Forest Demon

I don't really know where I stand on it all in terms of the ban, but I don't see how you can argue picking up Melksham was not a mistake. If we got him for peanuts, maybe, but we gave up a decent pick for a player who will spend his first year sitting on the sidelines. Would you trade a second rounder for Melksham if he had just done his ACL and was going to be out for the next season? I certainly wouldn't. And it is not as if this wasn't foreseeable. Melksham needs to come out absolutely firing in 2017, and considering Simon Goodwin was behind picking him up, it also applies a little extra pressure to the start of his coaching career in 2017.

If we are able to promote a rookie, I would like to see Mitch White get the opportunity. Melksham was recruited to play half back, and while I am sure they could shuffle things a bit, Harmes and Michie are not like for like replacements. White had a very good debut in the last game of last year and pre-season form permitting, don't think he would look out of place on the senior list. Give him the opportunity, put the heat on him, and see if he stands up. I am pretty confident he would succeed.

Certainly makes for an interesting night. We have two picks inside the top 10, and looks like we could have any 2 of about 10 players. Unlike other years where it was clear who we were taking, or at least down to a selected 2 or 3.

If he was out of contract next year I would be concerned, but he still has 2 years FFS.

I'm not sure what people expect. You can't offer a player a 4 year deal and then all of a sudden when it comes to the trade table act like you are only mildly interested, and offer up your 3rd or 4th round pick. As soon as the 4 year deal was reported, it was obvious it was a going to be our 2nd rounder, maybe with a shuffle of later picks, which can be used for Kennedy and/or Bugg.

It's giving me a bloody headache.

I was chuffed when we got Tapscott.

90%? He would be our best player by a fair margin.

16...the doggies may have already made that mistake

Yes please on Hartlett. And there is no way we are going after Melksham for "depth". We have depth players already, problem is they are 10-20th best players on our list rather than 20-30th. Roos and co will want Melksham playing 22 games a year.

This emailing Paul Roos trend is ridiculous

Big offer is surely to push him through to the PSD. If anyone wants to match it, got for it, but they won't. Hopefully Melksham is disillusioned enough with Essendon that he doesn't care if they get nothing for him.

I would take him, but two very obvious things make me nervous about this move: 1. WADA - if he cops a 2 year ban that would be a disastrous pick up, surely the club are all over this, but who knows 2. Trade Value - if we are offering him a 4 year deal, Essendon are well within their right to ask for our second rounder if we rate him that highly, and knowing Essendon, they will probably want more to begin with

I love the look on Weller's face when he looks down at the ground afterwards. Looks like he is thinking to himself "Why the f@#k did I just try to do that?"

Geez that is a brutal tackle, and I absolutely love it. I have said a couple of times this year, but Jack's season has been excellent. I love the way he goes about it and I expect him to finish top 3 to 5 in the B&F

At the half way point, I had Cripps, Hogan, Brayshaw in that order, but relatively close. Since then Cripps has been a little quieter (except for last week), Hogan has gone from strength to strength, while Brayshaw has dropped out of the conversation.

The 2 in a row is a big one for me. So many times we have a win, and it seems to breed some sort of complacency. This is a winnable game, but St Kilda apply a huge amount of pressure, so hopefully we don't go to water. Playing at the G instead of Etihad is a big plus for us as well.

Not to mention, that if he does leave, his trade value plummets massively if he is rotting the season away at Casey

Echo. Sorry, accidentally copied you and said the same thing.

I know where you are coming from, and I'm not trying to say Howe was amazing today, but show me a player at Casey who could play near as well as Howe did today?

Wouldn't it be all so much easier if we could get our hands on the all knowing file that grades all players A through to F, would make recruiting so much easier.

Is that the old geezer from Happy Gilmore?

I am actually more intrigued by the rookie list situation. The senior list delistings are reasonably obvious, but all the guys on the rookie list have shown enough to warrant more time you would think, so will be interesting to see how they juggle it. Obviously vandenBerg is a shoe in for the senior list.

What a great first post, I had the Ultimate Warrior's entrance song running through my head as I started reading it.

Am I the only one that thinks Grimes has been pretty good this year since he came back into the team? My early predictions (I haven't read the contract thread so a couple could be wrong): DELIST McKenzie, Bail, M.Jones, Fitzpatrick, Terlich, Hunt UP FOR TRADE (realistically trade 2 or 3 of this group, but most of these will have at least some currency, and would clear some cap space) Dawes, Watts, Howe, Toumpas RETIRE (maybe 1 more year from Cross) Jamar