Wiseblood

It's certainly another feather in the cap for Jason Taylor, but kudos to everyone else at the club for still having him ready to play, even after he arrived at the club with a shoulder injury. To manage his load and development from there to yesterday is a terrific effort for all involved and we reaped the rewards big time.

He's just a very clever footballer. A case in point was his little knock on in the first term that allowed Salem to kick a goal - it was only a small thing, but purely instinctive and showed that his footy IQ is very high. Alongside Petracca he has the biggest ceiling of the youngsters on the list, and if he keeps working hard to improve then the sky is the limit.

I agree, but I think it might be in a few season's time. Something tells me that opposition teams will really aim to clamp down on Hunt's running capacity, and it may take a little time for him to make the adjustment. Last season he was a totally unknown quantity. He won't have that going for him next year. I'm happy to be wrong, and I don't necessarily believe he won't impact games like he did last year, just that he won't get a free run at it like he got for us in 2016.

Great result. The deal is fair and, while it leaves us without any early picks, it's good to see other posters realising that our first rounder from this draft is Weideman. Adding Lewis, Hibberd and the return of Melksham makes this a terrific trade period for us. Add in the fact we have signed up all our young players and the future looks bright.

Cheers, mate! Pretty good sauce that!

His second half of the year certainly showed that he is improving. Another pre-season and a run in the NAB Cup would do him good. I would think he is well down the pecking order at the moment, and senior footy next year would be a stretch, but he is showing some potential that he could turn out to be a handy player down the track.

Is this his inside source, or just a gut feeling? Either way it's pretty close to what will probably happen, although I'll be surprised if Viv stays on as a rookie. They may do it in case we get a plethora of injuries and have him as depth.

Really? It's always sad to see certain players go, but you have to make spots on your list each year. Every club makes delistings, it's not something new or foreign. It has nothing to do with loyalty or justice.

I understand that. I always had a soft spot for Jack - he did everything he could for the club, took on the captaincy in our darkest days and was clearly the consummate professional off it as well. I'll always have the highest respect for him. But, in the cold light of day, this is the only way to do it. It was pretty clear that he didn't fit in to our plans going forward and, at the very least, this shouldn't come as a surprise to him or us as supporters. I'm sure he already knew the writing was on the wall. I still think he could contribute to a club somewhere, such as Brisbane, for a few years at least.

With all due respect to Casey, I would hope that doesn't matter. Making our list decisions and moving forward is far more important in the overall context of our club. But, you may well be right too.

You're probably right dazzle. I can't see the club staying silent this week now that Casey's season is over. I doubt we'll see many surprises in the announcements, though.

I wonder how long it will be before the club make a few announcements - you would assume that, regardless of the fact that Casey played on the weekend, that internally they would have made up their minds on at least some players. Dean Terlich, for example, won't be at the club next year. Everyone knows that. Do they give them the week, or do they get on with the list changes as soon as possible?

So you're suggesting that they had a crack till half time, remembered that they had been told they were being delisted, and came out flat after half time? What sort of logic is that?

The beauty of recruiting someone like Hibberd is the knock on effect - you can take the short, simplistic view that we've just gained another 'half back flanker'. We know that Hibberd is a very good half back flanker, for a start, and it gives us more options. With his recruitment, it can allow other guys like Hunt and Salem to play further up the field and use their weapons (kicking and speed respectively) where it can be more damaging than before. Hibberd is terrific one on one, is a very good kick and is cool under pressure. Not to mention he brings further experience to our backline, something we are still short of. But feel free to be underwhelmed. Some supporters are never happy.

Should have ended the discussion there, bing. But then we all knew it would fall on deaf ears.

A depth player is someone who, when called upon, can add some true value to a side. A list clogger is someone who, when called upon, rarely adds value to the side. They generally don't last that long, but there are exceptions to the rule. Matt Jones USED to be a list clogger. He's not so much anymore. He can add some value, although his kicking still makes me twitch. Jake Spencer, to me, is a list clogger. If he added any value to the side, at his size, then he would have played a few games this year. The only reason he got another year on the list is that we have no one else and there is no guarantee we'll get one in trade week or through the draft.

You're probably right, but that's up to Goodwin now. I always felt Roos had a soft spot for him, but that may not be the case with Goody.

Yeah, I should have clarified further that I don't want us to do it every year. I just think we're at a good stage where some extra experience will really help us moving forward and it seems like the right time to do it. Next year, in what they are saying is a strong draft, it would be good to hold on to the picks unless a good, young player becomes available.

Absolutely. We will still have picks in the draft and, as you say, we got Jayden late in the draft. We've been very good getting players in the third and fourth round, so I'm sure we will have some picks there. I just think we can use our higher picks to get in some of that experienced talent to go with what we have.

This is where I think we're at in the recruitment stage. We don't need more kids. I know some want us to go out and try and find the next 'Jayden Hunt', but we also need to realise that finals are a real possibility next season. We need more experience in our side going forward and if we can flip a few picks to get these players then I'm all for it.

I can see plenty of appeal. He's a beautiful user of the footy. He is strong in a one on one contest. While he is not lightning quick, he has plenty of pace. He will bring some further experience to our backline and he is calm under pressure. With our club pushing for a finals place in 2017, we need experienced players coming in, not more kids. After trading away our first rounder for this year already, we can't land a big fish. So we need to add further quality to our side, and Hibberd is just that. Quality. You can never have enough of it. With the addition of Melksham our side is starting to look much more settled on paper.

If you read through his assessments again, he literally goes out of his way to not give any pick a full pass mark. The Hunt one leaves me shaking my head - it's turned out to be a sensational pick, one I didn't even see coming, yet because there were other good players around it's just a 'good' pick. Baffling.

It also mentioned that if talks break down, Hibberd could go to the grievance tribunal and argue a breach of contract. Still lots of water to go under the bridge with this one. I still think our second rounder, eventually, gets the deal done.

I was going to say the same thing. It does put things into perspective a little, but the loss still hurts. I just can't wait until some of these younger players have 20-30 more games under their belts.