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It’s no good when you make poor decisions and kick it to contests the majority of the time. The ball will move quicker than any player ever will, so give me a good decision maker with good disposal over Hunt off half back any day. Pendles and Daicos set up so much transition from the back half for Collingwood this season with their disposal and ability to consistently hit targets changing up the angles and opening up the ground. Bailey Williams and Daniel also do it for the Dogs. A fit Salem and Bowey will be better IMO for our transition and improved ball movement from our back half

Unlike most I'm in favour of Hunt leaving. If he's "best 22" then it's only just best 22. We have Bowey, Rivers, Hibbo and Salem who are all capable best 22 players to cover him and I have more faith in Smith than most. Smith clearly has injury issues but I think at least he has significant upside which is far in excess of Hunt's. With the WCE offer we'd have to pay a reasonable amount for a player who is not vital to our team and probably for a significantly longer period than we want to. Not only that but Hunt has clear faults in his game which are not offset by his pace. If we are to improve, we must look to improve our bottom 6 whilst also adding top end talent. Moving Hunt on just replenishes the list, provides opportunities and a career path to plays from Casey and helps our TPP situation. Having said all that, I'll be disappointed to see him go and wish him the best in the west.

Only backman that generated any run. Compo will be negligible. Would prefer to keep.

Would’ve lost to Carlton and missed top four without his input late in the game. He was the key driver for our inside 50 onslaught which gave us the win. Hunt is a decent talent and we’ll miss his pace. Won’t be a huge loss as we have a ton of mid sized defenders, but we will miss his pace and attitude. He’s a good driver of culture with his positive attitude and willingness to do the team things. If he leaves I wish him the best of luck elsewhere. He was desperately unlucky not to play in our flag last year after losing his spot through injury late in our run.

I'd wish him nothing but the best if he leaves. Clearly we've put a deal in front of him that can't compete with WC, and that's fair enough as well. He's probably in the best 16-30 player bracket on our list and we've offered a contract to reflect that. He goes to WC and is probably within their best 10-15, so would be getting more $ and a longer contract at a guess. He's given us 114 games and like all premiership teams you end up losing a few outside the best dozen or so players. Rich lost Ellis/Conca/Butler who were in a similar spot to Hunt, so it happens. I'm not liking those who rush to find faults in a good servants game when they've left for a better deal.

We need to keep Weid next year. He'll play 2nd ruck games when Max or Grundy are out rested or injured. We're not going to entice a better back-up ruck option to join us behind those two. We need to draft a ruck prospect.

Playing 40 of 49 games across the past two years, including missing games through injury in late 2021, suggests Jayden is clearly a best 22 player. Our VFL depth is so poor, we can't afford to be losing best 22 players for nothing, as there are no replacements coming through. I really hope we make him a decent offer and he chooses to stay. I would hate to be relying on a 33 year old Hibberd or a brittle Smith to be playing many games next year, and I'm not sure we can afford to have Bowey in that role long term.

The same players who won us a flag last year and took the team to 2nd on the ladder this year. Yeah, horrible seasons. Your comment was that if we don’t add anymore players we will plateau, which is nonsensical when we have so many players in their early 20’s who will continue to develop and improve. I’d prefer just to ignore so called supporters who makes statements that have no substance. Is that obvious enough for you?

Our list includes 22 players that won the AFL Premiership one year ago and another 15 who won the VFL Premiership in 2022... Perhaps you continue to underrate them!

It’s his last big contract and despite being quick there’s little else and his poor decision making really gets amplified in big games. The FD will be well aware of his limitations and only offer him what they consider he’s worth

Has he Dub? I don't think several is accurate. I'm pretty sure he wasn't dropped once last year, it was the ankle injury that cost him games and was only dropped once this season.

These are strange times. We are prepared to let a 27 year old player, with pace, who has played 40 games the last 2 years leave and keep a 33 year old for one last year and a 32 year old likewise, both of whom who are probably cooked. Moving forward, to me it makes no sense at all. If Naughton was gettable, which I think he probably isn't, the LJ deal could be done fairly easily, with picks and players swapping. Unless we have earmarked another key forward, we seem at this point to be looking to get good picks to draft with. Then again who really knows what is going on behind closed doors. I am still a fan of the Bowes deal, if we could convince him to come to us. His salary could be easily managed with those two 30 plus year old players mentioned above, being delisted. Then we get pick 7, which could give us another very good player for many years to come, either by trade or draft. You could get Georgiades for example with 7 and a pick back. You extend Bowes contract and amortise the salary. Bowes is not a bad player with nice disposal. HBF, wing or hff and he is ok. Anyway, that is my opinion fwiw.

