Wiseblood

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).

Maynard is the perfect depth player. Good size, fit, can play through the midfield... but won't seem too fazed by spending his time at Casey. He is capable of coming in and playing a role when needed, but he isn't best 22. We still need his type on our list, though. More than happy for him to stay on.

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.

Meh. Is he any better than Kent? AVB? JKH? Probably not. If the FD see something in him and can get him super cheap then I guess you can't have too many complaints, but the bloke doesn't do a whole lot for me.

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.

The word is that he's been offered big bucks to sign with Freo. I'd say it's them or he stays at the Pies. If we're into May I can't see us also being in to Langdon, although he would be a terrific acquisition for any club.

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

Having him return to the side at the end of the season, and generally play well, means that if he goes we're more than likely to get something half decent in return. We can argue that, at the end of the season, he was best 22 in a side that made a Prelim. I'd be happy with a second round pick in return if he decides to head to Sydney, although I'd rather have him on the list moving forward.

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.

Josh Mahoney was pretty vocal re: our interests on trade radio today. Shiel didn't come up and, at this point, if we were interested then the media would have sniffed it out by now. They've done so with our growing interest in May, KK, Preuss etc. I doubt, with Shiel openly exploring offers back in Victoria, that we've been able to keep ours secret while others haven't. I mean, never say never, but I'm highly doubtful we have any interest at all in Dylan Shiel.

Which would leave him to explain to the football world why he ended up leaving for coin instead of a 'big club', as the Saints are pretty darn low on the totem pole.

His manager says that he only wants to go to a 'big' club. I see only the Hawks left in that list.

I don't think we've got any interest in Shiel. The report states that he's met with four clubs, three of which are in the running after ruling out the Bombers. With our interest in May and KK, I don't think we can afford to add Shiel as well.