Gator

$850K for Lever spread out over 4 years is fine. He's a bona fide star in the making and with him in defence, Gawn in ruck, Hogan CHF and our building midfield we'd be a force to be reckoned with. Oscar, Tom, and Frost are a NQR defensive unit. Getting Lever would be a huge fillip. Yes, it would shake the tree and the above named 3 plus Lever don't fit, but Lever is comfortably better than all 3 of them. If you could get it done you would.

Lever is a few classes above the McDonalds. Unfortunately, he'll probably stay with Adelaide.

I'd take Lever. Gawn in the ruck, bookends in Hogan and Lever, plus Oliver in the guts and you've got a brilliant nucleus. You'll save coin and turn your attention to a lesser version of Kelly. Maybe a Whitfield type.

Other than @mo64, and perhaps a couple others, I think most who had seen him play thought he'd be the gun that he is. I agree with the rest of your sentiments though. I'd like a classy outside mid and another rock-like key defender, where you don't have your heart in your mouth every time they touch it, but I don't think you need to sell the farm to get them.

Whether it's May or someone else I think the McDonalds and Frost are too flaky to rely on if you're on the cusp of a grand final. I definitely think a quality key defender in the May and Hurley mould is a necessity. Btw, Rance is in the conversation for best ever key defender. He's 194cm. May's height is fine, especially with his strong body and reading of the play. That said, with Gawn's return imminent I'm not averse to improvising with Pedersen down back. I like him more as a defender than stay at home forward. Also, Weideman is also struggling, but he's a smart footballer with good hands. I'd give him a crack in defence at Casey and see how he goes. It only has to be for this season, but he may prove his worth as a defender and be a viable option at AFL level later in the year.

I prefer the ball in his hands far more than Lewis.

He had to nail that goal. I too think he lacks a little bit of class. But he's a solid player. Not sure he'd make much of a difference to our team. Good point about Nathan's age @Wiseblood If Zac doesn't come at the end of this year he may not get another chance to play with his Brother.

I quite like McCartin, but I would be concerned by his body shape if I was a Saints supporter. And if that is linked to his diabetes it's an issue. Right now he looks fat and slow.

I love KB and reckon McCartin can play.

That's not quite correct. Williams stats were better from his first 19 games. That said, Williams debuted at 20, so had an advantage with age. Williams averaged 26 disposals from 12 games in his first year - 1984, and averaged 30.6 in his second year on his way to the B&F in '85 at 21. If your point is that Oliver's second year may be better than Williams' second year well that is a possibility, but obviously not yet resolved. I'd also argue that stats in 1985 are worth at least 20% more than the possession game of 2017, so 30 disposals then is at least 35-36 today, imo.

The best bit to take out of the Champion Data stats is that in 2017 he's ranked the 6th best general forward in the competition. The other stats are irrelevant, because they're based on a comparison of 23 games and not the players' respective ages. Ablett and Dangerfield were 19 through 23 games, so you wouldn't expect them to have the same due to a less mature body. I recognise Petracca missed a year with knee, but still consider his age a significant advantage. Gray was the same age as Petracca after 23 games.

I've not suffered from either affliction, but am aware it's a problem across society. As it's an important issue, my suggestion is to pin this thread. I've never opened it, but there's a similar thread pinned on the main page of BigFooty and it has over 400 posts. Some might like to also reference that thread.

If you don't think Hibberd is a "gun" and only rate him "slightly higher than Melksham" to use your words, then I doubt you'd recognise a gun if it was pointed at your temple.

You don't rate Hibberd, so I find your views on Jones interesting.

He's in my Dreamteam, so i watch him a bit. He's OK, but he turns it over by foot a lot and I'm not sure how he differentiates from what we already have. I'm not the most romantic guy, so the fact he's Nathan's brother means zero to me.

Is meh the term ?

He's not the answer as a fill in ruckman. Won't happen.

I don't think he's "sub par" for a 7 game 19 year old key forward. I like the traits I see. Happy to disagree and we'll both watch him develop with the same hopes in mind.

Not to mention Weideman is still 19. I think many forget he's still a teenager. Darcy Moore is 21 and still struggling.

Glad you went to the trouble. I couldn't give a rat's toss bag either way. I shared the information as I thought some may be interested and I also made it clear that I wasn't certain of the veracity of the claims.

Disagree. A post that lacks insight. He read the play well and made good decisions under the pressure of his first game. Goog handballs, good decisions, good reading of the play. He's a nice mover and will be a very good player by the time he's 23.

He's very brave in the air and will crash packs when he gets bigger, but it's not "all he has". You either didn't see or have forgotten his first game against Hawthorn in round 20 last year. Some of his linking handballs up the ground were excellent and showed that his ground skills and decision making were very good. He had 11 handballs that day. Saying "he's only got" when you have such a small sample size for a very young key forward is close minded. I think he'll have a nicely rounded game.

I look forward to your search and subsequent report.

The following was posted by a Saints fan. I can't vouch for the veracity, but I'd be concerned if I supported St Kilda. "Read this article it has some interesting information... After reading this. If its true. I'm actually surprised we drafted a big pack marking forward with type 1 diabetes." "Diabetics cannot withstand head impacts as well as those who are non-diabetic. This is because brain cells in diabetics have a very poor ability to use glucose and all diabetics tend to be deficient in magnesium. Magnesium is critical to ATP and energy production. In diabetes, since the brain has a poor ability to use energy, this makes the brain more sensitive to the effects of excitatory neurotransmitters like glutamate, which are released in massive amounts following a concussion."

I reckon Dustin Martin is a reasonable comparison. They're different players, but at the same time have similar traits. Martin would now be considered in the top 5 players in the game along with Dangerfield, Fyfe, Franklin and Bontempelli. Martin was highly rated very quickly in his AFL journey, but it was his 4th season before he really broke out and elevated his game to a higher plane. He's continued on and taken his game to new levels, particularly this year (season 8). In his third year he averaged 22.4 disposals (Petracca is averaging 21.7 this year), marks 3.2 (Petracca 7), tackles 3 (1), kicked 23 goals at an average of 1.2 (1.3), and had 85 ranking points (Petracca 90). I think by year's end Petracca's second year will be very similar to Martin's third and by then people were criticising Melbourne for not even interviewing Martin let alone drafting him. It's reasonable to compare Petracca's second year to Martin's third as Petracca is still a few months older than Martin was the corresponding year, although Martin hadn't had interrupted preseasons. Petracca is tracking fine.