Gator

Evidence throughout AFL history (1987) suggests your assertion is incorrect. Overwhelmingly (percentage wise) players do not seek a return home. It's especially rare for great players to seek a return home. Judd and Dangerfield are the exceptions, not the rule.

If Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca, Tyson, Salem, Weideman, Hogan, McDonald (s), Viney, and Gawn are not (in the main) staples in our top 10 in 5 years time then the disappointment will match or exceed previous ones. I don't expect it to be the case.

Ok. A clearer picture is emerging and for me it's relatively straight forward. Hogan does "float" according to his manager when it comes to where he wants to play his footy. My take is that he loves his mates, is happy with the club's progress and gets on very well with Goodwin, but unsurprisingly for a 21 year old who hasn't lived at home since he was 17, he gets occasional pangs of homesickness that prevents him from making a concrete decision. And he doesn't need to, as he's contracted for 2017. So while we all want a decision and so does the club Hogan can buy more time to be sure of his decision. I'm going to take things on face value. I'm now comfortable in the belief that he'll be playing at Melbourne in 2017 and imo that augurs well for the future. The more he bonds with his teammates (and the club) the better. I appreciate others will think he'll leave at the end of 2017, and he may, but I still believe we'll be best placed to retain him. While it's also crossed my mind that it may be better to do a deal this year, if he's genuinely conflicted, which I have no reason to doubt, then we should back the club to convince him to stay. I don't see the current events as some inevitability that he'll go. He's got stuff to work through. I'm going to enjoy seeing Hogan for another year and will remain confident that he'll ultimately decide to stay. If he is presently "torn" it may be that the extra time works in our favour.

Yeah, but I already knew that about Salem and Oliver.

I'd leave Carlton's duds alone. Toumpas shows us that talent at junior level doesn't translate if you can't win contested footy (not that I'm fully cognisant of these players deficiencies, i.e. decision making, etc.).

I don't know enough about Smith, other than his impressive game yesterday, but I'd love him to develop into an Isaac Smith type wingman. Isaac Smith has incredible endurance and I have no idea how Joel goes in the endurance stakes, but Smith and Hunt running the lines is an exciting prospect. I actually want to leave Hunt in his current role, as I suspect he finds it easier playing behind the ball, so would be interested to know if a tall wing role would suit Joel.

Thumbs up. We live in an age where people go searching to find offence. Btw, I'm not suggesting LH was, but the grievance industry is alive and well. According to our latest Australian of the year the word "guys" is now sexist. But I digress ... Edit: I hasten to add that I acknowledge you may not endorse my post, or that it adds to yours.

Hibberd and Barlow came from the VFL, so it's certainly a reasonable pathway, but I think it's definitely harder for key position players. Keilty has a better chance than McInerney, but I wouldn't back on either making it.

On 'Open Mike' last week Matthew Lloyd recalled how bad his kicking for goal was early in his career. Sheedy told him not to go into the rooms at the half-time break, but instead practice kicking for goal. He was incredibly embarrassed and reached a point that year where he didn't want to have shots at goal. He didn't want the ball in his hands or the responsibility. He famously fixed his goal-kicking in one off-season to be one of the best we've seen. He reiterated one summer.

Agreed. McInerney did nothing for me and I don't see an AFL quality kpp with Keilty. Liam McBean looked great at VFL level, but his AFL form exposed the gulf between senior and seconds football. Mitch Brown is a terrific VFL footballer and while he's shown a bit at the higher standard I don't project regular games at Essendon. He may get rookied, but I see little more than a depth player.

The biggest thing I got out of today was Joel Smith. Pace, height, decision making, disposal and he cracked in. A Jayden Hunt type story in the making.

Midfield. Rory Sloane and ....

He'd feel no different to a week ago. Nothing has changed, other than a club expressing the obvious, i.e. West Coast, and some supporters whose emotions rise and fall on nothing more than idle speculation.

You're in charge of your own emotions, not Hogan.

So because you hadn't heard that West Coast were into him you assumed it was only Freo ? If West Coast officials weren't in dialogue with his manager they should have resigned. As another poster has said, nothing has changed bar newspaper reporting. I expect him to stay, because it makes sense for him to stay. He won't want to leave his mates, he'll be well remunerated, and 8 hour flights every second weekend wouldn't appeal to anybody.

I was being facetious. I must have said half a dozen times that Hogan shouldn't go back to WA due to 8 hour plane flights every second weekend. Jakovich and other West Coast players have declared that the travel shortened their careers. Considering Hogan didn't debut until he was 20 due to stress fractures in his back it would be madness to even contemplate a move back home. But he may not be the sharpest tool.

First I've heard of it.

The great Dale Carnegie explained back in the 1930s that it's impossible to 'win' an argument. It is especially so when the other person is deranged.

So you think Suckling would have gone to Carlton ? There's no way Carlton are more of a destination club than Footscray, or us for that matter. We're an MCG club, which also gives us an advantage.

Yes, it's very suspicious. Not.

Rod, it's probably half-way. I wouldn't have had half the barneys I've had if I was a super relaxed puppy dog, but it's definitely (defiantly for some) water off a duck's back in the main these days. As for name changes ? Hannabal was permanently banned and I think Ben-Hur was too, although Nasher would know. But I do like a change now and then. Destroy has the sharpest wit I've seen and I reckon he could clip hedges with his tongue if he wanted to; Axis has a great angle to footy; Fan was very smart and balanced; and Dr John Dee is a very intelligent man with some appalling political leanings. If anyone wants some other critiques don't hesitate to ask.

You're supposedly at work. What a disgrace. You couldn't work in an iron lung.

You wasted your own time with your response. A response that shed zero light on one of the most disussed topics ever to appear on this forum. Probably "the" most discussed. If you'd provided a scintilla of profundity it may have been welcomed and even enhanced your somewhat anonymous reputation. Unfortunately you missed the mark. Thanks for wasting more of your time by reading this response in its entirety.

Supposedly it's not about that. Did you read the post I was responding to ?

I know what we were found guilty of and I know what we did. I was pro-tank. But we were as inept at tanking as everything else. We were one of the worst run clubs that has ever graced this planet.