39 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I didn't see any cup or medal awarded to any club at 2PM Thursday.

You don't "win" or "lose" at trade week.

You "improve" your list, or you "don't".

We won't know for sure until next season is underway, but at this stage it looks like we have improved ours.

That's the nearest to "winning" we can do in October.

Go Demons!

Absolutely correct!

There are no winners and losers in trading.  If either party doesn't want to do the deal it doesn't happen.

The one who missed out on the opportunity to improve their list through this process were North, Collingwood, Sydney and probably Richmond. But they choose to improve their list through the draft.

 

9 minutes ago, Big Carl said:

Paid way "over" for Lever.

Gave Watts up too cheaply (plus we are still paying part of his salary in 2018). Jack's performance over his 9 years had been well documented but players of his height, ability, kicking and finishing skills don't grow on trees. At what point do you look at the host of support coaches at MFC and ask what share of responsibility do they take for not getting the best out of him?? 

There is no hiding now. The club has made their choices and will have to be judged on those in 12 months time.

 

 

So what did Adelaide pay for Gibbs exactly if Lever was "Way Over"??

If we had to trade Petracca what would you ask for??

I am stoked we have Lever. But too give away two first round picks is sh*t house and we could of negotiated alot better. We had the ball and dropped it. Pick 10 & 2nd Round 2018 pick was very fair and MFC should of stuck to this offer. FFS Lever was uncontracted!

As far as Watts. Port were desperate for his services and would should have got a 20-24 pick for him. 

Balic. A steal at Pick 66! I would have happily given Freo Pick 46.

I was hoping we could have upgraded for a pick earlier in the 2nd round. PICK 21! Disappointed and trumped by the smarter Weagles! WC gain Picks 21 & 26 from the Suns.

I was hoping Brandon Starcevich would be a Dee! Not to be and will definitley be an Eagle at one of those picks. And he will be a star!

27 minutes ago, Dr.D said:

would've liked to have gotten saad. dont know why we didnt as we had the picks to get him.

happy to get watts out, even for nothing and didnt care that we paid overs for lever.

 

to all the people that say they are p!ssesd off for paying too much for lever, i can only imagine you would be more p!ssed off if we said 'nah stuff it we'll go to the draft instead' and risk not ending up with lever. and don't mention all the psd stuff. its still a risk not worth taking.

Quite a few here seem to have gotten sad!

Disappointed as I am that Watts never showed us his best (which is very good) consistently he seems to have been told on more than one occasion watt was required of him and he failed to deliver:  therefore to have retained him would have been seen (and rightly criticized) as double standards.  I wish him well. 

Lever is a former high pick who has delivered - the critics seem to think we should have rolled the dice in the hope that Adelaide would crumble, but had they not we would have instead of getting a proven, young, quality player have ourselves rolled the dice on a draft pick.

 

Ask me in 3 years time.  

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

This.

For everyone (and I think it is just about everyone?) who has been irritated by the 'just more talk, when will we see action' pattern regarding the club's consistency issues, well, here you go, that's what action looks like.

No, action happens on field. In big games.

That is where ‘the statement’ is made.

I hope 2018 is full of statements. 2017 was a mixed bag...

There are differing views as to the value/currency of draft picks and the hit and miss rate. 

In Lever we have a fair idea (barring injury) as to what we will get for the next TEN years. 

The childish behaviour of the Adelaide representative (forgot his name)walking out on talks and the unprofessional public lambasting of Lever (who did everything professionally and respectfully) by Tex and Co. should be the biggest indication of how much they valued Lever at the Crows.

The whole club was livid that he was leaving. Even uninviting him to the B&F even though he said he wanted to go. I have never seen such behaviour by a club, players and FD as with the loss of Lever to the Crows.

Lever is the ultimate professional in all aspects. He chose us over bigger offers from other VIC clubs. 

Absolutely the biggest trade of the week.

 

We had an effective trade week - we got our targets, and we paid for them. 

