Matsuo Basho

It’s over. You don’t make a public statement like that and keep a seat at the negotiation table. Freo have acted reprehensibly here. Tapped our player up, destabilised him and got his hopes up, then offered a ridiculous insulting lowball offer to his host club. FFS they have been after him for four years. Bell thinks he can get him on the cheap next year. That’s what’s happened here. Little pric.k.

Bottom four for Freo. Fyfe going to be rapt to be kicking the Sherrin to that no-name hack forward line again. What a joke of a club.

Did not expect that. Amateur hour from Peter Bell. They obviously think they’ll get him next year on the cheap.

Club supporters overrate their own players and undervalue those from other clubs. GWS will demand a first round pick for Lobb. 10 - 16 range.

Correct.

There are other permutations no doubt but it’s pretty clear what Bell is trying to do. Come back to this page next week on Wednesday and I’m confident I’ll have been right. Whether anyone will bother sifting back through 45 pages of our waffle is another matter!

Not yet but you can bet your grandma’s antique collection they will!

It’s coming down to this: 1. Accept pick 5 & 23 from Freo for Hogan 2. Hold out for 5 & 11 and walk away if not met. What will the club do? What should the club do? Going to go down to the wire folks. Real line ball call given all the circumstances. Wednesday it’s Mahoney v Bell with guns drawn outside the OK Corral.

Not necessarily. Hogan can nominate Freo and threaten to walk to the PSD. Does the MFC really want THAT bunfight? I don’t think so.

He comes in for specific ruck match ups against certain clubs ... and to prolong Max’s career. Looking forward to those games where Preussy starts in the centre square and opposition defenders shite themselves as Big Max struts down to the goalsquare!

Like it Trigon. In a fair and equitable world those sums make sense. But do we live in a fair and equitable world?

“Marcel” Preuss

Thanks for your efforts Dom. All the best at North.

Yeah I’m not sure that we do really want to keep Hogan on the list. Gut feel but I reckon the club is over the distraction of this bloke not fully committing to the MFC and would prefer to bite the bullet and accept slight unders than have this circus go in for another year. We get May in, recruit a promising kid with pick 23 and move on with with clear air. I could see why the MFC might choose this option. I’m also on record as stating that I don’t think Jesse will become the star others peg him as. So I won’t be that disappointed personally.

5 does not get Adelaide Lukosius or Rankine. Doubt they’d do it.

Perhaps this is why Bell is holding out for more from Brisbane for Neale. He thinks he can get Lobb and Hogan in AND hold on to pick 11. That would be a huge win for them.

Jesse wants to return home to WA. Rumours of “another club” are very flimsy at this stage. He is worth close to it. Pick 23 would not get Lobb done for them.

There is method to Bell’s seeming madness. His endgame as drdrake mentioned a few posts back us to get both Hogan and Lobb in the door. Freo have close to the worst forward set up in the competition at present and these two coming in will get the Freo fans very excited. This is the real “feather in cap” Bell wants to exit trade week with, not Lachie Neale. The tough talk about keeping Neale is just bluster. The lowball pick 11 and 23 offer for Hogan may have seemed pointless but the tactic there is to frustrate Melbourne and also waste our time, with the aim of softening us up to accept pick 5 & 23 at the death in the final day of trade week. Bell knows we would MUCH prefer picks 5 & 11 for Hogan but he needs to retain pick 11 to secure Lobb from GWS. So he is banking on us growing impatient, getting worried by Wednesday that the whole thing is going to fall through, and just signing off on the 5 & 23 deal. As soon as the Neale domino falls Mahoney is going to be faced with a reasonably hard call to make. Accept 5 & 23 for Hogan or reject it and make Jesse play out the final year of his contract. Not sure what I would do personally, it’s a tough one. Bell is banking on us tiring of the whole Hogan saga and just being happy to move on, get our man May in with pick 5 going out to Gold Coast, and sucking up the fact that we’ve received unders for a forward we - to be honest - haven’t made a huge effort to retain. Pugnacious, annoying little [censored] Peter Bell. But he’s no dill. On the other hand we could completely ruin his life by holding on to Hogan and giving Simmo a call over at the Eagles about a deal for Jesse next year! But would that be in our interests? They will probably have a lot less to offer us than pick 5 & 23. I think Freo might have us snookered here.

No, waste of a list and rookie spot. Rather give a promising under 23yo ruck/forward a go. Plus you mentioned Chris Connolly. Yuck.

If he ended up at a non-WA club it’d virtually be proof we pushed him out the door.

Could be AF. Could be anything. All we need to do is stick fat to our evaluation of Hogan and sit tight. I’m not buying for a second that they’ve ‘cooled’. We’re talking about a side that finished 14th who’s coach is under pressure. They will cave.

Could just as easily be Melbourne throwing out misinformation to media dupes just the way Fremantle appear to have been doing. And why not. There is A LOT of bulltish flying around at the moment with newshounds desperate to go to print with footy news, however half-baked or frankly made up.

Hear, hear! Peter Bell strutting around like Napoleon playing to the peanut gallery in Perth. Goodonya little fella. Pfft! All posturing aside Freo’s endgame here is to get us to agree to 5 & 23 for Hogan. They then trade 11 for Lobb and get the two big men they’re after in the door. Our likely final asking price is 5 & 11, which gets them Hogan but risks them missing out on Lobb. So you can see their bind. In any case, if they don’t [censored] Neale off to Brisbane Hogan will remain a Demon. That much we can be sure of. Hogan goes nowhere unless pick 5 is transferred to us. I still have a feeling next year’s first round picks may come into play in the final wash up. Fun and games folks. Don’t get sucked in by the ‘mean and nasty’ of it. It’s just business.

Correct. Bell’s aim with lowball offer is to soften us up to accept pick 5 & 23. They knew we’d reject 11 & 23 outright and stomp our feet angrily. People need to look past emotion and see coldly what Freo are trying to do. Our move on the chessboard now must be to hit back twice as hard. Say the deal’s off and Jesse will now honour his contract with the MFC. Bully them back. Watch them cave and come crawling back to us.