Red and Blue realist

Apparently Lachie Neale is trying to get to Brissy, which if that was the case they might be happier to release Dayne Beams back to Victoria, while Collingwood would be most likely, I'd love to have him at the Dees he could be a great link man as good as an inside mid as he is at the moment. Not sure what we'd give, but something like a 2nd next year and a player JHK/Kent etc. might do

Either way, we're clearly not as interested in this draft as draft's gone by, and that's great, it seems to me that the club sees that we're close to success and getting kids in won't have the impact as what they have in the recent past. A win now mentality is what the likes of Hawks, Swans, Cats etc have had for a long time and why they haven't needed to bottom out, now we've been through years of that I hope we're doing everything we can to win. I just wished some supports saw that and still weren't hung up on draft picks, then you get less silly ideas about trading good players just to get a kid who might not play for a couple of years.

He could come out and sign a new extension and later that day someone on SEN would say he's a chance to leave, no matter what he or the coach/FD does/says there'll be rumors of Hogan leaving until the day he retires.

Make sense, we're also in the mix for Sam Collins as well, they all are bigger backs that allow Lever to stay 3rd tall even if OMac or Forst are injured/out of form. We've also got Petty coming through but he looks to be at least another season away from seriously challenging for permanent 1st team action (not a slight on him, i think he'll be good but hope they take the right time with him).

Put up some decent numbers in the 2s, but sometimes that doesn't mean much. Thought I heard he's attitude wasn't great, but that might be a reflection of the time spent in rehab.

Just got to make the most of our opportunities, we've managed 57 scoring shots against them (they only had 47) and have had 37 more inside 50 across the 2 games.

I'm not against the club looking at all possibilities, and hope they do, there's just been a lot who've jumped onto trading Hogan because they think he's at his highest value, and that just seems to be the old MFC way of thinking. Draft picks won't do a heap for us for the next few years, we've got a very young list and only really have Lewis, Jones and Jetta who'll come out of the weekends team in the next 3/4 years (due to age, form/injury can happen to anyone).

The problem with most of the argument is there's nothing that's been suggested on here at this stage that says we'd be getting his true current value. We don't need an early pick/young kid that badly anymore - that's the MFC of 3 years ago. We should be seeing ourselves as well and truly in the hunt for significant finals action for the next 4/5 years+, so while Hogan might be at his best value right now and it might get us pick 5 and Brayshaw/Cerra (or whatever is the right pick/player), I don't see that as an improvement to us now, and I don't think many on here do. Just because a player is at their highest perceived trade value doesn't mean they are not more valuable than keeping them. I'm yet to see anything in this thread that says if we trade Hogan we get XYZ, I've thought it seems fair and makes us better short/long term. So unless someone comes up with that situation it's easy to say no don't do it. Of course if he comes at the end of the year and says he wants to go home his value or what we accept then changes, anyone could do that, but I wouldn't be pushing him out the door.

Wrong comparison's, he hasn't been playing as close to goal as those you've mentioned. He did but in the last couple of years has been playing more wing/inside mid. He's only kicked 2 goals for the whole season (he played 17 games). While I do think he's an improvement on JHK playing the same role, he would also cost a lot more. His 2013 - 2016 form and he's a good in, the form over the last 2 years would mean he'd be a fringe player, handy for depth and hope he comes good again but we shouldn't pay a heap for him.

I thought he played mostly as a forward but had the ability to go back and had a huge impact in a couple of games when he did (from memory he iced a game when he went back for the last quarter or 2 in an important game - not certain though). He also has kicked 47 goals in 20 games, that's doing his job by anyone's measure. He's only played 70 games, and clearly has a lot of development to go, this year I think he's added a lot more of a team first element to his game along with increasing his use around the ground, I believe it's only his leading patterns that need to improve to have a bigger impact against the better teams and that will come. Remember he didn't have TMac next to him all pre-season where they should have been working on this. He's not a Colin Sylvia type who's just waiting for that break out season, he's improving dramatically each year, in a very hard position and is already counted in the elite there, and people want to get rid of him???? DL at it's finest.

That's the line we'd be going back to West Coast with, we've got some fringe players, maybe Kent, JHK etc. plus a second rounder, or take the band 1 as it's as good as you'll get. Any contracted players would have to want to move themselves, so the idea of Hogan is just silly as we'd get more from Freo, or we'd be asking WC for Gaff plus a whole lot more

It could depend on where they finish, clearly Gaff will get them band 1, so if they end up in the grand final they'll get pick 20/21, with other free agent moves. Whereas if they bomb out in straight sets this could be pick 16/17, if he wants to go to Essendon then trying to get pick 9/10 out of them and a player might be easily accepted. If he wanted to come to us then they'd have to decide if it's worth just taking a pick between 16-21 or trying to force a trade for players plus lower picks this year or a first rounder next year (which will be in that band anyway), might all depend on what their thoughts are around needing to fill his gap this draft or wait until the year after.

