. He's ever played for the footy club and it was the semi final against Carlton. Yeah. And we hadn't played him for a while that season. And he came in maybe just in the final series. And it reminded me of why he was a regular in 2021. Like he just hits targets. It's almost like we look for him when we're trying to hit that kick at the top of the 60. Like we look for where you know, where is Spargo? Almost that they're quarterback for it, lack of a better term. Yeah, it'd be great to get Spargo back in. I wonder, you know, what happens with Billings? What happens with Milkshur? What happens with McAdams? We've got a plethora of medium sized forwards. Yeah, I think I think Spargo's a great call. We'll go to Harry Sharp and then we'll speak about a couple of other players. We will link with that didn't get to the footy club. And then we can go into the external review and and start to wrap up. But Harry Sharp is just pace. He's wheels. He's rapid, absolutely rapid. And speaking of a few Brisbane people, I'm going to play a clip just a second from Brisbane Lions podcast. But it's a low risk one. He was at the emergency for the grand final. And you need a little bit of depth. You need a little bit of pace. You think about Lucky Hunter goes out. It's another option. I think it's worth the punt. And then if and when and maybe Caleb Windsor moves into a midfield role and suddenly you've got another option that can operate up and down that wing at the MCG with more space than the Gabba as well. So I'll roll the tape. We'll have a listen to JB from the Brisbane Lions fan cast who gives us a bit of a summation and I guess an idea of what to expect from Harry Sharp. G'day Adrian and the debrief. It is JB here from the Brisbane Lions fan cast. Thanks for having me and to have a chat about Harry Sharp. What have you got in Harry Sharp? Well, a perfectly okay footballer. Obviously the huge stat around Harry Sharp is his 2K time trial in the combine and how he beat it by 20 seconds. And we were pretty enamoured by that as well when we picked him up a few years ago. I do notice that is still the metric that has been thrown around. So it's obviously something his honeys had on, but I guess in the four years since then he hasn't really achieved anything more spectacular than that on the 40 field. Once he gets a few games in swim, a bit of continuity will only help him. But he's a fine VFL player. That's step up to AFL. Obviously he's got a leap running capabilities. It's just he's a disposal and he's decision making that does let him down. And of course his physicality is only a slight fella. So look, I'm sure he'll play a couple of games for you, but I doubt he's going to be a mainstay in your senior side. And in terms of moving the needle and getting you back into the top A, top four, I don't think he's going to exactly come along and leap some bounds in that respect. I wouldn't have him ahead of Windsor. I wouldn't have him ahead of Langdon. I probably wouldn't even have him ahead of Billings. So he he might play sub for you. He played sub for us a couple of times this year, but he's fine. I just don't expect to see much of him next year, but obviously a hard team to squeeze into at the Brisbane Lions at the moment. We're going to be losing Dev Robertson as well. So maybe it's he's just a victim of circumstance and he might absolutely light it up in which Casa wished him all the best. And I really hope that does happen, but I don't really say that happening to be honest. Keep up the good work, lads. I'll be tuning in again for season 2025. Well, look, he wasn't wasn't too upbeat about his prospects, Canos. Oh, dear me, I think that's what we all expect Harry Sharp to be like a good depth player, a good role player when he comes in. I know we haven't acquired a Bailey Smith type, but I like the age demographic. Once again, I like this crop of under 22s that we've got. I think he's around 22, 23. He's got an asset to his game, which is his running. But you either need to be strong, quick, or skillful. And at least he's got an asset that separates him from the rest. So that's exciting for me. I think he could come in and be part of that next crop coming through. So I'm not there's not high expectations for our man Sharpie, but I don't mind it. I'm excited to see what he does for the footy club. It feels like a bit of a free hit. Yeah, it does. I'm not going to get super, super excited about it. But welcome him into the club. If as many people have said, if you can get his skills up to scratch and he can accumulate the ball a little bit more when he gets his chance, well, he's got the wheels as well to expose people. The other couple of players that we actually missed out on, and then we've got to speak about Tommy Campbell in just a bit. So we'll speak about the two other players and then we'll go back to Tommy. And there's a thing with Tommy. Some people will sit there and go, "Fuckin' hell, what are we doing? Are we serious as a football club?" It's a bit disingenuous because there's a reason why. But Wade Dirks and the big utility swingman from JWS couldn't get him through the door. I think it ended up being, okay, nine's here. We've traded out