Bang Bang Bang

Who cares about how he looked on draft night? Dustin Martin hasn't smiled once in his life. Nerves, shyness, Ben Dixon being a total weirdo, all of the above. Very, very happy with this pick. Trac and Clarry will probably start winding down in 3-4 years just as Langford and Windsor are hitting their prime. Perfect.

We also bid on Isaac Heeney in 2014, one pick before Petracca, and Callum Mills in 2015, one pick before Clarry. Some useless trivia for you all.

In. JT. We. Trust.

JT kept talking about small forwards the other day so Berry wouldn’t surprise at all.

Yeah it seems a bit strange to me that we have no interest in Draper, but if we pass on him that means the other teams did too. Including hometown club Adelaide and maybe even Richmond twice! What does that say? Probably there’s something there most of us can’t see. Or maybe he interviews poorly, is a flight risk etc. I remember almost an identical discussion with Curtin this time last year. I was personally miffed we overlooked him for Windsor who was considered in the 12-20 range. Not anymore. That being said, I’ll still be a little miffed if we spend our prized pick on an intercept defender.

I’m still thinking Tauru is going to be our guy. Lalor to Richmond Carlton want Draper and Adelaide want Jagga Smith. North like FOS at 2, so surely if they slide back, they are still going to like him at 4 if he’s there (and he will be). Contrary to popular belief I don’t think a slide back from North means they are taking Tauru. It leaves Langford on the board but multiple sources seem to think we are in love with Tauru. I am not at all happy with this scenario but this is what I see happening. Tauru to the Dees!

Yes but if these guys from the Herald Sun are to be believed (and they usually are, let's be honest) we won't be letting Tauru slip past us. So, willingly choosing Tauru over Langford looks likely.

The Herald Sun leaks are concerning. Jagga Smith looks certain to be gone. Lalor at 1, FOS at 2, Draper at 3, J.Smith at 4. Leaves us with Tauru - nothing personal with him I'm sure he'll be OK but he's NOT what we need. GAHHHHHH. How frustrating.

Jagga Smith at 5, no doubt about that one. Low risk, plug-and-play midfielder who fills a need. Failing that, probably Langford. I'd be OK with Armstrong at 9 although would prefer a midfielder at both picks. A slider such as Smillie would be good. I am not super keen on Bo Allen due to the WA factor. I have a feeling JT will reach for someone random here a la Kosi and Windsor/Tholstrup.

This is exactly what St. Kilda did in 2014. They saw Tom Boyd get to the Bulldogs on a massive contract and eventually they started getting too cute and they ditched Trac for McCartin. I don't think we should be overthinking the pick. For mine JVR and Disco/Petty/Jefferson/Fritsch is more than enough to build a functional forward line for the future. Our midfield stocks on the other hand are super thin outside of Windsor. Even if Trac and Clarry recapture their best form, they aren't spring chickens anymore and nor is Viney. I am a big Jason Taylor fan but I would be pretty annoyed if we took Armstrong at 5 and he would have to be as good or better than someone like Jye Amiss to make up for it. JT's strike rate with talls over the years has been pretty average too compared to his smalls.

I have little doubt we would have buckled and handed over pick 5 and a F1 for this old man and maybe a F2. Count yourselves lucky Trac threw a tantrum when he did.

Turns 30 next year so basically this investment was for three years, and a third of that investment has been an utter failure. Just a terrible, terrible trade so far. Hopefully he can have a good season or two, or better yet, a winning moment in a final, but I won't hold my breath.

ANB is turning 29 soon so the Crows can expect to get 50-60 good quality, workmanlike games out of him. We should be expecting that if not a little more from the second round pick. Win-win trade and I'm glad we're not haggling over the exchange of future fourth round picks.

Takes way too long to get rid of it and has very little dare in his game. He’s reliable, and a hard worker, and he had a good moment or two in the qualifying final. But honestly he’s as vanilla as they come. Our decline had nothing to do with him.

I’m glad we took our chance when we had it because flags are bloody hard to win. In hindsight when we came back from 45 points against Geelong to win it there was going to be no stopping us in ‘21. Same thing has happened to the Lions. Incredible finals series for them. Zorko is a germ but will be very happy to see Jarrod Berry and Fages get a flag. The straight sets quinella of 22/23 sucked balls but I’d still take it over supporting the Sydney Swans. lol. No hard feelings with Grundy but those who were moaning about him can eat some humble pie.

Same number of flags as Goody since 2017.

What a game, maybe the best I’ve seen as a neutral. Can’t think of too many comparable, maybe that 2011 game where Buddy kicked an outrageous one near the end. Port and Geelong are my two most hated teams so this weekend was absolutely glorious. I would literally pay money to stream Chris Scott’s presser. How’s the Dangerfield and Holmes arrogance thinking they were going to miss the glory next week (ok maybe a bit harsh on Holmes). But nah seriously [censored] off Cats , forever this time please. :)

I swear Houston will be 35 y/o by the time trade week gets here.

This is the most enjoyable Geelong Cats win since 2011. Hate the [censored] with a passion but them absolutely nailing Port is glorious. Haha so funny .

I don’t think anyone is underestimating Houston the player. But for me there are four factors working against this: his age, his position, the asking price and the club’s direction. 1. He’s 28 next year - basically everything needs to go right for us to maximize his value. We might get 50-75 good “elite level@ games out of him at best. That’s not a lot. 2. He plays HBF which is far from the most important role to fill. He’s an AA player sure but he’s not exactly Zak Butters. 3. Two first rounders or pick 5 and change. Enough said, way overs. 4. Are we really pushing for another flag? We don’t want Houston to be the next Tim Taranto. Much safer taking pick 5 to the draft where we can focus on finding Clarry/Viney/Brand Petracca’s replacement.

I agree that this is realistically what we’re looking at, and I’m in the ‘trade Trac’ camp if the right deal comes along. But I would honestly hate this trade. Yuck. 11, 31 and F1 (likely teens) are picks that will get us Tholstrup/Jefferson/Bowey/Spargo/Sparrow/Jordon type players. Nothing wrong with those guys per se but I’d honestly rather we tried to mend things over getting a few OK picks and giving an arch nemesis a leg up. A top 5 pick being involved or a genuine gun player coming back the other way is a different story.

I’d be pretty happy now if a club comes knocking with assets. A Top 5 pick or someone like McKay in exchange for someone who is 29, coming off a serious injury and totally lost the plot is a win IMO. I’d still rather keep him than sell him off for peanuts but this is become borderline untenable. He has five years left on a contract but realistically he has about 50 games left as an elite player and that’s best case scenario. Wouldn’t surprise me if he takes a year just to find his feet again. Dusty was certainly different after a similar (less serious) injury. Very sad situation and we’ll never quite know why it has come to this, but footy is a business. Time to move on I reckon.

Sudden death Hawks vs Dogs at the MCG in their current form is peak footy IMO. Deserves 90,000+ Hoping for Giants to win the flag so I’d be happy if they won along with Brisbane and the Dogs. I hate Port and Geelong equally. It will be funnier if Port lose so I guess go Cats.

So we were in the top 4 race with six weeks left, we were in the finals race until about a fortnight ago, and somehow we end up with pick 5. All it took was for us to blow a meaningless game and a couple more results to go our way. Jack Higgins may have single handedly revived us! You beauty. And we get some delicious Blues tears for dessert. Great finish to the year!

Fantastic! Barring a catastrophe, he should get to 300 games. A bit disappointed Lamby didn't consult with DeeSpencer prior to this, but I'll take it.