Dee Boys

God this is overly simplistic rubbish. When you win a premiership a couple of things happen. 1) You need to reward these premiership players. Stands to reason that they’ve had great seasons and deserve to be paid well for it. This then takes up a good chunk of your salary cap. We’ve got some of the best players in the club’s history playing for us at the moment. They want, and deserve, to be paid as such. 2) Other teams come calling for your fringe players. This happens with every successful team. Look at the players Richmond and Hawthorn had to let go during their eras of success. We’re not alone in not being able to match the offers from less successful clubs while in win flag mode. Because of point 1, there’s not a heap of money left to attract A grade talent from other clubs. All you can do is hope to replace your backups with equally good backups. But you’re trying to do this while only being able to offer minimum wage. I’m not saying Tim Lamb is above criticism but expecting us to be able to have a list of 40+ excellent league footballers - 20 of which are happy to play VFL - while keeping all their salaries under the salary cap, is incredibly naive.

Agree wholeheartedly with your first paragraph, but disagree wholeheartedly on your second. Not only are Freo the best contested possession and clearance team in the competition this season, their differential for both stats is the best the AFL has ever seen since they began to be recorded. Good luck "beating up" Sean Darcy, Nat Fyfe, Hayden Young and Andy Brayshaw around the ball. Serong's the only midget, but he's a tough little bugger too.

We got two firsts and a second for Jackson.

Cal and Riley on Gettable think two first rounders would be a fair price. He's a gun but not sure giving up that much for a soon to be 28 year old would be great business.

Nah he's better than just a good player. He'd be in the top couple of HBF's in the comp. A lot of Port supporters are saying he's their best player, which is high praise considering they've got the likes of Butters and Rozee.

Had a glance at the bigfooty Port forum and they're beside themselves at the prospect of losing Houston. Throwing up all sorts of outlandish trade demands and that "we'd want more than just a straight swap with Pickett". Which, while being insane, goes to show how highly they rate him.

Why? Every year a number of under-18 AA's don't even get drafted, let alone go in the top 30. Also South Australia have a pretty weak group this year and only won one game in the carnival.

Maybe go back and read my post again.

Gun. You’d happily give up a 2025 or 2026 first rounder for him especially with us having F/S and academy players coming through in those years.

Out of contract at the end of next season. Hopefully can lock him down to a new long-term deal ASAP.

Any more info on Ah-Mu from those in the know would be appreciated. Sounds exciting and the exact type of player we’re in need of…

Enjoyed Kolt’s game today. And also enjoyed, for those who weren’t at the ground to hear it, him proclaiming in an interview with Robbo at the end that he’s “loving the city and the club and won’t ever go anywhere”.

From Oakleigh Chargers talent manager Alex Davey:

I don’t think Andy’s indigenous mate.

Yes it does and yes it is.

Was going to head along but training website was showing this…

It’s purely Kalani’s choice. One doesn’t outrank the other.

Shifter Sheehan has him in contention for next year’s pick 1 in today’s Herald Sun. “Kalani White is a player who could quickly spike, with the 198cm tall already having shown great signs at both ends of the ground. White is a father-son prospect for Melbourne next year — where his father Jeff played 236 AFL games — but is also a member of the Gold Coast Suns Academy given the family is now living in Queensland.” “A tall defender, White also showed that he can go forward in the under-16 championships last year and excited with his athleticism and outstanding overhead marking. He has a supernatural leap and the size to win the contest or bring the ball to ground to the benefit of his team. During the under-16 championships last year he was rarely beaten one-on-one and averaged 7.3 disposals and 2.3 marks playing predominately deep in defence to win All-Australian honours. He has taken another step at under-18 level with the Suns, looking composed with his ball use and decision making down back and averaging 10 disposals and five marks from his first six matches. He is the son of former No.1 draft pick and Melbourne ruckman Jeff White, making him eligible both as a father-son for the Demons and as an Academy player for the Suns in 2025”.

From memory 2018 was a gritty late season win that sealed our spot in the finals. Dean Kent with the sealer.

I like the cut of McAdam's jib. If he can keep himself fit he'll add some much-needed spark up forward for the rest of the season.

Who is "Dirk"?

McGovern out this week Sir Swish

Sounds like a much closer race for his services than it was a couple of years ago. Kalani's always been a Melbourne supporter but the lure of staying at home and playing with the mates he's come through the Suns with would be really strong. Good to hear Jeff say the Dees have been fantastic with Kalani and the family though, sounds like we're doing all we can.

The "they" in the first tweet is Adelaide.

Huh? He's a free agent when his contract expires in 2025. He came out of the 2017 draft.