Mach5

Good luck to them with less than nothing to offer.

Fox have reported this signing as a certainty.

Solved our issues enough to win a flag?

Generally the successes of the organisations they’ve been a part of, the performance of the areas under their control during that time, and the way their peers and players refer to them (mostly in the media). Not much else you can go on.

Schache. Brown. Hunter. Tomlinson. Brayshaw? (possibly supplanted by Kentfield)

So it’s idle speculation. Much like Carlton trying to get GC’s pick 12. What can they possibly offer that would be enticing to GC?

Who cares? Port would want pick 5. They can’t have it. Negotiations end. We could re-enter the fray if anyone is thinking of putting it on the table? Houston is not the smart play for us at this point.

Surely you can see Jackson is a much different mobile ruckman to Meek and is capable of playing in other positions? No, I don’t think we could have convinced Meek. If you think we could, I’d say you’re living in dream land. He was after a number 1 ruck role. Acres has proved to be a better wingman than expected at Carlton. I’d say his output has definitely been better than Hunter’s. Having said that I don’t think adding a wingman was a priority but as the opportunity presented itself late in the trade period we elected to take it. Carlton had done their work early on Acres. No chance Hunter is on more $ than Acres though. In the scheme of things these are relatively minor “misses” that were not critical needs and we were probably never even in the running for. We’re not lamenting the lack of another wingman as a key deficiency. And a backup ruckman is a priority, but it needs to be one happy to play predominantly at Casey unless the worst happens. Do you really just want to take potshots every instance of another team getting a slightly better outcome than us?

Stay away. I remember how when O’Meara was playing like an Ablett clone in his early years at Goldcoast, Martin was the one with more talent. Shame he was drafted into a culture-less rabble with role models like Harley Bennell.

But Meek is the number 1 ruckman at Hawthorn. He wasn’t coming to us just to be the Casey ruckman & a break-on-case-of-emergency of Gawn goes down. He was already doing that at Freo. Hunter was a last minute opportunistic cheap trade for the low rate hire of a former premiership player for a few years. Acres wouldn’t have come across to us on the salary we’re paying to Hunter. The reason he left Freo was because of the lowball salary offer from the dockers. I understand frustration if you’re looking at these deals on the surface, but the detail is important.

I’m expecting Derksen to cost pocket change

I could envisage a pick 25 for Peatling & Derksen being palatable but not much more.

Where would he be getting these full time midfield minutes? Casey?

So which of these players should we have recruited and for what role? Should have quoted SONS.

...because we’ve had an already established team that was consistently at the pointy end, so to break into the side as an established player you’d need to be very good. And all of those recruits were depth players recruited for peanuts, so shouldn’t have been expected to contribute significantly. The problem is that it’s a collective that makes these decisions, but the tendency is for the blame to be unfairly targeted at an individual. Maybe you think we should hold the collective responsible, but I’d say that collective has enough runs on the board to make up for this perceived negative.

194cm... so he’s ruck depth?

I don’t think this is the way a strong culture works - you don’t import a player into a good culture and it immediately converts the individual for the better. Culture is formed by the individuals within the collective, and while it can exist in spite of the influence of a few NQRs, it doesn’t mean it can fix them. Moreso a strong culture will not tolerate their presence and endure until they are gone. And it enables those made of the right stuff to thrive.

Might be onto something there in such an “even” draft.

Obviously we’ll have the choice of the consensus top 5 that slips through. But I feel Lalor is very much a JT pick. Cricket commitments have stopped him from ever doing a proper AFL preseason, so scope for improvement is there (tick). Battled injuries so overcome some adversity (tick). Huge ability/talent (tick). Appears to have the right character/mindset (tick).

Right... I don’t get your point. Tigers will use their early picks & have no use for their plethora of late picks, so will happily package them for more early picks. And they’ll have more than us.

Not just freeing up space - looking for assets to acquire Houston. I don’t think we want to be anywhere near any of their discards, unless virtually free, and even then I’m suspect.

He’s not happy because he almost died & hasn’t been able to train/play to move on from that. He will with time.

I think we should definitely be aiming for this, particularly when Brisbane needs points for Marshall too, but I just can’t see how we can compete with Richmond. I did a quick breakdown of the picks they hold yesterday and it is obscene how many picks they have. Currently 1, 21, 29, 39, 41, 47, 57, 66, 72, 75. This is before you even factor in 1st rounders coming in for Baker, Bolton, Rioli & Graham (more likely 2nd). Surely they’ll try to trade some for futures, but will likely keep the majority this year for such a reputed deep draft. By my reckoning, they’ll have minimum 5x top 30 picks. And they’ll be targeting any club that has an academy or FS candidate. Brisbane would only be using us to inflate the cost for Richmond, we can’t compete & they can’t possibly keep all of those picks.

Very sad to hear that about King. Sniff sniff. Hope he’s ok.

Glad he won’t be at the bluey to be poked at by every clown that’s had a few drinks. No good would come of it.