Smokey

Yes that’s what the club should start doing - act like his dad and tell him he cant have a holiday after a hard years work because some people online are wondering if he’s going or staying

As opposed to notionally living in Perth

That actually doesn't make any sense whatsoever. My point is - saying things along the lines of "who cares if Tmac goes down and we don't have Hogan, we'll win the game out of the middle" is ludacris. Football is not that simple.

Yeah well they won the flag. If the game is won out of the midfeild, as you say, then why didn't we win the flag? We are the best out of the middle after all ..

Seinfeld predicted this thread many years ago

My bad, didn’t mean to upset the King Arthur style round table that’s going on in here. Serious hat back on.

You can call me Rex Hunt

A trusted inside source has told me something very interesting, but I can't share it nor can I share who the source is. I can confirm that information surrounding Jesse will be made available some time in between now and 2019. Trust me.

True. Still, I can't see the value of bending over backwards to keep a player who whilst has a big physical presence, has highly limited skills and (in my view) not much more upside than whats currently on offer. I'm not convinced he's the answer for next year's tilt. Bringing in players with good skills and decision making will I reckon. So if Vanders going will assist in netting us that somehow, I'll take it.

So much for the family reasons if he's talked in to staying via money

That's the thing though, we aren't simply considering to trade him - it appears he wants to for family reasons at this stage. That alone makes the entire discussion fairly moot. If Vanders' family comes before footy (which I am okay with), then that's that!

But we don’t really know if he would be able to sustain that form over the period of 22 games and that’s my point. He is still a fairly unproven commodity to me after years on the sidelines. I can see his potential value, he just ain’t in my best 22 (yet).

Yes but he also came into his handful of games against good teams with a completely fresh set of legs. The fact he was serviceable is to be expected of a player that's been in the system as long as he has. In fact I would have expected him to poll higher than he did based on that. If your looking at composite average stats, the fact he only played a handful of games and polled at 19 is quite a negative thing - it's much harder to keep your average stats up the more games you play after all. Don't let his story romance you too much - he ain't best 22 and I would be concerned if he was next year.

I was referring to where we had Tyson on a wing later in the season. Original post poorly worded.

Not that bizarre if you've been exposed to STMJ's posts for long enough

Some nice food for thought here. I'd back Fritsch to become this player, although he may be 2 pre-seasons away from that I reckon. Can certainly see it happening though. Hannan is a maybe for mine, personally haven't watched him closely enough to decide whether he could be this player. Other two won't happen I wouldn't have thought.

Which is almost ironic as global communication networks and mediums continue to increase I couldn't imagine throwing my toys out of the cot and wanting to go home to mummy if I were lucky drafted to a club away from my native Sydney and have a career as an AFL player. But then again, kids these days are getting softer and softer.

Based on your online persona you are probably the last person on earth I'd enjoy having a beer with but you are 100% right here. I'll be keen to see Salem play whatever Tyson's role was/is after he is replaced on HB by some incoming bodies during the trade period.

Given the recent track record of both teams football departments, I reckon we're better at identifying talent. If they say no and we say yes, that's more than enough for me.

Spot on. Well said

If GC FD doesn’t rate him and ours do, I know who I trust. This is the same list management that based an entire list off GAJ and has been a below average team it’s entire existence.

I find he is seriously over rated on here. Decent player, hard at it but questionable skills. No big loss whatsoever if he goes but happy for him to stay, I’m completely indifferent to it.

All this tax talk has me thinking. To any people here proficient in tax: Could a player set up a company, have their salary paid to the company - and then pay themselves a modest wage over a period of time to save on tax? In theory that person could buy assets under the company too, like houses and cars etc. Hello 30%?

Hardly worth thinking about for 2018 - we got to the prelim anyway, top 4 mostly irrelevant at that point.

I wouldn't be mad at that whatsoever. We aren't that much better off as a team with Hogan in. And he has some annoying traits that I would've expected to see him get on top of (stupid run up for set shots, whinging to umpires etc). May on the other hand will make us better immediately and may be a key for our shot at the flag next year. Fascinating stuff.