qwerty7

please no ?

Determining whether or not trading Watts was the right or wrong decision shouldn't be measured against the quality of his season at Port. I'm sure the MFC knew Watts was a talented player and that he was capable of very impressive games like today's... they just didn't see that talent fitting into our success unfortunately.

The decision to trade him will be justified by the quality of OUR season and whether or not we take that next significant step to success. 

Watts is going to have some amazing games because he's a great player, but if we see the improvement and success that this decision was expected to deliver, then letting Watts go might have been best (for both parties) after all.

8 minutes ago, Fifty-5 said:

Flag

i hope you win the crystal ball

22 minutes ago, mo64 said:

I suppose the Crows angst towards Lever is similar to ours and Scully. Both had only been at the club a short time, which makes it harder to accept.

At least Lever told the club a month ago of his decision, which allowed them to up their offer to McGovern.

I just don't understand why AFL clubs and the players, have a hard time reconciling with losing a player, when every year they are all out to poach players from other clubs.

The Storm actually allowed the 4 players who were leaving the club to lead the side off the ground in their Prelim win, which was their final home game. It was so the crowd could thank the players for their service, and vice versa.

slightly different because Scully told us all he was staying, but most disgustingly, promised a dying jim stynes he would too. Scully is a rat and deserves every ounce of hate directed towards him

By the sounds of it, Lever hasn't made any promises to Adelaide this year that he knew he wouldn't be able to keep

Is this rumour about collingwood playing hard ball for him true/have any substance to it? If it does and they are offering two first rounders, this might make the deal a lot harder for us to land him. 

Collingwood are the biggest bloody disease to plague the earth

4 minutes ago, brendan said:

It could be about his girlfriend too, she is a school teacher I think, could we have said we could land her a job at a pretty lucrative school who knows, would we have that sort of pulling power 

Dave Misson's wife is the principal of Melbourne Girls Grammar.....

Just now, SFebey said:

I Have NOT once said Hogan doesn't love the club. Nor can I remember saying he would be involved in the Lever trade. All I said was I wouldn't blame him if he did go home. Also all I said was it's not the first I've heard of it, plenty of talk out there about it. Use someone else for target practice lol

Lol that wasn't an attack and I wasn't trying to imply you did, but sorry if my thoughts so greatly stirred you up... I promise not to 'target' you again 

3 hours ago, SFebey said:

It's not the first time I've heard of Higan going home for family reasons, when I mentioned it a week or so back I was nailed to the cross. You can't blame the kid, big loss for us IF it happens.

I understand what you're saying, but it seems that Hogan really loves the club. We have supported him enormously through what has been presumably the toughest year of his life and I can't see us involving him in a trade unless he requested it, which I don't think he has. He seems like a quiet and reserved guy and it is probably for this reason the 'homesick' stigma is so frequently attached to him. But I think Hoges loves it at our club and has some great friends in people like Brayshaw, who also has had an incredibly tough year. 

I just don't see the club getting Lever via a trade involving Hogan - particularly given we just resigned him at the end of last year's season. 

I feel as though if the meeting did not happen, Goodwin and co. would have come out blatantly saying it did not happen. However, though he did not acknowledge it happened, he gave a very systematic answer that did not deny it and Jones voiced words that were nearly exactly the same. Goodwin doesn't muck around with the media and if it didn't happen, he wouldn't have made his answer so ambiguous. 

They just said on SEN that Jake Lever officially met with Melbourne FC last week and that he was apparently unhappy with the first offer Adelaide offered him.. doesn't guarantee he is leaving or anything but still very interesting

OMac I believe has the potential to be a really talented key position defender and we saw glimpses as to why in the second half of that game. 

He has all the qualities and skills to be a star but he just lacks confidence at this very moment. I have a feeling Goodwin must have said to OMac at half-time that he needs to stop panicking and to just back himself because the Oscar we saw in the first half was just a shadow of the one we saw in second. He fought hard to make a contest and showed great composure in what was a really frantic last half of footy. 

The truth of the matter is that key position players take time to develop and it's rare that they are born stars. We let players like Dunn go and persevere in giving OMac games to hopefully fast track his development and it is slowly starting to pay off. I hope this is a turning point for Oscar as yesterday's game will only enrich him with confidence and belief that he really can take on his opponents and win contests. Goody made deliberate mention of Oscar's game in the press conference and for good reason, he deserved it! 

I think the issue is we are expecting too much of players like Oscar and Weideman who are only still early in their development. Their inexperience will sometimes frustrate us, but giving the games is the best way we are going to see improvement and build a strong future - particularly for Oscar as we desperately need to improve our backline.