a shitload of picks to Westernen. It's sharp, or Dirks, and we just took sharp, and that was it. Does it mean the door's potentially still open for next year? Yeah, maybe. And by all reports, the kid's got a serious amount of talent. That ships out, whatever it is, what it is. The other one that annoyed me, and it annoyed me because Scotty was pissing me off with this one. Tim Mambury. So Tim Mambury, "Oh, Melbourne need a forward. We need another torque key forward." That annoying, freaking conversation that just feels like it's never ending. I was never into it. Never ever into it. Now, for Collingwood, it's simple. It is so low risk. Get him in if he works. Fantastic. Whatever. But from my perspective, I think it would have limited us a bit. I still go back to it again. Disco and JVR, fantastic two-pronged. There's no reason why you can just play a big two-ketal-pronged animal attack, plus you can put in the Jake Milksham to then take the second best key defender of the interceptor. Like for next year. And Jeff, though, you're still a potential chance, but don't talk about Harrison Petty playing out for us. Where's my man Petty? Where is my man Petty? Don't do that. Don't do that. He's a forgotten man. I can't talk. I'm really struggling with the idea of talking about Harrison up forward. I can't do it anymore. I think out of all the things that, and I don't want to sound disrespectful, but this will sound disrespectful, out of all the things that exhausted me more than anything last year. That's Traka Saga, light and all of a saga. But honestly, that it sapped me. It sapped me just having to front up and do play ratings and talk about Harrison Petty rolling in with a two or a three out of 10 most weeks. He had a couple of games where he was very good, very good. He actually got three votes in the brown though against the cat. So he was clunking him on the wing in the wet, a bit like for the love of God, do we please the experiments over? I don't want to go through that again. I think it clicks. I think it clicks to the great man. Yeah, I could not have anticipated that output. And what was frustrating for me is I saw the vision. I saw the club's thought process. I've seen, I think when Harrison Petty first debuted, and I know we've been through this on the pod before, but when he first debuted against the dogs at Marvel, it was because we didn't have forward. So he came in for a game or two, and he was clunking everything. I was going, man, what a gun. And then the next year or two, he started playing in defense. And I was like, oh, man, this guy's a really good defender. He'll be the defender for the next 10 years. And then obviously we needed a bit of a choppet, 22 and 23 and whatever. So we swung him forward. And I saw games from him, which were promising enough, and not even like complete games. It was just like glimpses where I went, man, the kid can clunk, loves physical, loves the pack, and he was a dead-eye dick. And then after he cooked his foot, he came back and was the shell of a man. And it was frustrating from my point of view, because Harrison Petty is a big brute of a lad. People, I don't know if it's the redhead tag as well, but a lot of people were dismissing Harrison Petty, like he's not going to be a good forward. And I was saying, no, you should see this kid. He crashes packs, tastes clunks. And then the output that we got was every bit of doubt that opposition supporters had, they were validated. And it was so frustrating because I watched him all last year and went, this is not what he does. Like even in the back line, even in the forward line, this is not the other Harrison Petty I've watched the last five years performs. So it would need to improve. Otherwise, he just won't be playing. It was some of the worst content and takes I've ever had in doing this podcast, because at the back end of 2023, and the start of last year, I was saying similar things. I was like, this guy's a jet. You watch. I think I was calling 50 plus. What did he end up with? Ten? Nine? No, I didn't even get past ten. Feel the mighty kick that in one game. So much egg on the face from Harrison Petty. So much exhaustion, but I'll flip it and I'll try and be nice here. I genuinely believe in him as a defender. So I can park it there. Tommy Campbell. So Tommy Campbell, he comes in. He's a journeyman. He's a big fella. He's an intimidating fella. You'll throw his weight around if he ever gets a game. We'll see. Maybe good he doesn't rate him in the same way he didn't rate Tom Fullerton. But on that point, goodie unprompted just hangs Tommy Fullerton out to dry last year. He really did. It was so weird and it was so hard to make sense of why he did it. I liked it in real time, but on reflection, it was very stiff and borderline unprofessional for me. I mean, goodie. It wasn't great. But the reason, well, he did it. There's no reason. Like it's out there, right? You look at it now and you go, okay, well, we need to go and get a better option. And Tommy Campbell might be that option. So if Max goes through a few troubles next year, he needs to chop out. Maybe we're playing another team that's got two recognised ruckmen. Then Tom Campbell