Reply to thread

I think Judd is a bad example because he wanted to go home to a town with 9 clubs in it. A guy wanting to go back to Perth or Adelaide is different because you've only got two clubs to be potential suitors. If you want to get something in return you might have to accept a lowball to not risk the player walking to the PSD. It's like the situation we were in with Ben Brown, it's not analogous obviously (Brown wanted to leave, wasn't picky as to where) but we ended up having to accept less than we would've liked because only one club was interested.

That said, I don't think there's any reason to think there will necessarily be a go home factor. It's never been a big issue for us before, the clubs who have been hit hardest by it are the ones based in QLD when their sides were bottom for years and years. If anything I think a lot of young guys who come to Melbourne thinking they would like to go home end up enjoying the thrill of living in the home of footy, having more independence than they've ever had before, and hopefully getting along well with the guys around them. That's where a good club culture comes into it, and looking at our success rate with retaining players, I think we're doing well in that regard. We were one of the few clubs who didn't lose any players to GWS or GC in their expansion period, we've had many, many players over the years who are from SA or WA and had long, successful careers with the club.