Matsuo Basho

Forget the West Coast prelim. We were emotionally out of petrol tickets before the ball had been bounced. Look more at the Grand Final, where you’ve got two quality midfields on their game going at full click. The difference at the end of the day was Kennedy was too big and too good on a few critical occasions for the Pie defenders. Darling too won a few brute strength one on ones that we’re telling. Result? The Eagles return home with a fourth Cup for their trophy cabinet. 5 point victors. Lever will be a welcome return to the side (let’s hope his knee stands up after a SECOND reco) but he is not a gorilla minder in the manner Steve May is. Sorry but I’m not willing to trust Oscar and Frost as a pairing on the off hunch that both are going to become AA quality key defenders over the preseason. I don’t just want to make the Big Dance like we’ve done in the past ... I want to win the damned thing. Thankfully it appears our FD are thinking the same thing. The fact that Collingwood and Hawthorn are also chasing May should tell you something. At the top end winning and losing a flag is a game of slender margins. Go into a Grand Final with a shaky back six at your peril.

How can you be optimistic about a defence that finished bottom 4-6 in key defensive statistical categories? Because you’re ‘confident’ Oscar and Frost will magically morph into Barrass and McGovern over the off-season? Seems all you’ve got is a pretty flimsy gut feel and that’s about it.

Agree that media opinions are irrelevant but in truth everything’s negotiable. This is business!

Bluff. Bluff. Bluff. How do you play hardball when you just finished 14th on the ladder and are trying to poach a contracted key forward from the club that finished 4th? That math don’t work!

Let’s hope Freo aren’t engaging in hy-pathetic-als.

Hardball. ?

It doesn’t. That’s why we’re pursuing May with vigor. Our back six as it currently stands is not good enough to win a premiership. Frost is back up quality only, Oscar still developing, Lever a star but has now had two knee recos. We got picked apart by Kennedy and Darling (and a number of other key forward set ups in 2018) and will again if we don’t strengthen the defence.

Thanks. What these analyses fail to acknowledge is the intangible of the level of desperation on the part of the buyer. It’s a bull market as far as we’re concerned for Hogan.

Thanks DC. Which journo wrote it?

The bottleneck as someone said earlier is the Neale trade to Brisbane. There will be no movement on Hogan until that trade is clarified.

Peter Bell on trade radio now. ”A lot of complicating factors” regarding Jesse Hogan coming to Fremantle. “No more to comment”. Will you accept pick 4 for Lachie Neale? “No comment”.

They want to pay one early first rounder. Our asking price is two. Let the games begin. The laughable four hour ‘tour of the facilities’ was a deliberate ploy by Freo to make Melbourne feel utterly resigned to losing Jesse. Everything they’re doing in fact is designed to press us down on price. Josh M. just needs to go in there, shake hands and say “picks 4 & 5 or we sell him to West Coast next year, cheers boys.” Then head out for a coffee with Goody and relax. Don’t flinch, don’t blink.

LOL. Methinks someone from the Purple Haze has been feeding a media troll in preparation for a lowball offer! Sit tight folks, this one’s going to drag out for a bit. Patience.

Mahoney did say “we’d want the highest ever value in trade for Hogan” or words to that effect, did he not? That’s actually saying quite a lot. Read between the lines and you’ll see a whole game of one upmanship being played out here before the two clubs even shake hands over the trade table.

Of course that’s the public line.

I would. Especially if I was Ross Lyon and staring down another season with Taberner, McCarthy and whichever other no-name hack he’s been running with in that forward line the past few seasons. They are under serious threat of a bottom four finish Freo, which would likely cost the coach his job. They are DESPERATE. Nowhere have I ever stated that Hogan is no good. He’s a talented young key forward with potential, however he does have his flaws. People on here talk like he’s guaranteed to be a multiple All-Australian , multiple Coleman Medal winning champion of the sport in years to come. He is being talked about like he’s the next Buddy Franklin. It’s bulltish. Living in Dee-nial land. At 23yo Buddy was winning a flag, kicking a ton and routinely wheeling away from 60m out and thumping sausage rolls through at post height. Jesse Hogan has achieved nothing in footy yet except winning a Rising Star award and showing plenty of promise, as well as exhibited some worrying defects. A clear eyed view show that’s all he’s done. Freo will pay up the extra top tenner for him because they have no bloody choice.

Yet despite that stellar portrait you paint of him here we are none-so-gently nudging him out the door, or at least not discouraging him from ‘pursuing options’. I wonder why ...

Not sure who DrD is but he seems a bit of an extremist. We find ourselves in a sort of agreement on this one bit think of it more as an alliance by default. Like say Rush Limbaugh to John McCain.

He’s a promising young key forward who has yet to hit his straps. The potential is there (see that word ‘potrntual’) but there are no guarantees in life. There are enough flaws to argue that it’s not a sure thing with Hogan. He is no Winx. In my view his real value is around pick 5 and maybe an early second round sweetener. But because Freo are desperate we have a rare opportunity to drive a hard bargain. They need him more than we need to let him go. Therefore, pick 5 and pick 10 or thereabouts seems about right.

No other way to spin that than hugely embarrassing for North. I think Brad Scott has got a log to do with it. One of the last coaches you’d want to play under.

Agree to disagree. Fair enough. I wonder if the answer lies somewhere to the middle of our two views. Probably. 75% towards mine, 25% to yours. ?

Jeez you had to dig that far back to 2017 to come up with two solitary games where he kicked an earth shattering 3 goals? Thanks for underlining my ‘self-serving’ point, ProDee. Amazing that even you with your usually clear critical judgment refuse to acknowledge this player’s flaws. You even agreed earlier in the thread that it appeared the club is pushing him out the door!

If you asked any of the potential draftees privately I would bet 99% would say they prefer not to be drafted by the Suns. Who would? They are a basket case at present. But the Suns can’t afford to make decisions based on that sentiment. If they have any hope of resurrecting themselves as an AFL club they must take the best available talent and back themselves in to retain them. Otherwise they may as well shut up shop today. The AFL have sent their top administrator up there (Evans) and he will be doing just that.

You give me the tip, I’ll give you the facts. - Hogan did not finish top ten in his own club B&F. - Hogan played poorly in virtually every big game he took the field in in 2018. 9 goals in 8 games against the top 10 clubs. Coulda, shoulda, woulda ... didn’t.

Posters on here talk about Josh Kelly as though if North don’t get him he’s as good as coming to Melbourne. In reality we’d just be one of about ten suitors throwing cash at him. It’s a long shot.