makes him sense. Will he play five games, 10 games? I don't know. Will he play more than 10? Highly unlikely. Will he play anywhere in the vicinity of five to 10? Maybe. Maybe. Will he play just a handful like two or three or a few? I don't know. But one of the reasons why I'm actually into it is because Ben Brown, when he was talking on Essie Ann about his career, they asked him to talk about who the best players have ever played with. And he said, "Drew Petrie?" And I thought, "Great player." Good shout. I like it. If Drew Petrie didn't play for North Melbourne, he played for one of the big four Victorian clubs, people would speak about him in a completely different light. Like I reckon he was a very good player. He then spoke about Tom Campbell. And I was like, Tom Campbell? Like, what about like Daniel Wells? Or who would some other really good North Melbourne players? I can't think. Andrew Swallow. I can't think of many. Sorry, North. And he went on to speak about Clayton Oliver, Max, and Track as being the other three, which is a bit of a do. But he's specifically honed in on Tommy Campbell because of the fact he was such a good clubman. Great standards, great fella, great values, and a bit of a mentor to all the younger kids at the club. So we lost that in Ben Brown. Ben Brown goes out and we lost that father figure, in some respects, and just a really good egg, just a really good person at their core. Those people are really important for any organization. You don't have to just be a footy club, right? So with Ben Brown going out and his good mate, Tommy Campbell, coming in, part of the reason why I think he's come to the football club is not just purely because of what he can do to help Max chop out. It's we've lost Ben Brown, who's a great clubman. We've lost Alex Neil Baughan, who's heart and soul. So I think just replenishing the stocks from a cultural perspective and bringing in Tom Campbell from that perspective, I'm into it. Yeah, I don't mind it. The thing that worries me a little bit, and I guess on burst reaction, when you heard the news, it's like our backup Ruckman for our older Ruckman is the same age as Max, like he's 32. So in my head, it's like the next bloke we were going to get will replace Max for the next five years once Max eventually leaves. I think he's got three years left at the club, Maxie, because he signed that contract. But so to sign someone at a similar age, it did make you think, well, geez, how reliable is he going to be as a backup? But I think he played most, he's played, I don't think he misses much games, Tommy Campbell. And I think he's won the B&F down at Sandy once or twice, or maybe even three times, like he's been a very consistent second tier contributor. So I don't know, I guess he's our new Cam Pederson. He's our new Loker rocks up, plays his VFL games, and then gives a chop out when it's needed. And there's no ego there, and there's no pressure to put him in. Didn't quite work with Brucey. He wanted the number one spot. He didn't quite work with Brody. He wanted the number one spot. So now we've got someone who's there for the right reasons, which is exciting. And to go bigger, bigger picture, but is Tommy Campbell the backup to tie us over until Kalani gets drafted, hopefully, by the red and the blue? Is that why we're not selling the farm to the 22-year-old Ruckman that are around in the lower leagues? Potentially, that's a reason. I thought you were going to be like, is Tommy Campbell our Darcy Fort that plays in a grand final? And then I had to backtrack in my brain because that would mean maybe Max, Mississippi grand final, and heaven forbid. I don't think we could win a grand final without Max Gorn. Imagine if goody just finds out that the two Ruck attack works, and Tommy Campbell's slot goals as a resting forward. And he looks like Lou Jackson is picking it up from his toes, and he's snapping it over his head. And then all of a sudden, it's like, wow, wait, Tom Campbell, what a revelation. That world does not exist. You never think about that. So just let that world does not exist. There are a lot of worlds in my mind that I think exist. One of them is Tom Campbell will never become that. The other one is Harrison Petty will never become a good forward. I've gone there. And I hope he does because it's pretty easy. Like, I know. I jinxed him. I jinxed him. Now he's kicked 50 plus. But yeah, Tommy Campbell insurance policy will say, who knows? I think there's a world Harrison Petty keeps more than 35 goals this year. Oh, don't do that. Next year. Just the last couple to wrap up. So the external review, and then we're going to end on Max Gorn and his comments about this off-season break and just the extra time that Melbourne have got to prepare. He jumped on the footy with Broden Kelly just before the grand final. So I want to roll that tape at the very end and just give people a bit of food for thought as they go about their day tomorrow, where most of the debrief people will be listening to this podcast, but the external review. So some people in the media came out and said that we should get a response end of this week. Well, I just thought I'd go straight to the big