Wiseblood

Not at all. This is much, much different to that.

As an aside, will Port put two of those together to get a higher pick? Say they trade 6 and 9 for Pick 1, then Carlton sends Pick 6 to GWS for Shiel (if he goes there) while keeping Pick 9 as well. There's probably no chance that happens, but it's common knowledge that both SA clubs are looking to get up the draft to nab the home grown talent there, so they may be willing to do some deals.

How would I know? He's only been in the system a year.

The kid will be a gun. Adding him to our midfield mix for the next 10-12 years would be terrific. Then we add May as well to shore up the backline and we make out like bandits.

Me either. Pick 4/5 and Brayshaw to Hogan strikes me as the most likely deal to come out of this.

Both of you are correct, and I'm certain that other players do tour facilities without it hitting the mainstream media. It just feels as though Jesse has now crossed a 'boundary' so to speak, and there may not be any coming back from this.

Touring the facilities is generally a sign that you're going to ask for a trade. Outside of Dusty a few years back, have many other players gotten down the path of touring another club before re-signing? I'm sure it has happened, but it wouldn't be a regular occurrence. Sad to see him there, though.

I heard he was there to tell them he was knocking back their offer because he's, you know, a good bloke.... #deluded

So would I, Dub, but the point I'm trying to make is that it's not the end of the world in terms of our depth if he chooses to leave. I'd much, much, MUCH, rather he stay, but we're covered in case a McDonald or Weideman goes down with our ability to swing someone forward (Frost), potentially play a resting ruck there more (Preuss/Gawn) or go through some of our mid sized forwards (Melksham, Petracca, Fritsch, Hannan).

That's all well and good, but it also proves the point that even the best sides don't have a gun replacement hanging around in the twos in case of an injury. So if Hogan goes, we're still lucky enough to have T Mac and Weideman to play as our tall forwards. We will be just like any other side.

We've thought that in the past when Hogan went down and we handled it fine. You can't cover everything. What happens if Jack Riewoldt goes down? Tom Hawkins? Buddy? I'd wager those clubs don't have a suitable back up either, but then these are gun forwards we're talking about. They don't grow on trees. You can't have more of them just waiting in the wings when an injury comes along.

Well, I'm glad that's sorted.

I wonder if he harbors any ill feeling towards the club after all these years and will be an absolute pain in the backside during negotiations for KK and May.

I see what you're saying Nash, but two things stand out about Kent: One is that, every time he got himself fit, he got himself in the side. The club clearly rates him and looked to get him in the side when they could. His injury history meant that offering him a 1 year deal, from our end, made sense, but it also makes sense for him to look for more security. The second thing is that the Saints clearly rate him as well, otherwise they wouldn't offer him a 3 year deal on much better money than what we were offering (which is what Chook in Perth alluded to). A deal like that is worth more than Pick 75. I know we have our hands tied with this so it's a moot point I guess, but going by some of those factors I think a third round pick would have been fair. We won't get that now, not with the threat of the pre-season draft hanging over us, and we might end up using that pick to upgrade someone or draft a local league player, but I think he's worth more to us than what we'll get when he leaves.

The Sun is reporting that the Saints will get Kent for nothing more than Pick 75 as they will use the threat of getting him in the pre-season draft to push that through. Bastards.

Bottom line for me is that if they can get Pick 2 for Lachie Weller, then they can hand over a treasure trove of stuff for Jesse Hogan.

So why tell us you know something if you can't share a thing about it? How does that change anything?

Sam McClure, everyone's favourite person on trade radio, just floated this idea which will include us losing Hogan and just gaining Steven May: The bloke is off his na-na.

And they'll still be a totally irrelevant, boring football club who will struggle to get 20k to any game of football.

We would be signing their praises if they bothered to try and be sensible for a change.

Tell him he's dreamin...

I'd say the contract is a good point, but we all know how fickle those contracts can be sometimes. If a player really wants out, they'll generally get their way, no matter if they're signed to a 1 or 5 year deal. Player power rules these days.

Not at all. I mentioned in my earlier post that Mahoney claimed it still to be 50/50 really, and that there was nothing concrete, but from the way he spoke I said it's more likely to be 80/20. I won't accept he's gone until he's really gone, but as you and others say, reading between the lines suggests that they are more than prepared, and expect, for Hogan to tell them he wants to be traded home.

Mahoney said at the end of the interview that we had no intention of trading Hunt and that we still see him as an important part of our side moving forward. Seeing how forthright he was with all the information he gave in the interview I'd believe that Hunt isn't going anywhere.

While Mahoney said he was undecided, you get the feeling it's more 70/30 or 80/20 that he decides that he wants to play his footy back in WA. I believe Josh when he says that Jesse is still making a decision, but at the same time he didn't sound all that confident that Jesse would come back to the club and say that he wanted to stay. I also get the feeling that the club would be (quietly, not outwardly) happy to move him on so they can conclude other deals. Mahoney made mention of the fact that this off-season is a great chance to improve 'team balance', and he may be referencing the fact that Jesse going and Steven May coming in would balance out the side much better. Either way, it seems like we have a few more days of guessing ahead of us before an official decision is made.