Wiseblood

You get the feeling that, internally, the club rate him very highly. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get at least another year on the list. On the other hand they may believe that he is too injury prone and feel that they need to move on. I have no idea what they'll do, but another season lost to injury doesn't bode well for him.

You would think that Vanders' season is over at this point - big call I know, but even after 8 weeks of no footy he will still need weeks to build his fitness base back up, and by then the season may be over. You have to wonder if the club will give him another year or whether they don't see his body being able to stand up to the rigours of AFL footy. I hope they give him another shot, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't either.

The bottom line is that, if we really want him, then we can put together a trade package and a contract that will get him to the club. It's that simple. We don't have a tight salary cap and we have all of our first round and second rounds picks for the next few years. If we want to make a splash, then we can. It's just down to whether or not the club feel that May is the person to make that splash on. Time will tell, but there is no doubt that we have our eye on plenty of targets.

Not too worried about him to be honest. I think he'll sign in the next month or so - that's just my opinion though, not based on anything. Frost, Stretch and Pedersen are the other ones who you would think are in line for extensions. Guys like ANB and Kennedy are around the mark, but someone like VandenBerg might be in trouble with his recent injury history, although he will probably get another year.

How does JKH make the deal any better? The bloke has zero currency. I look forward to the day when we don't assume our average players will be the difference in a deal like this. It won't happen.

That's fair mate, although I don't think I defended him as much as you are suggesting. It was more that I don't think the weekend should be a guide as I felt the small forwards were let down a little by the delivery and our ability to bring the ball to the ground. Kent has been well below par this year, outside of one half against Geelong, and he needs to do far more for us going forward. The problem we face is that the others we have tried haven't fared any better. Is it time for Kennedy to get his chance? Probably, but he has been convincing in his time at the club yet either.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. If they are underachievers then the Suns will have zero interest in them. We can't claim they aren't much good and then expect other clubs to cough up something good to take them off our hands.

Great logic. We need key backs so we'll trade away the ones we have. Brilliant.

Your total dislike of Tyson does cloud your view just a little though, joeboy. Even you would have to admit that.

Can't argue with that, Tony. Weideman and Watts aren't power forwards and they were pushed off the ball (sometimes illegally, but that's not the point) too easily and they were able to mark the footy. We need to move the ball quickly to have a chance, and North were able to stifle that enough that we played into their hands. We need to improve in that area. I'm certainly not excusing the performance of some of our small forwards on the weekend, but they feed off the talls when the ball hits the deck and do their best work there, either by kicking goals or hounding the opposition. They weren't given a whole lot of opportunities to do that on the weekend and it showed.

Vince went off the ground and vomited after that hit to the guts. You haven't exactly covered yourself in glory here, dino.

To be fair, outside of Garlett, all our other small forwards have been average at best. Kent, JKH, ANB (when they played him there), Harmes. Ben Kennedy can't even get a game at the moment either, even though his form at Casey has been decent so far. Saying we should bring one of the other is just like deck chairs to me, although I was hoping the pressure of having a few would force at least one like Kent to stand out from the pack. It just hasn't happened. The weekend's game, to me, isn't much of a guide. Our small forwards need the ball hitting the deck, and Thompson, Tarrant and Hansen were able to mark the ball too often for them to do that on the weekend. It's why Garlett couldn't get near it and why they weren't able to apply their usual pressure because as soon as the ball was marked it took them out of the game. At the moment Kent is our best hope down there, but I'm not as confident in him as I used to be.

This will happen each time he comes out of contract while Nathan is still playing and Zak is with the Swans. It will either happen or it will end up like the Swallow boys.

All good points there Abe. The market will also determine our interest - if clubs are flinging around silly money then we may need to rethink our approach. I don't want to a club that pays overs and sets that precedent for the players who are already there. We aren't a Manchester United who can throw around money and it doesn't matter. However, we do need some further quality on the list, so if May is happy to play for us and it's for the right price then sign him up. I just don't want us to go overboard and we find it hard to sign some of our younger players going forward.

That's the only thing that doesn't sit well with me either. We do have a decision to make, though, in terms of addressing a few needs. Do we go for a potential star in May, or do we look to fill with someone like a Marcus Adams - a bigger player from the VFL/SANFL/WAFL through the draft, or even picking up someone on the cheap? We probably say it every year, but it's a crucial off season for us. There is still plenty of water to go under the bridge but we have some gaps to fill and we may need to get a little creative in doing it.

No doubt we should chase him. I'm always a little skittish when it comes to trading high draft picks, but I think we're in a position now where our list is young enough that we can add these types of players and not miss a beat. Other clubs will be interested, but I know we would have the salary cap room and the obvious position down back for him that we might be able to coax him down. Hopefully the club are right into him at the minute.

You wouldn't be knocking them if they supported your argument. For what it's worth, Oscar has been just okay this year, but he was giving away serious size and height to Brown this weekend and there's not a whole lot he can do about it. Would I rather someone else in the side? Probably but, as you say, there isn't anyone else.

We don't need to. Our forward line is not the issue, we have a great spread of goal kickers. I'd rather Hogan kick 3 and we kick 16 as a side than him kicking 6 of 10.

We've lost games we should have won. Simple. We aren't going to dominate there every year.

I'm a Weideman backer, but he's not going the things we want him to do. How many times did he not make the contest and allow them to mark it easily? It's not his fault, he's just not ready. We might be better off without him. Kent is in a little trouble, too. Harmes may come in for him. Buggy was alright and should hold his spot IMO.

It's not a dive according to anyone with a modicum of sense, though.

Serious fans never took that line of thinking seriously anyway. It was rubbish and yesterday was even further proof of that. We can't get him back quickly enough.

No worries - I thought those games looked a long way off, seemed strange, but that makes sense! And now I totally agree with you - the Doggies game would be fantastic, but it might end up being the Eagles game when he returns.

I'll pass judgement on this when Max returns. When you are roving to someone else it's hard to get a clearance in a position you want as their ruckman won't be hitting it there. We get tackled a little easily as their players are right there waiting for the hitout from their own ruckman. Agree re: being fumbly, though. We did that a few times yesterday.

I hope like hell he is able to come back before then. Horribly selfish of me, I know, especially considering the circumstances, but I was holding out hope that he would be back after the Pies game (or around about that mark). Obviously I wouldn't begrudge him as much time as he needs, but from a football standpoint and knowing how competitive Jesse is, I can see him back in the side before then. Edit - and good move on the new thread, LH.