cooner himself. So I emailed Brad Green this morning and I just asked him about the timelines. And I said, hey, there's some reports out there on the media. And he's probably obviously aware that some people are saying by Friday this week, the 18th of October, there should be some findings that come out from the report. Well, Greeny knocked it on the head. So he said the findings of our reviews will go to the board on the 28th and then we'll communicate to members and supporters after that. As you would understand, a lot of the reporting is confidential and the only key findings will be externally communicated. So we've got to wait a little bit longer, but there's a timeline for you. So anyone thinking, when are we going to find out about the review? Well, the big cooner himself, Brad Green, got back to me. I asked him if he could make comment. He's made comment the 28th of October. We'll get a really good indication of what this football club has gone through during that process, what the outcomes are, what the findings are. And I think we're all pretty excited, to be honest, Caden. I know it seems a little bit dirty, external review, it gets made out as if your club's, you know, super dysfunctional and all is not well. But a lot of other people in the media and people that have been closer to footy organizations and I've ever been have said, should probably be doing these things every single year. Like it's okay for other people from other organizations to come in there and get their mitts on the way that you do things. There's nothing wrong with that because ultimately what you're trying to do as an organization is get better. But this one in particular just feels like there's significantly more interest in what the findings are and what it means for our footy club. But 28th is when we're going to have to wait till. Yeah, cool. Well, I can't leave them gone straight to the top, to the big Brad Green. That is unbelievable and good journalistic instinct by you to get the quote from the great man. Yeah, I don't know. If you read into the media and you see some of the tweets, there's a Damien Barrett type saying that it's going to be quite damning. And when I read stuff like that, I get concerned. And I guess it's just concerning because I love the club, but I get concerned that we're going to hear some things that we don't want to hear. But I think we have to. Like, I guess that's what it's all about. I don't anticipate that they're going to release everything to the public. I think as you just said, so we'll find out some things that, yeah, I think it's necessary to hold the mirror up to your face and just take account for what's happened. And hopefully we can move forward with it. And I think it's probably puts an end to the sweeping under the carpet, which appears to have been happening over the last little bit. And I'm excited to get it over with. And it feels like we can start afresh. I hope sooner rather than later, we've got some coaches because there's about three coaching spots we need to fill. Hopefully that's in and around the 28 as well. So when the boys come back, they can start building rapport with their line coaches because I think there's at least two missing. So yeah, it feels like a really fresh start for the footy club. And as we said, hopefully, some accountability can be held with what's happened over the last couple of years. And yeah, we'll find out on the 28th, which is good. Thank God. So you're right. We asked for change and Christian asked for change and change is coming and change has already been happening at the footy clubs. Greg Stafford, forwards coach, want to flag under his guidance 11 years at the footy club off the top of my head. So we've got to thank staff. But yeah, by all reports, he was great for culture as well. Like in terms of, and I've said the word that we shouldn't say at the mobile footy club, but in terms of driving the standards, and I'm talking about on field and every word that came out about Greg Stafford was awesome. And I know that he became a bit of a whipping boy for your Twitter supporters because the forward line wasn't functioning. And he was the forwards coach. And he wasn't a natural forward when he played football. And are we losing games because we have a Rockman as a forwards coach? Well, he was the forwards coach that had a salute in the drought breaking 2021 grand final. So he was doing something right. Maybe it was personnel. Maybe it was method from the midfield for why we haven't functioned. But I think over his 11 years at the footy club, he did as well as you could have. Yeah, I agree. So new forwards coach to come in. Andrew McQuilter, his new West Coast coach, of course, like thanks for the year. But if you want to be really brutal, clearance was awful. It was awful. It's as bad as it's ever been. So I'm a good one. Now, is it too easy to single-handedly point the finger at him? Yeah. But are you well within your rights to single-handedly point the finger at him? Sure. Like he's a midfield coach. We fell off a cliff in that respect. So it was horrible. It was uncompetitive in games. Yeah. So I'm not trying to shoot on him because apparently he's a great