Neil Crompton

That's 9 posts on this topic now Beelzebub and while i respect your right to your opinion, i'm sorry but you will never convince me, no matter how many more you post. Jessie has to stay - for the good of the club - in my humble opinion

IMHO there is so much wrong with the proposal to "sell Jessie". Why would you discard a player who opposition coaches think so highly of they always double team against him? And that's despite the fact that we crucify Jessie every time we bomb it in long. He is not a pack mark but he is fast and if we lowered our eyes and learnt to hit our targets he'd get more confidence in leading. Buddy is not a pack mark either - in fact he would have dropped more marks than Clarry has had handballs - but the swans are always lowering their eyes to his leads. Why would you throw away an established key forward who is your leading goal kicker, and near top goal assist player, for a first round pick that may or may not pay off a couple of years down the track? Does not make any sense. We are now on the threshold of becoming a great team (for many years i believe) and that is being built around the young talent we have, so why would you break up that talent? Jessie was the first of this young group and the key man around who we built our talent pool. The team culture we have built to date with this lot would be destroyed if we were to sell Jessie. Weiderman may or may not become a good player. Jessie is a very good player now. Do we need another mid so badly that we'd take this risk? I don't think so! Our mids are good and will only get better, as will Jessie as we mature as a team and feed him properly. Sell Jessie? FFS give me a break!

To me, umpires are just like players - some are better than others and they all have good games and bad games. I have no problem criticising an ump for a bad decision, just as we criticise our players for making mistakes. But to suggest that umps are cheats, or that they rig matches is, in my opinion, a joke, surely.

my apologies. getting wet for nothing

What are the odds of this happening this coming round: - magpies lose - swans draw with hawks - we beat giants Then we finish 3rd and play west coast again!

Do we need to discuss possible changes just yet? Cant we just enjoy this great moment for a day or two first?

ha ha never in doubt!

Saty, if that were true then it would be hypocrisy. Please show us an example of where a particular poster has been hypocritical to back your "amusing" claim. Your opinion is as important as anyone else on here - just hope its factual.

Like Jaded, i’m not feeling the usual pre-match anxiety that normally follows the Thursday chat. I think deep down I have almost accepted that we have blown it for this year, so the expectation for the last 2 games is not so high. If we do the improbable then I will be over the moon. I may well feel different on game day, but I almost prefer this current state of mind. It’s so much easier on the old ticker. On reflection we are certainly a better side than last year. While extremely disappointed we have stumbled this year, the fact that we have, simply shows we are not yet ready for the big dance. We’ve effectively had 5 years of progressive improvement. No one should be disappointed in that. Maybe the rebuild has not been as quick as some would have liked, but while we are not yet the real deal, I don’t think we are too far from it. In this age of instant gratification, having patience is not an easy emotion to embrace. As someone who sat on the wing and watched as our back pocket player snapped the winning goal in the 64 grand final, I know what having patience means. But in all those intervening years I have never felt more confident in a playing group as I am in this one. So i’ll enjoy the rest of this year, whatever the results of the next 2 games, while knowing that next year, 2019, will be ours. Go Dees.

DV8, there is no way i'd trade Hogan to get better midfielders! That's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And i never once said we are not good enough through our midfield! I said our disposal - from all parts of the ground - is poor, causing Hogan to have little confidence in leading.

I think its our delivery that's the problem, whether be mids, forwards or backs. Hogan appears to have no confidence in that delivery, so he hesitates. Put Hogan at the Tigers, West Coast, the Cats or Giants - teams that can hit a target - and he'd be a superstar.

If we had mids and half forwards that could actually hit a target when they kicked, Jessie would have confidence in leading, would kick 60-80 goals a year and be an absolute superstar. Spend our time improving the delivery of the likes of Jones, Tyson, Petracca, Brayshaw, Spargo, ANB, Viney et al, and our game plan would work, our forward line, and Hogan in particular, would be almost unbeatable, and all this ridiculous chat about trading Hogan would disappear.

This would have been a great first half if we'd kicked straight. The sky id not falling yet.

