titan_uranus

Damn it. Why, oh why? Yeah, I'm worried too. Two stress fracture-like injuries in the same year. That screams danger to me. But hopefully I, with no medical knowledge at all, am completely off the mark and he'll be fine.

Forgot about that. Just goes to show how little this man actually knows. As someone's already said, he just makes a lot of statements and trumpets the ones he gets right, and everyone seems to forget when he gets one wrong. No. He's leaving. It's just a matter of how long it's going to take before chooses a club. But he won't be going back to Port, and they've acknowledged that.

I'll cry if it's true. If he's got serious foot problems he might never recover from them (did he injure the same bone as Egan? The navicular?).

History shows that you can win a premiership with any set up so long as you have a committed, diligent team. I notice you fail to list West Coast's 'two marking forwards' there. That's because they didn't have any.

Yes, we shouldn't be giving away our picks. Money I'm less worried about. And where is there better value?

The difference between this saga and the Judd saga in 2007 is the name of the player. He is stringing us along. He wants to go to Hawthorn, but he doesn't want Hawthorn to know that they're his choice. So he tells the world he has 3 options, and uses Essendon and Melbourne to drive Hawthorn's bid up as much as possible. People have said that the word out of Carlton is that Judd was always going to go to Carlton but did that whole nominating process just as a show. This is most likely the same thing. Agree. I think the Judd thing has made me immune to talk like this. Back then I was all excited that we'd get Judd. Every day I was waiting for news. Then when it was over I realised we were probably no chance at all, and I'd wasted my time. So now I can't be bothered even thinking about it. Hawthorn will offer pick 9 for Burgoyne, and Port will come to the realisation by the end of Trade Week that they're not going to get anything better and that pick 9 is a valuable pick in a draft like this.

Thompson by a mile and a half. A star midfielder.

Hawthorn can't afford to trade for every player they've been linked to (Sandilands, Gibson, Burgoyne, Lake, Seaby etc.). If I was Hawthorn I'd be more worried about getting a key defender than another midfielder. With Mitchell, Sewell, Rioli, Bateman, Lewis, Hodge in that team, mids aren't really what's needed. Having said that, Hawthorn have said they're prepared to trade pick 9. If they want him, they have the power to get him.

Beams is a star/will be a star. Really, really good player. You've done well to ensure he doesn't go to the Gold Coast. Disagree re: Dick. Over-rated IMO. Chips in with some goals and can provide a spark, but goes missing for long periods and doesn't get enough of the ball. Sidebottom was crap against St Kilda.

Rodney Eade on One Week at a Time refuted this. He said that the media's speculation of Lake's contract worth was wrong, and that Hawthorn's offer was not that much larger than Lake's current contract.

Well this is what I thought, but apparently not. It is definitely spelt Petterd, but I'm certain I heard him say that it's pronounced Pettard. Don't know why.

This is all true. What I meant was, at the time, I didn't think he was worthy of a new contract (no mention of length). Of course not, I was just saying that not everyone was happy to see him get his new contract. FWIW, if I was to back my judgement, I'd be no better than 50-50. I too thought Sylvia was gone. OK then, livid might have been a bit of an exaggeration... The point remains, I wasn't (and still am not) happy with Newton getting a new contract. He did nothing this year to make me think otherwise, and I don't expect him to do anything next year.

Everything was going fine until this. As it stands Rich and Hurley are streets in front of Sidebottom, who has now played a grand total of 1 competent games (yes, he was BOG, and he looked like a very good player). But I reckon he was very, very lucky to hold his spot after his non-performance against St Kilda. As for Watts, wait 5 years, then we'll see.

Massive congratulations to Clijsters for winning the US Open. Fantastic person, great tennis player. Can't think of a better person to beat both Williams sisters and go on and win. Also looking forward to Federer-Del Potro, which I get the feeling could be a little lop-sided. It's a pity Nadal couldn't make the final, even though he's injured. Federer-Nadal matches always provide great spectacles.

Yes but that trade you proposed gives Sydney Jones and pick 18 (I'm ignoring Newton because he has no currency) and gives us pick 6 and another pick. Sydney loses on all fronts. They'd never do that.

Yeah I think the general gist of the conversation was that the high quality players in this draft will match it with most years, but the middle to lower quality players won't. From that, people have decided that trades will be more likely as draft picks will be less needed. But look at it the other way: if the draft is weak, draft picks lose some currency, and become less valuable, meaning it becomes harder to get a trade happening. Maybe.

Disagree. I for one was livid when we gave him 2 years this time last year. Why would Sydney part with pick 6 to get a hack and a slow, stock midfielder and a worse pick? Newton is unproven and very likely to be a failure at AFL. Plus they've already got Jesse White, who'se a far brighter prospect than Newton is or ever was. Plus Sydney doesn't need another hard-nosed midfielder. And they lose pick 6, when they are crying out for quality youth.

Unless Walker really, really wants to leave Adelaide, Adelaide won't let him go. After last night's performance Burton's no certainty to play on next year, and Tippett refuses to commit to Adelaide beyond next year, which tells me he's still considering the Gold Coast (IMO he'll go). Adelaide would be foolish to let him go.

I'll give you a third parallel. This one isn't so good. 2007: Collingwood travel to Subiaco for a semi-final against West Coast (the reigning premier). The game goes into extra time. Both teams look dead. Collingwood win. They then have just 7 days to return to Melbourne and prepare for Geelong, who had had the week off. Geelong won by just 5 points, despite having the (purportedly) fresher legs and better team. Note that they won their QF by 100 and the GF by 100. Yes, Geelong still won it. But it just goes to show that teams can't be written off at this stage of the year. Geelong is not a good Prelim performer. Their past 2 have been less than convincing. They also don't play as well against Collingwood than most other teams. I'm sickeningly worried about this.

Back to the point of this thread: Tyson Stenglein has retired: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tab...26/default.aspx

That's just wishful thinking on their behalf, I would have thought. But at least he knows he'll have somewhere to go when he is eventually delisted.

Allow me to futher split hairs: http://www.geelongcats.com.au/geelongnews/...07/default.aspx Neil Balme: "Both the club and Matt are committed to do everything we can to get him back playing in the AFL, but that will not be next year." Egan: "My longer term goal is still to get back and play at AFL level, but I understand that is a long term process. I haven’t given up on that and will do everything within my power to comeback. But that will not happen quickly enough to be able to play next year." So I reckon he's been officially delisted. PS: I'm bored.

That's an important point, I think. People are saying that he'll be 30+ when we're challenging for a premiership. Well that would be assessing our list right now. If we had (a fit) Burgoyne on that list, maybe we'll be challenging a year or two earlier. Yes, but O'Keefe knew that if he went for the PSD, he'd be at Melbourne. He didn't want that, so he stuck with Sydney. But if Burgoyne is OK with playing for us, then he won't be so against the PSD. And why can't we pay him top dollar? That's what I thought would happen. Hawthorn have exactly the same 'link' to Port Adelaide as we do. They're a much better chance of making finals/winning a flag in the immediate future as well. And Port would be able to negotiate a trade with them, since they've already stated pick 9 is on the table.

I don't think it's necessary. All you have to do at the moment is scroll to the bottom of the page and choose the Drafting and Trading thread from the drop-down menu. That's not that annoying.

Giving Bartram a start over Moloney is a bit rich. Moloney's coming off a great year, will do well in the B&F. Bartram, on the other hand, is no certainty to even be on our list next year.