Ron Burgundy

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.

Every credible observer in the AFL would agree with you, as would Goodwin and his entire coaching team, and all of the players on the list. To suggest that Lewis has been anything but a great pick up for this club is simply pig-headed.

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.

All of whom are being compared to Kelly and or discussed in the context of the Kelly trade and the Kelly draft year. In short, unlike several other threads, this thread still seems very much on point to me.

We've selected some really poor players with first round draft picks and we've done some dumb trades previously, but Kelly for Tyson and Salem ain't in either of these categories. In fact, it was a super astute trade.

Nor would I. I still think we're on the right side of this deal, even though Kelly is seriously good. It's deals like this that enabled the club to turn the quality of the list around so quickly.

I was invited to a GWS coterie function a while ago and got on the cans with Kevin Sheedy. We discussed Josh Kelly (more below). I used to dislike Sheedy until I met him. He's a legend. I've met him a number of times since. My view has not changed. He should've been appointed coach of the MFC in 2008 IMO - all would've been different, but I now don't care because I reckon the club is perfectly positioned for the future and has finally got its act together. Conversation re Josh Kelly went like this: Me: 'What do you think of Kelly for Tyson and pick 9?' Sheedy: 'Stupid deal. Trust me, the Kelly kid is one out of the box - he will be an absolute superstar - we killed this trade.' Me: 'You said that about Scully too.' Sheedy: '@&$% you, ya %*+#head!' Me: 'We're super happy with Tyson and Salem and we need mids desperately, so two for the price of one suits our needs.' Sheedy: 'Tyson ain't that great and Kelly will be a superstar - glad you're pleased with your club about this because Kelly is out of the box and your club could've had him.' Me: 'Like we could've had you Sheeeeeds! ?' Sheeds: 'Yep, exactly. Hate the Melbourne Football Club. Didn't even get invited to the final interview stage. Hopeless $@&%s. They've overlooked me twice now, both as a player and a coach. No wonder they're a freaken basket case!' We then drank more beer.

Nope - they'd want Salem and Tyson. Ohh hold on ...

Not sure that'd be reason enough to put a new 3 year contract on the table to a 'stuffed' player with a bung knee. Suspect it had more to do with the fact that he was highly rated within the club, evidenced by his regular top 5 finishes in their B&F, and he's still got a lot of good footy ahead of him.

Relevantly, Essendon wanted to keep both players. Suggests to me that their medicos didn't share your mate's view that Hibberd's knee is stuffed.

I've got a stack of Essendon supporter mates who say otherwise. Reckon Goodwin and McCartney know a thing or two about these players too. Hibberd is a very good player and I reckon Melksham will be a lot better than some people here seem to think.

Don't ridicule Pedo.

That's because we doubled up last year to get Oliver and Weideman. I see Weideman's as our first rounder this year. Any idea what he'd go for if he was in this year's draft? And, as an aside, we're stacked with high end young talent unlike several other clubs. We need to infuse some harder, more experienced bodies into the mix - hence our desire to get Lewis and Hibberd. Sure it'd be nice to retain pick 29 this year, but I think recruiting Hibberd is more valuable to us - and I suspect the club thinks this as well. Relevantly, I strongly suspect Essendon knows we think this and that will ultimately be reflected in the trade that gets done.

Yeah, but we want their player. They therefore have the whip hand on this.

Why? And cut off our nose despite our face? We actually want this player. Essendon initially wanted more than a second rounder for Hibberd. People seem now to be getting caught up in their (legitimate) hatred for Essendon and are losing sight of the fact that pick 29 for Hibberd is a fair deal. Sure he's had a year out of the game, but, unlike O'Meara who's essentially had 2 years out, he's not been injured. O'Meara's commanding insane trade value. Hibberd is a very, very good player and he'll be a great pick up for us. For pick 29.