Can't wait for the game to begin. Might give us a break from this. You two should get a private room.

Interesting quote from Leigh Mathews some years ago: “When I look back I was a young, driven, selfish, egotistical, brutal, callous - call it all of those words - footballer," he says. "As a 61-year-old middle-aged grandfather now, I kind of think 'Jeez, that was a nasty piece of work'." For once I couldn’t agree more with Mathews - although somewhat understated I believe.

Under the present system, it would appear that players who have reached the final year of their contract, can have a new contract offered to them at any time during that final year. This is beneficial to the Club, because an early signing provides more certainty in the planning going forward. But is it putting too much pressure on the player? If he doesn't sign in due course, or if he states that he wants to delay talks till the end of the season, he becomes the target of extensive media, public and peer speculation and often pressure. The better the player, the more the pressure. Think of the media and public frenzy surrounding the Dangerfield or the Martin or even the Hogan decision to delay contract talks. Look at the peer pressure and resentment we know was placed on Lever, and appears to have been placed on Lynch, or the rumored pressure surrounding Gaff's current indecision - and the possible impact it's had on him. The pressure is there whether they sign or not. Therefore, is there a better system that would not place players under so much pressure during the season proper - particularly in terms of team moral and performance? Even acknowledging that contract talks can take some time to negotiate, would a set period at the end of the season for all contract renewals to be offered and accepted / rejected be a fairer way? Interested in your thoughts.

A lot has been written on this post about what a nice guy Gaff is, how uncharacteristic his attack on Brayshaw was, and how upset he currently is about his actions - almost to the extent that the authors are looking for reasons, in their own minds, to excuse his actions. I use the word “excuse” because those characteristics certainly don’t explain his actions. But they do offer a good number of Demon supporters some justification for still wanting Gaff to join the Dees. But why did he do it? He didn’t try to chop an arm that may have been hindering him or use a “don’t argue” to gain some distance - the methods most players use to escape. He deliberately chose to use a forceful closed fist punch to break away. In terms of intent, where he hit Brayshaw is irrelevant, he chose to punch him. The pressure of the game situation couldn’t have caused this - WCE’s were winning comfortably, Gaff was playing very well and their top 2 position was not being threatened. The only explanation offered, because of his good character, is “brain fade”. A layman’s definition of brain fade could be an unconscious act or desire escaping the prison of the brain unfiltered. Minor brain fades occur all the time - he kicked when he should of handballed, or went for the mark when he should have punched. Players are skilled in what to do and what not to do every single week of their playing careers, it’s ingrained, and because of this, of all the thousands of players who have played AFL/VFL football, there have only been, fortunately, very few who have had brain fades of this magnitude - Bugg, Hall, Mathews to name some more recent players that come to mind. In fact a player of 170+ games, who knows how important he is to his teams success come September, would know internally that you don’t make stupid decisions that will jeopardise your teams chances. Yet he did. Is he likely to do it again? Probably not, but who knows? Hall and Mathews certainly did. Bugg hasn’t to date. And quite apart from his impact on Brayshaw, his actions have certainly affected his team. And that to me is a huge issue. We appear to have a wonderful group of current players and coaches who are developing our own unique team culture, and for me Gaff, post incident, and as good a player as he is, has shown that he could be a risk to that culture. So for all of that, and I know I am in the minority here, I would prefer if we didn’t chase Gaff.

I think the title of this topic “Go and get Gaff”, may have just taken on a whole new meaning since the events of the weekend.

Brain fade maybe, but a cowardly dog act just the same. If he was on our “wanted” list, he should be wiped off now. End of story.

OD it was my spelling. I said resign, but meant he will re sign with the eagles. So we agree

Each team would be a player down from their 22. But on field it would be 18 vs 17.

I think now that Gaff will resign with WC. He will feel he has let them down by his actions and will have to make amends.

Jones, Hogan, Jetta and Petracca. Not one tackle between them to half time.

Disagree. There is one team that worries me. Melbourne.

I think that would be doing Hunt a great disservice. We all want him in our side, but bringing him straight back after 4 weeks off, and after average form in the 2’s is setting him up to fail.