Ron Burgundy

I kinda like Port now.

He seems to be quite clearly stating that the deals that we ultimately agreed to didn't reflect the terms that Mahoney stated very publicly prior to each trade that he regarded would represent reasonable terms in each case. That said, I like the fact that the club doesn't play North Korean brinkmanship and seeks to execute the deals quickly and efficiently and within an acceptable range (from the club's perespective).

Stand corrected. I actually knew this to be honest. Point still (kind of) stands though.

His name is Tex. Says it all really.

In fairness, at least he executes i.e. he gets the deals done. No use being Captain Scrooge only to see some rival club land the player we wanted. We're probably seen as being a reasonable club to deal with too, which has its benefits.

I'd be very happy to see a series of 5 year contract extension announcements for several of our existing players such as Petracca, Oliver, Hogan, Hibberd and Hunt. Our main challenge will be keeping the core of this squad together for the journey. Supplementing it with players like Balic is good, but we have more special talent on it already. Lever and potentially a Gaff or Rohan type aside, I no longer think we need to trade our way to a flag. The players are already in da haus.

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.

Have to say I absolutely trusted Goodwin's judgement on Melksham. He got this right. Melksham, like Vince and Hibberd, has absolutely delivered for a second round draft pick. He kicked some really important goals this year and played some very effective shut down roles. A genuinely good Demon.

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.

Some of you need to learn show some respect. These guys are working their arses off for this club - they all want to succeed, and I expect they want to succeed at the MFC. Sure, some of them aren't quite good enough, or haven't showed quite enough, or are past their used by date. But, for a period of time, they have served this club, they have sweated for this club. Surely this is to be respected. For those of you who seem to take some weird glee each year in the delisting thread, pull your heads in. I expect many of you don't even know what the inside of a weights room looks like, nor would you look any of these players in the eye when delivering such harsh criticism. They are not cattle. Rather, they're footballers who've represented this club, some of whom may potentially represent it for a few years to come. Fair dinkum.

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.

The umpiring was undeniably poor. BUT what actually killed us was Jamie Elliott pulling a stack of one in a million goals against the run of play. We dominated the second quarter, only to have it completely neutralised by absolutely arsey goals. We then missed super gettable set shots. It killed all momentum. By half time, it was clear we were the better side. But it was also clear that we were not going to win the game. One of the more frustrating games I have watched in recent times.