NOW the footy season is over, the rumour mill is in overdrive with talk of big offers to our top players to change clubs.
The sort of money they're talking about is crazy. How can we possibly hang on to them?
Some of the offers are unconditional, so your star player could break his leg in the first game but still get paid for the season.
Morry, Mansfield
Dear Morry,
I don't know about all this bidding for players - it's a little bit grubby isn't it?
Secret meetings, late night phone calls, brown paper envelopes. It's country footy after all - not council elections.
Whatever happened to club loyalty? In the good old days, you stuck with the one club through thick and thin or in our club, thin and thin: the last time we won a grand final, the team celebrated with a trip to Mildura - by Cobb and Co coach.
My old whacker played for his beloved Bunyips for 43 years and the only reward he ever needed was casserole night after training.
Mind you, the Wombats tried to entice him once but not even the offer of a second-hand Valiant ute was enough. No, back then you played for the love of the game. Nowadays they all think they're David Beckham.
Our club caved in last year and bought an expensive full forward. But his marking was hopeless. Couldn't catch a cold.
And he missed a goal that would have got us into the finals. He said he could have kicked himself, but I don't think he could have even managed that.
So I think if you're going to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a player, they should get paid on performance - $50 a goal, or $20 a kick and $10 for a handball, with a refund every time they give away a free. And they need to come with some sort of money-back guarantee - no flag, no fee.
