14 hours ago, BigBadBustling said:

Thanks for that, very interesting.

So realistically, given he thinks he'll be into full training before Christmas, Tommy Matthews isn't coming from as far back as Lindsay did last year?

He will likely only start running before Christmas. He appears to be further back in his rehab and recovery from his PCL injury than Xavier Lindsay was at this time last year.

13 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Well not many actually, only a handful of us wanted him at 8 (12), can’t wait until he lights up our fwd line.

Maybe. But I reckon sometimes recruiters virtually play a game of "chicken". Latrelle was in the mix and being Kosi's cousin Melbourne quite believably might nab him. But if they felt Melbourne didn't quite rate him #12 then maybe both Melbourne and the clubs with picks before Melbourne's next one might risk this fact and both wait to pounce at or near that next Melbourne pick. It wouldn't surprise me if this has happened before - a bit like an investor selling at, say, 4.00, but suddenly the share price drops from 3.96 to 2.00 and stays there for years.

2 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

CJ was contracted for another two years at Hawthorn, clearly they were happy to let him go, if they wanted him they would have kept him, he was sub most of the year. Steele was clearly tapped on the shoulder, you don’t trade your captain for a future third round pick if you want to keep him, think you’re twisting these narratives a bit

most of the year?? 3 times during the season and the 3 finals out of 20 games.

Haw had an over supply of running defenders which is CJs best role, hence he got pushed to the wing. Haw was happy for him to stay but being able to play his best position is why he is at Melb.

2 hours ago, 640MD said:

If this proves to be in true in some future moves, that players choose to come rather than us selecting delisted players

Then yes it’s looking good again and can only improve our club and standing. .

Do those know and see and hear things that we don't?

Hmm, nuh, how could intelligent players know more than our respected media groupies?

2 hours ago, Greg Schneider said:

CJ was contracted for another two years at Hawthorn, clearly they were happy to let him go, if they wanted him they would have kept him, he was sub most of the year. Steele was clearly tapped on the shoulder, you don’t trade your captain for a future third round pick if you want to keep him, think you’re twisting these narratives a bit

Contracts mean nothing except locking in a players salary.

I think we recruited well this year.

11 hours ago, Wrecker46 said:

CJ is on record saying he didn’t expect to leave Hawthorn but met with King and decided to come to us.

Just ridiculous. It was about the role. Also because the writing was on the wall and he knew he was gradually being squeezed out of the team at Hawthorn. Wouldn't have taken much to turn his head.

"When King and Lamb pitched the move to Jiath at Connors Sports Management, the role was central to the sell. It's what turned his head. Hawthorn is stacked with rebounding run: Karl Amon, Jarman Impey, Josh Weddle and Massimo D'Ambrosio. Melbourne isn't. 

"They came into the office and said we would love to play you there, where you want to play. I felt the role I was playing at Hawthorn was awesome, but I needed this to get the most out of myself. That was the key reason to move to Melbourne."

As for "Our drafting from other clubs has been hopeless after we got Lever, May and Langdon."

CJ wasn't drafted. Nor were Lever, May or Langdon. They were traded.

It was our drafting post Lever/May that got us players like Jackson, Pickett, Bowie, Rivers, JVR, Langford, Lindsay etc.