Wiseblood

The only positive is that, if they're still really keen on our pick, that it might force them to give up a better player than first thought. No idea who that might be, but we might be able to pry someone of quality out of their list than just getting someone like Bonar.

If we got back Pick 13 then I'd be all for it. Pick 2 on it's own... not sure. But I'm hoping that we are looking at a plethora of deals for Pick 2. I have no doubt there will be numerous teams outside of GWS who will be knocking on our door about it.

At the moment it seems that if Wayne Carey was in his prime and wanting to join Melbourne that most of the board would go into meltdown about paying him 800k a year.

No worries LH. I was being a bit facetious with that line as, of course, it wasn't all their fault. But they were recruited to push North into finals contention and it didn't happen. As a side note, I wouldn't say no to having Polec on a wing.

ANB would be worth absolutely nothing to them, and you're also asking for them to give us a third rounder to go with trading their co-captain. Fanciful thinking.

Just because we didn't submit an offer, Damien, does not mean we didn't ask the question. We may have rung, got told of either their lack of interest, or what the terms would be, and went from there.

Polec and Pittard were ripping recruits. Got their coach sacked.

Especially when we've been very good at how we manage the cap over the last 4-5 years. Tomlinson on 500k is about right to me.

I look at it like this: If the top players, and more of them, are pushing into that million a year range, then paying Tomlinson half that indicates that he is half the player they are. I think that's pretty much spot on to me.

That sounds more like it. If he is on that, then it's half what the gun players are paid and is therefore probably market value for what he brings to the side.

Why are we talking 600k a year? Has that been reported somewhere, or something thrown out there by a poster here that has gained legs?

You'll be saying that a lot over the off season. There will be puff pieces galore.

Also, this gif sums up all the negative nellies when the season went pear shaped:

The first reaction was me after we kicked the first four against Port. The second part explains itself.

Good post, AF. What do you think of someone like Petty stepping into that third tall role down back? I know we played him forward in the second half of the season but I still see him as a potential long term option down back.

He got injured towards the end of the season and wasn't the same player. I have no problem signing Wagner on for another year. He is on the rookie list after all, so it may just be that he has kept his spot on there for 2020, rather than being upgraded. He showed he could be a depth player so this doesn't hurt us at all in the grand scheme of things.

Great post, Bob. Hits the nail on the head for me. And as you've also added, I also don't really believe he will come to us as I think he simply loves playing for the Pies too much to come over. Seems very loyal to them from what I can gather.

Apart from Hibberd, all of the above are midfielders (Salem does play up the ground a bit). Of course their turnover numbers, through kicking the ball quickly out of packs and so forth, will be higher. That's just the nature of the beast. A quick handpass that misses the target can be a turnover, even if they don't do much with it. The problem Frosty has is that he will win the ball, use his pace... and then turn it over. The bloke is out of position and the ball goes back over his head. If he hit more targets than he missed then he would be one of the better backs in the competition. The numbers, however, suggest he is too turnover prone for his own good. You just can't have that for someone who plays in defence and doesn't see a whole lot of the ball. I'm in the 'not sure' camp as to how I feel about Frost leaving, but comparing his turnover numbers to mainly midfielders doesn't do a whole lot for your argument.

Firstly, that is a horrible deal. Secondly, we don't have to give the Pies anything. We can sign him for nothing.

Or he doesn't want to leave at all. The Pies have a dilemma though - do they up their offer to keep him, or do they keep that money to help them re-sign Grundy to a long term deal next year? It's also interesting to see the numbers being floated about in this thread in regards to what we are offering him. The Age article merely suggests that our offer would exceed what the Pies were offering him, but we have no idea what that is. Pies might not be offering him much with their salary cap constraints, and therefore our offer might not need to be too much bigger to lure him across.

It also might mean we can release Petracca to play further up the ground more often as well.

I think it's a good move from the club, but I think he would be hard to pry out of Collingwood. Unless their offer to him is poor, or they decide they can't afford him, I'd be surprised if he made the switch. If he does decide to play for us then I think he would be a great addition to the side.

To put that in context, here are the opening few lines. JAKE Lever, Steven May, Michael Hibberd, Neville Jetta – the names go on. This could’ve been Melbourne’s backline in 2019, but it never really got going I think the gist of the article is mentioning the players that had injuries throughout the year and, thus, weren't able to play together. It would explain why Frost isn't mentioned as he played all season. Lever does mention the above three but, again, makes reference to the fact he hasn't played much with them due to injury.

And then Ross Lyon to the Crows?

I reckon there will be plenty of speculation about it, but I doubt he makes the switch. Having said that, would it surprise any of us if he made the move, knowing how strong his ties are to the Crows? Probably not.