Why would we do that? We have one of the best coaches in the game; proven to be able to win flags. He’s young. Probably the best players coach since Clarkson and we are going to just throw that away for an unproven Yze? Unless Goodwin is done with it all, we will keep him till the end of the decade surely.

Just to demonstrate how little run and carry Hunt gave us this year (at the direction of the coaches I'm sure) he had 6 running bounces for the whole year! 6! Spargo leads the way for us with an astounding 8 bounces. Man we were a tough watch this year I'll try to find some more depressing stats for y'all

These trade guys are great. Asked how will the deal get done, SOS gives no detail, but says he thinks it will get done. It is riveting stuff. If these guys were garbologists, the streets would be covered in rubbish. I wonder if the criteria for being a Trade Expert is, having seen a game of footy?

To reinforce, HUNT played some very good footy this year. Did some excellent shut down work on small forwards with pace. Yes pace. Something that is lacking. Remember Hunt was the key in the last 90 seconds v Blues with three key disposals. Without that, we lose that one . Who provides pace and run out of defence of through centre mid? Anyone ?? Hibbo on last legs. Bowey and Salem are static , foot-pass types. Riv went a little backwards. Deakyn Smith and a Mcvee are below par right now. Hunt played 40 games across the last two seasons so clearly seen as part of the team, not just VFL fringe type. I don’t subscribe that if he stays, we are only better with him playing reserves. He was a part of many of our good wins (We are better with more effective delivery and connection in forward 50!!) Free agent compensation …Dees probably get a 3rd round as compensation and we’d unlikely use the pick. Hunt probably gets at least 3 year deal at the Eagles and a “WE WANT YOU” discussion. Hard to refuse. Good luck to Jayden. He played good footy and deserved more.

SO you are happy with him with him as back up, but not happy to have to use him at any stage. I think Weideman if he was picked as back up ruck/forward, would be very similar to what we got from LJ this year.....He is just not a pure forward, the hybrid role suits him better. He finds a way to get into the game rather than having a few opportunities in our forward half, not taking them, and losing confidence , then dropped again. Has been a cycle that needs to stop. Much like Silvagni from Carlton. Would get much more consistent performances if he was in the play more often. He is creative enough with handballs etc to make the role work. Unfortunately i think he has been pigeon-holed into a role that does not suit him. Personally i think he still has a bit to offer, just currently not being utilised at all well.

That game our defence was a shambles. They had no Buddy, we had no May, Petty went off injured about 4 times, even Mitch Brown ended up in defence. Hunt got caught goalside one on one with Papley a couple of times and was beaten - but not many would win those. He should never have been the last line - that was the problem. While he played some good lockdown roles teams try to isolate him (like they do Lever who also isn't great one on one). Our team defence was to blame in my view. It failed just as it did many times this year,

He was devastated to miss out on 21 and I was saying all the right things for 22. Thought he and the headband would kick on at the dees for a few more years. Would prefer to keep him, Love Hunty but can't blame him too much for chasing better job security given the life of an AFL footballer.

Yep, wasn't great in 2020, but was very good in 2021 (lead the league in hitouts). But your argument was he had barely played for 2 years and you seemed to suggest he was injury prone. Bloke has averaged nearly 18 games a year through his career, which is massive considering he only played 7 in his first year and 6 this year. The injury argument is just not correct. For comparison, Gawn has averaged 15 games per year over his career.

Played 20 games in 2021 mate.

I think you will find most clubs will play 2 rucks next year with the talk of a 5 man interchange, we will just have the 2 best in the league

Have a look over trade rumours from 2018 onwards same people complaining of no information and we”ll always get held over a barrel and pay overs. We haven’t leaked under this footy department in years. Fast forward trade time 23, same people will again be whinging we are doing nothing

Where you are seen as negative is not seeing Grundy as a big fish. He is and it is a blockbuster move to get him. I think that's exciting. I also think it more than interesting to see where our draft hand finishes up.

I wouldn't be so sure. Can see Freo missing next year given the amount of best 22 players they're about to lose plus Mundy. They had a dream run with injuries most of the year, (bar Fyfe who is past his prime) and will also have a much more difficult draw next year. In my eyes they'll be the most vulnerable of this years top 8. Can see them finishing as high as 7th and as low as 10th. So if we get a future first round pick for Jackson, I'd be quietly confident it'll end up being a top 11 pick which will be great for next year's bumper crop. Plus we'll have our first rounder so will have a bit to play with.

A 40 goal forward in his third year was not much help? FMD.

Negative a.f

Bouncing the ball is misunderstood. The fastest movement comes from disposing of the ball, not running with it. Bouncing is often used when the players are stalling for time waiting for someone up the ground to move to a better position. Ergo, bouncing the ball is not necessarily an indicator of fast movement.

