Melbourne's 1st pick

[Mark26]

Wouldn't waste a first rounder on him. I prefer to go into the draft with 2 first rounders.

It's not a waste even if we had to use a late first rounder for Zurhaar. He's a proven performer and still young enough to be around for a while. At present, the return for pick on Stephens has been a waste. I'm still hoping he comes good, but it's no guarantee.

[Thunder Shaker]

This year there is only one F/S in first round contention that will distort the selection order.

Ashcroft, touted a likely top 3, still hasn't declared if he'll accept a F?S nomination from Brisbane. He is based in Melbourne and would apparently prefer to stay there. At this stage he'd be eyeing off joining Norf or Essendon in Melb (no thanks), West Coast or Adelaide away from Melbourne (why would you risk it) or nominate Brisbane (away from mummy I know) a strong contending club where your father played in three flags.

Soooo, I'd reckon our picks will all get pushed out by one and Brisbane will put their first rounder, a likely late teens, up for grabs. Would we entertain trading for it by using our 2023 first rounder?

Offering our 2023 first rounder won't get the deal done because Brisbane will be trading for points, not picks.

A more plausible deal would be offering up picks in the second and fourth rounds (Port has our third-round pick). If we have three first-round picks, we won't really need the later picks. A plausible deal would be 2nd and 4th rounds picks to Brisbane plus a future second-round pick, in exchange for their first-round and a future third round or fourth round pick from somewhere. Holding three picks late in the first round would be useful if we wanted to trade up.

[Mark26]

Max is out for a month. He is by far the Dees most valuable player. It will be interesting to see how they go without him. Here's hoping they lose every one of those games!

[707]

Max is out for a month. He is by far the Dees most valuable player. It will be interesting to see how they go without him. Here's hoping they lose every one of those games!

May in, Max out - yes!

Max is a huge player for them, look how many times he saved them against us. Their midfield's dominance stems from Max's superb taps down their throats and he thwarts so many attacks with intercept marks.

Pressure is now on at Melbourne

[Markwebbos]

Melbourne have two matches against Brisbane, Freo away, Geelong away, Bulldogs at Marvell, Pies and Carlton at home, Port away and Adelaide away.

That is a tough stretch of 9 games and they could easily finish out of the top four..

They’d probably have to lose 7 of 9 to miss the 8. But I’d say their place in the top 4 is extremely shaky with Gawn out.

[Maltopia]

May in, Max out - yes!

Max is a huge player for them, look how many times he saved them against us. Their midfield's dominance stems from Max's superb taps down their throats and he thwarts so many attacks with intercept marks.

Pressure is now on at Melbourne

Max out thanks to Mason Cox’s knee in the marking contest? If so, Cox has made up for a lot of his crappy games by severely denting the defending champion’s chances!