Demons1858

The danger in being consistently pragmatic and making guarantees to players, is that clubs know you will give in somewhat and therefore negotiate with you on that basis. With the Lever trade and other lesser trades, clubs now know our trading philosophy I'm not sure longer term if it won't hurt us

Agree for the most part. Preuss is really the one we need given the season can fall apart pretty quickly if Max goes down. Others would be great. Problem with all the interconnected trades though is that they involve contracted players and clubs can hold on to Neale, Hogan and May. Deals typically get done in the end though and we still have a number of days to go. The fact Freo have traded picks suggested they are getting ready for a Hogan deal and MFC must have given them some clear guidelines. Until then, don't expect May and Hogan to declare their hand either as they won't want to have egg on their faces. I will know Hogan is gone to Freo when the MFC roll out their 'Hogan to Freo' PR campaign to manage supporter angst

Bit harsh

Agree, no one will want him. Perhaps that is part of the Freo plan to wake him up and realise he only has 1 more year to make a change.

Can't blame him for being attracted to job security. What VFL player knocks back a 4 year deal? MFC would have sold the fact that Hogan will likely to be going and he has the chance to prove himself as our 3rd tall (note that Goodwin gave Spencer every chance to combine with Gawn previously). At worst, he will play games where teams have strong dual rucks combo's or when Gawn is injured. Going to 6:6:6 next year means the ball will be in the air so he would back himself to get a game. Re Jessie, don't expect any news on that for some time. He is obviously wanting to go, but why would he make a fool of himself and nominated Freo only to find out shortly after that the Freo and Bris negotiations fall through and the draft picks Freo need from Neale deal are no longer available and return to MFC with his tail between his legs. Likewise May holding off on a decision

The intensity of afl players around stoppages has increased significantly in recent years and he lacks in his area, is a poor kick, gets caught hold the ball looking for the best option, and has poor defensive attributes. True that he is the next best if we have an injury to a mid but he would be one of the better paid BACKUP mids in the comp. From a money ball perspective his backup mid role can be replaced and cap space utilised elsewhere

Two wrongs don't make a right. Bontempelli was there for the taking also

Seems we lost the salem/tyson vs kelly trade its safe to say. No disrespect to either player just reality

His big tough rig seems to get injured alot, so no for me

Our strong finish to the season seemed to coincide with his return. Pretty eager to keep him as is the footy department but he is gone

Absolutely correct. We did pay overs for Lever who was uncontracted. Hogan is contacted so 2 first rounders would be required. Happy for us to throw a 2nd or 3rd round pick back at Freo to get the deal done

Seems alot to pay for a bloke with concussion issues that are now miraculously fixed but yet GC still dont seem to want to fight to keep him and has been inconsistent. My biggest concern however is how do l pronounce / yell his name on match day! Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue

Buggs cards are marked. Is colyer contracted next year? If not, we would get him pretty cheaply and l assume (like melk and hibbo) that Goodwin can get the best out of him

You know your a destination club when A and B grade free agents nominate you as their preferred club e.g. Geelong and Hawthorn. Also helps to be a large club with resources and big crowds to play in front of e.g. Collingwood, Essendon.

Frost easily the first out without a second thought but Mahoney implied recently that they would be around if May was signed

North offer (being the largest financially amongst other clubs) would have been used to drum up a better offer at his preferred club being west coast. Doubt he was ever leaving. Manager declaring it s between north and west coast was purely strategic in my view. Can polec pull out still?

kick mark game plan not the answer for everyone unless you have marking options like darling, kennedy, mcgovern, barass, natanui etc. collingwood lost because their mids got outplayed badly on the day and they don't have key backs. as for the mfc they didn't turn up to play the other week. we need another tall as a backup more so if gawn goes down

have we really given this bloke his own thread?

clearly hoges is meeting clubs, but if he doesn't request a trade expect his contract to be extended so we dont lose him as a free agent

agree but 1 or 2 should have showed something if we were getting it right. we aren't and in the circumstance we should just go to the draft going forward

kade is clearly flawed if he can't get a game at gc and they want to move him on

yet, we have been poor with recycler players or pro scouting i.e. balic, mckenna, bugg, ben kennedy, aiden riley, and many more from the neeld era which l won't go into

yes that was discussed in a prior post

Very true

Not true. Gaff and Lycett are moving on so they have heaps of cap space. West coast expressed interest in him last time rumours were around, even with Darling and Kennedy on their books. With Kennedy 32 next year and injury prone, they need another forward and I'm sure they would love to have the 3 of them running around next season