15 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Leadership and age demographic wise too, he should be a priority signing.

Having already lost ANB and Gus in the last 3 years, we can ill afford to lose another emerging, disciplined leader, who is in the 25-27 age bracket that we basically don't have on our list.

15 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Leadership and age demographic wise too, he should be a priority signing.

Having already lost ANB and Gus in the last 3 years, we can ill afford to lose another emerging, disciplined leader, who is in the 25-27 age bracket that we basically don't have on our list.

15 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Leadership and age demographic wise too, he should be a priority signing.

Having already lost ANB and Gus in the last 3 years, we can ill afford to lose another emerging, disciplined leader, who is in the 25-27 age bracket that we basically don't have on our list.

Great reasons to keep him amongst others.

He stood under kolts high ball out of defence in final 2 minutes. The mark probably saved the game and he took the hit.

Age demographic ideal if he stays.

Tom’s like many of our younger and fringe players has been in great form this season.

Although players always seem to be in career best form in a contract year. Funny that.

Make no sense for him to sign while his form is on an upward curve.

Hope he stays, leadership role beckons.

Edited Wednesday at 02:025 days by Robbie On Skates

This is based on absolutely nothing but gut feel, I don’t see him going. He’s just starting to hit his straps, a spot in the MFC midfield is ripe for the taking, and I don’t see the family factor being there (yet) like it was for ANB.

Shocking that both him and Rivers are both possibly on the way out, while they might not be stars they both would be key drivers to any potential success we might have over the next 4-5 years.

Gut feel says he stays, just trying to extract maximum value from what will be the sweet spot in his career. Has been in the leadership group as an emerging leader since 2022 and was pivotal in helping The Brand (Consultant) assimilate for the 2025 season.

10 minutes ago, Dannyz said:

Gut feel says he stays, just trying to extract maximum value from what will be the sweet spot in his career. Has been in the leadership group as an emerging leader since 2022 and was pivotal in helping The Brand (Consultant) assimilate for the 2025 season.

So was ANB and he left to, in a similar sort of position, won’t ever get big money at Dee’s but someone else might make a big offer

1 minute ago, Garbo said:

So was ANB and he left to, in a similar sort of position, won’t ever get big money at Dee’s but someone else might make a big offer

ANB didn’t leave on more $

Definitely smells like a manager looking to add 20% to the contract and a couple of years. Fingers crossed thats the case - hes been fantastic this year after a couple of lean years. The King effect has transformed him, would assume he would have been leaving under the previous regime/game style

45 minutes ago, Garbo said:

Shocking that both him and Rivers are both possibly on the way out, while they might not be stars they both would be key drivers to any potential success we might have over the next 4-5 years.

2 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Question would be, does he want to join a rebuilding team that is far behind us in the pecking order?

Unless he's got family/personal reasons to move back to SA.

He's one better player at risk of missing the team. If he feels confident of maintaining his spot he might stay.

On another note there's rumours of Beau McReery getting $7M from Tasssie. What a waste. I thought the Suns v GWS early years showed everyone the way to go with a start up team.

3 hours ago, Garbo said:

Shocking that both him and Rivers are both possibly on the way out, while they might not be stars they both would be key drivers to any potential success we might have over the next 4-5 years.

Rivers? Really? You're making stuff up now

What month is trade period again....

Folks - will be sad if he leaves but we can’t be roped into making poor long term decisions and being held to ransom by these player managers. Give him a moderate pay rise , but it’s a maximum 3 year deal for mine.

55 minutes ago, demon3165 said:

What month is trade period again....

There’ll be one in July soon I reckon

34 minutes ago, rpfc said:

There’ll be one in July soon I reckon

Well he ain't going in that one, but would take Butters for him.

35 minutes ago, rpfc said:

There’ll be one in July soon I reckon

Give you that one...

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Rivers? Really? You're making stuff up now

It was written on fox sports earlier this month that he along with Warner and Georgiades were there main targets. Not saying it will happen but they will be making offers to him we can’t match

Riv has never denied to the club his desire to get home, but I believe marrying a Melbourne girl has put a halt on that. I believe from now it will depend on our management of him and giving him a clear cut role. Trains all summer in Midfield 2 years in a row and then not used there. It impacts performance.

