Ron Burgundy

His name is Tex. Says it all really.

Well done MFC. Yet another quality player brought into the club in recent years. I'm pumped about this. No excuses for not playing finals next year.

Are you talking about Jake Lever or Jack Watts? Kidding ...

Pick 7 seems always to be the one to have.

Didn't they recruit Matt Crouch with the pick we gave them for Bernie? They should thank us. Pick 45 should get it done.

Apologies - I no longer know their names - immediately put them on ignore.

If he does, I expect he'll be very proud of his son. 99.999% of posters here are absolutely over the moon that he's nominated this club.

I'm having this very debate with a mate at the moment. Is Lever more likely to want to leave the Crows following a Grand Final win or a loss? I dunno really - I just suspect a loss will leave him less bonded with the Crows than a win.

I'm doing exactly the same. I put it down to the fact that it's not actually a done deal, and I really want it to be a done deal. It's also why I'll be supporting the Tigers hard on Sat. I don't want Lever to feel ultra bonded with the Crows if they win and then for him to do something really stupid like sign a new contract with them. He needs to climb Everest for the first time with this club.

As if we would trade Oliver or Petracca. To suggest that is genuinely ridiculous. Fair dinkum. I feel as though I'm reading the notice board of my 4 year old's preschool. PS. Petracca sounds like some kind of cool dinosaur to the kids. Henry loves him. Favourite player territory.

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.

Lewis has been a fantastic pick up for us. Simple.

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.

If the footy department could even be bothered to read this stuff, they'd laugh and shrug their shoulders. It just doesn't reflect reality. He's an on field coach and leader out there. Such a viewpoint is simply ludicrous in the context of where this team's at and what it needs, especially in close games and, fingers crossed, finals. Everyone knows this, surely.

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.