When you get the most coveted young player available you can’t have a bad trade week, but let’s not do a lap of honour over trade week FCS...

7 minutes ago, rpfc said:

We had an effective trade week - we got our targets, and we paid for them. 

When you get the most coveted young player available you can’t have a bad trade week, but let’s not do a lap of honour over trade week FCS...

No lap of honour here. I thought it was a reasonable trade period for us as such. I was just putting the Lever trade into perspective. 

After years of being in the bottom 4, we've become too attached to draft picks.  When the season inevitably finished in June, all our attention turned to who we would select in the hope they could help turn the club around.

Now that we've moved on from those days, and we're on the cusp of something special, we can't let go of the past.  When we give up a few high draft picks for one of the best young players in the league, we instantly scream 'overs' and we're angry for giving up high draft picks.  We know what comes with those - sometimes you get an Oliver, other times you get a Cale Morton.  It's a lottery.  What we've done is take the lottery aspect away and recruited a player who we know is not only a terrific footballer, but a total professional off the field and a bloke who is a competitive beast.  We should be excited by that, not holding on to our feelings on draft picks of the past.  

Some might say we didn't get a draft pick that reflected Jack Watts' value - I say we did.  We got Pick 31 for a bloke who has barely polled a Brownlow vote, never been in AA discussion, has never been a leader for the club and who has only finished inside the Top 5 of a best and fairest once.  To me, he is worth the pick we got.  I think Jack is a ripper bloke who has done some positive things for the club, but even he knew his time at the club was up.  We needed to move on, and we did so as quickly as we could.  If he had picked Port on the first day of trade week we would have traded him by the end of the day.

Plus, we turn a nothing pick into a kid who, before injuries, was a highly touted junior.  He may work out, he may not, but we've paid nothing for the opportunity.  It's another win.

Our 'premiership window' is beginning to open, and we've made moves that reflect that.  The best young tall in the competition picked us over countless others, and that's the best thing to come out of this trade week.  I'm super excited and I hope most of you will be as well.

Comments about selling the farm on trades gets way out of context. Selling the farm applies to the mega trades like Tom Boyd and Buddy. These trades represent significant risk to a club. The Lever trade would be like selling one of your prime bulls. The club is not risking everything and everyone would agree that the rewards will outweigh the risks.

What they couldn't get done: The Demons had an extremely targeted trade period and hit their primary mark, Crows defender Jake Lever.

Nick Bowen's verdict: Melbourne's post-season was a success from the time it landed the most exciting young talent in this year's trade period, Lever. Lever, 21, will slot seamlessly into the Demons backline and should help strengthen a team that already looked well placed to break a 12-year finals drought next season. The Dees also made the tough call to trade Jack Watts to Port Adelaide. Melbourne had been hoping for a pick in the 20s for 2008's No.1 draft pick, but eventually accepted pick No.31, feeling it was time to cut its losses. Homesick Fremantle youngster Harley Balic came at a bargain price and the Demons are excited by his ability to play a hybrid forward/midfield role.

Rating: 7.5/10

2 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

1 - Wrong. We gave up fair value for the biggest fish of the trade period. 

2 -  We got fair value for Watts

3 - Hes talented, could go either way, only cost pick 66.

I agree with you on the last trade only. Lever and Watts trades were not at all satisfactory.

7 minutes ago, bing181 said:

What they couldn't get done: The Demons had an extremely targeted trade period and hit their primary mark, Crows defender Jake Lever.

Nick Bowen's verdict: Melbourne's post-season was a success from the time it landed the most exciting young talent in this year's trade period, Lever. Lever, 21, will slot seamlessly into the Demons backline and should help strengthen a team that already looked well placed to break a 12-year finals drought next season. The Dees also made the tough call to trade Jack Watts to Port Adelaide. Melbourne had been hoping for a pick in the 20s for 2008's No.1 draft pick, but eventually accepted pick No.31, feeling it was time to cut its losses. Homesick Fremantle youngster Harley Balic came at a bargain price and the Demons are excited by his ability to play a hybrid forward/midfield role.