Sparrow - do we really believe when he finally gets his midfield shot, he's going to walk away from this exciting side to a Port team that doesn't have Butters? Just a manager wanting more $$$$. Whether we can provide that I dont know

8 minutes ago, Deez21 said:

Riv has never denied to the club his desire to get home, but I believe marrying a Melbourne girl has put a halt on that. I believe from now it will depend on our management of him and giving him a clear cut role. Trains all summer in Midfield 2 years in a row and then not used there. It impacts performance.

Sparrow - do we really believe when he finally gets his midfield shot, he's going to walk away from this exciting side to a Port team that doesn't have Butters? Just a manager wanting more $$$$. Whether we can provide that I dont know

He hasn’t married a Melbourne girl. She’s from Brisbane. Lives here with him now

3 minutes ago, Deez21 said:

Riv has never denied to the club his desire to get home, but I believe marrying a Melbourne girl has put a halt on that. I believe from now it will depend on our management of him and giving him a clear cut role. Trains all summer in Midfield 2 years in a row and then not used there. It impacts performance.

That's not really true - yes Riv trained as mid in the previous two seasons, but he was given sufficient midfield minutes to determine if he's suited to the role. And IMO the conclusion is he isn't - particularly the way footy is being played in 2026.

The optimal centre square set up now is:

• one true inside mid, who often has some defensive responsibilities (not tagging per se, but defensive accountability) - Steele (with Sparrow providing the chop out) has as that spot sewn up atm

• two mids with genuine acceleration, who can get out the front of the stoppage and hit a target inside 50 - Koz is the exemplar of that role, and has one of those spots locked up and Windsor the other (has the speed, would love for him to improve his kicking)

Riv does not have the acceleration or kicking skills to play the latter role - and i can't see him replacing Steele or Sparrow in the inside mid role, particularly with Viney (hopefully) back at some point.

That leaves half back, or perhaps the tall winger role that Culley and Langford are playing.

I'm a Riv fan, but it might well be that trading him (perhaps for some high draft picks to provide some tassie insurance) at seasons end is the prudent call.

Edited Wednesday at 23:194 days by binman

18 minutes ago, binman said:

That's not really true - yes Riv trained as mid in the previous two seasons, but he was given sufficient midfield minutes to determine if he's suited to the role. And IMO the conclusion is he isn't - particularly the way footy is being played in 2026.

The optimal centre square set up now is:

• one true inside mid, who often has some defensive responsibilities (not tagging per se, but defensive accountability) - Steele (with Sparrow providing the chop out) has as that spot sewn up atm

• two mids with genuine acceleration, who can get out the front of the stoppage and hit a target inside 50 - Koz is the exemplar of that role, and has one of those spots locked up and Windsor the other (has the speed, would love for him to improve his kicking)

Riv does not have the acceleration or kicking skills to play the latter role - and i can't see him replacing Steele or Sparrow in the inside mid role, particularly with Viney (hopefully) back at some point.

That leaves half back, or perhaps the tall winger role that Culley and Langford are playing.

I'm a Riv fan, but it might well be that trading him (perhaps for some high draft picks to provide some tassie insurance) at seasons end is the prudent call.

I wouldn’t want to be on your not like list!

I like Riv - could be prudent to trade him!

Harsh!

The 8th year break out...I've only read about this in history books

Absolutely must keep , havent got many genuine midfielders on our list at the moment and now Culley might be out for a year. We need his experience, leadership and defensive nous. Was super important tonight. Should be coming into his prime , he now has the opportunity to be a central part of our midfield going forward. Hopefully we reward Sparrow appropriately and he wants to stick around as we continue to build for next few years to be a contender again.

Pay the man…

I'll be honest, it used to really annoy me this bloke was gifted games every week after his usual 14 touches.

I will say he always seemed to try given his tackling.

But this year he's turning into the player I always had hoped he would.

An almost Petracca 2.0.

Just a tad shorter but the same width, he is a strong lad.

He is an excellent shot at goal unlike Tracca.

He's played three absolute rippers and if he keeps this up we will play finals.

Perhaps his style was cramped by Oliver and Tracca but something has switched.

And It's good.

Sending him fwd more often would be a smart move.