Its Time for Another

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.

I don't think anyone in the industry thought 2 first rounders was a reasonable offer for Gibbs.

Have also heard that elsewhere. Frightening to contemplate sitting here with Billings watching Kelly do what Kelly's doing. Would have been such an MFC decision. Doesn't bare thinking about. And at the same time the rest of the footy world was absolutely clear it should have been Kelly and were right.

The Australian are saying Gibbbs has told Blues he wants to go to Crows and they have started negotiations and this time will have the Lever compo to get it done. Let's hope last years experience will have softened both of them up for us. Sober all get reasonable deals done. Last year Deledio was a year older than Gibbs is now and GWS gave up this years 1st & 2nd rounders for him. That seems very high if you compare it to the Dangerfield deal which was a 1st & 2nd rounder plus a chump player. I hope that's the yardstick. If Deledio is for Gibbs who will be 29 in March you could see why Crows would want 2 first rounders for Lever. I really hope we don't have to give the up. It would be way overs as far as I'm concerned. The Dangerfield deal seems more realistic. It now we are probably dependent a bit on how reasonable Carlton will be on Gibbs. They are apparently one of thebClubs keen on Steinger and he'd be a good get for them so that might help it all along. Could end up being a 4 way deal.

Hopefully they've learnt a lesson from the PJ Demons play book. Don't leak until deals are done. How damaging to put all your targets out there and then have the footy world laugh at you when you don't land them. I love Jason Taylor's only comment on Lever. Something like "If a player like Jake Lever wants to move Clubs we'd talk to them." The master of understatement. If for some reason he ends up not coming to us no damage done.

I'm eating. I'm eating. And I must say it tastes alright. Long may he make me keep eating.

I've got an idea. Trade Trengove to Richmond for their first rounder. Trade that to Adelaide for Lever. Oh wait a minute........

I was surprised he was dropped last week. I wonder if he was dropped because he told the club he hasn't signed because he wants to leave so they suddenly aren't playing him. Or maybe it is a sign Lever is coming. Or maybe he's Santa Claus and the reindeers are coming. A player doesn't have to be OOC to be traded. They just have to agree to the trade.

Still a bit shorter and actually a bit narrower in the pockets as well as a slight difference on the wings. We both seem to be in danger of being opened up one on one when the zone gets broken.

Thought about that but that would give you the dimensions of the entire arena surface not the dimensions on the field of play inside the boundary lines.

Love your work. There was a lot of that wind around Domain on Saturday night but it didn't seem to harm us.

This is why I had a look. It's interesting that we are doing better on narrower grounds this year but worse on our home ground. It seems to me that zone defences like ours and Eagles are much more suited to narrower grounds like Domain and Etihad and get opened up on wider grounds like the MCG. They might be good in theory but might be causing us to have such a bad home ground record this year. You would wonder why we're doing it if that is the case as IMO any game plan should be developed for the final game of the year. The Swans also tend to play a zone defence because of the smaller SCG so we shouldn't be disadvantaged tomorrow night although we seem to get opened up on wider grounds and Buddy has the capacity to rip us a new one with more space. Ironically the SCG probably doesn't suit his strongest attributes.

I compiled the list below of all grounds dimensions. I didn't know a lot of them and was quite surprised by some of them. For instance the MCG is virtually the 3rd shortest ground in the comp but the widest. The Gabba is virtually the same dimensions as the SCG. Domain, Blundstone and TIO are virtually the same length which is 20 m's longer than the SCG & Gabba. Simonds is 26m's narrower than the MCG which is more than the difference between the shortest and longest grounds. I've done my best to verify the accuracy of these measurements. I even rang some of the venues. They all might not be 100% accurate. The AFL website has them on there but some are definitely not correct and I verified that with some of the venues. AFL Ground Dimensions MCG 160 x 141 Etihad 159.5 x 128.8 Simonds 170 x 115 SCG 155.5 x 136 Spotless 164 x 127.5 Adelaide 167 x 123 Domain 175.6 x 122.4 Gabba 156 x 138 Metricon 160 x 134 Manuka 162.5 x 138.4 Aurora 165 x 135 Blundstone 175 x 135 TIO 175 x 135 TIO Traeger 168 x 132 Cazaly 172.5 x 149

Stats are dangerous in the wrong hands. They have to always be seen in context. I don't think there's much point in comparing these stat's at this point. Kelly hasn't had any injuries that I know of. Tyson has played many of his games initially coming back from a serious injury after a lost season and then other injuries on the way through. Wait until they are both injury free with full preseasons if you really want to compare their raw ability as players.

I wonder if there's a point where Hibberd's manager says to Essendon. Come on do the deal or we'll go to the grievances tribunal tomorrow and you'll get nothing. Time would be getting tight and he'd end up in the draft and we'd have to get him to do a very high one year contract that no one else would touch ( a la Luke Ball) and then do a two year extension for very little to average it out.

Dodoro said on Trade Radio today that he thought our pick 26 was fair for Hibberd. So expect this deal to be done first thing Monday morning. Hibberd can get stuck into pre pre-season training straight away under the guidance of MIsso.

Nah, I think that's the Theatre of the P#nis boys.

B & F "Benny Matthews who is obviously the midfield coach. Some of the vision I go through with him over the past three years. I think that's why you see we are one of the top four midfields in the competition. Another one of the reasons is I'm palming it down their throat. Which helps. It won't take a genius to work out the top two are midfielders and there's a reason they are there."