Ron Burgundy

If true, the pick 2 for pick 9 and Tyson will have turned out to be a very bad trade. Sheedy said to me at the time (at the Light Brigade Hotel in Sydney following a corporate lunch in the pres-season prior to Kelly's and Salem's first season) that it was a bad trade as Kelly was going to be an absolute gun. He didn't really rate Tyson and he said GWS couldn't believe its luck to have landed Kelly. I towed the company line and said we needed to build our midfield and we needed two mids rather than one etc blah blah blah. He just laughed and said 'just watch Kelly - you'll see'. If we let Salem go, it seems Sheedy was right. I really hope he's not on the trade table.

I'd be extremely surprised if the club would consider trading Salem.

Scully was the highest paid player at GWS and they seemed to have retained much of their required talent. If true, this just needs to be managed well internally. Lever is an obvious player for a club like ours to break the budget on. I suspect the players understand this. Howe and Lumumba trades aside, our list management and recruitment strategy seems extremely good these days.

And that's exactly why he might be traded, particularly if (out of left field) we may be able to snare Menzel for less than a sheep station.

The one thing we have over Adelaide in this is that we are not based in Adelaide.

Which seems to suggest that we've convinced Lever, but that's only 3/4 of the battle. We now need to get it over the line with the Crows on terms that are palatable to both clubs. That's where the rubber can really hit the road.

Shows how things have turned. In every year gone past for the past decade, the trade rumour thread is the most exciting thing to read at this time of year. But not this year. Not yet at least. Our heart is still beating. Almost can't believe it.

Lever seems to be the target and I'm super happy about that. Kelly would be great, obviously - but it seems to be absolutely unrealistic to think we could land both without putting a major step back in some other area of our list (ie, giving required players away) and our list is shaping up nicely now. I hope the club continues to focus on landing Lever. This Kelly rumour seems to be just wish-thinking and noise.

I thought second rounds picks were absolute bargains for each of Vince, Melksham and Hibberd. I was completely on the money. That said, I also thought Lumumba would be a great pick up for us. ? We were apparently going to select Melksham with pick 11 in 2009. The Dons selected him with pick 10, and we then suprised the industry by picking Gysberts at 11 (overlooking Talia). At least we've been able to make amends.

Carlton might want Pedo now.

I was a big fan of his recruitment. Thought he was a bargain. Hibberd too. I was right. I'm Ron Burgundy. Stay classy Demonland.

I agree - Tyson is Scott Thompson mk 2. We won't be losing that player to the Crows (again). That said, we need to get Lever. And that won't be free of some pain.

Or Clarkson, for those whose sensibilities may be offended by any reference to Sheedy.

Agree. It was absolutely the right decision, even though I too didn't agree with it at the time. Goodwin. He is going to be our Sheedy.

He did say at the end of the interview that he 'trusted' ... 'the club' etc. He was slightly equivocal but I'm not sure you could say he's leaving on the strength of that interview - he seemed to be putting his scent out there a little though. Fingers crossed, I would absolutely love to land this guy - might be the fill-up we need to avoid the inevitable Premiership hangover we may otherwise suffer next year.

Plenty!

I would absolutely love to land Lever. I suspect we have zero chance of getting him though. There's no way the Crows will let him go. The 2014 draft was our chance. In fairness to Paul Roos and the recruiting team, we were well aware of this and it seems we tried pretty hard to get him.

I feel bad for asking this because I really rate Brayshaw as a player and as a clubman (I like him wearing the red and the blue), but who would you take at pick 3 now: Brayshaw or Lever? Lever was apparently seriously considered by the MFC for this pick at the time.

Get Lever and our spine is absolutely elite. And it will be for a very long time. Roos loved this guy - despite being a great head coach, I've always thought he would've been a great recruiter. Getting this bloke is a no brainer - it's a pity we couldn't get the pick from Richmond that would've landed Lever at the club in his draft year. That the Crows apparently want to sign him for another 5 years says it all really.

Was interesting to see that it was Roos who really rated Oliver upon seeing footage of him, despite him being rated as a 15-20 selection at the time. And it was Roos who really rated Lever, again well above his likely draft selection. He loved his competitiveness and composure. I seem to recall that Lever did a lot of boxing as a kid. The Trengove trade was about Lever - even though it appeared brutal at the time, it clearly would've enhanced our squad. Roos knows a player when he sees one. As a senior coach, he's an awesome list builder. Don't expect we'd have much chance of getting Lever though - the Crows aren't exactly the Suns, and I expect it'll be super hard if not impossible to dislodge him when push comes to shove.

Petracca is destined to be a super player for us. Skills and talent aside though, I like his infectious enthusiasm and what that brings to the group. It's refreshing to have his personality type kicking around in the team - it gives the group some further dimensionality (X factor). In fact, I'm ultra confident about where this group is headed. It's got all the right ingredients. Jordan Lewis is the perfect counter-point to this. He'll harness the talent of the likes of Petracca and ensure it is utilised in a calm, disciplined and effective way. It's the very reason I feel calm about playing Carlton today, whereas in years gone past I'd be feeling super anxious about the game and be expecting an inconvenient loss against a lesser side.

Petracca over McCartin is a no brainer. We got seriously lucky here.

Great post. While Taylor has been an integral part of the list rebuild (obviously), I expect much of the terrific list management and trading in recent times has been due to the effectiveness of Josh Mahoney and Todd Viney. Taylor has then used those picks very, very well.

Ironically, we had really wanted Melksham at pick 11 in that draft, which we used on Gysberts. Melksham was however drafted at pick 10 by Essendon. At that point, he was being compared to Lenny Hayes. He had pretty good pedigree as a junior level football player.

And Gysberts to win the inside ball for them.