hoon1

Why trade 3 and 7 for 4 and 5, if we take parish at 3 then we are guaranteed to land one of curnow, weideman, francis or the SA forward who name escapes my memory. We may as well keep our picks. Get the best mid (Parish) and a highly rated key forward to partner hogan. *Edit Burton is the SA key forward

He isn't the biggest of fish, but I'd like is to have targeted Carlisle in order to free up tommy Mac. Being able to play forward in the nick Riewoldt manner, leading up to the wings would have been fantastic, and dropping back if our defence was struggling. Either way let's hope we have a huge 2016 and become a real destination club next year!

On Josh Kennedy, he is a very very good player, and I am all for bringing in good players, but for me he seems the wrong sort of player for us. He has good acceleration and gut running, but does not have great disposal and I would like to think that our inside mids in viney, jones, tyson, brayshaw etc could hold their own against the best in the comp. If we are going to part with a top pick/picks in order to get players of this standard, then I would rather target players who offer something a bit different, whether it is x factor like bennel, foot skills like hartlett, or end to end running like a brad hill or an isaac smith (Unobtainable but you get the idea). The players I have mentioned are outside players that add polish to the grunt work of the inside mids. If you look at teams like hawthorn or geelong or freo, they have the inside grunt, which we have also, but they then have the players that can use the ball and make the most of the clearance rather than just bombing it long, for example, hodge, burgoyne, bartel, mundy, etc. In my opinion these are the players we need rather than the big bodied inside mids. However it is all well and good identifying a need, finding players that are willing to make the move, and that are available is tough, so I will back in the new team at the club

I must say Howe's interceptions have been very important, I really hope we re-sign him, stuffed up a few times early but has good safe hands and provides a good link to attack. Really impressed, also fantastic that it is Tyson and viney leading the midfield charge while the older statesmen in jones, viney and cross have struggled. Shows we finally have some depth in the midfield!

goldsack (injured in warm up) out scharenberg in

Do we realistically think Prestia will end up at the Dees next year or is it more of a pipe dream?

Just left simmonds for my first game of the year, went with my brother and uncle who are diehard Geelong fans. Was great fun to stand up in a crowd of blue and white as a Melbourne supporter for once. Smashed them in the middle, well done to Gawn, vince and jones on huge games and vineys effort on Selwood was first class. Well done boys, proud to be a Melbourne supporter!

Howe is good, but his more flashy than game changing. He brings people through the turnstiles, but at the end of the day he doesn't own a position, he instead floats, meaning that he is replaceable

Am I the only one that thinks pick 7 would be overs anyway, with pick 7 we could have drafted Brayshaw, McCartin and still possibly lever or Laverde or Duggan or Cockatoo

Just my opinion but I feel that if we are going for 2 mids I'd rather Laverde over Lever. I have never seen them play live and have only seen the highlight footage, but I feel that Laverde would be less of a risk. He looks like a more natural midfielder, has good x factor, overhead capabilities and agility as has been mentioned, but also comes without the recent injury risks. Having said that I would not be disappointed with McCartin, although like everyone on here I hope that Hogan shakes the injuries off and lives up to his potential, but there would be no harm in double dipping on highly rated key forwards. McCartin could either be the next Dawes or could be part of the next brown/brayshaw, franklin/roughead combination

How could it be Hannebery or Kennedy? Swans have just signed buddy and Tippet, are in the middle of their premiership window, have dibs on the most rounded mid in the draft both this year and a ripper next year. But are going to trade out either their best mid in kennedy, or a player touted as a future captain in Hannebery? I wish it to be true but seems unlikely.

I wrote in to the Sammy's who were doing the trade talk on the HS website about the Dangerfield trade, they seemed to think that it was still a high possibility for the reasons we have mentioned about Adelaide's compensation next year. According to them Dangerfield is still a fair chance to move this trade period