Wiseblood

Be careful what you wish for, Steve. Before you know it we'll see the "Taylor Hunt thread" on this board, with someone bringing up some sort of stat and suggest that he might be worth getting to the club.

I'd go as far as to blame him for the fact we haven't won a flag in over 50 years.

I'm not against it at all, but on the other hand, I won't lose any sleep if it's nothing more than a rumour.

Glen Bartlett just announced that our sponsorship with AHG has been extended! This is great news!

The sample size, two games, isn't anything to go by either. If he had been injured for half a season and we won the majority of those games, then I could understand the argument. We won two games, albeit against sides who were in good form the time, but that doesn't convince me that we're better off without him at all. Far from it in fact. They're just using that as an excuse for their viewpoint.

It would be the first time someone had described a 21 year old forward, fresh off two seasons on 40+ goals, as having 'held us back this year'.

If we want to look at it a different way, we had 4 nominations and one other (Hunt) who deserved one. That's 5 young players who were recognised for their talents and abilities this year. I'll take that every day of the week.

If that is the case, then I'll be interested to see what the market is for him. If Port really do need to offload him as they need the cap space, then they might ship him off for a cut price deal to get him off their books if there isn't much interest in him early on. I'm not saying we should seriously look at getting him in, but if they get desperate then their view of getting a first round pick for him might not come to fruition.

I get what you're saying, but I still don't see him as an upgrade on Pedersen. He is taller which allows him to ruck better, but he hasn't show anything close to being an effective forward, something that Pedersen well and truly has him covered in. So, in many ways, I don't see any point in getting him to the club.

On some points, of course he was. But what did it have to do with Connolly commenting that Neale was stiff to miss out?

True. Things that might fly under the radar are getting plenty of air time this week, no doubt about it.

So Connolly questions the omission of Neale and Jakovich is allowed to crack the sads and get personal because of it? It's poor form from Jakovich. There was no need for him to say it.

I would. Poor man's Ben Kennedy. We have enough of these types of players, he doesn't fill a need for us at all.

The problem I see is that we need this forward/ruckman to be able to kick goals and take the pressure off Hogan and Watts. I don't necessarily think Clarke can do that. He has averaged less than half a goal a game, and he has certainly played up forward in most of those games as well. I just don't think he makes our side any better than what we have right now. I'd rather play Pedersen in this case.

I know he is a half decent ruckman/forward, but does he make our side better? I'm not sure he does.

Not necessarily a bad thing, though. We put many of our eggs in the 2015 basket and it means we might not be big players this year. I'm pretty happy with how the list is trending, and I think adding Hibberd and Melksham and seeing how we progress as a team from there is a pretty good way to approach it.

I spoke with Ben Kennedy today. He said he would be willing to have a crack in the ruck as he had a go there in the U/11s when everyone was the same size. Thought it was strange but then players don't have any reason to bend the truth with me. I've got a good relationship with them. I'll mention it in every thread. The discussion on Spencer is a moot point, really. He has another year and the author of that article clearly didn't know that. A forward/ruckman would be handy, but they don't just grow on trees. Well, not good ones anyway. Watts, however, is not the long term answer.

I believe Saty tries to do that at training, and the players pull the same face as the one Nibbler has. Nice prank, Liam.

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.

I don't really want to go down the rabbit hole that is Mark Neeld, but, while you make some decent points, you're overlooking plenty. In terms of man management, he was horrible. He totally mis-read the list and totally mis-read the situation he was in. It's true that our club as a whole was a mile behind, but instead of going slowly and trying to repair things in a calm and collected manner, he went in all guns blazing and put himself offside with many players. Sure, they should have toughened up, but if he went in looking to build relationships and THEN turning the screws instead of being stubborn and sticking to his ways, then things might have been different. You mention Hogan. Yep, he did bring him. Great move. He was also the mastermind behind taking Jimmy Toumpas, bringing in players like Tom Gillies, Shannan Byrnes and David Rodan, who gave us very little in terms of on field ability or off field experience, and he handed over a rather large deal for Dawes. He couldn't, or wouldn't, make the necessary changes to the development department and it meant that many players struggled at AFL level. He was also a terrible match day coach who was way, way, way out of his depth. I think it's easy to look back extremely harshly on Neeld, which I think is unfair, but let's not try and suggest anything other than the fact that his tenure was a large failure, and much of that lay at his feet. Oh, and I don't think he would have done much better at all with today's squad. We need to remember that he was part of a side that won 2 games for an entire year. He put us along way back (as did Schwab and CC off field as well).

It's spelt 'Jesse'. If you're going to have a dig at him, at least know how to spell his name.

There are some negative posters around here who like to be stuck in the past, but you take the cake big fella. You're making a real effort to fill any and every thread up with as much negativity as you can get your hands on. As dazzle said, the best thing we as a club can do is learn from the past and move forward. Sticking YouTube clips of Mark Neeld on this forum serves zero purpose.

I agree. Just because we're quiet doesn't mean that we don't have things going on behind the scenes. We all know how silly the Tigers were made to look last year, so I like the fact that we generally go about our business in a quiet and efficient manner. There is no need to bang on the drums in the media.

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.

I think that's where most of our inquiries will end during this trade period. Marchbank would more than likely be a terrific acquisition, but with plenty of other clubs feeling the same way and more picks or players up their sleeve, I doubt we'll get much of a look in.