fella and clearly he's impressive. He's just interviewed with all of these other people for a massive gig. Like West Coast to a powerhouse. It's such a big club. Such a big club. And he got the job. So they're play to him. He's obviously got some very impressive qualities and traits and DNA. But off the sample size from what we saw last year, it just wasn't working for me. So I'm kind of happy that we get a fresh look and we get someone else in. Nathan Jones apparently might be that person to come in, which is on one hand, super exciting just because he's a favorite son. On the other hand, I sit there and I go, does he have his coaching badges? Is he done much of this stuff yet? Or is it just purely the fact that he was in the system for so long? And he was such a good midfielder himself that it's not that technical Adrian. Of course, he can come in and play a role. I don't know. I'm a little bit torn on that one. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Once you've mentioned Jonesy, like on one hand, my heart just beams with excitement. A man who put his blood, sweat and tears, captain the side brought us up from the doldrums. And a man who, if we were to salute the next couple of years, and he was in his slacks and polo out on the ground having contributed, because he contributed to the 2021 flag. It was a shame that he couldn't be there and celebrate because of the birth of his children. But for him to be out at the MCJ with the slacks and polo, having put his head down, ask up to help us get there in a coaching capacity would be the best thing ever. So on one hand, it's like, unbelievable, bring Jonesy to the club. And then on the other hand, yeah, I think I've had the thought that everyone else has had. And it's like, does he does he know all the two zones? Does he have all the techniques? Does he you know, is there better midfield coaches out there? Like if we want to go and poach a midfield coach, what midfield coach in the country wouldn't want to work with Gorn, Betraya, Oliver and Viny? Like, I feel like we could almost poach anyone from any other club with that personnel at your disposal. So I hope we have looked across the whole competition and realized that Nathan Jones won his best fit, but also best fit because he loves the club. I hope we haven't jumped at the chance for any other reason. But if it is Jonesy, that would be cool. It would be cool. Kate Roffe obviously went out and Greenie came in. I think the way that it was handed over, I thought the way that Brad Green spoke about Kate Roffe. I thought Kate Roffe's speech at the B&F was really beautiful. I think it was handled extremely well. It was very dignified. I thought that was great. She's done an awesome job by all reports, the demon army and the report that she'd built with all the fan communities and the volunteers down there at the football club was just exceptional. So she's a very active president from that perspective. And she's done a hell of a lot to help us potentially get that core field base as well, heavily involved in that and had a huge part to say in it, if we can get it over the line. And if we do get it over the line, we'll be forever indebted to someone like Kate Roffe for putting in a hard earned in her time. Just her knowledge and her IP and her connections that she's got with state government to potentially get that deal done. So it's a really important step. So she goes out and then look, this review, who knows? Gary Pert and Alan Richardson, CEO and general manager of footy, their jobs are potentially on the line. Everyone's jobs are potentially on the line. Let's get real. It's an external review. So we'll see what comes of that. I know there are a fair few Melbourne supporters out there that are hoping those two blokes get the chop. But again, we don't really know. If you're not inside the four walls, you just do not know. So we'll see what comes of it. And whether there's new blood in that respect, maybe it's a Jimmy Bartel who I know had a beer with Simon Goodwin. There are a few D's people down there who spotted those two men in a particular bar in Peran or Windsor having a beer. And then a week later, the report came out that Melbourne are speaking to Jimmy Bartel. So that's interesting. Rory Sloan, as well, has been linked in some capacity to come to the footy club. So look, there's good people in and around the footy club that have been linked that vary in experience. Like Jonesy, probably the most inexperienced from a coaching perspective, but brings passion and enthusiasm and just loves club and was a very good midfielder in his own right, a three time best and fairest winner as well. So it's interesting to see how it's going to play out. We don't know. We don't have the crystal ball, but I've no doubt in my mind, these are not the only changes. Like Staff's out, McQualters out, Raffy's out, clearly there's some replacements. Brad Green probably the temporary before they put someone permanent in towards the end of I'm thinking it's this time next year. So if Brad does a year, excellent. Again, I love his passion and his enthusiasm. And he's a Melbourne football club man and clearly loves the club to bits. So