Summary:*Balmey said the first he knew about Lynch was today (laughs)
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* Most of the work done between Blair Hartley and Lynch's management. Reported quite accurately that he loved the Gold Coast but he wanted to come back to Melbourne. 3 clubs involved that were very close. Balmey said he was hopeful more than confident.
* If anyone thinks Lynch will be the saviour they'll be disappointed. There will be a change of structure up forward which Jack Riewoldt will be happy about as he won't have to do so much of the work (i.e. getting crunched). Lynch is better than the average player so we do expect a bit from him but he mainly needs to do his role.
* We don't want Lynch to ruck but we do need a 2nd ruck. I don't see him going into the ruck too much I see him going up forward. That (2nd ruck issue) hasn't been resolved to be honest.
* Miles and Corey Ellis played so well in the VFL this year and they don't want to play VFL forever so they looked for opportunities elsewhere. As mentors and friends we wanted to help them to get to where they wanted to get to. It would've happened regardless of Lynch.
* Conca - not much we could do given he was unrestricted free agent. We would've liked to have kept him but the Dockers made him a good offer to go home. We'll miss him he's a great young man around the club.
* Lloyd - we'd support his move to the Bulldogs if that's what he wants.
* Townsend - we'll be happy to keep him but we'll see what happens.
* Brandon Ellis - nothing certain but no one banging the door down for him. We'd like to keep him. We don't want to lose anymore players.
* Broad is contracted.
* Got to smart enough to work out what makes us difficult to play against. Smalls add a different dynamic but any side with Tom Lynch will be hard to play against.
* Balmey said he's old fashioned and doesn't like free agency and trading. Prefers building trust between club and player. Doesn't like the moving of contracted players. They should see their contract out. If you do it properly with the 3-4 players that do want to move then that's fine.
* Feels sorry for North. "They've just got to keep trying I'd guess" lol.
* How do you stay up near the top? Getting Tom Lynch helps a bit (laughs). As Boomer would know you need to stay hungry and work hard. A credit to our guys this year that they stayed hungry. There's going to be a few clubs challenging next year.
* Not sure on Lynch's guernsey number. Not the biggest concern. More worried about the numbers we're paying him (laughs).
