There has been much discussion about our off-season recruits and how they have been going but little info about this bloke. Is there any news? How has he been at training? Where does he fit in? Seems to me that he is a ready made player and the little I saw of him at Geelong was promising.

A mate who's a Cats fan reckons he'll be a good pick up for us.

He slipped into the list without much fanfare, but will a solid citizen down back, def ahead of seller/Davis, depends on matchups and garland/watts/Dunn positions/form

I haven't seen him play, but some have likened him to Rivers, which interests me: why would Geelong get rid of a "young Rivers" essentially for an old one? And vice versa for us?

I haven't seen him play, but some have likened him to Rivers, which interests me: why would Geelong get rid of a "young Rivers" essentially for an old one? And vice versa for us?

Rivers was closing in on the twilight of his career and didn't have the ingredients necessary to take part in our revival. Rather than teach an old dog some new sophisticated tricks, I reckon the football department opted for change and a younger gun to take over a defender's role.

Gillies was more the backup for Lonergan at full back than a Rivers type and he's big without being massive. Here I see him playing a back up to Frawley role. His kicking makes him a better deep defender than an up the ground type. He could also fill in for McDonald at CHB if needed though.

He's a reasonably athlete and a competitor. He needs a full season of AFL in the next 1-2 years before we can really tell if he'll make it but he might not get those opportunities unless he's playing to the best of his ability.

I do prefer the ball use of Watts/Dunn/Garland as the remaining tall options but Neeld might implement a structure with multiple tall defenders. Collingwood did that with playing Reid, Brown, Tarrant, Maxwell, O'Brien even Toovey isn't short at times. If you have big blokes who can kick and move like small blokes then you might play them as your smalls. We've seen Garland and Frawley take the small forwards in the last 2 years at times despite their height.

I haven't seen him play, but some have likened him to Rivers, which interests me: why would Geelong get rid of a "young Rivers" essentially for an old one? And vice versa for us?

Mark and Jared had different ideas about a few things.

Rivers was closing in on the twilight of his career and didn't have the ingredients necessary to take part in our revival. Rather than teach an old dog some new sophisticated tricks, I reckon the football department opted for change and a younger gun to take over a defender's role.

Mark and Jared had different ideas about a few things.

I was thinking a bit from Geelong's point if view really. (Not that I care a lot really.)

The AFL committee that determined our compensation for losing Rivers and Moloney as free agents (combined value = 3rd round pick) probably answered the question better than anything else.

Pfft........................there are commercial interests at work here

Rivers was closing in on the twilight of his career and didn't have the ingredients necessary to take part in our revival. Rather than teach an old dog some new sophisticated tricks, I reckon the football department opted for change and a younger gun to take over a defender's role.

I reckon Rivers opted for the change. As a FA he could go where he wanted, regardless of what our FD thought. I understood it that the FD wanted him to stay

The AFL committee that determined our compensation for losing Rivers and Moloney as free agents (combined value = 3rd round pick) probably answered the question better than anything else.

I think that Rivers opted for less $ and a shorter contract with Geelong, which is perhaps why he contributed so little to our comp pick. Moloney contributed SFA.

I'm clad he's gone a few fresh faces were needed

Mark and Jared had different ideas about a few things.

Flew down for the tennis on Saturday night. Bumped into Rivers at a nightclub afterwards and spoke to him for a while (at about 1.00am - I was pretty boozed; he didn't appear to be).

Without trying to sound like too much of a sycophant, I said that virtually all passionate MFC supporters (ie, you guys) were disappointed he left the club, but, virtually without exception, we wished him well. In short, he was, and still is, a popular guy with the supporters.

He seemed to suggest that he had no option. The club didn't offer him a particularly good contract and it was a bit of a no brainer for him to go to the Cats.

In any event, he also seemed to be a bit over a few things at the MFC, but he didn't expand on what exactly. Just seemed to suggest that it was time for a change, and he seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of playing finals.

Nothing particularly remarkable I suppose, but this was from the horse's mouth.

Mark and Jared had different ideas about a few things.

Care to expand on that for me?