Its Time Again

Good point. Although they still have a predominantly very young list so other than Buddy would have some room. They could back end a contract because 2019 is the last big money year for Buddy.

According to Tom Harley in his interview on SEN Tippett's injury wasn't career ending and it was his decision to retire early so his payout will not be included in the salary cap after this year. Tippett had a trigger clause in his contract for big bucks for a year or two extension but apparently he was very reasonable about it and agreed to take much less each year but extend the contract for longer to the end of 2020. As he has decided to retire early and end the contract apparently he agreed to a very fair payout. I think you'll find the salary cap space that opens up isn't as big as you think. It will still really help them though. Especially as next year is the last really big bucks year on Buddy's contract. It tapers off by about 50% from 2020 onwards. I get the feeling from what Sloane has said that if he goes it will be back home to Vic. So assuming the money is the same that's where he'll end up. Don't know where.

Someone I know watched a lot of his school footy last year. I believe he was the Captain of Melbourne Grammar. Said 4 things :- 1. Hard as nails. Runs through brick walls. 2. Highly skilled. Very good kick and exceptional goal sense. 3. Very strong contested overhead mark with an unusually high vertical leap for his height. 4. Great kid.

Just had a look at the draft replay. They mentioned that he just fell over a fence and broke his elbow which will take 6 weeks to recover. Also he's very light so will take a while to fill out. As others have mentioned looks like Lever 2.0. Bit surprised we went for yet another key defender, would have thought there were other positions with less depth but clearly there wasn't a suitable ruckman or we would have taken one and I'm guessing he was seen as best available at this pick and if he turns into a star we'll be very happy irrespective of the depth in that position at the moment.

You can relax JT said in his interview on the website we will be going best available. I think this is more likely this year than most of the past 10 years as we have depth in most positions and are now in a position to try and improve the talent in each position. So best available.

Yeh you must be right. Apparently an interview has just gone up on the club website with Jason Taylor and he says no rookie picks and will use all 4. I don't know how this new mechanism works for upgrading rookies but obviously that's what happens somehow.

From what I've read a very high go home factor and question whether he can hack afl environment. Still interested in this issue of our picks. I was very surprised that our last pick was 47. Do you have any other information that we have a later pick. That's not what afl.com.au are indicating. Pretty disappointing if we don't.

I'm not saying he has to go to the draft but we have to assign a draft pick to upgrade him. According to the afl.com.au website which has listed all draft picks for all clubs in this draft our last pick is 47. We have to use our last pick to upgrade. What am I missing.

I didn't realise we don't have a pick after 47. We have 36 on the primary list now including Joel Smith who we have to use pick 47 on to upgrade as it's our last pick. That means we can only draft 3 players which means we will only have a primary list of 39 so we can draft another Rookie. It indicates to me that a few things went wrong in draft week otherwise why would have we held out pick 47 from Freo for Balic when we could have given it to them and just used 66 to upgrade Smith which wouldn't have made any difference to us. We must have held out for that deal because we wanted to use 47 in another trade that never happened. I suspect it was going to be the deal West Coast did on the last morning with Gold Coast where they gave up their first rounder next week and this year's pick 50 in return for Gold Coast's picks 21, 26 & 37 and a future second round pick. We could probably have made that happen if we'd got a pick in the top 25 for Watts but without that, didn't have enough to offer. Mahoney was in the trade room that morning but ended up not doing anything.

I stand corrected. Didn't realise number of rookies decreased between 38 to 40 on primary list. Unlikely we won't use all 4 draft picks although if there's not anything much around at 47 and there's someone like a ruck who needs to be developed as a rookie or a delisted free agent eg if Spencer doesn't get picked up, we might not use it and go the extra rookie. I get the feeling they had planned to do a deal with some of our picks for an upgrade and didn't make it happen.

There's 36 on the list now including Smith. Plus 4 draft picks makes 40. Plus 4 Rookies makes 44. A list can be up to 47 with a maximum of 6 rookies which means there's still room for 2 more rookies. So stop being your namesake and check your facts before blasting away saying "Wrong" when you don't know what you're talking about.

Why not? We have 4 Rookies and can have up to 6. We have the list room for 6if we choose to.

I'll be very annoyed if Hogan decides in the next two years he's going to go home and we had the chance to get Schache for next to nothing now. Same with Tom Lynch by the middle of next year if he decides he wants to go back to Vic and Hogan then tells us the following year he wants to go home. I really hope that by the middle of next year he signs up for 5 years and puts end to the endless speculation. Same with T Mac. Hope he doesn't carry on as a leader of the Club and hold off till the end of the year again. It's a downer for everyone else.

He's in there as one of the U23's. He's barely out of draft age.

Fair point. But we have plenty of time to start bringing in younger players in a few years time.

For those worried about us losing out on youth by trading out the two years of first rounders. Have a look at this demographic breakdown of the list. We don't need to worry about getting youth into the list. 22 players, half the list is 23 or under. 6 20 or under. Melbourne players who are 20 years and under: Oliver, Weideman, McKenna, King, Johnstone, Filipovic 23-21years : Viney, Petracca, Hogan, Hunt, Brayshaw, Salem, Harmes, McDonald, Stretch, ANB, JKH, Kent, Hannan, Wagner, Joel Smith and now Lever. 24 years: Tyson Frost Bugg are 24.

Plus Tom Lynch for nothing as an FA

Last year was no first rounder because we brought it forward to the year before and got Weideman. This year & next is to get Lever who is 21. We have the 3rd youngest list. We don't want to be going to the draft for top end talent anymore. We'd have to wait 4 years for them to be ready. We don't have that time anymore. We can bring in kids in a few years.

Do you know if he get a choice or does the system dictate the draft?

Does he go into pre season draft or national draft. In same scenario Ball went into the National draft and he went all the way through toCollingwood’s pick 30.

He was a Restricted Free Agent and Adelaide said they’d match the Cats offer which forced Cats to trade picks. Lever is actually easier because as an in contracted player he can just walk and Crows can’t stop him. He can use Luke Ball trick. Put a ridiculous price on his head and say he’ll only take one year at any other Club and then go in the draft again. No Club would touch him and he goes to Dees and Crows get nothing. He goes to us and then negotiates a 5 year deal or whatever and the first year price is absorbed into the contract. Ultimately that is why Crows will have to be reasonable. Im sure I t won’t get to that. Also sure Lever won’t want to leave that way unless absolutely forced.

Ron, alternatively if they win he might be more prepared to leave having achieved the ultimate and knowing back to back is rare. If they lose he might stick around and think they're so close we'll get it next year and they are way ahead of that happening at Dees. This is why you've just convinced me to support the Crows on Saturday

Because he invented the Toby Green don't argue flying for the ball with his legs parallel to the ground and feet directed at anyone who wanted to get in the way of him or the ball. All 70kg's of him.

Cool. Based on last night's game. He'd be ok. Still think horse trading will go on.

Don't know why people are wasting time debating two first rounders. Won't happen. Crows know this. They said themselves last year on Gibbs trade 2 first rounders would be irresponsible list management. I know this isn't Gibbs but he was contracted Lever isn't. It will be some sort of combination amounting to a 1st & 2nd & maybe steak knives of pick swaps and or a player of a Wagner level. Picks are only worth what you get for them. I have a feeling there will be a combination of other trades involved which might effect lots of horse trading not just what happens in this one. A few have mentioned maybe Motlop. It'll all wash out. All I know is the first time since 1964 we have the right people in the right positions making these decisions. I trust their judgement more than mine or anyone on here or anywhere else.