yeah, it's an interesting time. There's things I want to say, but I'm going to hold back because I don't think it is the time. I think we just see it out. We stay the course with this external review and we just wait and we just be patient. We get to the 28th as Greenie came back to me today on email. We just see where it lands because it'd be a little bit foolish for me to go off on a tangent about what I want as a Melbourne supporter because ultimately what I want will only happen off the back of all those findings. So we'll see what happens. Yeah, it feels like a fresh start for the club. It feels yeah, it feels like we're rejuvenating on the go. It doesn't feel, you know, say we were to salute the next year or two and we it all clicked and all these changes worked. The two flags would feel very separate. Like this feels like a different era. It feels like next year the Melbourne Footy Club, different coaches, different president, different personnel across the park to what happened in 21. So it feels completely different. It doesn't feel like they're related or connected, which is daunting but exciting at the same time. But I feel like we've needed a bit of a freshen up. So hopefully what they've done up into this point and hopefully the changes they make going forward can read new life into the Footy Club and get the media off our back and just keep us out of the headlines and let's just earn that respect back from the Footy Club and earn the respect back from the supporters as well with on-field performance. We're going to end on Max before we do. That's a really good point you make. It does feel like a different era. So if you look at the 2021, pardon me, grand final team. Michael Hibbard, he's not there anymore. Who else we got in this team, Brayshaw, Gus not there anymore. Alex Neul-Bullen, Charlie Spargo has been injured. He's obviously still in the list and might have a role to play if you can get back up to full speed. Ben Brown's not there anymore. Luke Jackson's not there anymore. James Harms isn't there anymore. James Jordan isn't there anymore. So they're starting to be quite a bit of turnover from 2021 and more to come as well. We go to Max. So I spoke about it earlier. This is him speaking about just the off-season, the long-winded off-season that he gets to enjoy as a player and individual and all his team mates. So just have a listen to this. This is him speaking with Broden Kelly, who we love dearly on this podcast, Caden, on his very own show, The Footy, just before the grand final. Have a listen to this. What I'm getting at is the last three years I've had like eight week off seasons because we've played, we've gone deep in six and seven weeks. That's all. Well, 2021 was catastrophic because we went deep and then there was a really early pre-season start. 22 and 23 have been quite the same. They've been like eight to 10 weeks and I'd been a broken toe in the final series in 22 and I started running like two weeks after the like there was no break. Is that good? Is that a good thing? Well, you have to because you're behind. We're six weeks. Currently I've been, what are we, five weeks off? Sydney is going to be five weeks behind us. They've been playing so they've been staying fit as well. Yeah, like Geelong are always up there. But if you have a really nice run. It's a big thing. It's going to be 15, 16 weeks off. That's massive in terms of young guys can really build their tank and the older guys can have a really good freshen up. And if you do it right like Geelong looks like they did like Collin will look like they did. Sydney, if you do it right, you can straightaway go back and launch. If you have the right team to be able to do it. I'm revved out. So glass half full. This break is exactly what we needed. And I'm going to, if I write a book at the end of the year, sorry, the end of my career, which I've already written a book during my career. So if I write a book at the end of my career, I don't think I'd be able to tell you the difference between 2022, 2020, 2020 and 2024. Feels like it's been a long, three year block. And we've had no break. That's what it sort of felt like. We've got a chance to have a break now. Oh, great. Which is kind of cool. I'm very excited. We got players overseas, the young guys are in the States, those guys in Europe, everyone's gone away. This is what we needed. Now that gets me really excited and you could see when you watch it on YouTube, you could really see Broden just brimming. He's just like buzzing. He's been in the doldrums. You've got to remember, this is just before AFL grand final. And it's probably feeling all the emotions that I felt during that week. Very bitter, very jealous of Sydney and Brisbane supporters who are relishing the occasion. And Max Gordon strolled into his Brunswick studio and just told him, mate, this is honestly the best thing that could have happened to us in the last few years. We get a longer break. We can rejuvenate. We can recuperate. We can get a bit of an edge on the rest of the competition who start later, the team's competing in finals. And we can use it as leverage and bounce into 2025. I got pretty pumped up about this. And how