If you were older than me you'd be dead - but agree, END

This is just factually incorrect. We have THE strongest VFL team in the competition by a significant margin, they only lost one game for the year. I'm certainly not in a hurry to lose Hunt, he has a significant point of difference for us but we have depth in most areas bar key position forward, we are pretty well stoked for small to medium defenders. You can't always pay everyone what they want and sometimes other clubs value your players more highly than you either do or can afford to match. this won't be the last one like this if we stay in the premiership window for a while.

Can’t believe how many people are still hanging onto a few good games he played 4 years ago now. He’s had so many opportunities to cement a spot and failed at every turn so much so Melksham had to come in and play the role. Safe to say even Goodwin who is the last to give up on any player has also run out of patience. I think the club would be more than happy to use his spot on the list to bring in another kid via the draft if anyone showed any interest in taking him off our hands.

This is my mate. He carry’s a tape measure at all times, and yes, he pulls the ladies.

A new report - focusing on the 2021 season - surveyed every AFL player and found we had one of the best cultures - https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/majority-of-afl-players-feel-their-senior-coach-is-unsupportive-of-them-pursuing-offfield-interests/news-story/7fb6a41bd3f70b13dcd9b892e63d1674 (Behind paywall) Some quotes: It’s believed the report, which covered the 2021 AFL season, read favourably for Melbourne, Port Adelaide, Geelong and Brisbane Lions. “We’re seeing some real clear themes here, and the key words I’d probably use are trust, care, respecting the players’ time and empowering players is what we’ve seen as the big shift in the industry. “Players are repaying the trust and the clubs that are giving it to them are becoming clubs of choice. “Players are gravitating towards those clubs. The work we do and players talking to each other, there is a movement towards those types of clubs.”

I think Yze will look back at this and thank his lucky stars. Not the right club for him. He's been on the brink a few times which is no doubt frustrating for him but his time will come.

Grundy is a very big fish if he lands...

The ability to run, carry and bounce is quite important in getting the ball past opposition teams defensive zones - these skills are something that JH has - not saying he is faultless but I like what he brings and would prefer he stays

Completely plateau 🤦🏼‍♂️ Trac, Oliver, Petty, Kozzie, Spargs, Sparrow, Rivers will plateau, will they? None of these players are yet to hit their peak.

Agreed. I seriously doubt Hunt was drafted with the future view of taking on the Tom Papley's of the league. I don't think the lockdown role suited him as opposed to Hibberd who was born to play that role (albeit not well in the Brisbane semi)

Interesting that, unless I've missed it, our alleged "in the know" posters have gone to ground lately. Which could mean a few things. 1. We have something brewing that the club is keeping tight lipped on. 2. Outside of Grundy we have no other trade targets. 3. The posters are bored of the same old player discussion/rumour threads and view most demonland discussions as the quality of trade radio.

Who's Kozzy going to borrow a headband from now if he forgets to bring his gameday? Oh yeah, Naughton 🤭

2 first round picks should suffice.

I can see why Smith is more beneficial for the list but I'd take Hunt's 40 actual games over Smith's flexibility

Joel Selwood can take over as AFL Football Ops manager and keep the Geelong benefits flowing.

Jayden has always been a good athlete. Just not what i would call a natural footballer. Much like Frost he was unpredictable to his teammates. Although he runs fast, he runs in straight lines and often ran himself into trouble. He has played 40 games in last few years but is not vital for us imo. Usually i would put him bottom 1-10 players so i can see why Melbourne may have lowballed him on offer/duration. We need natural footballers not just athletes who adapt. Joel Smith is another like Hunt, but probably has bigger upside and on less coin. I wish him all the best luck finding new home. He is unlikely to show any further improvement at this stage of his career. Others need the development time.

I will be very disappointed if Jayden goes particularly to West Coast, I hope that we can do a decent deal to keep him but will wish him all the best if he decides to go.😪

I like him and think he is valuable when he is allowed to play to his strengths. Unfortunately, our coaching team/system don't allow that kind of flair so he'll always be a square peg in a round hole. Hope he can be released if he goes West.

Hope he stays, his commitment can never be questioned.

Of that top 10, only White, Munro and Buntine are journeyman VFL players. That puts pay to the argument about our kids not being able to shine enough at that level. Chandler, JVR, Laurie, and Woey all top 10. Plus Dunstan and Baker. Seems like a perfect alignment to me for sustained success from our VFL feeder team.

I’m so excited for tomorrow night. I’ve never been to one before. I just hope I don’t show all the WAGS up!!!😂