The Taciturn Demon

Geeze. What a blow. I have very little time for this kind of trade request. Plucked out of absolutely nowhere and gone in three years.

Everything is a scandal or an act of unprecedented brilliance in his eyes. Every player is either a villainous coward or a mythic champion - some are both in the space of three minutes. The fact that Channel 7's "A Team" was him, Taylor and Brayshaw is frightening.

Just popping in to say that Kane Cornes, who often sounds like he has a boiled egg stuck in his throat, was wrong about every single thing yesterday. If he was held to the same standards he held footballers to, he'd be sacked today.

Certainty. In fairness, their list is currently so shockingly bad they needed to do what they've done (or seem to have done) this trade period, but the chances of it succeeding are extremely low.

Good to see Wotherspoon getting plaudits. She looks a natural footballer. Does everything well. Interesting to see where she ends up playing her best footy. Quick side note: I think just about everything Foxtel does is garbage, but an exception is Chyloe Kurdas. One of the best special commentators I've heard.

So did I. His finals series in the year he looked really dangerous was eye opening. Absolutely went to water.

His turning circle is so large now and his inability to bend down so obvious, he'd be a Manchurian candidate without any need for mind control.

Really liked Denby Taylor last year. Wonder if they'll bring her in or wait.

Loving what Mahony is doing. I wouldn't drop her unless she's really sore or tired.

It's a positive headline, but it's pure clickbait. Max was not definitive AT ALL in the interview.

Five days before he's going to play in a Grand Final?

A very good point colourfully made.

Yep. I can see that many years ago players had legitimate concerns that clubs had too much control. But what's taken place has been a massive overcorrection.

Fair enough. And there are certainly some wild rumours that amount to nothing more than vapour. But this isn't just one hack making something up. This is a player who has had serious concerns about the club, a life-altering injury and multiple sources suggesting both he and the club are open to a move. He's been a wonderful player for the club, but that doesn't change the fact it seems highly likely he would be open to moving.

Really interesting thread with some wonderful responses. And interesting ideas. I do feel like a lot of the more radical changes would quickly bring about unintended consequences, and some might be worse than the thing they're fixing. Speaking of unintended consequences, the strong clubs getting stronger was not an unintended consequence of free agency. It was very obvious it would happen. The AFL may have half-heartdly waved towards the vague possibility of lowly clubs getting out of contract stars seeking money, but it was never a serious 'selling point', because it was totally implausible. I remember proponents of free agency playing a little word game when challenged on this: instead of saying the system would reward stronger clubs, they said it would punish clubs who didn't have their house in order. It was a "you did this to yourself" argument; and insofar as it was ever in good faith (it rarely was) it was an inch-deep analysis of how "success" and "failure" happens and is advertised to the public in the AFL. All clubs go through periods of not having their "house in order" - some of it down to incompetence, some down to poor behaviour, some down to extremely bad luck; but only the clubs at the bottom of the ladder are chastised for it in 'the industry'. What was an unintended consequence was the shadow free agency that occurred alongside actual free agency, the cultural shift where it now became completely normal for any player seeking to move clubs to "nominate" a destination. This has been a hard one to explain away even for the most ardent free agency apologists, almost all of them the types who weekly secrete themselves in a toilet to fap off to the magical capabilities of the "free market", because it wipes out competition and even the semblance of fair recompense.