could you not? The great leader of our footy club has had some R&R finally. Yeah, well, there's enough evidence around the comp that teams who've been up for a little while have a year off and they bounce back. Sydney did it a couple of years ago. Geelong did it. Geelong's a famous example. They finished similarly to us on the ladder in 2023, just to make a prelim in 2024. Geelong are the benchmark of the competition and they've done that for 15 years straight. So I'd like to say a bit more body of work to know whether we could do it or not. But the 22 that was competitive this year, we can't forget that we were very good at the start of the year and very good throughout the back end of the year. We should have beaten Brisbane who won the grand final. We should have beaten them at the gabber with no track and clarry or whoever we didn't have in. Maybe Claire was running around. We should have beaten Port at the MCG. They made a prelim. We should have beaten GWS at the MCG. They should have won the Granny because they choked two finals. And we had a lot of stars not on the park and a lot of stars hurt. So, you know, freshen up, they get the time off. We make slight changes to the personnel. There's going to be a lot of natural growth within the bottom six of our 22 just given the age demographic. They're all starting to hit 21, 22, 23 years of age. So there's enough to be bullish about it. But I'm not going to run up and down Swan Street with Bades scarf trying to sell the message just yet. I still sort of want to say is go to work, head down, bum up, stay out of the headlines, come back with no expectations. And then let's see what footy club are we? Are we one that can bounce back? Are we a top 14 for three for five years in a row sort of footy club, which we have been in the past? Or was that a blip in the radar? And are we looking at a different future going forward? But I guess we're 12 months away from knowing that. You're right. And you summed it up really well. And it's going to be a different era. The expectations will be different. There'll be a lot of plays out there on the park playing regular footy that we probably didn't expect would be running around. There blokes that have left the club that we would have never expected to leave. Like Angus Bresher and Alex Neal Bullen are the ones that spring to mind in particular that aren't there anymore. So it is a different Melbourne. It certainly is. It's still exciting though just purely because of the talent that's come through. And in our thread with Scotty, I mentioned some of those players, Windsor, Colt, Mona's Wakefield, Pick Five and Pick Nine, whoever they are coming into the system. Reddy made, as you said earlier in the podcast, a chance to play from round one. Trent Rivers, he's moved into midfield. What he can do there. Cozy as well, like Cozy potentially going to that all Australian level that we know he's capable of, gets me really excited. There's a lot to hang your hat on from a youthful perspective. It's this regeneration and it's this semi-rebuild on the fly that we've spoken about before. But we don't actually know what it really is yet. Like it might be a slow burn. It might be you're finishing 10th, 11th, but you've shown plenty of growth. You're not too despondent end of year. It might then be the next year you get into finals. You're a seventh or eighth proposition. You may be pinch one. You maybe don't pinch a final. It could be slower than we expect. Or it just could be an absolute just catapult right back into the mix. You win those games against Brisbane GWS and Port Adelaide that you mentioned. We're right up there competing at the pointy end. And that's the thing that I don't know yet. The only thing I do know, it is a marathon not a sprint. And it's so reflective of the way that Essendon, Carlton, and Collingwood just all fell off a cliff after round 15. And then if you flip it on its head, the same way that Brisbane came home with the wet sail, took the competition by storm, so did GWS. They came in with some red hot form. So did the bulldog. So did the Hawthorne. So did the Hawthorne as well. The bulldogs, even though the bulldogs and the Hawthorne played against each other, which was a little bit annoying and in an elimination final, that deserved to be a semi or even a prelim to be honest. But it really is about timing your run. So it's going to take a long time for us to actually know exactly where we are. Because the six and two start in 2024, just completely pulled the wool over our eyes. I know it didn't help when Lever goes down and Patraka goes down in those next few weeks, but the six and two start did a number on me and it probably did a number on a lot of Melbourne supporters. But then you just got to look at the other clubs that I mentioned, those big three Victorian clubs that were absolutely flying. They're all in the top four. The AFL is just getting ready to make the most money they've ever made in their entire existence. And they all just fell in a heap. So that's the beauty of AFL. It is the epitome of a marathon, not a sprint. So we won't know for a while. Yeah, well, I think I had a rough idea by King's birthday this year, where