rpfc

My experience is the opposite - the better your team becomes the easier you can 'hide' a leader with a declining game or body. Lewis will decline but I don't think it will be rapid and it will be evened out with the continued ascension of those around him like Oliver, Petracca, Hunt, et al. And intangibles are hard to quantify, I agree, but I can quantify his leadership because his captains mention it, his coach mentions it, and his direction on the field is plain to see and hear.

This group needs a coach on the ground. That is my analysis with my coaches hat on and you are welcome to disagree but I am big believer in the intangibles of a player like Lewis.

Yeah, that's the question I begged in the last post... You don't draft talls and turf them after two years... unless you made a Prenderghastly decision with the pick...

Hulett should be afforded time surely? You don't draft talls and turf them after two years.

Bump. Finally showed up... Welcome.

Not even. Different drafts.

Brayshaw has the potential to be an A grade mid - they don't grow on trees. i hate it when people say - 'we can find a mid anywhere'... You won't stumble across a rolls Royce often and mids win flags.

Double bump. You know you have been here a long time when you can do that... I don't agree with you, Wise - CB is usually positive but like all of us, has his bugbears - one of them are the basic things that excellent teams don't do but we just can't get out of our habits. Saw those bad habits on display yesterday - and yes, we are few months younger than the average AFL team - pointing out those habits helps explain performance like yesterday, and the difference between seasoned teams that will beat us this year and us.

I liked Roos' line about Oliver's footage and his ranking; 'if there 14 better players than Oliver, it must be an unbelievable draft.' I recall a similar conversation on here with Clint Biz around the same time, over footage of Oliver.

We didn't get in the way of players developing themselves - Jones, McDonald, Garland, et al. So that in itself makes it better than our drafting - we were terrible. I don't want to start a 'drafting' vs 'development' argument because you need both but the raw materials are delivered through the draft and we didn't get them in to even experience our poor development...

And then re-started in 2014 when Roos turned him into one of those Sydney Defender Robots that just do everything right and don't get beaten.

@45HG

Lots of 'tea leave reading' going on here. It's just ignorant extrapolation.

Why don't we all take a holiday?

I believe in Jesse.

...that you know of ...that the media pumps up. God, you post some nonsense from time to time.

That is 15% of the cap in 2016. In 2018, the first year of that hypothetical deal, that number might be down to near 10%, and the value will only improve over the life of that deal. I don't know what deal is being presented but if Hogan is asking for THAT much, we should be asking for THAT long to do that deal.

If not for his suspension, he would be playing in that backline, being a part of what is going on and you lot would be grooming your pincers talking about how good "the recruitment is 'round ere, these days..."

If Viney has a case to answer, that is where I would head for his defense - the guy stayed short - kept his knees bent and was trying to milk a reversal by going down like the proverbial. He should have retired last year.

The NBA are doing it that way. Salaries that are agreed will not increase with the cap - this is why LeBron James has been signing one year contracts for the last two years so he gets the maximum possible each year (the cap in the NBA is about to jump from $58m to around $91m). I think the AFL will do something similar to the above. So that means that I don't think it is wise to have an agreement with 1 player about their salary being a percentage of the cap when other players won't have that luxury. I also don't think we should be trailblazers by giving all our players a bump if other clubs are not forced to - it will give other teams a competitive advantage over us to suddenly have $3m in cap space.

I think the cap will increase by 30%. Are we happy to make that deal (X+30%) without knowing the full picture? It would mean offering $800k that is automatically $1.1m... Would the other players be happy with that? Would McDonald and Watts not be entitled to that? Jones? I hope they get the CBA sorted quickly.

The club wouldn't want that. They would prefer he get a contract that is huge but easier to manage as time goes on.

Hogan isn't 'other players' - he might be about to sign a 5 year contract that would be entirely, fundamentally different at the end of this year when the CBA is finalised. The equivalent of $800k a year might be as much as $1.1m next year. Over a 5 year contract he might leave $1.5m on the table. The cap might go up $3m next year...

Means as much as his demeanour in a press conference...

Hi s demeanor on field needs reigning in, as a captain or coach I would make it my duty to make him realise how infuriating it is to play with someone more interested in a free than the footy. When he has some banter with Schwarta - that is great. He had no right to be called disgraceful, and David deserved a little dig. Hogan doing the digging was a good sign he is becoming more comfortable off the field. Roos letting him (and us) know that he still has to learn the habits of a star player was to combat the hype. 'Second year blues' occur when a young player thinks he doesn't have to work for the game and the game will just come to him. Hopefully, yesterday was a lesson for Jesse in that regard too...