old55

Interesting that he just came off a 3 year deal - first 2 years ordinary, last year his best - probably just a coincidence. Would you put any performance incentives in this 4 year deal of yours?

Aaron Davey is a very good player - nearly as good as Leon Davis - we wouldn't want to lose him.

4-6 years is realistic for us. In 4 years Watts and Scully will be 22 and they're going to be key to us winning any flag - to expect more earlier is very optimistic. Brock is not getting any quicker and who knows where he'll be at in 2014 - as Hannibal has pointed out, look at Luke Ball. Brock goes to Carlton, they get Waite and Warnock playing and are contenders next year - it's not that hard to understand. It's a win-win-win deal for Carlton-MFC-Brock. Other clubs are paralysed by inaction or trying to screw out deals at trade time - it's great that we've got a clean major deal done.

good start ...

That taste is sentimentality - the champagne in the premiership cup doesn't taste like that - ask Max Hudghton. By the way - that 2nd quote is not mine - you need to be more careful with your cut and paste.

Yes the Grimes/Johnstone trade looks like we may come out in front if his body stands up to AFL. Yes Bell has been disappointing, but to assess the Woewodin trade you've got to look at what Woey did at Collingwood - 62 games, one really good year, we're in the red but not by much. There's the Dunn/Jolly trade and we're in the red there. But all these trades had legitimacy - Johnstone, no comment required, - Woey, it's about who we drafted - we didn't lose much - Jolly behind White and would've left the year after for much less compensation any way. We've been one of the most aggressive clubs trading for 1st rounders in a bid to improve our list and I think that's good.

No prefer Rohan, but haven't seen either live.

Someone with a big nose or maybe trouble staying awake?

Indeed, with the exception of Watts, Morton, Grimes and possibly Jurrah and Frawley any offer of a 1st rounder for any of our players would have to be seriously considered It's a good comparison and illustrates what we risk. Pick 11 might give us access to a KPF that doesn't warrant pick 2 but wont make it to pick 18. Best case we're looking at 5th or 6th best KPF at pick 18.

IMO Judd and Riewoldt have great on field personas - both are leadership personified. How did you feel about Nathan Buckley?

Do you know any of them personally?

Could not disagree more ... Both would be very deserving winners, so it's hard to split them - makes for a very exciting day Riewoldt is a fantastic player who has been a real difference in both finals and has totally stood up as a great captain should - if Watts turns out even nearly as good as him I will cry with happiness.

Why would Port Adelaide do that - they're giving up a 1st round pick and a player picked in the 1st round for pick 2 - it's a shocking deal for them and would never happen. If we had pick 8 would you give Cale Morton and pick 8 to Richmond for pick 3? No I didn't think so. But that's what you're asking PA to do. See my trade scenario: Pick 2, 18 and 34 for Boak and pick 8 more realistic but still stacked in our favour. Means we end up with Scully, Boak and our pick of KP at 8. So we equate Boak with Trengove and lose pick 34 to get a improvement from 18 to 8 in a shot for KP.

Who says Boak wants to move? If he does then ... Picks 2, 18 and 34 for Boak and Pick 8 Gives Port the SA boy Trengove and a decent pick at 18 and a filler at 34 Gives us a quality Victorian midfielder and a much earlier crack at a KP with 8. The balance is probably still in our favour The alternative might be: Pick 2 for Pick 8 and Pearce

Minimum number of talls selected in the first 17 picks in the past 8 years is 4 (in 2006 it was 12). Unless some new record is created, the best case we'll be looking at is 5th best rated tall at 18.

Watts at 1! Next you'll be predictng we'll take Scully at 1 this year! I'll give you 2/5 - Strauss and Jetta very good gets ... but then Sibosado almost cancels them out.

Two round 4 players don't attract a round 2 pick when packaged. A round 2 pick and a round 3 pick wont attract a round 1 player when packaged. We can't trade PSD 1 anyway. Hangon asked for realism but didn't get much.

I think Richmond are in completely different hands now - Gale, Hardwick and Cameron - a pretty good team and they wont be looking back, just forward.

I'm a long term fan of "best available" but I acknowledge that it's very difficult to compare different kinds of players. I think we need to calibrate our expectations of who we might pick up at pick 2. The best way to do this is look at who has been picked up there in the relevant past. It's probably worth throwing the net over picks 2 & 3 to get a decent sample set. It's also probably unreasonable to include the most recent drafts because the outcomes aren't conclusive yet, so I've left Naitanui, Hill, Cotchin (looks like he'll be a gun but will his body stand up?), Masten. It's a toss up whether to include Gumbleton and Hansen but Gibbs and Leuenbereger either side are not fully established so I've left them out too. So I've gone 1997-2005 inclusive Pick 2 ==== Ottens Brad Longmuir Justin Hasleby Paul Koschitzke Justin Ball Luke Wells Daniel Walker Andrew Roughead Jarad Thomas Dale Pick 3 ==== Croad Trent Fosdike Nic Fiora Aaron Didak Alan Judd Chris Brennan Jared Sylvia Colin Griffen Ryan Ellis Xavier That's the sort of quality we're looking at. We need to compare the Butchers, the Trengoves and the Morabitos against that list and see whether we think we're getting value.

I think it depends on trade week - if we're able to free some list space by trading players - if we're able to upgrade some later picks - if we get a opportunity to trade someone suitable in

Lot of water to pass under the bridge - trade week and draft camp. Pity your wife!

You can offer your own odds on Betfair. But remember Barry Prendergast could clean you up!

Come off it ... We're convicted, self-confessed salary cap cheats and Carlton did nothing more in 2007 that we did in 2009. If Deledio wants to become special ambassador to the Reach Foundation we posters will be falling all over ourselves to see it happen. Let's just concentrate on wining that flag and forget the hypocrisy.

No it's decided by post finals ladder order, the premier gets last pick

I think 3 conferences of 6 could work. Each team plays each other team once = 17 Each team plays the other 5 teams in their conference for second time = 5 Rotation year on year of home ground. Total = 22 Top 8 based on ladder finish not conference finish. Conferences: 1. Blockbuster (+ promote game in Sydney): Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, Western Sydney, Sydney (5 interstate trips per year - one to each state and 2 to Sydney) 2. Derbies/Showdowns/Sunburns: WC, Freo, Adelaide, Port, Brisbane, Gold Coast (10 interstate trips per year - they get that now anyway) 3. Foundation teams: Hawthorn, St.Kilda, Geelong, WB, Melbourne, North (4 interstate trips per year - one to each state)