Uncle Fester

It's not ill will. But he plays for the enemy. Last time his contract came up, and he was making noises about leaving I was in the camp of hoping he'd go, and hoping he'd stay, and was a bit meh when he signed on, but excited thinking that this was the boot he needed. Same as this summer. I hoped that we'd come to an arrangement that kept him here, but also knowing the MFC had had enough and we'd never see the best of him. So... maybe Port will get the return on our investment that we never got, and now he is a player for a team that stands between us and a flag. So I say crunch him. If he wants to turn it on for them after cruising for us then I hope when he plays us he spends 3 days recovering from (legal) tackle bruises.

I hope we gang tackle him a la Collingwood on QB. Screw him. He danced around like a girl for the better part of a decade, taking good coin and chipping in when he felt like it. Smash him into the ground 3 times in the first Q against them, and then watch Port play a man down for the rest of the game as he hides from the contest.

Even better reason to bugger off to an island - preferably one without extradition treaties.

My two are well on the way to costing me 100K each. Oh, you meant football. Probably less $wise, but emotionally...

I love the use of the plural in premierships. Arrogance and talent can be an exciting mix. Pledging his loyalty to Melbourne, Petracca expressed how important it was for him to remain a one-club player. “It means everything. The club put faith in me as an 18-year-old kid and drafted me, and all I want to do is repay that faith,” he said. “That’s by winning premierships and staying at the club for as long as I can."

Balls. They would have beaten Sydney in the 2005 SF but for the Nick Davis show. Maybe they were dodgy in 2007+, maybe not, but to say it was an overnight thing is to rewrite history.

If I go into work tomorrow morning and give notice, I'll get 4 weeks pay + my entitlements, escorted to clean out my stuff, then escorted off the site. It's a pretty common practice across all fields. It's not that they think you will sabotage the place, it's that in those 4 weeks you can gather some pretty good intel to take to a competitor. And you add that to a booting... well, it's a lot safer to pay them out than have them around. It's a sad fact, but a true one, that business is not run on feelings. It's run on what is good for the business, and feelings be damned. People come and people go, but the business lives on.

i'm more worried about the plaid jacket

What's a flag?

Agreed. #10 and second round pick swap. Or #10 and Kent. I think he has it in him to be a very handy player, but it's not working here for whatever reason. Maybe Adelaide can see something similar in him, and back themselves to make it happen. I don't want us out of the first round of the 2018 draft. It's said to be big, and if nothing else the pick could be gold when next year's trade season comes around.

Bloody hell. Do you hide under a rock until this time of year, just to come out and throw sand into the machine? Seriously. Lift your game.

Huh? Can we get a link to that please

There wouldn't be many on the list I'd consider untouchable if it meant getting Kelly and Lever... happy to burn picks too, but the $ tag... I dunno. A price war in the club among the young 'uns wouldn't be good. I don't know if this story is true or not, but I'd like to think it is - back in the 80's one of the guns at Hawthorn went to the club asking for a hefty pay rise. The answer from the club was to show them Leigh Matthews contract and ask them if they thought they were worth more than him. That's a bit hard to do when you have a player on $1.5 a year or so.

The full back

Goes alright. With a couple of pre-seasons under his belt he might become a first 22 type.

He used to scare me as a kid. I think it was the eyebrows.

If he wants to come here then this years 1st rounder and a later bunch of pick swaps will do. If he doesn't then we can offer all our first rounders until 2050 and we will be wasting our time.

Wasn't his best, but he wasn't on his Pat Malone. About 15 others could say the same. We just never switched on as a team.

How often does selling the future for the next wunderkind work? A first rounder and a swap of later picks or a fringe player that suits their needs is enough. Otherwise we walk and grow our own. Adelaide know they are going to lose him. They don't hold the whip. They will agree to a good deal with whoever he nominates. It's the new world. We'd do the same, because not doing it will backfire.

#StandbyHird

And we got a guy that should probably be AA this year for what now?

He can give them all the votes he wants. Hell, he can give the whole team 10 votes each. I reckon our boys would rather the 4 points than the dribblings of the simple minded.

I always thought Maxwell was just an average player (but an above average thug), but in 2009/10/11 he was a superb general. He might not have been able to do it himself, but he was bloody good at making sure the young talent was in the right place at the right time. We've complained for a decade that we have had no older leaders, and now we have got one almost for free some think that we've lost in what was pretty much a gift. We will play finals. Of that I'm sure. And when we do Lewis will pay back his paypacket in the first game - and every young talent in the side will learn a million things from him.

[censored] off back to Punt road you bloody fifth columnist

And Richmond chose Corey Ellis with that pick... Sigh... They should have just handed it to us.