I'd be hoping the Nick Reiwolt is a better comparison in the long run, Hawkins does all his damage in the forward 50, but while Hoges isn't the worlds best field kick, his work rate will destroy some opponents and then can still get into goal scoring positions himself. He'll demand a tall back to go with him, so if he can run up and connect with the backs then get back to try and score will be very dangerous, especially as when he needs to rest TMac can do the same, Melk could do similar. Plus with a couple of minutes to go in each quarter they could drop into the back 50 to stop any scores. Wait until we've got a forward line of Hoges, TMac, Weid, Melk and 3 of ANB, Kent, Spargo, Hannan, Garlett or JHK and they've had a full preseason together to work out how not to get in each other's way.

Dusty will be in the mix, just because it's likely to be a low vote winner this year, as opposed to the last few years where players have romped away. I wouldn't be surprised if Maxy polls in more games than the AFL.com count has, just think he'll get a few 1 or 2 votes in his reasonable games and is a good chance to also get those 3 vote games.

It's the reason why Adelaide didn't accept the compensation for Danger and made a trade with Geelong instead. The Hawks elected to take the compo from Buddy (pick 19) becauce had they matched and Sydney then not traded then they would have been left with his massive salary and their team would have been pulled apart earlier. If we made an offer for Gaff, then unless WCE know we can be traded with they'll take the compo pick.

Our draw also didn't help, only 4 home games (at the 'G) before the bye (yes I know we played 2 away games at the 'G in that time), as compared to Richmond who played 9 games at the 'G in the same time period. Surely the way we play will give us a few more cracks at prime time as well, which in turn helps to drive memberships. The Tigs get 6 Sunday games while we're left with 11.

Already 30, slow but does have some footy smarts. I'd prefer to let Vince run around again. I'd say he'd be better off going to Gold Coast for his retirement funding.

Yeah but was also asked to play a role that isn't his main strength, being more inside than out. I think he'd have some potential in a team like ours that has stronger inside mids so he could just use his speed to connect on the outside. I see him as a very cheap alternative to Gaff should he stay in the west.

I'd say Tyson would actually be worth more than Hall, while not opposed to Hall I think given he's turning 28 and has been dropped at times this year, in a pretty ordinary team, we could pick him up for no more than a 3rd rounder or upgrade their 3rd to our 2nd (something along those lines) and keep Tyson or deal separately with a Vic club if he wanted out. Hall I see as a cheap alternative to Gaff (nowhere near as good) and doubt we'd be after both of them.

I suppose it's a good thing that besides OMac (who sounds likely to sign soon) and Vince (likely to retire), none of the others guys who haven't got contracts for next year have been regular players. Kent (3), Peds (3), JHK (2), Bugg (3) and TSmith (4) have had limited games while so far AVB, McKenna, Keilty, Johnstone, King, Flip and Balic have none and overall of those only really Kent, AVB & McKenna have had injury issues.

Another record I'd like to see broken, is that we haven't had a single player kick more than 50 or more goals in a season since Brad Green in 2010 - the equal longest in the comp with Brissy. Even Carlton (Andrew Walker 2011) and Freo (Pav 2012) has managed it. If we take it up to 60 goals then we go back to Neita in 2006. Hoges is on track at the moment and we've got a few others who might even get close.

His old man was on SEN this morning, from the sounds of it just about every club inquired, and they narrowed it down to 4. He then talked up the development system and coaches as the reason they chose the Dees. He named Egan, Rooke and Rawlings (maybe a couple of others) which I think is a massive tick for our development team. He also said learning from Gawn was a big factor too. One of the best things he said was that Austin is best mates with the King boys at school, their both potentially going to go top 5 in the draft (in most early phantom drafts) and both are talls. So even though he's not allowed to play footy for the next 6 months (to get to the 3 year out rule), he'd be having a kick at school with some of the most talented kids. Hopefully he'll be coming in only marginally behind those who've gone through the elite pathway, but I still wouldn't expect that we'd see him in the seniors until at least 2021/22.

I did hear that in his final draft year there were a lot of question marks around Trac's tank, so he went out of his way to build his fitness so he could play through the midfield not just as a high half forward. I suspect that as he builds this even more (big difference between under age and AFL) that he'll demand more time in there, but very happy with what he's doing at the moment, just needs to not try too hard. Hard to seem them being a danger/selwood or martin/cotchin combo, because you've got to get Oliver and Viney in there too!

Sometimes the pure membership number doesn't mean a heap, some clubs include 3 game, dog memberships etc. Be interested to see the breakdown of our membership compared to other clubs, naturally I'd think we'd have a higher MCC crossover membership.

Not as simple as just dumping the funds into the bank and getting a 3% return if we're lucky, it'll be about what they use those funds to invest/build so that we either replace the lost revenue or alternatively be able to reduce down costs overall - for instance removing some/all of the leasing we are currently paying (which was around $1.8m last year - but the financial report doesn't break down what that covers).