we sat. Obviously, if things had gone slightly better, we could have fought out the back end of the year and scraped to an eighth or whatever. But I think by King's birthday next year, I'll know where we're at. It's a good measure. And yeah, hopefully, we're going to get a bottom six fixture. We're going to have fit play. You just don't know. You just don't know. I'm bullish about what the club's built to this point. And if we can have a bit of an external review and fix a few things ago again, there's no reason why there should be a ceiling. But I understand why we're reserving that judgment given the last five months we've had. The last two things to do, go and listen to a podcast that will be on the debrief channel or within all your favorite apps. So Apple, Spotify, and the like, and it's with Eden Zanka. So Eden Zanka was on the line tonight with the AFLW crew out of the Castaway studios in Collingwood. She did, I think, 40 minutes with the gang. So really indulged in enjoyed herself with the AFLW crew. So go and have a listen to Eden. She's fantastic. I love watching her play. She's an absolute brute. She's such an impressive footballer, very laid back. I was doing a little bit of editing before we jumped on. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but I do look forward to having a listen tomorrow. So go and have a listen to Eden. She's awesome. And our AFLW girls are awesome. They've had a lot of adversity this year. So many injuries, so much cruel luck, but they've won their last three in a row. There's still a sneaky chance. You wouldn't want to play Melbourne in this run home. There's still three games. If they win all three, they'll sneak into the finals. If they win two, they'll probably still miss out on percentage. But the girls are doing this per hour because they could have just fallen away themselves. And I thought that went against Adelaide the other night. I was pretty crook when I was watching. Gave me a bit of a pep up. They were brutal. Over 100 tackles in the game. They just limited Adelaide's run. Adelaide are a very physical outfit. And every single game we play against Adelaide and the AFLW is a bruising encounter, but just super impressed that Mick Steneer and the girls just didn't let the season go to waste. They're still fighting hard. And I think that's symbolic of the spirit that we want to see. Every single side that represents the Melbourne Football Club playing with. So well done to the girls and enjoy the interview with Aidan Zankar. I think you'll like it. It's an absolute ripper. Yeah, they always embody the demon spirit. And they always, every season, make you proud to belong. So I'm glad that they're fighting out the season well, and it was a great win against Adelaide. And they had a great win against the Saines as well who were in good form. So, yeah, the injuries have been a little bit disappointing. But once again, they don't put the cue on the rack, which is something I love about our girls. Well said, all right, mate, I'll wrap it up there. It's been cathartic. It's the first mention right at the end, of course. And I've enjoyed it. It's been good 50 days. It's flown by. I've enjoyed time with Harry and a little Jasper, who's three months now. And just in the burb life out here in Bentley East, Melbourne Heartland, some people would say. And yeah, I mean, I haven't done many handyman things like painting the house or it doesn't need to be painted. I've got a shed that's got a whole heap of junk in it that hasn't been arranged yet because I'm not a handyman. But the one thing I've done that's handy is I've mowed the lawns multiple times and kept them really, really proper. So you give them the MCG strip, like the checkered lines? No, but they look good. And my little boy Harry grabs his lawn mower, his little toy lawn mower, and he gets it out and we do it together. And he goes over a few bits and he often tells me that I've missed parts, which is nice, even though I can see I've clearly mowed it. And he's like, Daddy, you've missed it. You've missed it. And I'm like, okay, no worries. And I go back over it. Daddy, you missed that bit. Like, okay, mate, no worries. So it's been good fun. So I've really enjoyed just staying with my family and getting away from footy, to be honest. It's been a good time. But it's also it's been good to speak about the footy club again, because I do love it. It's a good outlet. And yeah, mate, we've experienced a lot of ups and downs and who knows what we've got in store over the next six to 12 months. But I'm pretty bloody excited about the draft period now. We pick five and nine. So that's what we've got to look forward to. And you've been tremendous tonight, as always. And we'll have to get a frothy soon. Yeah, beautiful. Thank you, mate. Thanks for getting me on. It's going to be exhausting just waiting for the debrief to come back over the next little bit. It's always a highlight of my week. And it gives me some structure throughout the week. So I assuming it's going to be a little bit longer than 50 days for you, unless you do like a draft type setup. But thanks for getting me on. And it's always good to chat these footy. Nice work.
