Ron Burgundy

This thread really sucks.

Watched the game on tv today. The umpiring was genuinely ridiculous. Not one 50 50 went our way.

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.

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.

The narrow losses that we absolutely should've won earlier this season are the games that still haunt me, eg, Freo. Beating a team by 70 instead of, say, 40 is perhaps frustrating, but it's not remotely on the same page as dropping 4 points, particularly in a tight season.

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.

And, for much of the season, playing in a midfield as the clearance guy with no dedicated ruckman.

He will. Took balls of steel to overlook him for Oliver at the time. Absolutely correct decision though. Superb judgement call by JT.

Jason Taylor has really earnt his pay cheque on this one. Parish was a lock for us at pick 4 in that draft. His credentials were superb.

And Shuey. Took Blease instead. It was line ball. Schwab told me this at a Debt Demolition Dinner. Sloane and Wines are the real tragedies though. Each of them had an arm in an MFC guernsey. Club didn't even interview Martin. What a disgrace. Roos apparently tried to move heaven and earth to trade for pick 3 to get him to the Swans instead of Richmond. Geez we sucked back then.

Just type 'Herald Sun' and the exact words of the headline into the Google search field and it will give you the article sans the pay wall. Well, I qualify that - 60% of the time, it works every time.

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.