Rating: 7.5/10

Wonder what score this so called expert gave Port Adelaide?

2 hours ago, Billy said:

Totally disagree Josh Mahoney should be sacked!!

Failed to hold his nerve with the Lever trade & gave away two 1st rounders, 10 and 27 would've be adequate but he panicked.

Lever ( a very good young player) nominated us, he was uncontracted, deals get done at the end of trade periods.

Adelaide held their nerve, we crumbled.

Watts pick 31, ok fair enough but paying part of his salary for a contracted player...please!!!!

Balic whoopee!!!

Go to bed

8 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie said:

I agree with you on the last trade only. Lever and Watts trades were not at all satisfactory.

If you want to be realistic, yes they were.  

If you want to show us all how little you know about football then yes, they aren't satisfactory.

Lever has shown way more than Petracca. Is Petracca worth 2 first round picks?

Do the math on Lever and shut the fark up

we simply didn't pay overs for Lever

Lever. I like Lever. I'd love him if he could play on a tall forward or if his body was reliable. Time will tell but he's a good get. I can understand giving up next years first for him, that's a gamble probably worth taking. Would've like something better than moving pick 10 back to pick 36 but if pick 10 isn't that flash anyway it's more bearable. My thoughts that it wasn't the best deal don't counteract that he's a good pick up.

Watts out. It was time. Better a year early than a year late. Again, felt like we could've made Port work for it. We trade him and then they go on a salary dumping spree. I think they had more in them. Even 36 for 34 would be a small win worth haggling for.

Balic. I'm a fan. You get a good reputation as a team on the rise and you get a guy like this sign with you and make you better.

Draft picks. We needed to take some kids. You have to have that next wave coming through. If the trade targets for outside runners and small forwards weren't there you turn it over to your recruiters. Bernie, Lewis, most likely Garlett pretty soon and eventually Jones need replacing. Again, getting a bit more back in the Lever deal and a bit extra in the Watts deal might've made the difference in November. A little surprised we could move the last pick to next years draft or combine it with higher picks in this years draft but that means it's 4 picks within 47.

5 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie said:

Wonder what score this so called expert gave Port Adelaide?

You don't want to be wrong do you. 

Best quote I've heard this trade period:

"Win games, not deals".

3 hours ago, Jibroni said:

When you consider Stringer went for 25 and 30 we got fair value for Watts.

As for Lever im backing him to become the best defender weve had for a long long time.

I agree re: Balic, im not getting to excited about him either.

Overall  I would give us a 7/10.

 

Overall I gave us an 8/10 with the only teams outscoring us being Essendon on 9/10 and Port at 8.5/10 

However, the Drug Cheats and Port have put all their eggs in the trade basket - so I see us having a better draft day than both those sides.

So yes, in the short term this trade period favors them but in the medium to longer terms things can swing back our way. 

Importantly, I should add this trade period in my opinion has elevated us into a very close 2nd in the Lynch race. Think Tigers and Drug Cheats have spent all their $$$$ so both are out - Tigers on Dusty, DC on Stringer, Smith & Saad. . 

We may be looking at bringing in Gaff instead of Lynch DD.

We''l probably only consider Lynch if Hogan were to want to go home (which i hope does not happen until he retires).

6 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

We may be looking at bringing in Gaff instead of Lynch DD.

We''l probably only consider Lynch if Hogan were to want to go home (which i hope does not happen until he retires).

Not sure Gaff is a Goodwin type player - quite a bit of convincing would need to be done. 

Hogan, I'm sure we will put a contract to him some time this year - again I can tell you for a fact Goody wont let him come out of contract - if he stays of if he goes. 

2 hours ago, djr said:

You don't want to be wrong do you. 

A serious question, no rights or wrongs about it. 

5 hours ago, picket fence said:

You must be kidding??

We were the big duds of trade week, in fact spectacularly so!

Wrong forum... think you’re looking for the Collingwood site